For $35,000, you can have a luxury sedan. Or a lovely Gothic Sanctuary.

Take your pick.

It’s hard to believe, but for the price of a well-equipped Infiniti G35 luxury car, you can now buy yourself a fully-loaded 47-foot-high place of worship. It’s got Gothic arches, an organ, a pulpit, an altar, space for 60, and even some stained-glass-style windows.

All for 35K, which sounds like a deal … or even a steal. The problem is, this building is a balloon.

The world’s first inflatable church made its debut last May in England, and its creator hopes that it will “breathe new life into Christianity.” The plan is to put this blow-up Gothic Sanctuary on the back of a truck, drive it to village squares or open fields, and then set it up for impromptu services. That way, preachers will be able to take their messages to the people, instead of waiting for the people to wander into church. (Gideon Long, “Before Faith Fills the Air, Air Fills the Cathedral,” The Washington Post, May 17, 2003, B9)

Use your imagination and picture this scene: You walk through the gray Gothic archway of the inflatable church, and find yourself in a worship space that looks like a cross between a monastery and a moon-bounce. There are brown polyvinyl pews, an inflatable organ, a pop-up pulpit, and an air-filled altar. The stained-glass windows are really quite attractive, and the inflatable pews seem to be much more comfortable than seats made from hard, polished wood.

Just be sure to leave your sharp objects at home. You wouldn’t want to pop your pew!

Jesus was clearly an inflatable-church-kinda-guy when he launched his ministry beside the lake. He wasn’t interested in stacking stones to build a Catholic cathedral, or laying brick to erect a Presbyterian sanctuary, or nailing planks to assemble a Congregational meetinghouse. Instead, he looked for ways to take his message into the very heart of where people were living and playing and working, and he spoke from whatever platform he could find.

Would he have preached from the roof of an Infiniti G35? Sure, if there happened to be a car dealer in Capernaum. As it turned out, Jesus saw two boats at the shore of the lake, and so he hopped into Simon’s and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat (Luke 5:1-3).

Jesus created a Sanctuary at sea. A worship center on the water. He placed a pulpit in the very center of where the people were gathered, so that the word of God could be heard and his message could be made accessible. You might say that Jesus built his own inflatable church.

So why are we stuck with a sedentary Sanctuary today?

It’s no mystery, really. We all have a natural human hunger for stability in our lives, so it makes sense that Fairfax Presbyterian has a solid foundation and a set of sturdy walls. All this makes perfect sense from a human point of view, but still I have to wonder: Does it make any sense from a divine perspective?

From a God’s-eye view, it seems that we ought to be operating out of the trunk of an Infinity G35. Or off the deck of a fishing boat. Or from a flatbed truck hauling an inflatable church. The Rev. Michael Elfred, a minister in the Church of England, reminds us that in the Old Testament, God’s people worshiped in a tent. “God is on the move,” he insists, “and tells us not to be sidetracked by our buildings."

The Lord is on the move … always on the move. That’s the story of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. But here we are, sitting in a Sanctuary that’s going absolutely nowhere.

Are we going to find ourselves Left Behind?

Now don’t misunderstand. This question has nothing to do with the novels in the Left Behind series. What I’m wondering is this: Are we willing to move into the future with Jesus, or are we going to allow ourselves to be left behind? Are we willing to be faithful apostles like Simon Peter, James and John, servants who go out to spread the gospel and catch people for Christ?

The challenge for us is to be apostolic – a word that describes a person who is sent out as a messenger. That’s what the word apostle means: messenger. Look at our church’s mission statement at the top of today’s Sunday bulletin. It describes us as a Community of Faith that is sent … sent as an apostolic church … sent to Encounter God, Experience Christ, and Express the Power of the Spirit.

Now if we’re going to accomplish this mission, we’re going to have to go out into the world, and meet people where they live and work and play. We’re going to have to trust Jesus to give us success when he invites us to “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (v. 4) … trust Jesus to give us success whether our church budget is 600,000 or 800,000 or a million dollars a year. If we’re going to accomplish this mission, we’re going to have to walk with God into an uncertain future, knowing that God is always ahead of us, and that God is always on the move, leading us in new directions and encouraging us to try new approaches. We’re going to be challenged to continue to support programs such as the youth ministry of this church, a ministry that is touching the lives of over 100 young people this year, and is transforming a new generation through worship and fellowship and innovative mission projects.

It all comes down to this: The challenge of being an inflatable church. Any other approach, and God may leave us behind.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying we have to worship each week in a big balloon. After all, polyvinyl pews can pop, air-filled arches can sag, and space for 60 is not going to fit our growing congregation. But there is still tremendous value in thinking about being a church that is apostolic and on the move with God, a church that refuses to be stuck in one location and sidetracked by worries about preserving the past.

Our focus should be on inflatability, not stability.

I want us to think about this as we worship God this morning, and as we go into our Annual Congregational Meeting a little later today. To be inflatable is to be the living, breathing, walking, talking, Body of Christ in the world today. To be inflatable is to be filled with the Spirit – after all, in the Hebrew Bible, there is just one single word for wind and breath and spirit. To be inflatable is to be easily transportable, and able to move quickly and efficiently to wherever God wants us to be, whether we are moving ahead in mission work, or in Jubilee worship, or in new fellowship events. When the Lord is on the move, we don’t want to be left behind.

Inflatability is seen most clearly in our attitudes when we leave this building and go out into the world. After all, we’ve come to this place feeling deflated – deflated by the frustrations of the week, and maybe even punctured by sharp words and destructive actions. As we worship God together, we find ourselves being repaired and re-inflated, filled once again with the powerful and inspiring wind-breath-Spirit of God. Like the first apostles, we may toil all night by ourselves and catch nothing, but when we open our hearts to Jesus we find that our nets are filled so full that they are in danger of breaking (vv. 4-7). Our God after all, is a God of abundance, not scarcity! God gives us exactly what we need, even when we have to trim the church budget. Every time we gather, every Sunday of the year, we can find ourselves amazed by the forgiveness and grace and generosity of God. We can come to the end of our service feeling as light as air.

You know what I’m talking about: Inflatable church!

So here we go, floating out into the world as a sign of God’s love for all people. “Do not be afraid,” said Jesus to his very first inflatable followers; “from now on you will be catching people” (v. 10). The best way to attract people to God is to be light and flexible and full of the Spirit, and the most effective way to draw people to Jesus is to do your best to love them as profoundly as Jesus loves them.

When I was being trained for ministry at St. Elizabeths Psychiatric Hospital, I heard a woman say that she was just sick and tired of hearing her chaplain tell her how much God loved her. She heard him say this again and again, and it just didn’t ring true, she didn’t believe it. Finally, she said to the chaplain, “Please, stop telling me how much God loves me. First, you love me. Then I’ll know that God loves me.”

First, you love me. Then I’ll know that God loves me.

That’s the mission of a true apostle. That’s the approach of a disciple who is determined to float out into the world, meet people where they live and work and play, and show them the irresistible love of God. That’s the technique of a Christ-follower who values inflatability over solidity, and flexibility over stability.

We may never construct a church building that will last for centuries. But we can all build something better, and far more permanent: We can create connections between people and God that begin with us, and with our willingness to love with a Christ-like love.

It all comes from being inflatable -- light and flexible and full of the Spirit. Amen.

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