Series title:  Stepping outside the margins: building upon God’s dream
Sermon title:  Radical faith, holy boldness
Stewardship sermon preached on November 18, 2007
Rev. David Tinney
Text: Romans 4:16-25
Theme:  Holy boldness is to live not on the basis of what we think we cannot do but on the basis of 
what we know God can do through us.  

    This morning I would like to pick up where the video last week left off.  Last week, if you 
remember Rev. Emanuel Cleaver talked about stepping outside the margins, taking risks, and doing 
something in your life that will mean something.  It was a great sermon and it prompted me to 
investigate risk taking.  In the process I discovered some interesting and humorous statistics.  
    Did you know that 3,925 people were injured while gargling last year?  Or did you know that 
11,243 people were injured reading, 15,952 injured while barbecuing, 15,974 injured while stapling, 
and 43,117 injured while riding a stationary bike?   And I thought riding on the street was dangerous.  
    Did you know that almost 50,000 people in the United States are injured by pencils, pens, and 
other desk accessories?  So you might be saying the statistics on stationary bikes are a perfect excuse 
not to exercise but did you know that in 1992 the last time they kept numbers in this category that 
400,000 people were injured by chairs, sofas, and sofa beds?  I guess couch potatoes were getting 
mashed!  But here is the one that I really don’t understand.  Did you know that 142,000 people came 
into the emergency room for treatment for injuries inflicted upon them by their clothing?   I mean 
what could possibly happen?  Sweatshirt strangulation?  PJ trauma?  What’s next a law suit against 
your suit for attacking you?
    If life is so risky then we better make the risks we take count for something.  I would much rather 
be injured doing something bold than having to confess that I was assaulted by my sweater.  Today’s 
sermon is about boldness.  It is the third in this stewardship series entitled, “Stepping out of the 
margins, building upon God’s dream” and today’s sermon is about Radical faith and holy boldness.  I 
wish I could take credit for the term holy boldness but I can’t.  Cleaver can’t either but he used the 
phrase like a sword cutting away at the excuses we use not to change or take risks.  Holy boldness… it 
even feels good saying it.
    Many of you commented on last week’s speaker and some even asked why can’t I preach like 
him.  So I want you to know that I am not afraid of change and I am already in the process of changing 
my preaching style.  (Slow down and pause…)  I am going to preach slower and with more poignant 
pauses.  I am going to grow a mustache and learn to move my lips more when I want to emphasize a 
point that I am making.  I will try to be more dry in my expressions and I promise that I will preach 
longer.  I have been a puny preacher when I realize he preaches twice as long as I do.  That should 
change shouldn’t it?  
    All kidding aside what he had to say last week was good not only for the church, but for business, 
and also for the living of our lives for he told us that if we are going to accomplish something in our 
lives, if we are going to have a life that is not “averaged well,” then we need to take risks.  I would like 
to build upon his ideas and one of his images and talk a little bit about Abraham.
    I find it intriguing that the African American Church tends to spend more time in the Old 
Testament than their white suburban counterparts.  They resonate with characters like Moses who led 
his people out of slavery and who guided a nation of slaves to new freedom and new possibilities.  
When you look at history there is good reason for this connection.  They resonate with that giant of 
faith Abraham, who was called from his homeland to journey to a new land.  They resonate with the 
fact that God provides when God’s people go on a faithful journey.  
    White churches and white theology seems unfortunately stationary.  Stuck, fixated, and 
comfortably challenged in that area Cleaver so wonderfully described as the narrow space within the 
margins.  If you remember his sermon, Cleaver said that Abraham was a Bedouin nomad, living a good, 
comfortable, narrow life when God called him out of the margins to take a journey of faith.  When you 
read the story it is indeed a tale of risk.  Failure lurked behind every corner.  Mistakes were plenty.  
Poor decisions abounded.  But Abraham trusted and had hope in a promise made to him by God.  
