Last Sunday in worship Darrell Guder mentioned, in an aside to our Session, that the early church owned no buildings.  And indeed that is true.  Instead the churches that grew up as a result of the sending out of the apostles, in particular Peter and Paul, met in the homes of the people in whom the Word took root and grew. 

By their very nature, the churches were small, though constantly growing as each person went out and shared the Good News and brought back new converts.  And I'm sure they began to exceed the size of the homes in which they met, so that they spilled out the doors and windows, split to worship in smaller communities, grew again, and had to split. Eventually, though, church buildings were built to accommodate the ever-growing early church.

We at Broad Street are privileged to worship together in this very large house of God.  We cherish the sense of community that we experience in it together.  We even miss those who worship at different times because we nourish one another when we are together; we teach one another when we are together; we love one another when we are together; we are in communion with our God TOGETHER. 

But right now I worry that we at Broad Street are not all TOGETHER.  And so I have a deep need to share some Broad Street history that many of you may not know. 

As I have come to understand, these buildings in which we worship God and in which many of us live out at least a part of our calling to serve God, were not all built at the same time.  They were built as this congregation, this church, had the money to build. 

Each time we built, it was an act of faith, knowing that God was out there before us, leading us on even as God led the Israelites through the desert. And I'm sure each time the church collectively stepped out in faith, there were some, also like the Israelites, who did not immediately share the vision.

I suspect it was true in the early 1930’s when the old Sanctuary was renovated and reoriented to stand as it does today.  I’m sure it was true when the education building was constructed in 1960 – the building where our Food Pantry, BIT-C, and COMPASS are now housed.  The construction of that building caused the old Sunday School classrooms which were located near the current choir room to be vacated.  They were eventually rented out to church-related organizations and gradually fell into disrepair.  I suspect it was less true that there were naysayers when the old Narthex was built 36 years ago to link the education building with the main Sanctuary.  It’s now our Courtyard, where we hold our bright and beautiful early morning worship services.

And then there is our most recent renovation and building project.  About five years ago some members of the church saw that the office space for our staff was not functioning well, that our Sunday School classrooms were looking very tired, that the entrance many of us used to access our beloved buildings was looking like the basement stairs of our homes that most of us hide from visitors.  And they had a vision for our church, for Broad Street. 

Now I have to tell you that I wasn't one of those who caught that vision.  I was asked to help write the prayer that would overarch that first capital campaign, that would lift our hearts and minds to God.  I could not do it. 

I felt that the old Sunday School classrooms should have been renovated, that the ministers should have continued to live in their cubby holes, that we needed to be good stewards of what we had and not just build in order to build. 

Yes, I knew the powers-that-be kept telling us that the infrastructure needed to be updated.  Still. I did not catch the vision. 

However, Ted and I dug deep and pledged. WE, all of us here, are the church.  WE were in this together, whether we liked it or not.  So Ted and I dug deep and we kept our mouths shut.  We supported the campaign and the building and renovation with our pocketbooks, but not with our hearts or voices.

Gradually the renovation and construction went on around us.  Sometimes we felt as if we moved from pillar to post – how would we access the Sanctuary this Sunday; where would Adult Ed be held? -  but the church moved forward through it all: the thoughtful architects and builders and the careful ministrations of Jeff Hawthorne and all our staff saw to that. Along the way we heard occasionally about cost overruns: How bad the wiring really was when walls started to be torn down.  How fortunate we were that we hadn't waited any longer.  How enormous the oil tank ended up being - 12,000 gallons rather than 500.

And apparently, when the cost of the project was originally toted up, most of us didn't really consider the way the church usually does business - we keep our promises, but we pay over time, and the time allotted for payment was longer than the time allotted for building, so interest quickly added up. 

After a mere year and a half of building and renovation, one Sunday I walked into the new Narthex and the new Palmer Hall and it all hit me like a brick.

This beautiful new space that I had railed against so vehemently (but only to Ted, my husband) had wormed its way into my consciousness unbidden, and I loved it! It was the architectural space that truly prepared my spirit for entering into our magnificent Sanctuary to encounter our God. 

I hadn't known that I needed it before it was built, and probably didn't really need it, but I loved it - loved the way Broad Streeters could now meet and greet one another, love and tend one another, teach and nurture one another in this new space.  And then, when I wandered through the new spaces created for BIT-C, the Food Pantry, and COMPASS and saw how much more we honor those we serve by making those spaces more thoughtful, I was grateful Ted and I had been part of it all. 

It was about a year ago, though, when another brick hit me.  Sallie Sherman and Rick Delaney plus untold committee members had been compiling data from a congregational survey.  They were sharing with us our strengths and weaknesses.  And Malcolm Porter began sharing what the financial status of the church really was. When Ted and I heard about the debt we still had from the building and renovation, we immediately both said, unbeknownst to each other, "What can we do to help?"

We wanted to help, not because of the cost overruns or errors in judgment or the interest that was accruing daily, but because we knew the potential of this church - our church - to make a difference in the world, and we knew we had to work together to overcome whatever stood in the way of that potential.

And what stands in our way?  In a nutshell, we had cost overruns and interest that added up to a debt in excess of 3 million dollars, and the longer we sit on that debt, the larger it grows.  It has been the cause of nightmares and lots of sleeplessness for some amongst us, but I know that if we work together, those nightmares will give way to a new dream - God's new vision for the faithful future of Broad Street Presbyterian Church. 

The good news is that the church at the corner of Broad and Garfield is a vibrant church.  We are alive and, like Christ, very much about God's business.  And even as I worry about raising the slightly less than 2 million dollars we still need to raise - because we've raised 1 million already! - I am thrown to my knees in thanks for something else that Darrell Guder said to us last weekend:  We are not at this juncture by some mere happenstance. God has gone out before us. God has called us to this particular place at this particular time. If we are faithful to God's call, God will be faithful to us. 

Therefore, let us give thanks to God for all that God has already done for us and through us and with us, and let us go forth from this place giving God thanks and praise for all that is still to be accomplished in God's holy name!    Amen and Amen.

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