Even if you cannot hear what someone is saying with his lips, you can often read his body language. The words may not be clear, but the body language may be eloquent. What is body language? Body language is posture, gesturing, facial expressions, the way you present yourself to others. And that may speak volumes, even though your voice is saying nothing.
Several people have told me, for example, that I have a clear body language up here on this platform. They say that if I am excited and pleased about whatever is going on in our worship, I sit up straight and grin from ear to ear. Positive, alert body language. But, if I am uncomfortable with whatever is happening, I will slide down in this chair and look as though I am trying to hide behind the pulpit! If I am not pleased, they tell me, my body language is a slump. A definite, pronounced slump. Do you know that word, slump? Does that bring a picture to your mind? When the body slumps, it sags, it hunkers down, it goes into disorganization. And that communicates something.
This week our television screens once again carried a now familiar story, the story of a young person destroying others’ lives at a school. Just an incredible epidemic we are running through, isn’t it, in which so many troubled young people are acting out some deep issues in their lives? Now what I noticed, as they brought this fifteen-year-old to court, is the languid look on his face and the slump in his body. The posture of that slump said, “I don’t care. I am out of it. My life is over, I am out of here.” After what he had done, his slump told us everything. Body language.
And when the body of Christ called the church falls into a slump, you might not be able to hear it in our language, because we know how to keep right on saying all the correct things, but you will be able to see it in our body language. You will be able to see how a church slumps in what it does, or does not, do.
Churches, just like individuals, slump. Churches get into a position in which they keep on going through the motions, but their hearts are not in it. They aren’t really accomplishing anything. They have their Sunday services and their committee meetings and their classes and the like, but the wind has gone out of their sails. Churches get into a slump, and usually it means that they are on the way to self-destruction, it means they are on the way out. Some churches never come out of the slump; do you know, I read the other day a study that showed that 60 to 75 % of the churches we have today will likely not even exist twenty years from now? Wow, do you think that will happen to us? I’ve already signed on to preach for the 100th anniversary in 2019. Should I cancel? I think I have something else to do that day. Churches fall into a slump, and it is often fatal.
My message today is motivated by a number of things. I want to think with you today about our church’s body language. And there are several reasons for this.
First of all, I can begin with something very positive. We are succeeding in many ways. We are not a dying church, we are moving forward. There is plenty of evidence for that. Our attendance in general is stronger than ever before; the number of new members we have been able to attract, while not what it should be, is certainly better than last year; financially, we have done phenomenal things, meeting our ambitious budget goal, financing several over-and-above projects, like the new van. We have discipleship classes, solid ministries, well-wrought plans for new programs. There is hope all over the place.
But: and you knew that word had to be there. But: I see some signs of slump as well. I see some signs of disappointment and tension. I see some getting very suspicious of others. And I hear some resisting the leadership of others. That can lead us right straight into a slump. I see some questioning where we are going as a church, and I hear others wondering if we understand the things we are committed to. And so, at the beginning of summer, I want to point us, if you will allow me to speak in slang, I want to point us to sump’n other than slumpin’.
You all recognize that kind of talk. I picked it up last week in your precious North Carolina! I know how to say “something other than slumping. But that is not nearly as effective as taking the southern route: sump’n other than slumpin’. My aim today is to think with you about our church, our posture; how we can do sump’n other than slumpin’.
I
Look with me at our Scripture to get the basic direction. This text is one I use nearly every time we think about the mission of the church. It was on this text in Ephesians 3 that we based our vision statement; it was on this text that I preached when I brought a whole series of messages on the five facets of our church’s life; and it was on this text I preached when we ran up against a time of feeling not so good about ourselves. I use this text again today because it speaks about the very antithesis of slumpin’. You cannot believe this text and let your church go into a slump. It is impossible.
a
Look at it: first, Paul says, “I bow my knees before the Father.” He gets on his knees in prayer before God. He is praying for the churches of Asia Minor, to whom the Ephesian letter is addressed, and he expresses that prayer as bowing his knees before the Father.
May I remind you that you cannot be on your knees and sit in a slump at one and the same time? Try it! It’s impossible! You cannot slouch back in your chair and at the same time get on your knees. Not even the most agile contortionist could accomplish that! You cannot sit in a slump and fall on your knees at one and the same time.
That tells me that if we will first devote ourselves to prayer for our church, we will keep it out of a slump. If we will pray diligently, consistently, and forthrightly for this body of Christ, Takoma Park Baptist Church, we will keep the body from falling into a slump. Praying is sump’n other than slumpin’.
Let me tell you a little of the story of Hillvue Heights church. Hillvue Heights was a little Baptist church on the wrong side of town, in a poor location, with practically nothing going for it. A few years ago it had dropped off to the point where only about 18-20 people attended on a given Sunday. It was so bad there that they couldn’t even afford to buy light bulbs when they burned out, so they moved the good ones around from room to room where they were needed. They had not had a pastor at Hillvue Heights for more than three years. Now would you say that’s a church in a slump? That’s a church that everybody said had no future.
