Pentecost Sunday
135th Anniversary
17 May 2026
Vineville Baptist Church
Macon, Georgia
W. Gregory Pope
PRACTICE RESURRECTION: A DREAM AND A CLOUD
Acts 2.1-4, 14-18. Hebrews 12.1-2
On May 10, 1891, about 50 members of Macon’s First Baptist Church of Christ assembled in the home of Capt. John L. Hardeman to constitute Vineville Baptist Church. 135 years later, here we are!
Two weeks ago, I mentioned William Carey’s sermon in May of 1792 that began the modern missionary movement. As Carey came to the climax of his sermon he called for the formation of a new missionary society. He uttered two lines which have echoed down through the years: Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God. Perhaps we could slightly alter the second sentence to say: Attempt great things with God. For all that we do as faithful followers of Jesus we do as partners with God as we seek to be what God is calling us to be at this time and in this place.
We are not trying to be some other church from some other time. God wants and needs all churches to thrive where they are. And God uses all flavors of churches to reach people with the gospel: conservative, moderate, progressive, large, small, and in between. Different kinds of churches reach different kinds of people. As preacher and humorist Grady Nutt once said, “There is no competition between lighthouses.”
To finish writing this sermon I went to Cathedral Coffee this past Friday morning. Cathedral Coffee is, of course, attached to Northway Church – a church we started in 1998. I saw Hermann Dorr there on Friday, who I believe was a good friend of John Hardeman back in 1891. Is that right, Herman? Friday morning I sat with my laptop in front of that beautiful stained glass window that came from this church and I pondered the sacrifice we made in the name of Jesus Christ with millions of dollars and many Vineville members leaving to help start that church. I think I’m right in saying all was not smooth with that mission. (Would that be accurate?) But Northway exists today as a different kind of church than Vineville reaching people we might not be able to reach. And we should be proud of that mission. For you see, we’re not trying to be some other church or even the biggest and best church in Macon. We’re not even trying to be the Vineville Baptist Church of the 1970s and 80s. We’re trying to be the church that God is calling us to be today, fulfilling the mission God has for us.
The day following William Carey’s sermon in 1792 the modern Protestant missionary movement was born as 24 small churches banded together and went forward. Carey had a simple three-fold strategy for this new missionary movement: Pray, Plan, and Give. Not a bad strategy. How could a church thrive without those three! A year later Carey set sail for India and spent the
rest of his life there as a missionary. Carey suffered from a disease that had left him prematurely bald. It bothered him so much it is said he often wore an ill-fitting wig. He did not have John Kelly’s self-confidence! The story is told that on his way by ship to India he took off the wig and flung it into the sea.
I don’t know about you, but there’s something that moves me about that. His stripping himself of vanity, beginning a new life among the Indian people, being authentically himself to the people. It leads me to ask: What do I need to fling overboard so I can better do God’s work? Perhaps it can lead us to ask: What do we need to fling overboard so we can better do God’s work as an authentic community with an authentic faith. Isn’t this what we want to be, want our church to be?
What are your dreams for us? If you were here last Sunday and this past Wednesday night, you cannot help but be inspired by our youth and children! In the book of Acts we are told that the church is a fulfillment of the prophet Joel’s preaching where the Spirit will come upon God’s people and the young will see visions and the old will dream dreams. Visions and dreams are signs of God’s Spirit among us. The biblical prophets tell us where there is no vision, where there are no dreams, the people will die away.
What kind of dreams and visions for us has God planted in your heart? What are some ways you imagine us connecting with the people of our community? Maybe building friendships in a coffee shop of our own, or finding ways to spruce up this place and use our space creatively for the good our community, and praying for the courage to be boldly faithful to the way of Jesus in an increasingly cold and divisive world.