    Centuries upon centuries later, when the Apostle Paul was addressing the Church of Rome about 
the relationship of faith and grace, trust and promise, he used Abraham as his example.  He wrote 
about him striking out on his journey with nothing but a promise to guide and inspire him.  Then he 
says Abraham was not the father of all nations because he acted like a saint BUT because he put his 
trust entirely in God and allowed God to work through him.
    I really enjoy the way Eugene Peterson puts it in his translation of the text for today.  He writes:  
“Abraham was the first ‘father’ and then became a father because he dared to trust in God to do what 
only God can do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.  When everything 
was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding not to live on the basis of what he saw he couldn’t 
do but on what God said he would do.” 
    That is holy boldness… to live not on the basis of what we think we cannot do but on the basis of 
what we know God can do through us.  For a moment think about the power of that statement.  Holy 
boldness is to live NOT on the basis of what others tell us, NOT on the basis of our narrow concepts of 
the world, NOT on the basis of narrow faith, but on the basis of what God can do through us when we 
allow him.  The implications of this statement are frightening because it calls us to live into the promise 
God has waiting for us.  It calls us to journey, just like Abraham, just like Moses, just like Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, and Micah, just like Mary, just like Matthew, Peter, James, and John, just like countless men 
and women of faith to hope against hope that God is still going to make good on his promises.
    This journey of faith is long and hard.  It is filled with risk and the potential for failure.  But the 
reward of living into God’s promise and realizing part of God’s dream – even the small part of the 
dream that we here at this church can accomplish – is fantastic.  
    Let me tell you another story of journey and risk.  One of my favorite football players is Brett 
Favre, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers.  This ageless wonder is now in his 17th season with 
the “cheeseheads” and is still going strong.  Seven weeks ago he set a record that was formally held by 
Dan Marino – 421 touchdown passes.  That number now stands at 430 and rising making him the most 
productive quarterback in the National Football League history.  Two weeks later he broke another 
record – 278 interceptions making him the most intercepted quarterback in the National Football 
League history.   I am sure he hated every one of those interceptions but he had to risk in order to 
succeed.  He had to fail from time to time in order to eventually be successful.  
    I believe that we are already a church willing to take risks in order to accomplish the vision we feel 
God has put upon our hearts.  The call to step out is past tense.  The decision to change is past tense.  
The decision to keep taking risks and to live in holy obedience is our daily reality.  
    We are different than we were three years ago.  Three years ago our vision was new, trust was 
still growing, and the idea of becoming a church for others had not been embraced.   But we are 
different than we were three years ago, different than we were three months ago and for that matter 
three weeks ago.  We are now a church that embraces change.  I never thought I would say those 
words in the same sentence about any church.  We are a church that is not afraid to take risks and we 
have moved to an entirely different part of our spiritual journey.   One person came up to me after the 
video last week and said, “You have been saying those exact things for several months and I believe 
we have made significant steps outside the margins.  Now the key is that we not get satisfied and 
comfortable in some new margins.  Now the key is that we start to explore the new region of 
wideness.”
    So let me tell you about some of the discoveries we are making in this new region of wideness.  If 
you remember I started this series with a text from 1 Samuel about the call of Samuel.  There were 
three great lines in the short text.  The first was in the opening that described the spiritual climate of 
Israel in about 1070 BC.  “It was a time when the word of the Lord was rare and visions were not 
widespread.”  The next line came from Samuel’s response to God who came calling in the middle of 
the night.  Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Finally God responded with delight by 
saying, “I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of all those who hear tingle…” 
    At the end of the sermon I asked each of you to pray throughout this campaign for great visions 
and to be like Samuel pray, “Speak, Lord for your servant is listening.”  You must have been doing that 
because the visions have come and it seems that God is more than happy to speak as long as we are 
willing to listen.  One day last week I received a call from a member of the Conference who said that 
he had a heartfelt vision for a need in Alaska.  We were the first church he called because he believed 
we could be a catalyst to the conference.  I love that idea.  I love the possibilities of being the “catalyst 
to the conference.”
