A Pilgrimage Down Amnesia Lane Redux

A few Sundays ago, our family went back to Emmanuel Presbyterian Church to celebrate the church's tenth anniversary. As a former launch team member and Ruling Elder at Emmanuel, I was given the honor of sharing about my nine-years worth of experience at the church, going back to 2000 when we started visioning for a church plant in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in New York City.

It was a great celebration and a great time to catch up, albeit briefly, with a lot of old church friends. In addition to talks given at the service, a number of talks were given after the service by other former members while we feasted on lunch and cake. Music, which had been commissioned for the occasion, was performed, and we watched in reflection as videos commemorated the many events, people and milestones which marked Emmanuel's evolution and growth as a church.

We were predictably greeted with a lot a warmth, as well as many "Look how big Daniel and Sophia are!"-type comments towards our kids. Given the number of people who we saw (and still know) and limited time, there wasn't much time beyond more than "life is good but busy, kids are exhausting but wonderful" sound bites. Sarah was bawling for much of the service, getting caught in the emotion of returning to a church, pastors and friends which meant so much to her and her family.

I was a little more even-keeled about it. It's not as if I love EPC any less or didn't relish the long time we spent there. Maybe I've (hopefully not coldly) come to grips that our faith journey often involves moving from different communities which love us and shape us. But God has always been faithful in terms of bringing great friends and brothers and sisters - even if those relationships look different. This dawned upon me while I was at a fundraising banquet for First Choice, an unplanned pregnancy ministry. The table that Sarah and I "hosted" was filled with our friends from Montclair Redeemer, our current church home. I'm grateful that I don't have to choose between or compare friends - all are special, and all will be particularly prominent during a particular season of life.

In any case, here's what I shared that Sunday. I reprint not because this has the inspiration of a Winston Churchill or spiritual power of a Jonathan Edwards speech, but because given the themes which I believe are common with many great church experiences, it'll be a nice reminder to me (or anyone) else of how God is faithful to His church - and how He is the foundation of "great church experiences". Here it is:

More than ten years ago, about a dozen people gathered in Cynthia Lyman’s apartment just down the street and thought, what are the possibilities? The vision at the time was to plant a church in Morningside Heights that would strategically position us to reach out to the university population a stone’s throw away, the yuppie population to the south, and the under-represented minority population to the north.

We would have high-energy worship, we would be community and neighborhood focused, we would have gospel-centered biblical preaching which would be relevant to a post-modern culture and satisfy both the soul and the mind. We’d be a congregation small enough where people could know each other on a first name basis and we’d have deep enough relationships where we could “do life” together and go below the surface in encouraging, admonishing and loving one another.

The handful of people who were on that Launch Team all believed in this vision. And when I wasn’t distracted checking out the cute Korean chick who would eventually become my wife, I would relish in the anticipation and excitement of serving in a ministry which was passionate about Scripture, reaching those who needed to hear the Good News, and bringing Jesus’ lordship over all things in people’s lives.

What I didn’t expect is just how much I would be blessed being a congregant at this same church, having the opportunity to be sharpened by those same sermons, living in community with those same people, and being challenged by the words and examples of my pastors and fellow congregants.

During my time at Emmanuel, I got married and I had kids, two of the most wonderful but sometimes traumatizing times of transition times in someone’s life. I only exaggerate a little when I say that Emmanuel was instrumental in keeping both my sanity and my wife’s sanity intact. If you were here at Emmanuel while I was here, believe me when I tell you that even if we never had a sit-down serious conversation about marriage, kids, work or life, you have influenced my perspective in these areas. Most of those are in the arena of “that’s something I really should do” as opposed to “Wow, that’s just awful”

But in seriousness, I learned a great deal because we talked openly about these things and our pastors and elders made the effort to teach us what the Word had to say about these things. We talked about body image, we talked about homosexuality, we talked about fear of failure, we talked about politics in the Church, we talked about uncontrollable kids, we talked the insatiable hunger for status and money, we talked about pornography, we talked about being lonely in a city of 8 million people.

