Shane Hughes 11-2-25
All right, I gotta tell you two stories before we begin. My name is Shane Hughes. I'm one of the ministers here. If you're visiting with us, as we've already said, it's a delight for you to be with us. First story.
Last week, Robert Lopez de Castillo, who just did announcements, came up at the end of the sermon and told a story about how he's teaching his children generational generosity, that when it's time for his kids, they go back and along the back wall are our boxes where you can make your offering. And, and he takes Christian, his son, and, and, and kneels down with him and says, hey, here, here. And gives him a dollar to put in the, the. The thing, the box, and, and says, what is this for? And his son will say, like, you know, to feed people or, or other things.
And then, and then they put the money in and they say, bye, bye, money. And then they go on to his kids, which is a great story. It's a great way to share how one family does generational generosity. Here's the cool thing that I want to tell you about that. This week, our bookkeeper, Nathan, called and said, hey, you're never going to guess what happened.
And I said, what? Now, here's the thing you need to know. We try to find the oddest metrics to judge how our church is doing. Most churches count nickels, they count noses. So how much money we're taking in, how many people are in the pews, that means we're successful or not.
Except that's a hard way to determine faithfulness. So here at Highland, we have some different metrics that we want to encourage you to do. For instance, our table pathway moment is about unlikely friendships. Do you have someone here at Highland that you're friends with that you wouldn't normally be friends with because they're different than you, but because of what you share together in the body of Christ, you have become something more. That's.
That's an unlikely friendship. That's one of the metrics that we use here. We have found a new odd metric for Highland that we're going to use going on in the future, he said. Nathan, our bookkeeper, said, in the bottom boxes along the back wall, we found 13 $1 bills, which means that 13 family, 13 families have begun to participate in generational generosity of teaching their children what it means to give. Now, that's an odd metric that we're just going to keep our eyes on and see what happens to it.
You may do it differently in your family, but I Love that story. Here's the second story I want to tell you. I was sitting in first right over there, kind of waiting for service to start, and things got rolling. And then about four or five songs in, Cheryl Nelson comes over and talks to me, and she says, do you see that person that's sitting next to me? And I said, yeah.
And I just thought it was a friend, you know, a guest from their family. And she said, well, we were in the parking lot, and she came over to us, and she says, what time does the service start at this church? And then Cheryl said, well, it starts at 8:45, but it's 8:55 right now. So we're running a little bit late. And this woman said, you know, I just woke up this morning with a sense something telling me I had to go to church today.
And she said, and I think this is the church that God is telling me to go to. And of course, Cheryl says, well, come on in. You can sit right next to me. I've never seen a better definition of providentially hindered than that moment right there. Right.
10 minutes late, Minister's spouse comes into service in the parking lot, meets someone who woke up with this sense of like, okay, God has purpose for me today, and it ends in this place. Or rather, it begins in this place. I'm so glad you're here today. We're going to talk for the next three weeks about the 2029 vision. It's.
It's. It's what we're planning to do in the future. It's where we as a leadership have discerned what's next in the. In the next season of life for Highland. And I want to tell you all about those things.
And you need to come back for the next three Sundays so you can hear about this. But today we're going to talk a little bit about our vision overall and kind of our history as a church that led us to the place that we are today. Would you join me in prayer? Holy Father, we're grateful for your word and the way that it shapes us and changes us. I am so grateful for generations of leadership that have gone before, not just in this church, but in the kingdom across the world, who have faithfully raised sons and daughters to believe in you, who have fearlessly shared the gospel with others, who have gone to foreign places and told others about your son, Jesus Christ.
And Father, we stand in that tradition. We are the benefit benefactors of that tradition. And we. We. We long to pass that forward.
And so now, Father, as we Turn our hearts and our minds to your word. I pray that you pour through me the gift of preaching, that I may speak your truth and love to these, your people. It's together that the church says amen. All right, so the vision of the Highland Church is to partner with God in the restoration of all things. To, to work to restore Highland Abilene and the world.