Well, Steve Ayers was a young minister wanting to get his career under way, and they contacted him about coming. He looked it over, and all his friends told him he’d be a fool to go to Hillvue Heights. But young Steve decided he could be a fool for Christ, and he agreed to serve Hillvue Heights on one condition: that the 18 or 20 hardy souls who were still there would covenant to pray with him, daily and diligently, for their church, and then just to do whatever seemed right after that.
Well, they did. They got on their knees. They were desperate, they’d try anything, so they prayed. About two weeks later, somebody brought his brother to church, and the brother professed faith in Christ. They kept on praying. The next week the brother brought his wife and kids, and they all professed faith in Christ. The third week -- are you ready for this? -- the wife brought her ex-husband, because, as she said, since he had custody of her first batch of children, she wanted them led by a father with Christ in his life; and the ex-husband professed faith in Christ.
Let me cut to the end. Hillvue Heights now averages 2100 people in worship every Sunday, they have built a beautiful new sanctuary, and new people find Christ every week. Now there is a body which is doing sump’n other than slumpin’. What are they doing? Foremost, they are praying. “I bow my knees before the Father.”
b
Second, notice in this text that Paul believes that there is power in the church. Power. Energy. Three times in these few verses we read the word power. Come on, find them with me. Toward the end of verse 16 ... “strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit.” Verse 18, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend ..”. And then verse 20, “Now to him who by the power at work within us ...”
Now if you feel power, will you sit in a slump? If you’re sitting behind the wheel of your car, the engines is revving and the thing is in gear and ready to roll, what do you do with the seat? Lay it back, so you can lounge about in leisure and laziness? Not at all. It’s impossible. If you’re in touch with power, you just have to do sump’n other than slumpin’.
What did our Ascension text say at the very beginning of the service, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” You shall receive power. It’s there, all right. You just have to use what you have.
One day, to a church came a man who had been an abject failure in everything he had tried. He had tried to attract a young woman whom he loved, but she spurned him and married someone else. He had tried to establish a school for people of another culture, but he didn’t understand them and they didn’t understand him, and it didn’t work. He had gone overseas to escape his troubles and look for success, but that job hadn’t worked out either. He was really in a slump. He was ready to give it all up.
But to this church came this young man, not expecting anything special. Just there to hear someone read and comment on a kind of dry as dust theological treatise. No great shakes. Just another church meeting. But at that meeting house on Aldersgate Street in London, so wrote the young man, “at about a quarter past nine, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust Christ and that I was His and He mine.” And from that place and that time John Wesley went out to preach the gospel to England, to bring hope to countless of the poor and the wretched, and to start a movement that would ultimately point millions to a new life. There was power in that moment, that ordinary moment; power in the church’s worship, power in the church’s teaching, power in the church just being the church, power. If you just make yourself available to the power that God has already put here, you’ll find that very quickly, very effectively, you’ll be doing sump’n other than slumpin’.
c
And third, notice that when God’s power is at work within us, something will be accomplished. There will be measurable results. There will be accomplishment. There won’t be a slump. The numbers won’t fall off. The statistics won’t dwindle down. Our expectations won’t slide. When God’s power is at work, Paul says that He is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. When God is at work in His church, and we let Him do as He wants with us, we aren’t going to be satisfied with second-rate. We aren’t going to settle for petty piddling pieties when we could have abundant, audacious, awesome accomplishments. We aren’t going to settle for slumpin’ when we can have sump’n, and a whole lot of sump’n. Able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. God’s power accomplishes something real.
You know, I’ve come here on a Sunday morning, and it was cold outside, or it was hot outside, and I’ve said they won’t be here. And if they do, nothing is going to happen. It’s a sleepy holiday weekend, and their bodies are a thousand miles away. Or, it’s a busy weekend, and their minds are on other things. I’ve come here, expecting nothing, and sometimes getting exactly that. Exactly nothing. Now, I admit, sometimes God surprises me, probably because some of you were expecting something and were praying for something. But, much of the time, when I have expected nothing, then nothing is what I have received.
But I will tell you this: never have I come to this house expecting something, believing that something would happen to the glory of God without its coming true! Never have I come, in my heart ready for God to do His work, without His doing something wonderful. Oh, if many of us, if most of us, would come here and expect to see God do what only God can do, it could happen. It would happen. For He is able. Able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can even ask or imagine. But it won’t happen unless somebody does ask or imagine. Unless somebody does ask or imagine, we’ll go into a slump. But if we will just turn ourselves loose to imagine what could be, what will we get? We’ll get abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine. We’ll get sump’n other than slumpin’.
So, in closing, I just want to ask you to imagine a few things with me. This won’t be an exhaustive list. Just laying out a few dreams. What if we imagined along these lines? What if we dreamed dreams like these? Would we receive sump’n other than slumpin’?
