We began as a church June 1, 1878…

…which means as of last Thursday, we’ve now been a church for 128 years. Just like I did three years ago, for our 125^th, I’ve been obsessed with reading and reading and reading records from the beginnings of our church. It is a powerful and amazing account of the power of God!

Quakers didn’t start the town of Newberg, but we came early on in the town’s history. William Hobson, an Iowa man considerably past the prime of his life, heard God’s strong call to come to the Northwest and be a missionary in this wild frontier country. He came to found “a Garden of the Lord” here in the “Grubby end” of Chehalem Valley.

Very early in the settlement of this valley, God had it in mind. He brought many people here to live and breathe and serve Jesus, because God cares for the whole world!

Before I got into the reading, I had heard some of the story of William Hobson.

It was cool to think of his response to God, but I had the wrong impression that all he did was invite Quakers from the Midwest to move out here. He did do that; but his missionary heart led him to so much more!

God’s love always moves outward.

It is truly amazing to realize what God did in the early years of our church. This church started as a church plant from Iowa, and in its first 15 years of existence went from William Hobson with a vision to more than 800 people! Not only that-more than half had no church background before they joined this church!

In the first 30 years of its existence, Newberg Friends was directly responsible for planting 16 other churches, and indirectly responsible for 9 more!

Meetings for worship were sometimes powerful movements of God’s Spirit in those early days.

Those early Quakers led hundreds of people to Jesus Christ…and it all started with William Hobson’s vision.

[film clip]

I’m glad, so glad, for the spiritual foundation that we have in Newberg.

About a month ago, I was asked to speak at the National Day of Prayer gathering here in town, to share about William Hobson’s vision.

Just a few hours before I was supposed to speak, I was rototilling, getting our garden ready for planting. I was praying for the evening, thinking about what I was going to say…and I had a strong sense that what I was supposed to do was lead in a confession.

As I’ve learned more about the years at Newberg Friends since those early days, there have been times where we have lost that early vision for outreach and for a holistic gospel. We’ve not always been faithful to follow the original beautiful vision God led and established us to fulfill.

I fought with God that whole afternoon.

I reminded God, “Who am I to speak for all of Newberg Friends? God, people are coming to this thing to pray, not to hear our confession!”

I didn’t want to do it. But I was pretty sure it was exactly what I was supposed to do.

Something amazing happened that night. I told everyone that I was going to offer confession for Newberg Friends, and I asked them, if they were willing, to speak words of forgiveness to us in Jesus’ name.

We’re told in James 5: 16: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”

I experienced healing that night that I didn’t know I needed.

I’ve had several people tell me that what I said that night affected them, too. Our community HAS a solid foundation in Jesus Christ, and we, as a church, are a living reminder of that.

To have US be willing to acknowledge our failings, to have US ask forgiveness from our community, healed wounds and built bridges.

We have the privilege and the responsibility of being the first church in this community. God is at work in new ways, amazing ways, right now in Newberg! I think we as a church need to take the lead. And I feel more and more convinced that one of the ways we do that is to confess, to admit our failings, and say out loud that we need God’s healing and God’s leading.

Will you join me in this confession? As you hear the things God has put on my heart to speak, will you also be open to what God might be bringing to your mind to confess on our behalf? In our time of open worship in a few moments, God may lead you to speak confession on our behalf, as I am now.

We confess, God, the sin of spiritual pride.

We have sometimes thought of Newberg as our little Quaker town, and it is not. It is the town that God loved so much that he has worked in powerful ways over more than a century, drawing people to himself. God, we ask forgiveness for our pride, forgiveness for forgetting that you gave William Hobson a holistic and huge vision for all of God’s people in Newberg.

Forgive us, God, in the name of your son Jesus. Create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us. [PAUSE]

We confess, God, the sin of limiting how you want to work.