I want to talk for a minute about what the restoration of all things is, because that's a particular phrase and it's something that you can see throughout the story of the Christian tradition for the last 2000 years. But recently theologians and scholars have pointed it out and given it more emphasis. Namely, N.T. wright and others have described. What N.T.
wright has done is like a Copernican revolution. You remember Copernicus from your history class? He was the one that said, in a time where most people believe that the Earth was the center not only of our solar system, but the entire universe, everything else kind of revolved around it. He said, look, I've been looking at the stars and I've been looking at planets move. I've been looking at the sun.
And I think actually the sun is the center of our solar system and the Earth is not the center of hardly anything. And it rocked everybody at that time. He was branded a heretic. He was kicked out until everybody realized Copernicus was right and now the whole world is adjusted to that idea. Here is the Copernican revolution that N.T.
wright kicked off. It was never Jesus goal to whisk you away to heaven.
You getting to heaven is not the point of Jesus death and burial or resurrection. It's not the goal. It's not the goal for you to escape earth. In fact, it's just the opposite. God's ultimate plan is not to abandon creation, but to renew it and restore it completely.
Another way of saying this is that the church is not the means by which you escape a dying earth up to heaven. Rather, the church is the instrument God is using to be bring heaven crashing down to a restored earth. And it all begins with Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to know what the Gospel looks like here at the Highland Church. It is telling the story of Jesus Christ.
The restoration begins with Jesus own bodily resurrection and is a prototype and guarantee of God's entire renewal project. So the resurrection of Jesus wasn't merely spiritual or, or a spiritual event or resuscitation. It was the inauguration of a new creation itself. The beginning of God's work to make all things new. And so God's restoration plan involves healing the rupture between heaven and earth, and texts like Colossians chapter 1, verse 20, Revelation chapters 21 and 22.
God's goal is for heaven and earth to be joined together, for God's space and human space to become one. In fact, this was the entire goal of the Old Testament. The temple was. Was God's dwelling place, but it was God's initiation point to spread across the entire world. The gospel isn't just about saving individual souls.
It's about God reclaiming and renewing all of creation from the effects of sin and death and corruption. Corruption. And so human beings, as Wes said, being image bearers of God, play a crucial role in this restoration as renewed humans working toward the renewal of creation. And so we believe that through Jesus, death and resurrection, the new creation has already begun. The Spirit's presence in believers and the church represents the first fruits of this new reality.
And so Christians are called to participate in God's restorative work now, doing things like pursuing justice and creating beauty, serving others and working to reflect God's coming kingdom in the present age. The work isn't ultimately futile because it somehow contributes and anticipates this final renewal. And so if God intends to renew creation rather than destroy it, then the work of the work done in God's name, whether that's art or science, justice or environmental stewardship, has eternal significance. So Christians aren't simply holding the Ford or holding the line until they can escape. They're participating in God's ongoing restorative project, anticipating and embodying the coming renewal.
And so I want to talk for a minute about. Highland has participated in this ongoing renewal for the past 100 years, nearly. And even if this is your first day here, even if God sent you that he woke up this morning, put you in your car and sent you to this place, and you don't know why, I want you to know that you're a part of this tremendous legacy of both the work of God in our city and the faithfulness of this community as it listens to God's voice and follows obediently. This is the most awesome part, I think. The beginning of our church.
It starts with a fire. You may not know this story, but you may. There was a gathering of believers that was meeting at the administration building for about 30 years of the Childer's Classical Institute. Now, the Children's Classical Institute is located where that Good Samaritan building is now. It used to be the Coca Cola place on north first in Sales.
And the Children's Classical Institute becomes ACC and then acu. Well, there was a fire in their administration building, and the Institute decided to move to some property on the north side of town up on a hill. And some of the people that were gathered there went with the institute, and some about 50 members chose to stay in this neighborhood. And they bought land on South 5th and Highland in 1929. And so, in effect, we planted the University Church of Christ.
