So let me tell you a story. Warning, it goes on for eight years. But first I'm
going to talk to you about time. Time is more than one thing, did you know that
So the writers of the New Testament talk about time in two different ways. So my
birthday gift to you is I'm going to teach you two new words. Okay? Okay? Please
receive this gift. It's from the heart. The first word is chronos. When they talk
about time, one of the words they use is chronos. That sounds very familiar, right
Chronology. A sequence of events. The days of the week, weeks of the month, so on and
so forth. So beginning, middle, end. The second word that they use to talk about
time is not a sequence of events, and it's not chronos, and it's not
predictable. Instead, this word was used to describe how several things converge
at the same time for an opportunity, and that word is kairos. So time is both a
sequence of events, but there are times in our life where things, we say, line up
right? And so here's the deal. If you step in faith, which is what the New Testament
writers encourage us to do in our living time, our chronos, and we trust God as we
walk in faith in the kairos moments, there's a blessing to be received
Similar to Abraham. The blessing is not just for us, but it's for other people
But if you miss that window, you miss it. I mean, how many of you are sitting next
to someone and you said, this is a kairos moment. I better not let this person go
right? We live with this all the time. So you act in God's blessing, you receive
the benefits, but if you miss it, you miss out. So in my eight-year story, you're
going to hear moments, you're going to say, oh, that's chronos. Oh, that's a kairos
moment. The eight-year story begins in 2015. I was serving at a Presbyterian
church in Orange County, California, and though the congregation was filled with
very, very wonderful and loving people, I knew that God was calling me elsewhere
So I began to pray and to think and to dream, and I began to experience what many
people call a holy discontent. You ever experienced that? Like a holy...like surely
there's more than what I'm experiencing now. Surely there's something better, something different. And I didn't want to settle, and I wanted to find a church
that was the just right church. The just right church in a just right place that
with faith and action can make an impact for their community. So I started reading
a book written by one of my favorite writers, Diana Butler Bass, titled
Christianity for the Rest of Us, How the Neighborhood Church is Changing the
World. And as I read chapter after chapter, it grabbed my heart and I said, I
want that. God, I want that. Please make it possible that I would experience that
So the author traveled the country, did a bunch of research and interviews at
churches all around our country, different denominations, different settings, different core values, I guess you would say, but they were growing. And
they weren't growing, they were thriving, and they were changing their neighborhood and their city. And some of the churches embraced
radical hospitality. Some churches were making an impact because they just grabbed on to the arts or contemplation or social justice or serving their
community for the good of the community. All kind of locations, all kind of
denominations. And I remember when it happened. I was reading the book, the sun
was setting, orange and purple in the sky, window was open, and I could hear the
wind rattling the palm trees in the back. Don't feel sorry for me. So
rattling the palm trees in the backyard. I was like, God, I really want that. I really
want that. I want to be a church in a city, in a neighborhood. Cities have to
grapple with complex issues, right? Poverty, education, adequate housing, diversity of all types. Diversity of all types. So, God lead me to that place. So, I
shared this with my wife, Barb, every day. Whether she wanted it or not, okay? I
would just, I would talk and she listened. And to my dying day, what I will always lean on and love in my wife is her belief that she, that she, that she voiced to me
She said, JJ, you can go anywhere and you can do anything. It's like, all right. And
when someone believes in you, it's octane in the gas tank, right? Right? It's octane
right? But it's not just the belief in me, it's her belief that God can produce
kairos moments and that God could even give her husband eyes to see. It takes
belief. So, over time, I was in conversation with churches all over the
place and I saw a job posting in Poughkeepsie, New York. So, I read the job
packet. The job packet is 22 pages. Now, I feel like we're on page 4 by now, okay? So
and it was filled with who we are, who God has called us to be, and what we feel
like God has called us to do and be. So, I read it and I instantly went back to my
life. My sun-soaked life. And a few weeks later, I was mowing the yard, hmm, Poughkeepsie
That was interesting. So, then I pulled it up on Google Maps, like the street
address. I was like, oh, in the city, but it looks like they're at a convergence of
neighborhoods, like two or three different neighborhoods. That's kind of, that's kind of interesting, huh? So, I went back to my life. Two weeks later, I'm in
my office, hmm, Poughkeepsie. How do you spell that? Check the church website. Oh, they have nonprofits using their building. Oh, they
have a medical equipment ministry that serves a bunch of people. Oh, they're connected with some of them volunteer at Hudson River Housing, and they're
tackling like, root issues of housing and poverty and things like that. Hmm. And
then I remembered when it happened. I was doing the dishes. I was doing the
dishes. Kids were in the backyard. And I went, hmm, Poughkeepsie. So, we had, at that
time, on the counter, we had a really small aquarium with two fish, Flame and
Storm. And I looked at them. I said, I said, okay, I'll send them my resume. And
that was what was happening in California. But what was happening here
and that was two months, that was exactly two months, by the way. What was
happening here for that two months was this. So, a pastoral search process makes