Instead of continuing to follow your leading to meet all the needs of our society, the poverty, the drug use, the pain and struggles, we have sometimes focused only on ourselves. We have sometimes thought our church exists for ourselves and our preferences. We have forgotten your call to reach out. As Newberg has grown over the years, we have missed opportunities to be your witnesses to many who have never known you.

Forgive us, God, in the name of your son Jesus. Create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us. [PAUSE]

[Worship Ensemble, Open Worship]

How do you “measure” a church’s health?

Lots of different ways: numbers of people, numbers of dollars, numbers of ministries, numbers of conversions/spiritual decisions. Some things are much more subjective: what’s the mood? Can people laugh? Are they enjoying each other, do they have warm feelings about church? [POWERPOINT ON]

Newberg Friends Church started in a little room in a house…

Became an official church…

And then in 1893, built this beautiful building we still worship in today.

It’s changed over the years…

As have the people…

William Hobson’s vision has captured me.

His vision didn’t separate out “spiritual” stuff from everyday life. It all came together.

The vision was for all of life-the day to day, everyday life of everyone in this entire valley becoming a strong Christian community. He saw the whole valley becoming “a garden of the Lord.”

The garden grew, and grew. Their experience of God changed them, gave them vision-and through them, God changed the whole town. God even changed the way in which Hobson thought the garden would look.

This is John Henry Douglas, someone used powerfully by God.

While Hobson was quiet and embraced traditional unprogrammed Friends’ meetings for worship, Douglas came here to Newberg with fire and revival preaching that led hundreds to follow Jesus.

It wasn’t what Hobson had in mind. He didn’t particularly like the methods Douglas used. But he loved how God was at work, he loved how lives were being changed.

The more I think about it, the more amazed I am that William Hobson, who had such a powerful vision for what Newberg Friends could be, could let go of his way of bringing about that vision when God was clearly moving in a different way.

Because he didn’t insist on his way, we bear the rich tradition of both traditional Quaker worship and practice, along with the fire of evangelism and the Holy Spirit’s power. [POWERPOINT OFF]

The early church had that beautiful mix as well.

For us to embrace who we are, who God means us to be, it helps to have a measuring stick.

We read from Acts 2 just a little bit ago. I love the commitment, the joy, the awe, the mundane…I love that all of life is captured in the life of the early church.

Our biggest battle as a church today is to keep from limiting ourselves and God, to keep from focusing on one part of what God is doing in the world.

God has been very, very present and real to me over the past few weeks.

I’ve been experiencing some of that holy awe, that amazement at who God is.

I’ve been longing for exuberance and community, asking God for those things to be demonstrated by us at NFC. So I’ve been asking God what MY part is.

Do you long for this picture in Acts to be your reality, too?

What is our part?

Committed to each other.

Committed to God. All of life together, our meals, our work, meeting each others’ needs…ALL of life is the life of our community.

God, would you help us? We are asking, Jesus, for you to help us, help us own the vision we’ve committed to together.

A GROWING community shares meal, finds connections, meets each other’s needs. It grows IN community and AS a community. God, would you begin adding to our number every day those who are being saved?

We want to be ones who are LISTENING to Christ, through the teachings of the apostles in the bible, through his very ALIVE presence.

We want to be shaped by you, CHANGING in the Spirit and by the Spirit. Every part of our lives becomes an opportunity for us to listen and you to change us.

And finally, God, we want to be LIVING OUT love. In real ways, helpful ways, every day ways. This is what we ask, God!

You HAVE been good! You ARE good!

It is you, God, we love and serve!

 

Pulpit-Amanda Woodward, 1928

Several years ago Evangeline Martin and I were wandering around in the college basement and found this old pulpit in the discard, ready to be split up into kindling wood. We could not bear the thought. Too many precious memories clustered around it. As we gazed upon it we could visualize dear old William Hobson giving his earnest messages from behind it; Dr. Elias Jessup holding the people spellbound by his powerful sermons; Dr. H.J. Minthorn, Jesse and Mary Edwards, Martin Cook, and many others; so the old pulpit was rescued and placed in the college museum.