Now, if you talk to Bradley Steele about this, he says they planted us, but we all know what's right.
And when they first started here, the first portion of the building was the basement was completed in 1930, and they just moved in and they started worshiping. And then the depression hit, and they couldn't finish the building for nine years later. So for several years, they just worshiped in a hole in the ground, not knowing what God had in store for them. And then in the 1950s, they built this part of the building that we're in right now. And here's the amazing part of that story.
When they began this project of building this space, there were about 500 members that were part of Highlands. They built this space to accommodate 1500. They were confident that God was going to do something important in this place. And. And when they built it, they built it with those old theater style swingy seats, the ones that used to, like, devour children.
Some of you remember those. Highland grew quickly.
Years later, the fellowship hall, the gym was built across the street. And then in the 1990s, we basically tore up Highland Avenue, used to go right across in front of our building. We tore up Highland Avenue and built this atrium in classrooms for more space. And then in more recent years, we've made some decisions about worship and what's good there and what God accepts as our leadership and who gets to have a voice at the table. We did that, by the way, during a global pandemic.
And I don't recommend doing any major decision during a global pandemic, but we navigated that pandemic as well. We met in parks, we met online, our huddles met on zoom. And we did the best we could. And if we had to do it over again, I'm not advocating that, but if we had to do it over again, I think we would do it differently than the way we did. We did the best we could.
Although I would do some changes. If you want to know about that, just ask me and I'll tell you. And you owe me lunch. If I tell you.
Some of you loved the way we handled it. Some of you less so. But I think it was because of your commitment and maturity that we have come through that crisis. We're on the other side, healthier. I think we're more focused and we're more intent on connecting to one another and sharing what Highland is about to our neighbors.
And during these hundred years, we have buried longtime leaders whom we dearly loved. And we've raised new leaders who feel too small for the shoes they now Occupy. For nearly 100 years, Highland has sought to partner with God in the restoration of all things. And through those years, Highland's had over 75 active ministries that serve church members and all ages. The community of Abilene.
Local ministries include the Highland Food Pantry that you heard about. Freedom and Grace Fellowship that meet on Wednesday nights on our satellite campuses. The Boys and Girls Club that occupy our gym every time school's in session to give those children a safe place to stay until their parents can get off work. A boy Scout troop on the north side, David Ray founded Young children's world nearly 55, 45 years ago. Nearly 50 years ago, before that was even an idea in most churches minds, Gretchen Etheridge and others started the Highland Counseling Center.
They started that before the pandemic when all of us knew were aware of how significant mental health would be in our city. We founded ministries that help others get GEDs to move on in their life and prison chaplaincy at the county and at French Roberts. And there's so many other ministries that Highland has done. I don't even have time to tell you about all the partners in Abilene Breakfast on Beach street, which you heard Robert talk about and King David's Kids, which is a special ministry for families that have disabled children to come and just have a break. Here in our space, Becky Almanza basically founded the Abilene Hunger Coalition that makes sure that children in Abilene are fed during the times when school is not in session.
And just now we can introduce. We have a new partnership with with Bar Church. Bar Church is an effort that began at Southern Hills. Now they're using our space at Freedom Fellowship on Sunday mornings so that they can continue to reach that neighborhood that begins next Sunday. A neighborhood Spanish speaking church called Verdas de Amor meets in the Grace building on Sunday mornings.
Reaching their neighborhood. The men of Nehemiah for a long time used the Grace Building. They stopped recently. We open our building free of charge to the International Rescue Committee and other community organizations just so they can have a space to meet. This building is being used all the time.
It's used seven days a week. I can't tell you how many weekends I've tried to come up here to polish a sermon and there's already ministry happening in this place. I would love to tell you about all the nonprofits that Highland has spun off and incubated and created, including Christian Homes and Family Services of Abilene. I went to their dinner last week. They have now helped 2,300 children find families that deeply wanted them.
