What is a church? When Jesus said to His followers, "Upon this rock I will build my church," certainly He didn't have in mind what you just witnessed on this video. If the video crew asked you the same question as you leave the worship center today, how would you respond? Would you get any closer to what Jesus had in mind than those interviewed on the city streets?

Jesus had a big dream. What was it? To understand the emotion behind His statement, "I will build My church," you need to follow what had been happening in His life in the previous days. His cousin John, the one who baptized Him, had been beheaded by Herod, the godless Roman ruler. Immediately, Jesus went off to a quiet place where He could be alone, think, and talk to God.

But the crowds found Him, and He ministered to them. He fed them, more than four thousand of them, with just five loaves and two fish. He performed one miracle after another. But interspersed between the miracles He verbally blasted the Pharisees and Sadducees, the supposed religious leaders of the day. They didn't get it. Their relationship to God consisted of following a bunch of rules and rituals and attacking those who didn't follow them to the letter. They stood in the way of His big dream.

Jesus knew that if He was going to fulfill His big dream, He certainly would not be successful utilizing the existing forms of religion. He would have to cast His vision to those who chose to follow Him. But what was His dream? What is His dream? There was such a great chasm between His desires and the reality of the lost, spiritually cold world.

James Roebling had a big dream, an extremely dangerous one. He believed that he could build a railroad bridge over the Great Niagara Gorge. After all, a few years earlier engineer Charles Ellet had constructed a suspension bridge over the gorge. And even though it was very shaky, at least Roebling knew that the gorge was vulnerable.

Roebling most likely gained a lot of confidence from Ellet's success. But his dream was for a much larger bridge. In 1854, one year before he completed it, he received news that one of Ellet's suspension bridges, the one over the Ohio River, had collapsed after only five years. Most people believed that Roebling's dream was too dangerous. Would this great chasm win in the end?

I want you to think of Jesus Christ as a bridge builder. The odds were certainly against Him, but He dreamed of a bridge of spiritual influence, one that would span the great chasm of spiritual indifference, hostility, and skepticism of His day. He imagined a bridge that would connect His people, the Church, to a world that was wandering around aimlessly and hopelessly.

Throughout His ministry, He kept visualizing His dream for the Church. He said, "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men." In His first recorded sermon in Matthew, He told His followers to shine in the darkness because "you are the light of the world." He told them to make a tasteful difference in their world because "you are the salt of the earth." He believed that nothing could withstand the church's power. He said, "I will build My church and the gates of hell will not overcome it." He believed that the church could become an unstoppable force because He said, "If I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself" (John 12:32).

So what was Jesus big dream? A church that connected. A church that built bridges of influence.

For the last 18 months this dream of Jesus has haunted me. I have pondered and chewed on His "I will build My church" statement for untold hours. I spent much of my sabbatical last year laboring in prayer and study over these words. Why? Because the more I think I understand what Jesus' dream for His church was, the more I realize that we just don't get it. Oh, we may get it, but we don't live it.

Over the last 18 months, I've been haunted with questions like: Would our church be missed if we shut our doors next Sunday? What kind of impact is Chapin Baptist Church having on our culture? What tangible influence is our church having on our community?

You see, I believe with all my heart that Jesus' dream for the church is still valid. I know the great chasm is there. I know that we're over here and the hurting, hopeless, dying world is over there. And I guess I'm crazy enough to believe that the chasm can be bridged. And I'm foolish enough to believe that God still wants to build His church and fulfill His dream.

But here is the problem. We stand on one side of the chasm and shout to everyone on the other side, "Come on over here. We've got a great church. We've got programs for your children and your teenagers. We have programs to help you recover from addictions. We have Bible studies that will get you deeply into the Word. We have fellowships where we bond together." All these are great, but we're three fries short of a Happy Meal if we think this is what Jesus meant when He said, "I will build My church."

Here is the problem restated. Churches today, CBC included, have been extremely guilty of building a Christian club mentality, whose primary purpose is to keep its members happy. We have become a refuge from the world and focused on our own needs, while the size of the chasm keeps getting larger and larger. Instead of measuring success by the biblical standards of faithfulness and courage and changed lives and our impact on the world, we think success is a growing budget, new facilities, and larger membership. Don't get me wrong. These things are important. But I don't think these things we measure as most important are what Jesus had in mind when He stated His big dream.

Author Bill Hull states, "The average evangelical church exists for itself." Is that true for us? If so, are we going to do anything about it? Are we willing to pursue the type of church Jesus dreamed about?