Here at Emmanuel, I learned that God’s grace really is sufficient and that God’s grace is amazing. At Emmanuel, there is no glory and no honor in false facades that “everything is fine” when they’re really not. I’ve never known a church which has lived out 2 Corinthians 12:9 as earnestly as Emmanuel, when the apostle Paul speaks of the Lord telling him “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Here at Emmanuel, I deepened my understanding of servant leadership as modeled by our pastors, learning that people responded less to titles of authority but more to authentic and genuine sacrificial love. I renewed my love of service and shepherding others, not out of obligation or duty, but as an extension and joyful response of God’s love for me. I remembered that there are few things that bring greater joy than to make disciples and grow disciples of Christ.

As I stand here this morning, I know that I’m just one of the many stories at Emmanuel which can attest to God’s faithfulness to His people and to His church. There are three or four hundred other stories which could be shared about how this church was a place of healing, how this church a place for growth, how this church was a place where someone fell in love with Jesus for the first time, and how this church was a place where they rekindled their faith. As a congregation we have celebrated together: people coming to Christ, friends getting married, friends finding jobs after long layoffs, children being born, reconciled relationships. We have also mourned together in the midst of tragedy and loss: Brett Tabak, Yilo Cheng and Mark Ellis are just three of the people who I wish were sitting with us in these seats this morning..

I hope we all, especially those who are currently in this congregation, realize how blessed we are to have Charlie Drew and Scott Strickman as our pastors, men who love the Word and love their flock, who deftly combine wisdom, grace, humor and compassion. We should acknowledge the service of the Ruling Elders in the past ten years, notably Jim Ziglar who generously devotes so much of his time as the lone ruling elder currently on the Session. We should recognize the amazing work of the EMT members, past and present, who have injected mercy and justice into the DNA of the congregation. We are grateful for the patience and love of those who care for and teach our children each Sunday. We applaud those musicians who draw us and lead us regularly into praise and worship. As you can see by those who quietly arrive early and stay late to set up and break down the A/V equipment, chairs and communion materials, this church is filled with faithful servants. I am humbled by your example.

Recognizing all of what I just said, this church has not endured and thrived because the people inside its walls are perfect. Our church’s journey has not been without its bumps and missteps. The hard reality is that despite the abundant testimony of those here today who will speak of how sweet their Emmanuel experience was, I’m not so naïve as to not realize that there are people who left this church under some clouds, with even angry or bitter feelings that they were not loved or cared for as they needed to be. As a church, we have sometimes fallen short. I know that as a former member and a leader in this church, there are things that I wish I had done that I didn’t do, and there were things that I wish I did differently.

No, this church has not endured because of the perfection and good intentions of its leaders and members. This church has endured because Christ, the head of the church is faithful and has been faithful to His bride. Jesus our Emmanuel is the reason that Emmanuel Presbyterian Church has made such a difference in the lives of so many. We are all simply broken vessels along for the ride, and it’s been a great one for so many of us. As someone who had been here for nine years, we all have great seats in the house to see God at work.

As I close, I want to say to those of you who today are members at Emmanuel, thank you for your faithfulness in continuing the legacy that was started ten years ago.

If you’re sitting in the congregation as a current member and struggle at times, feeling discouraged about investing in relationships which seem to come and go as people migrate in and out of this great city, please know that your labor is not in vain – the movement just means that you’ve either touched a lot of lives coming from and going to all over the world; or that you have an opportunity to touch a lot of lives coming from and going to all over the world.

We are all sojourners here, and all of us, by the grace of God, have been both vessels and recipients of God’s transforming power in our lives at Emmanuel. We will always be connected by a common vision: To know Emmanuel and to advance his peace in our community. And the work that God has done here is worth celebrating and giving thanks for, and that is true today – and it will still be true many years from now when you, like me, have long since left this church.

I then proceeded to (multiple choice):

A) Hurl myself from the pulpit onto the cheering congregation and crowd surf.

B) Make a quick exit away from a furious congregation which gnashed their teeth as they ripped off their clothes and started to pick up stones.

C) Walk away to cheers, returning for an encore as people in the congregation held up cigarette lighters and cell phones and screamed "Stairway to Heaven! Stairway to Heaven!"

D) Meekly creep away as the crowd shouted, "You (stink)! Bring on Jinna Chung!"

E) Close in prayer.

It was E, though any of the other options would've made for a more interesting day. Even without that, I'd say it was a pretty special day nonetheless.