Herald of Truth, a radio and television program that spread the gospel all over the world, was founded here at highland.dri. disability Resources Incorporated is a community that serves adult disabled people on the north side of town. Eternal Threads worked with Indian women to create jobs in India and sold their work here in the US Faithworks of Abilene works to help underemployed and unemployed folk find the skills they need to reach full employment. And even more, if I wanted to tell you the mission work that Highland has participated in, I will just tell you this. The nations Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Thailand, Brazil, Eastern Europe, Peru, China and many other countries, international mission work is still an integral part of Highland's DNA.
In the past nearly 100 years, 2029 is our 100 year anniversary. We've had 11 preachers, countless elders and ministers and ministry leaders.
But researchers would tell us that when a church hits about 100 years in its age, there's a crisis in that time period. There's a crisis because there's a kind of a calcification that happens in the church identity when it hits that time. And you have to be careful around that time. And the reason why is pretty simple. It's because this building has always been here in all of our memory.
And so that knowledge can make us complacent because the institution exists as an institution for so long, it can kind of feel like I don't really matter in this story because this thing was here before me and it'll exist after me. And so it can make you kind of lazy. The original founders vision of Abilene and Highland is fundamentally different than the one that we have now. Suzetta showed me this full page ad that Highland, the Highland elders took out in the Abilene Reporter News. It was during one of the times when Taylor county was considering becoming a wet county to allow liquor into the county as opposed to a dry county, which it was.
And Highland named all of these people in the community that was voting to become a wet county. It's kind of calling them out. And I don't, I don't know if we would do that anymore for a lot of reasons. There's. Well, first of all, there's no newspaper to take an ad out in.
Second of all, I don't know if the best ministry strategy is really just like naming and shaming a bunch of people that disagree with you. I don't know if our elders would even pay for that. I don't know.
And so we are not the same. Are we tied to the values that created this place? And can we stay connected? It is so easy to lose track of the narrative when you're 100 years old because budgets become strained to cover structural costs, maintenance, we spend effort to prop up old ideas that don't work anymore and don't fit. And so for the next three weeks, we're going to talk about the next three years.
But more than that, I just want to remind us who we are, because here's my. I'm going to play my cards. Here's my supposition. I think that the DNA that has given us 97 years is going to give us 97 more. The structure and the passion and the foundation that built this church is going to propel us to the future because we're a church that is confident to innovate and incubate ministries.
This is a church that's not afraid to say, well, let's just give it a shot. Let's try and see what happens. Whether it's an experiment on the Marjorie or a deep investment into this community, this church has never been afraid to. To try, which means it's not scared to fail. But more than that, it knows how to just to give people a chance to empower people to do the right thing.
Some of the best things, in fact, I'd argue most of the best things that have come out of Highland have come out of the pews and not the pulpit.
We're a church that is confident to innovate and incubate ministry number two. We are the church that stayed. When others have had the opportunity to leave this neighborhood, we chose to stay. That was true at the fire that, that started us, but it's also true later in our story later on. We had the opportunity, I think in the, the 70s and the 80s, there was land down in Wiley that we could have bought and we could have moved down there and built a shiny, beautiful, brand new building.
But our elders at that time chose to stay to serve this neighborhood because these were the people that needed us. Our commitment to serve those on the margins, and that's our neighborhood. By meeting their fundamental needs first continues. We're a church that's confident on how to innovate. We're a church that stayed to serve the people around us.
And we're a church that seeks God's horizon, not our own. We fully admit as a leadership that if it was up to us, we would not have gotten here. It's only because of our leadership's reliance on God to lead us that God has taken us to this place that we wouldn't have got to otherwise. We are a church that seeks God's horizon, not our own, because what we see can only go so far. What God sees goes forever.