One of our most effective strategies is Chapin U. These discipleship classes each semester are doing a tremendous job helping people grow deeper in their faith. They are equipping us in God's Word. But here is another haunting question. Equipping us for what? For the next Bible study? Sometimes I feel we're like the football team that practices all year long but never plays the game. I'm certain these classes help people in their daily lives to become more Christ-like. But the point I'm making is that everything we do here should be equipping us to do what? The answer to that question is best summarized in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world."

I know I'm beating you up a little this morning. But I'm not going to leave you in the ring all bruised up. I'm here to tell you that I'm excited that our church officially begins today our 40 Days of Outreach. Why? Because what will happen over the next 40 days I believe represents the heart of Jesus' big dream for His church. Every church needs to be in the bridge-building business. Traveling over these bridges proves to a disbelieving world that we care. And I believe we are ready. I believe that our members aren't content with just building a church that might be considered successful in Christian circles.

I must remind you, however, that bridge building is different than success building. If we try to function in any kind of way that limits or prohibits the building of bridges to the community and beyond, then we are doomed. No matter how hard we work, without bridge building we will be frustrated and the community will deem us irrelevant. Great preaching is not the answer. Modern technology is not the answer.

What would New York City be like if it didn't have bridges crossing the Hudson and East Rivers? What would San Francisco be like without the Golden Gate Bridge or London without the London Bridge? Bridges give two-way movement—the church to the world and the world to the church. Without bridges all of our preaching and programs become irrelevant, designed only to keep us content with status quo.

Let's go back for a moment to the Niagara Gorge story. James Roebling had a dream of bridging the Great Gorge. He also believed that any chasm that could not be bridged was man's fault. He lived to see his dream fulfilled in 1855. On Friday, March 16, the first trained crossed over. The engine weighed 28 tons and it pushed 20 double-loaded cars. A few days later a capacity-packed passenger train made the journey, this time from Canada to the United States.

The impossible became possible. The separation which had existed between the two countries had now been spanned. What a great moment. And what a great moment it is when the Church builds bridges that allow believers to connect with a hurting world. Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" (John 14:12). Wow! What a promise! The church that is serious about carrying out Jesus' dream will see God do things that far exceed our human imagination.

Do you believe what Jesus said about the church? Do you really believe it when He said, "The gates of hell will not prevail against it"? Our customary picture of the church is one that is on the defensive, trying to protect itself from the world's influences. But that's not the dream Jesus had in mind. His big idea was (and is) a church that is on the move offensively, battering the gates of hell as the people of God travel across the bridges carrying with them the love and power of the gospel.

Going back to the Matthew 16 passage, verse 19 says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." I don't pretend to know everything that these words mean. Go to your commentaries and you will find a bunch of possible interpretations. But I am certain of one thing that the verse means. Jesus is telling us that the church can become and should be an unstoppable force. It's like Jesus is saying, "Church, here are the keys. Now build some bridges, get outside the walls and be the Church."

A common question that has emerged since we announced the 40 Days of Outreach is: What happens after 40 days? Or put another way, "Shouldn't the church be doing this year round?" I'm not naïve enough to believe that after 40 days we will have arrived. And, no, this is not just another program that we are implementing.

Chapin Baptist, dream along with me. What if after the 40 days, the seeds for growing a culture of missions and hands-on ministry are planted? What if after the 40 days our community notices that we really do care? What if after the 40 days some new ministries emerge and keep on operating? What if after the 40 days we experience a deeper unity among ourselves? What if after the 40 days we discover that God has changed lives both among our members and in the community? What if the 40 days serves as a catalyst that prompts people to take short-term mission trips?

What is a church? Not one of those interviewed gave an answer that reflected the big dream of Jesus. Jesus said, "I will build My church." When you hear those words, I want you to think of a bridge. Think of a bridge that leads into the pockets of poverty. A bridge that leads to the schools. A bridge that leads to the ball fields. A bridge that leads to municipal offices. A bridge that leads to bars and restaurants. A bridge that leads to hurting families. A bridge that leads to the drug user and the drug dealer. A bridge that leads to the very gates of hell. That's what Jesus dreamed about. And that's what we should dream about also.

"For God so loved the world." Every person in our community and beyond matters to God. Everyone matters to God so much that He allowed His Son Jesus to die on the cross. He sacrificed His own life so that all might have the opportunity to discover a meaningful relationship with God. God, help us to overcome the club mentality and take your love outside these walls. May we do all we can to make your dream for your Church become reality.