Washington
From the Series—Spiritual Heritage
July 15, 2004This evotional concludes the Spiritual Heritage series.
Identity
I love pastoring an eight-year-old church and fathering an eight-year-old son because I see such similarities. Children go through developmental stages. They are always growing and changing physically. But their identity is evolving as well. I love the way Michael Lewis says it. “Children enjoy one big advantage over adults: they haven’t decided yet who they are. They haven’t sunk a lot of psychological capital into a particular self.” Children are still dreaming about what they’ll do when they grow up.
In the same sense, a church goes through developmental stages. We’re just like an eight-year-old. I know who we were and who we are, but I’m not sure who we will become. I hope and pray that I’m still pastoring NCC twenty-five years from now, but I have no idea what we’ll be like twenty-five years from now. Our identity will be as different twenty-five years from now as my eight-year-old son.
All of that is to say this: I’m not sure who we are yet. I think this series on Spiritual Heritage is about helping us see where we fit. It is about helping us put ourselves in context.
Namesake
Let me switch gears about talk about the identity of our city.
Dating all the way back to 1663, the site of the U.S. Capitol used to be referred to as “Rome” based on a prophecy by Francis Pope who owned the property. He prophesied more than a hundred years before we declared Independence that a parliament house would be built on the hill he owned and it would be an even greater world capital than Rome.
Over the years, Washington has been known by different names. The area known as Foggy Bottom used to be called Hamburg and Funkstown. When it was decided that this area would become the nation’s capital, Pierre L’Enfant referred to it as the Capital City. Thomas Jefferson called it the Federal city. Eventually it was named Washington, DC honoring George Washington. And if you want to understand the identity of this city I think you have to appreciate the identity of its namesake.
Washington
Chief Justice John Marshall said Washington was “a firm believer in the Christian religion.” Elias Boudinot, who served as President of Congress during the Revolution, said, “The General was a Christian.” Reverend Devereaux Jarratt, a Virginia Minister, said that Washington was “a professor of Christianity.”
Our first President was motivated by his faith. When Washington was a twenty-something he wrote a little book titled Daily Sacrifice. It consisted of prayers written out longhand. The first entry said, “Let my heart, therefore, gracious God, be so affected with the glory and majesty of Thine Honor that I may not do mine own works, but wait on Thee, and discharge those weighty duties which Thou requirest of me.”
Washington ’s prayer was prophetic—decades later his “weighty duties” would include leading a fledging republic known as the United States of America.
Washington wrote out another prayer acknowledging his desire to become more like Christ. “Wash away my sin in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by the Holy Spirit, daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ.”
Many years later, when George Washington resigned as Commander-in-Chief, he prayed the following prayer for the governors of the states.
“I now make it my earnest prayer that God would have you and the State over which you preside in His holy protection—that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government—to entertain a brotherly affection and a love for one another—and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and [peaceful] temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.”
George Washington was essentially saying that national happiness would be proportionate to Christlikeness.
Providence
When Washington was twenty-three years old he served as a Colonel under General Edward Braddock. He fought in the battle of Monongahela in July of 1755 and the fighting was fierce. It is documented both by his personal journals and first-hand testimony that George Washington actually had two horses shot out from under him and four musket balls passed through his coat. In a letter to his brother, Washington wrote, “Death was leveling my companions on every side of me, but by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected.”
Fifteen years after this battle, Washington was exploring wilderness territory in the Western Reserve and a band of Indians came up to them with an interpreter. The leader was an old Indian chief who had fought against Washington in the Battle of Monongahala. This exchange was witnessed by those who traveled with Washington and recorded in George Bancroft’s History of the United States published in 1838. Through an interpreter the Indian Chief said, “I am the chief and ruler over my tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes and to the far blue mountains. I have traveled a long and weary path, that I might see the young warrior of the great battle.”
How did he remember Washington? Washington was 6’2” which was pretty remarkable two hundred years ago. The average soldier fighting in the Revolutionary War was 5’1” tall. So Washington was head and shoulders taller than most. That made his very noticeable and a pretty good target for the enemy.
The Indian Chief said, “It was on the day when the white man’s blood mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first beheld this chief [Washington]. I called to my young men and said, ‘Mark yon tall and daring warrior? He is not of the red-coat tribe—he hath an Indian’s wisdom, and his warriors fight as we do—himself alone is exposed. Quick let your aim be certain, and he dies.’ Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss. Twas all in vain; a power mightier far than we shielded him from harm. He cannot die in battle. I am old, and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of shades, but ere I go, there is something that bids me speak in the voice of prophecy: Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man, and guides his destinies—he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire.”
This Indian chief prophesied those words over George Washington before the Declaration of Independence was written or the Revolutionary War was fought.
On April 30, 1789, George Washington was inaugurated in New York. He requested that a Bible be brought. He placed his right hand on the open book and took the oath of office. Then he delivered his first inaugural address. What George Washington says in that address is more than just “nice sentiments.” He’s speaking out of his personal experience when he said, “It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act, my fervent supplication to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have distinguished by some token of providential agency.”
There are so many references to providence in that inaugural address that you lose count. George Washington had a sense of destiny. And I believe that sense of destiny was the by-product of his prayer life. When he left home to join the military his mother said, “Remember that God only is our sure trust. To Him I commend you. My son, neglect not the duty of secret prayer.”