And so we continue to invest in missions and ministry that bear fruit that we will never see, whether generationally or geographically. You will not see all the fruit when it grows up that Highland has planted. And that's the way it's supposed to be, because God's horizons are bigger than our own.
Which brings us to Matthew, chapter 13. And Matthew tells us these two parables. And these two parables are really just extended metaphors. And a metaphor just helps us jump toward sudden insight. That's all it's helped us to do, is realize the truth.
And the first is yeast that I want to talk about. And it's this yeast that just moves through the system. It works its way through. And in the first century, nobody understood how yeast worked. They just knew if you took a little bit of the old dough from the last batch and you put it into the new dough and then mixed it in and let it rest and set for a little bit, that new dough would rise and risen dough tastes better.
It bakes better. It's better. And in this story, Jesus wants to kind of emphasize that, because he says she puts in three times as much, yet still that little bit of yeast affects the whole batch. And then he talks about a mustard seed. These are the two the same things.
It's small yeast that you can't even see that affects the whole bread. A mustard seed is this tiny little seed. It's the smallest of seeds that grows into this great big bush. And then Jesus pushes the metaphor to say not just a bush, but a tree, because we all know the truth, that small seeds can have a big impact, Like a child that goes to Barnabas or Camp Roots or a summer internship in college, and God sets their heart on a path of greater purpose than they never thought they knew. Do you know how many of our youth group that go to Camp Barnabas and then go back the next year not with us but as counselors, because they love that place.
It sets their heart on fire. Or a college student that takes a mission trip to the global south. And it sets their. Their teen heart on a collision course with the gospel. And they are never the same.
Or a bag of groceries like we're going to do next week, that are given in love. A little seed can make a big difference in someone else's life. Or maybe just a lyric and a song that inspires hope and courage. It helps you get through the next week. Jesus says it's more than just fruitful.
Jesus says it creates an ecology. It creates a place where other things can live and flourish. He says it's a place where birds can safely make nests. Because the king. The kingdom is more than growth.
It's more than nickels and noses. It's about flourishing. It's a place where a bird can find a home and raise a family. It's a place where you can shelter in the storm.
Look, if the only thing we cared about, if the only thing that we cared about as a church was getting people baptized so that they could escape this earth and end up in heaven one day, if that's the only thing we cared about, then we would stop feeding the poor. We would stop welcoming the stranger. We would stop visiting the stranger. We would stop bringing hope to the hopeless because all we would care about is how many people got wet each year. But we care about those things because Jesus cared about those things.
And some of you in the pew are the birds. And you found a home here at Highland. This is an ecosystem where you can thrive. You're here while you're at school, right? You're just here for four years.
Or you're here while you're stationed at dais and you're young adult, knowing that eventually you're gonna get to leave Abilene. And I get that. I mean, when the best you can say about Abilene is, well, we have a Chewy's now, and I gotta tell you, that was me. We left Abilene. We weren't looking back.
Be careful, because many roads lead back to this place. Regardless of your status, whether you have a semester left or two years left or who knows how long left. Highland is a place for you, like, live in our branches, raise your family, find flourishing shelter through the storm. This is a place where you can thrive, where you can find yourself in relationship to a God who deeply cares about you. It's nearly a hundred years, and that's pretty incredible.
But this isn't the end of the story. And I got to tell you the truth. We're not an amazing place because we're an amazing people. You spend enough time here, you're going to know that we're not an amazing people. The reason that this is an amazing place is because we serve an amazing God.
And that makes all the difference in the world. Would you please stand for our benediction?
I am excited to tell you in the next few weeks about all the different ways that we're going to try to partner with God in the restoration of Highland, the restoration of Abilene, and the restoration of the world. So I want you to come back and hear more about what God is doing in our midst and figure out a way, maybe, where you can join, a place you can serve, where you can. Where you can spend your time and your talent and your treasure to be part of the restoration of all things. May you be filled with God's purpose this week. May you find joy and hope in every interaction you have with others.
May you go in peace.