a church look at its soul. It is hard, right? How many of you been in a
pastoral search process? Yeah, yeah. You have sainthood now. You don't know that
So, and there was a conversation that was happening that I did not find out about
until two years later. And it was the conversation between the consistory and
the search team where they were kind of working out a dilemma. We have these
well-qualified people who are probably effective, but sometimes they diverge from our core values. So, how do we do that? Because these are great candidates
Like, we would be blessed to have them, so what do we do? And so, they decided with
prayer and a lot of conversation, this, that one of our core values is
that we're not going to exclude anyone from this church for any reason. Not
education, not politics, not gender, not sexuality, not education, nothing. No man, as the Belhar Confession says, no man-made barrier, no man-made distinction
between us and them. We're all the same. We all need Jesus. So, fast forward two
years and we were at a consistory retreat and Chip Simon, sitting back there, was serving on consistory at that time. Our consistory is elders, deacons
and the minister. And I asked a question, when have you been proud of your church
And Chip spoke up and said, I remember when it happened. We made a decision to
include, no matter what, full stop. And we all cried because it's a beautiful idea
right? And we live it. And so, that conversation overlapped with my two
months here, and it converges in the church. And so, then the co-chairs of the
search committee, Dick Herodas and Karen Schmidt, they reach out to me. My resume
was the next. Probably in a stack like this. It's just timing, like the timing is
incredible. And so, we set up a phone call. Now, I'm in California and I'm
wondering, is the New York stereotype of direct talk? Is that really
true? Is it really true? So, Dick and I set up a time to call and we do our, you
know, pleasantries. And he says, well, Jason, we want to be a church for all
people, full stop. And if you can't get behind that, this conversation needs to
be over. That's the most New York thing I have ever heard in my life. To me, that
was the voice of a church that found itself. And to me, it was the voice of
God saying, you have to live your values. You have to live your values. So, we
moved here, me and the Traveling Circus, in 2016. First time I crossed the
walkway over the Hudson was with Linda and Ken Sandberg. My memory's fuzzy, but
my first glass of wine at someone's house was either at your house, Dick, or
with Jim and Tina Haggit when I moved here. And those initial conversations
opened up like, it's possible. It's possible. And so in 2017, I went on a
personal retreat and I was praying and writing, just kind of like, okay, I've
been here for a year, what in the world's going on, this is hard, you know, all that
stuff. And I was praying and just kind of in silence, and then this picture of what
it would look like more to be a neighborhood church. And the picture I
got in my head was that we would see people walk to church. Like, that's a
neighborhood church, right? That's one of the things. If you're from Hyde Park, we accept everyone, okay? We're not excluding Hyde Park or Wappinger's, other
places, Fishkill. But we would see people walk to church. And six months later
there's like six, seven people who are relatively new to the church, and we'd
talk and I'd say, hey, where do you live? Oh, just down the street, we walked here
Excuse me? It worked? What? And now we have day one, early learning
inter-education building, and those families, some of those families, walk to our church. And if you're here Monday through Friday and you see the little
school bus parked on Hooker Avenue, and you see those little kids walk into the
building, you're like, yeah, that's it. A neighborhood church, in my mind, is someone
looks at 70 Hooker Avenue and they say, I don't go there on Sundays, but that is
my church. That church is here for me. Not for themselves, but for me and my loved
ones. Don't you want that? Yeah, it makes the community so much stronger. I have
lost my place. Okay, so time came for Consistory to think about, our nursery
school had made the very difficult decision to close after 60 years of service to this community. Thousands and thousands of kids have been through our
nursery school, but the school board came to the realization that Kairos moments
are for a reason and for a season. It's not Kronos. Kronos is eternal. Kairos
moments, beginning, middle, end. And we celebrated 60 faithful years of service
And so Consistory walked through this very, very big building and we prayed, God
this is your building, so what would you like for it to be? And what that prayer
is, is a prayer for give us eyes to see the Kairos moments. So a little bit after
that, the director of the Polish language school called and said, hey, our rental
building, the place that we rent, has fallen through. Do you have any rental
space? Do I have space? So that's Friday nights. And then one day a minister
knocked on the door and he and I talked. Hispanic pastor, Pastor Lasvin, generous
big-hearted individual. And he said, pastor, we're starting a new church to
serve the Hispanic community. Do you have any space? Do we have space? We have a
church inside a church. We have a chapel upstairs. And he walked upstairs, he's
like, this is perfect. And now they are no longer here because someone gifted them
a building. And so that person that gifted them the building was part of
their Kairos moment. Isn't that beautiful? And then during that time, this group
called and said, hey, pastor, we're directors of this music group called
Stringendo and we just love to teach kids music. Do you have any space? Do I
have space? You just wait. And they came. During COVID, Natasha Cherry, who serves
on Common Council, that serves this neighborhood, and she also works in the
superintendent's office, she called me and she said, hey, our boys basketball
team needs a second gym so that we can separate them and practice. Do you have
any space? Yeah. And so I met the coach. And if you saw these young men and how they handle
