An older and much wiser friend once told me to spend more time on the search for the right questions than right answers. How often that’s turned out to be true.  Even tonight I’m grateful for the influence of two men who asked a simple question over 2,500 years ago. I’m grateful for the conversation with God that followed as a result. I’m often asked about the vision of The Gathering.  Sometimes I feel uncomfortable in admitting I don’t think much about it.  I’ve never found the one minute elevator speech that explains who we are and what we do.  I wish I could for then I could stop asking people to take the five flights of stairs with me while I tell them what it means to be a part of The Gathering. However, earlier this year I found a passage in the book of Zechariah that has helped me.  It’s not an elevator speech but it’s shorter than five flights of stairs. It’s from the 7th and 8th chapters and the text is divided into three sections:

First, a specific time.  Second, a particular place.  Third, a remarkable person.

Even if you don’t know the passage you are probably familiar with the setting.  The Jews have returned to Jerusalem from seventy years of exile in Babylon and over the course of the next 100 years they are focused on rebuilding the city walls and the temple. They are living in a new world for which they feel unprepared. The old ways don’t fit and the new ways have not become comfortable.   For me, this is an accurate description of the context for the mission of The Gathering today.  In Chapter 7, the people of Bethel had come to Jerusalem at a specific time – the fourth day of the ninth month of the second year of Darius – to ask questions of the priests and the prophets.  They wanted to know if they should continue to observe one of the many fasts in their year. While their particular questions about those rites and rituals are not ours tonight – there is still a sense in which we are much like the people of Bethel.  We have our own questions in coming here on the 13th day of the ninth month, don’t we?  Ours may not be monumental questions but neither were theirs. They are still important questions because they were relevant to their daily life.  They wanted answers to some of the basics and so do we. “What’s an effective gift or how do we find out more about the impact of changing rules and regulations?” “Who knows the most about Africa or China or inner city ministry and can help us figure out what we should be doing?” “Who can help our family foundation or how do we make decisions when everyone seems to have such different interests?” We come here because we have questions and we are looking for some experts and models. We don’t call them priests and prophets anymore but there are many, many valuable sources of knowledge and insight in this room tonight. Not just Terry Parker, Wendell Bird or Curtis Meadows but hundreds of others in The Gathering who have developed an expertise and depth of knowledge over time – like Gene Davis in India, Paul Schultheis in the Middle East, Todd and Karen Hendricks in dangerous places, Fred and Nancy Gale in Africa, Marilyn Augur in Ethiopia, Tom McCallie in China, Scott Harrison in medical care, John and Barbara Findley in serving ministry leaders, Ron and Phyllis McSwain in community development, Don and Phyllis Laskowski in education, or Dick West in microenterprise.  We come here to talk about the process of giving and to inquire about the particulars of what we are doing. The Gathering is about a specific time for questions about practical issues.

Second, God describes the qualities of this place He creates for us. He tells the people he is going to create a place – a very special place – a place known for Truth.  In time, it will be known as the City of Truth.  It will be the place where people are more concerned about the Truth than they are about anything else and a place where telling and hearing the truth will be highly valued.  It’s difficult to hear the truth when we are all surrounded by people wanting something from us, isn’t it?  It’s probably one of the first things you notice when you become a donor – especially a major donor.  Finding the truth becomes increasingly difficult.  People are afraid to tell us and all too often we are isolated and protected from it. It’s a separation that none of us enjoy and it’s dangerous when we become accustomed to it.  But hearing the Truth is also about receiving encouragement.  Where do you go in your community to be built up in what you are doing?  Where do you go for the support of friends and a common fellowship that understands and values your deeper motivations for giving? That’s why The Gathering being a place of Truth is so important to protect. That’s why we never want to lose the vision for this being a place for honesty, openness and integrity.  But there is something else about this special place God describes.  “Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age.  The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there.”  What a description of what we are becoming over time – a place of old and young.  It’s not always comfortable and the pieces don’t seem to fit all the time but this is why we come to this place – to speak and hear Truth and to be part of a family of young and old.  It’s the place where the wisdom of the elders is valued and the energy and discernment of the young is encouraged.  It is the place where we open ourselves up to hearing and speaking the truth in love.  It is one of the only places in our lives as donors where we can reflect and learn and not feel pressured to make a gift or a quick decision or an emotional commitment.

But the design for The Gathering is not just one of the process of giving or of being a special place of truth, encouragement and wisdom.  In the end it is a forge for the creating of a particular kind of person. “This is what the Lord Almighty says: In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the edge of his robe and say, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’” If I could sum up my heart’s desire for The Gathering it would be just this.  It would be the shaping of individuals and families who are so clearly walking with God that others would ask to go with them.  Others would want to be here tonight because of the character and maturity of the participants.  In fact, that is how people get here.  They don’t read the brochure, click on the website or get something in the mail that makes them want to be here.  Each one of you is in the end the evangelist for The Gathering. Many, if not most of you came because someone you respect brought you. I cannot imagine anything more worthy of our work than that – having a part in God’s formation of someone about whom it is said, “Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”

We welcome you here tonight in this special place for a week-end of questions, a week-end of encouragement,  fellowship, worship and time with others who are learning to walk with God and bring others with them.