Congregations are almost always wiser than their pastors, or any of their members.

The Building Committee had labored honestly and well within the guidelines it had set for itself, one of which was that we didn’t think the congregation wanted to have another pledge drive. So we did a pretty clever job of avoiding putting in a sprinkler system, because the sprinkler system was the expense that no one had planned for, and it was going to break the bank. To put in a sprinkler system, we would have to go back to the congregation to raise new pledges to pay for it. But without a sprinkler system, we couldn’t really have the building we wanted and needed, with all the classroom space and the flexibility in the use of the fellowship hall that we had planned. No kitchen, no stage, the minimum classrooms. But we figured we could go back later and put in the sprinkler system.

We held onto this compromise for dear life through the fall as the ground was broken and the building began. Our council president, Ann Wolfgang, was always completely honest with the congregation, that the lack of the sprinkler system would limit the use of the building. It was her honesty, in the end, that saved us from making a big mistake.

A few weeks ago we met with our builder, Dennis Anderson. He is an honest person, too, and he took the risk of telling us that we were making a big mistake by not putting in the sprinkler system now. To do it later would be very difficult and much more expensive. We realized he was right. And in the near future, sprinklers will be required for all public buildings, indeed for all new residential construction in Calvert County as well.

None of us wanted to go back to the congregation or to the Mission Investment Fund to ask for more money. But neither did we want to come back to the congregation in three to five years and say we’d made a mistake, that it was going to cost a lot of money to retrofit the sprinkler system. Three to five years is practically a heartbeat in the life of a congregation, and I, for one, was not looking forward to that meeting in a few years where we would admit that we’d made a big mistake. We couldn’t say that we didn’t have a choice, because we did – we could have gone back to the congregation and explained the problem and let the congregation decide. And that, in the end, is what we did.

As Ann and I talked about it, we had learned something. We can’t protect the congregation from the truth and we shouldn’t try, because the spirit of truth abides in the congregation as John tells us. This congregation is pretty good at facing hard truths – it has had a fair bit of practice at it. There are new families in the congregation that have never had the opportunity to pledge to the North Wing and we knew they would be glad to do it if we explained why it was necessary. So, we did, and I know all our members, new and old, will respond with their usual generosity.

I preached that day about Kairos moments, moments that stand out because they are important times, times of decision and times for decisive action, times where the lives of people and assemblies can change for the better. Those are the times that we can and should rely on the Holy Spirit, a Spirit that abides in the congregation and will never leave it. We move forward together to finish the job the right way, and I couldn’t be prouder of us.

Pastor Greg