    He told me about a church in need in Alaska and asked if we could help.  This past week I took the 
new information before your leadership council and they decided to shift this next year’s mission trip 
from New Orleans to Alaska.  Giant risk, radical faith, holy boldness…
    Last week we took a huge risk showing a video during worship.  Some told me before and after 
they didn’t like the idea.  It was too far outside the margins for their taste.  Afterwards they thanked 
me.  We took another risk that day.  We brought the Blue Jean service into the sanctuary where the 
two screens made it easier to see the video.  I will have to say it felt so good.  This time it was right.  
This time it felt like it had been blessed and NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE, complained.  Giant risk, radical 
faith, holy boldness…
    Last Sunday evening we had our Harvest Dinner and we kept selling tickets even when it seemed 
impossible to feed the masses.  So many people came that we kept setting up tables even while some 
were in the food line.  One person was so amazed he said it reminded him of the story of the loaves 
and fishes.  Everyone was fed and everyone went away happy.  Giant risk, radical faith, holy boldness.
    On Sunday night a group of Methodists from another area church came to our Unplugged service 
to see the video.  As they came in they wanted to know about the pews and the chairs, the nature of 
the service, the vision statement out in the narthex, and a dozen other questions about change.  How 
is it happening????  One night later we had our All Church Conference and the presiding elder asked 
the simple question “what is going on in your church that is connected to your vision” and the 
responses went on and on and on.  He told me after the meeting how truly blessed I was to be in such 
an alive church.  “What is going on?” he asked.  Giant risk, radical faith, holy boldness….
    As I was writing my sermon another leader from the conference called and wanted to know more 
about what we were doing at Aldersgate and how it could be replicated.  He had been working on 
various growth committees but nothing seemed to come of all of their meetings.  I said that I had 
learned something from our Tour de Grace ride two years ago.  I said you can’t wait for meetings and 
committees, you can’t mandate energy and growth, it takes a group with a passion and vision and a 
willingness to risk.  I shared with him some of our ideas and some of the visions that have been coming 
and he was amazed.  Giant risk, radical faith, holy boldness…
    Let me share one more story and I will be done.  In both services we are bringing in nine new 
members with a few others who will probably join in the near future.  For the first time in any new 
members class that I have ever led and any that I have ever been in I actually tried to talk the new 
members out of joining.  I told them if they didn’t join they had all the rights of a member, but could 
park closer to the church because I have been asking members to park farther away to give room to 
visitors, and they wouldn’t be asked to serve on committees.  For the first time we asked them to sign 
a covenant with all the specific expectations that you heard them make.  When other churches are 
lowering the bar trying to get people to come we are raising the bar and expecting more.  Giant risk, 
radical faith, holy boldness…
    I believe we have moved into a new territory in our faith journey.  To be honest it is one that I 
have never been before.  We are responding to God’s call, we are stepping out in faith and trust, we 
are hoping against hope that God will make good on God’s promises, and we are willing to risk and 
venture into holy boldness.  During this campaign you have not heard one word about money, or 
bottom lines, or percentage increases in pledges spoken from the pulpit.  It is a different kind of 
stewardship campaign – we are giving to a vision and responding with holy boldness.  
    This is a campaign of stepping outside the margins and building upon God’s great promises and 
dreams for us.  It is a time when we participate in holy boldness… to live not on the basis of what we 
think we cannot do but on the basis of what we know God can do through us.  

  Denis Boyle, "Five-Minute Guide to Risk, Daily Dangers," AARP (July/August 2006), p. 73; submitted by Ted De 
Haas, Bedford, Iowa
  Bill Bryson, I'm A Stranger Here Myself (Broadway, 1999) pp.18-19; submitted by Kevin A. Miller, Carol Stream, 
Illinois
  Eugene Peterson, “The Message” Romans 4:16-17
 
 
 
 
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