Is it any accident that we have so many paintings of Washington in the posture of prayer? Is it possible that the instances of providence in the life of George Washington are the result of prayer?
A Man Called Peter
One of my heroes is Peter Marshall. He pastored New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in the 1940’s and served as Chaplain to the United States Senate. During the 1940’s, New York Avenue was one of the largest and most influential churches in the nation. It was commonly referred to as “the Church of Presidents.” Eight presidents have worshipped there including Abraham Lincoln. It was one of the first mega churches in America—more than a thousand people attended services in the 1940’s which was a rarity then. They were also one of the first churches in American to experiment with multiple services.
At one point during his pastorate, Peter Marshall experienced an extended period of illness that kept him out of the pulpit for many weeks. He was concerned that it would have a negative effect and surprised that it didn’t. A friend asked Peter Marshall what he learned during his time on the sidelines. Without any hesitation he said, “Do you really want to know? I learned that the Kingdom of God goes on without Peter Marshall.”
I love the humility of that statement. He was acknowledging that the Kingdom of God is a lot bigger than one person or one church. A few years ago the Lord really convicted me of pride—I felt like I was subconsciously looking down on other churches. I felt like we were doing church the way it should be done. And I went through a process of God really humbling me. He’s good at that! He helped me see that I can be excited about what God is doing at NCC and excited about what God is doing at other churches in this city. He helped me see that we need lots of different kinds of churches because there are lots of different kinds of people.
The truth is: there is only one Church in this city with lots of congregations. We each play a different role, but we’re all on the same team.
I believe we play a unique role in this city. It’s evidenced by our unique demographic. Many churches are missing a generation—the generation we’re reaching. NCC is 85% 35-and-under and 80% single. That is the inverse of most churches. God has strategically positioned us in the middle of the marketplace to reach emerging generations.
Mobile Churches
I think NCC is part of something new. Isaiah 43 says, “Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. Behold I am doing a new thing.”
Back when we first had the vision to go multi-site—one church meeting in multiple locations—there were only a handful of churches doing it. There are now more than a thousand multi-site congregations across the country! I think we’re part of a new move of God. But this city also has a rich history of “mobile” churches.
Few Americans know that the Capitol itself doubled as a church building on weekends when it was first built. Congress approved its use for church services on December 4, 1800. You can see the original proclamation in the Congressional Record. Several Presidents attended services at the Capitol including John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (who was a Deist).
The First Presbyterian Church of Washington was formed in the 1790s by a group of Scottish stonemasons who were involved in the construction of the White House. There inaugural services were held in a carpenter’s shed on the White House lawn.
The Church of the Covenant was formed in 1883 and met in the home of Supreme Court Justice William Strong.
And New York Avenue Presbyterian got its start as a prayer meeting in the Treasury Building.
So National Community Church, meeting in the movie theaters @ Union Station and Ballston Common Mall, is in good keeping! George MacLeod said, “The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.”
Rendezvous
Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation has a rendezvous with destiny.” So here we are—a generation with a rendezvous with destiny. What do we do about it?
II Chronicles 7:14 . “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and see my face and turn from the wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.”
What would happen if hundreds of NCCers starting interceding for DC? There is only one way to find out.
For several months now I’ve sense a desire to do forty days of prayer and fasting. In keeping with II Chronicles 7:14, that season of prayer began for me at 7:14 AM on 7/14/04. There is nothing “special” or “spiritual” about the time or day. And I don’t want to legislate the time or place. The Holy Spirit can lead you. I just sense a call to “stand in the gap” and pray.
I love prayer walks and prayer pilgrimages because they are a way of establishing a “spiritual perimeter” around a geographic location. I still remember doing a prayer walk around Capitol Hill in 1996 asking God to give us the Hill. It took several hours and I had blisters on my feet by the time I was done, but it was one small step/one giant leap for NCC. We staked claim to the territory. I’ve always loved the promise in Joshua 1:3, “I will give you everyplace you set your foot.”
I believe the blessing of God on NCC can be traced back to prayer walks. We did countless prayer walks around 201 F Street, NE—the future site of our coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. We’ve done countless prayer walks around Union Station. I remember doing a prayer walk around Ballston Common Mall before we decided to launch our second location there. And then we did a prayer pilgrimage to Ballston before we launched on 09.21.03.
DC is a great place to do prayer walks and prayer pilgrimages. We can pray at strategic places around the city. I often pray more effectively when I pray “on location.” I’d love to see prayer meetings at strategic locations all over the city for the next forty days. For what it’s worth, a literal translation of I Timothy 2:8 says, “I want men to pray in every place!”
On November 22nd, 1800, President John Adams delivered the first Presidential speech ever given in the Capitol. It was actually the first joint-session of Congress assembled in the original Senate Chamber. He prayed for Washington, DC with these words. “May this territory [Washington , DC] be the residence of virtue and happiness! In this city, may that piety and virtue, that wisdom and magnanimity, that constancy and self-government which adorned the great character whose name it bears, be forever held in veneration! Here and throughout our country, may simple manners, pure morals, and true religion flourish forever.”
May God continue to answer that prayer for Washington, DC two hundred years ex post facto.