Do you ever let yourself look forward instead of backward and dream about what God might want to do with us and through us now? Or are you one who has stopped dreaming because the hard teeth of reality have dashed your dreams too many times? When someone in the church begins to dream a new dream or see new visions, are your first thoughts all the obstacles that stand in the way, all the reasons it just won’t work? What if the Holy Spirit that descended upon the church at Pentecost descended in new ways upon our imaginations here at the corner of Vineville and Pierce? And what if our first thoughts were not the problems in making the dreams come true but the possibilities of what could be? What if our first response was to Consider the Possibilities? Are you open to dreaming about and considering what God might to do among us?
The Great American poet Garth Brooks wasn’t necessarily talking about the church but his lyrics to one particular song I believe have a word for us as the church. Think about the church as you hear these words:
You know a dream is like a river, ever-changing as it flows.
And the dreamer’s just a vessel that must follow where it goes.
Trying to learn from what’s behind you and never knowing what’s in store
Makes each day a constant battle just to stay between the shores.
Too many times we stand beside and let the waters slip away
Till we put off till tomorrow what has now become today.
So don’t you sit upon the shoreline and say you’re satisfied.
Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide.
There is bound to be rough waters and I know I’ll take some falls.
But with the good Lord as my captain I can make it through them all.
So I will sail my vessel till the river runs dry
Like a bird upon the wind these waters are my sky.
I’ll never reach my destination if I never try
So I will sail my vessel till the river runs dry.1
And as we sail into and dream about seeking to faithfully live out God’s mission for us we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses – those who’ve gone before us – and among us still – who are cheering us on to give all we’ve got and run the race of faith, to lay aside all that holds us back – every weight, every sin, every hurt, every pull of doubt, every past success, every regret – to lay it all aside and run, empowered and led by the Spirit. Giving anything and everything, whatever it takes to run the race faithfully, so that having started we will not give up. Sailing and dreaming, surrounded by saints and led by Christ our Captain, the work will be done.
Can you hear the thunderous cloud of witnesses cheering us on? There’s Sarah, rockin’ baby Isaac in the nursing home. There’s Moses with the rod of God in his hand, held high, pointing the way. There’s Jeremiah, praying as only Jeremiah knows how to pray, interceding for God’s people. There’s Mary, telling us that what is impossible without a man is possible with God. There’s Peter with a smile of divine forgiveness on his face, cheering us on when we fall. There’s Martha, waving her dish towel which is not white with surrender, but checkered with victory telling us we will make it to the end. And there’s John on the isle of Patmos, encouraging us to never give up because he knows how it all ends: empowered by the grace of God he knows the servant church wins!
Traveling through time some 1800 years: There’s Army Captain John Hardeman who later become a Bibb County judge with his gavel in hand calling to order the first meeting of Vineville Baptist Church. And Loyd Landrum leading heaven’s choir and orchestra in the Hallelujah Chorus while Angela Blizzard leads us in song here on earth. And there’s Jim and Frances McNorrill with no children of their own but who loved everyone else’s children, and Jim would knit blankets for newborn babies before Larry Cromer came along to do the same. They loved VBC so much they left their estate to the church, and their witness calls us to love children and give generously for the sake of the gospel. There’s Mary Eva DuBose, called the Grande Dame of VBC, who courageously stepped forward to be Vineville’s first female deacon and calls us to a new kind of courage to break new barriers toward the freedom we have in Christ. There is the quiet, steady, and wise leadership of Pat and Charles Schaible who has served our ministry of administration without which very little happens in a church and inspire us all to serve even if it’s behind the scenes. There is Gene Welch and Len Hindsman whose care for these beloved buildings have saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars. They remind us that buildings are not “just buildings”; they are sacred spaces where prayer and worship and ministry take place and where friendships are developed and nurtured. And there is former Pastor Bill Hardee with his high-pitched laughter (I almost called it a squeal!), the sound of which is a sign of the joy set before us. And when the saints go marching in and you want to be in that number, Charlie Jay is counting in this life and in the life to come! And high above them all stands Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, cheering us on with outstretched arms, hands and feet with pierced scars, calling us to new life.
So get your running shoes on. We’ve got a race to run.
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1. Garth Brooks, “The River.”