II
Let me use my Southern word “sump’n” as a way to help you think. S-U-M-P-N, sump’n.
a
S. Imagine with me a sharing church. A church where each one shared his resources so that others might benefit. Imagine with me a church in which no longer do we ask, “What’s in it for me?” but started asking, “What can I give for the benefit of all?” Imagine with me a sharing church, where money is really no object, so that buildings are not crumbling around our ears, and church staff are compensated rightly, and programs are not nickled and dimed to death. Imagine a sharing church, in which everybody knows they have a gift to give, whether it is praying or teaching or leading or painting or singing or digging holes, but it’s a gift from God and for God. Imagine a sharing church, and you will imagine one which is sump’n other than slumpin’. S is for a sharing church. To God be glory in the church.
b
S, U. Imagine with me an understanding church. A church where each member really wants to know and understand our faith. A church where we really work at discovering what the Bible is all about. A church in which we’d rather have the preacher make some sense than dance all over God’s earth. A church in which it’s not good enough just to feel warm and glowing, but a church which demands that its teachers teach, a church which helps its children and its youth to know something solid, a church which debates the issues of our day and struggles after truth. Imagine a church whose Christian education program adds at least one new Bible class every six months, and soon is clamoring for more space. Imagine an understanding church, and you will imagine one which is sump’n other than slumpin’. U is for an understanding church. To God be glory in the church.
c
S, U, and then M. Imagine with me a missionary church. Imagine with me a church which goes out and actually looks for people who need to be reached. Imagine a church which does not look upon its walls as a mighty fortress to contain us, but which knows that it is just as much the church out there on the streets as it is within these walls. Did you read in yesterday’s paper about the Common Cathedral up in Boston, where an Episcopalian minister sets up shop right out where the homeless are, and she lifts up the body and blood of the Lord on a makeshift altar, and brings church to where the people are? Imagine with me Takoma Park Baptist Church meeting in the Rittenhouse Apartments, Takoma Park Baptist Church meeting at Coolidge High School, Takoma Park Baptist Church meeting at Montgomery College, Takoma Park Baptist Church meeting at Fort Stevens Park, and on and on. Imagine Takoma Park Baptist Church with one group of us doing Bible School in Jamaica, West Indies, and another group doing construction in Jamaica, New York. Just break the molds, let your imagination run free, and pretty soon you will have sump’n other than slumpin’. M is for a missionary church. To God be glory in the church.
d
What’s next? S, U. M, now P. Imagine with me a prayer-filled church. Imagine with me a church where it is so important to pray that every day at noon, during the lunch hour, people gather to worship. Imagine a church where prayer so fills the air that nothing, nothing is done without first seeking the mind of Christ, and pretty soon all the arguments, disagreements, discords, complaints, and gripes just melt away. Imagine that. Imagine a church in which the power of prayer pervades, so that if one of us needs to get fervently caught up in fiery rhetoric, then that’s good; but if another needs to be quiet and listen for the still small voice of calm, that that’s good too, and nobody criticizes either one. Imagine, oh, is it possible, a church in which our praise is capable of embracing the three B’s. You know, every musician knows the three B’s. Who are they? Bach, BeBe Winans, and brass! A church in which we are just set free from our boundaries and our backgrounds and we are utterly open to God’s voice. Imagine with me a prayer-filled church, and you will be imagining a church which is sump’n other than slumpin’. P is for a prayer-filled church. To God be glory in the church.
e
S, U, M, P, and finally N. Imagine with me not only a sharing church, an understanding church, a missionary church, and a prayer-filled church. Imagine with me also a need-serving church. Imagine a church which takes real people, right where they are, and provides for them a channel to the grace of God. Imagine a church that just accepts people and helps them, heals them, develops them, so that they can become what God intended for them to become. Imagine a church which serves real and pressing needs.
Oh, the sin, the sin of so much that we call church. Too many of us want only nice people who fit in to our middle-class morality and look, talk, act, and smell like we do. We haven’t learned yet that whosoever will may come. And we haven’t learned yet much about the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ. I talked this week with an old friend who is working at starting a new church up in Maryland, near Frederick. They’ve done it by designing an advertising campaign, targeted toward the kind of people who feel left out and abused by the churches. He said they did one poster that showed on one side a young fellow with rings in his ears and tongue and assorted other places; and on the other side a picture of Christ on the cross; and the inscription on the poster read, “Of course we accept people with pierced body parts.”
Imagine with me a church which takes people as they are, needs and all, and turns those needs into assets, those hang-ups into strengths, those struggles into victories. Just imagine it. For if you can imagine a need-serving church, you can imagine a church which is really sump’n other than slumpin’.
This summer we are going to be working very, very hard. No summer slump at Takoma Park Baptist Church. Vacation Bible School, youth ministry, staff search, revival planning, apartment house outreach, a whole new Sunday night worship service, groups that will help people work through their needs. I am praying that it will all be happening here. I don’t know about you, but I am too old to sit down and slump. I am too far along to put on the slow-down posture. I feel the urgency of the hour. I want, I need, I must have sump’n other than slumpin’.
“Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations. Amen.”
