In a small Colorado town stands a building, built in 1947. First it was a hardware store. Then a storage facility.

Now it’s a grace place.

A congregation spotted this building and immediately recognized that it had incredible community outreach potential. They were anxious to reach their neighbors, especially those folks disconnected from God and the church, and so they pounced on the building as an ideal location for a café and bookstore.

They turned the space into a restaurant called “The Lighthouse Café,” an eatery that is now open to the public, with specialty coffees, pastries, sandwiches, and soups. According to Rev. Magazine, the café builds a bridge to the community by bringing people into the building for breakfasts, lunches, and community events. It establishes relationships, breaks down barriers, and makes it easier for neighbors to come to the church. The café also stimulates community-building within the congregation, as church members gather together for meals. People have a hunger – for food and for relationships – and The Lighthouse Café has a role in satisfying both. (Robert Johnson, “Community Impact,” Rev. Magazine, September-October 2002, 84)

This hunger for food and relationships is such a fundamental craving -- one that I feel myself, and one that I’ve seen satisfied in some vivid ways in recent weeks. While we were on vacation in France and Italy, my family and I fell in love with the outdoor cafés that draw people together for food and conversation. And then, while I was with Sam at Boy Scout Camp in Southwestern Virginia, I really enjoyed developing bonds with the other dads while eating meals around the campfire.

Food and relationships. It’s a basic human need, whether you are enjoying a café or a campfire.

You have to give this Colorado church credit for turning an old building into a grace place. It’s a creative effort to meet the needs of both church members and neighbors. It’s what you would call, in the words of business theory today, a “blue ocean strategy.”

In business, you see, the world is divided into red oceans and blue oceans. In red oceans, companies try to outperform their rivals through head-to-head competition. They fight like sharks for the same limited profits, and their cutthroat competition turns the ocean a bloody red.

In blue oceans, on the other hand, companies expand beyond existing boundaries, or they take their business into whole new areas. In a new book called Blue Ocean Strategy, the authors argue that long-term success comes not from fighting competitors, but from creating "blue oceans"-- untapped new spaces, ripe for growth.

Think about The Lighthouse Café. It was a blue ocean strategy – a whole new form of community outreach, poised for growth. Instead of engaging in red ocean competition, that congregation took its ministry beyond existing boundaries, and reached an entirely new group of people.

Jesus has the very same strategy. Not in terms of selling specialty coffees, pastries, sandwiches and soups, but along the lines of stepping into wholly uncharted waters. In the red ocean of ancient Palestine, the rule was, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But Jesus creates a blue ocean of “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).

In the red ocean of religious regulations, you were forbidden to pluck heads of grain on the sabbath. But in the blue ocean that Jesus enters, hungry disciples are free to eat, because “the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath” (12:1-8).

In the red ocean of human expectations, a crowd of over 5000 hungry people cannot be satisfied with five loaves and two fish. But in the blue ocean that Jesus creates, all of them eat and are filled – and they wind up with twelve baskets of left-overs (14:13-21).

It’s all about blue oceans, you see … including the blue ocean that Jesus steps into in today’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew. Just picture the scene: You’re in a small boat on a large lake, working hard to get across. The wind is against you, you’re being battered by waves, and you spend the entire night straining to make progress. When morning comes, you slump over your oars, discouraged, exhausted and seasick.

Suddenly Jesus appears, walking on the water. You’re shocked, surprised, stunned … even terrified. Is it a hallucination? A ghost? A god? Certainly nothing human can walk on water. This behavior is way outside the box. But then Jesus says, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid” (14:27).

Jesus invites you to step into this blue ocean with him, and so you carefully put a foot out. You begin to make your way across the waves, but the wind suddenly whips up and startles you, and you begin to sink. Jesus reaches out, catches you, and chides you gently, “You of little faith, why did you doubt? (v. 31).

To succeed with a blue ocean strategy, you have to trust the power of God.

In 1999, a church in Lancaster, California, was at a low point. Attendance had dropped to 50 members, and the congregation was desperate for revitalization. As the church discussed its future, a 92-year-old member stood up and challenged the church to become “mission-minded.”

They did just that.

The congregation took a leap of faith and embarked on a mission trip to Southeast Asia in the year 2000. They repeated the trip the following year, then went to Egypt and Southwestern China. To date, some 70 percent of the congregation has been overseas on mission trips, and the work has revitalized the church at home. It’s no longer hard to get volunteers for Sunday School and VBS, because the people have been trained and equipped by their mission experiences. (Amy S. Eckert, “Short-Term Missions: Long-Term Impact,” Outreach Magazine, September-October 2004, 72)

They’ve moved from red to blue, by trusting the power of God.

So, just how will we climb out of the comfort of our boat here at FPC, and into the wind and the waves? How will we follow Jesus in faith, trusting him to keep our heads above water? Our church can certainly move ahead in a Mission-Minded direction, by supporting the Midlife Men on a Mission in Honduras, the work of 25:40 in South Africa, or the Homeless Hypothermia Project right here in Fairfax.

At the same time, we can become a “grace place” by offering food and relationships to our friends and our neighbors. Feeding hungry people begins with the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, which we are celebrating this morning, and it continues with activities like tomorrow evening’s “Dinner and a Movie.” As we think more and more about being Small-Group-Centered, I think we’ll discover a variety of ways to connect with people through food and relationships.

If we dare to make such moves, we’ll discover that Jesus is way out ahead of us. He’s calling us to step out of the boat and trust the power of God. He’s hoping to connect us with people in need, both here and around the world. And he’s anxious to feed our deep spiritual hunger with food that will last forever.

All this begins with our response to his invitation, the one he gives to Peter and to each one of us … “Come.” All this comes to life as we tap into God’s power, and trust Jesus to lead us across the deep blue sea.

If we do, we’ll be a church that walks on water. Amen.