those cells and how disciplined and polite they are and how they cared for
the building while they were and are here, you say this is this is great. It's
good to be a part of a neighborhood church to hear basketballs in that gym
instead of silence. And now every summer they spend a portion of their summer in
our building. We are a home away from home for them. In 2021, Mr Cherry called
me again and said, Pastor, I wanted to talk to you on behalf of the superintendent
We're scouting places. We got state and federal funding for universal pre K to
expand it. Do you have any space? Do I have space? Come over. I'll show you. So Dr Rosser and people in his
office came and they walked through the building and it was like, wait
there's more. There's more. 15 classrooms. You have a gym you have
next to a city park, but next to a great playground. And I could just hear
the creativity between them like this is this may come true. So even like city officials and people who serve the community, they're also
looking for Cairo's moments, right? Everybody lives this. Everybody lives this. And over time that has evolved into a relationship with day one
I will never tire of saying this. When the first lady of the United States was here
a few weeks ago and was talking about the importance of everybody, every
organization in the community pulling together for our kids education. It was
a powerful moment to see. And afterward, Dr Rosser and I were talking and he
said, he said, Pastor, even though this relationship doesn't work the way that
we first imagined, I know this is God's will. And it hit me that that's exactly what faith is. It never looks the way that
you imagine, right? Reverend Martin Luther King Jr talked about how life is
a staircase and that faith is just taking the next step. And so God always gives us space to see our feet, but not much else, right
Otherwise, why would we need faith? Right? So sometimes we want life to
figure out. Sometimes I would love to tell you like, hey, five years from now
this is what we're going to be doing as a church. But it's faith. It's faith
And you got to step. You just you got to take a step. It's hard. It's part of
our discipline. So so I think we're on like year seven and a half
We have been blessed, right? And it's so that we can be a blessing. That's the word to Abraham
I will bless you so you can be a fat cat so that you could be fat and lazy
Just live it up, Abraham. It's all for you. No, it's not even for his country
It's not even for his ethnic group or religious group. It's not even for his
region. Who is God calling Abraham to bless every family of the world
God's vision is big. And I wonder where our vision is. Right? God can do big, big things
We are becoming a neighborhood church. I N G. Right? There is work to be done
You and I inhabit Kronos. But I believe that God has us in a Kairos moment. And I want you to be a
part of that. If you're a guest today, I'm so happy that you're here. I don't think that you will be sad to be a part of a Kairos moment
Things are converging. Things are lining up. It's amazing. When a church says yes, what can happen
The other night we had consistory meeting and we had, well, the closing prayer was, thank you, God
For this magical conversation. How many consistory meetings have ever ended like that
Right? It's about as many as at your workplace. Right? But we had a heart to heart
And there was a movement. I believe that God is moving in our hearts as a
congregation. I can't tell you what the next step is sometimes. I can't
I can't. I wish I could. If I could, I probably wouldn't be doing this
But we have to just trust God in the moment. The word in our second passage is this
I want to use you and maybe you have been put here for such a time as this
Have you ever thought that? Wait, I have a role in this church
Absolutely. Absolutely. You were put here for a reason. So let me land the plane
I am your minister. I am your pastor. I want this to be the best church you've ever been a part of
For some of you, you're like, that's not asking a lot. But some of you have experienced very good churches
And I want that for the rest of the folks in this room. I want that for the rest of the people in this room
I want that for the rest of the people in this room. And I want that for the rest of the folks in this room
Do you know how many kids we have under our care as a congregation? We have 17 school-age kids
17. Nursery and Sunday school. So what does it mean for us as a church to keep our vows
To help parents, disciple, and share the faith with the next generation
Because the church is reborn in every generation. Because the church is reborn in every generation, right
So what does it mean for us to serve? I want to be part of a church that cares about your educational pursuits
and when you start a career or a family. I want to be a church that cares about your marriage and your important relationships
So our churches typically, not always, but churches typically, but society at large, usually separates people by generation
But a Kairos moment brings everyone together for each other. Don't you want to be a part of a church like that
That everybody belongs, no matter what, including age? I want that for you
I want that for us. So what's the next step for you
What's the next step? Is it baptism for one of you or your family members
That could be. Baptism is often a pivotal point in someone's life where they say
I am owning my faith, I'm going to live my values as best as I can. Is that you
For some of you, the next step may be just to revisit. It could be membership
Membership is simply stating the obvious. If you're at the point where you're talking about becoming a member
you're kind of already a member. You're just making it public. This is my people
I belong to you. You belong to me. So, it's magical. Abraham, I'm going to do amazing things through you and for others
I just need you to step forward, and I need you to go to a place you've never been to before
You know what God is saying? To us? You can go anywhere
and you can do anything. So, can we believe in God and believe in one another
It's octane in the tank. So let's go