For four weeks, we’re spending some time with an old well known Biblical story and character, Noah. We’ve known Noah a long time, some of us.  The story captures our imagination…and even Hollywood’s imagination.   This summer, “Evan Almighty” brought the Noah event into the 21^st century, and now that a number of you have seen the movie, I thought it would be good to read the book.

Last week, we learned that God calls Noah in a particular context, and particular time, and for a particular purpose…and this week we focus more on that purpose.   God has called Noah, to take on nothing less than a BIG, HOLY, AUDACIOUS GOAL.  Or, BHAG for short.

I first learned about BHAG’s in a business seminar I attended once, only then I learned that it stood for a Big HAIRY audacious goal.   For a business to succeed, a leader was told to lay before his or her company or organization a BHAG, a Big Hairy Audacious Goal for the company to tackle.

When Bishop Scott Jones came to Kansas, he pulled the BHAG out of the box.   Asking the Kansas West Conference to consider what BHAG that God was putting before us?  The BHAG was redefined as the Big, HOLY, Audacious, Goal.  And the BHAG in the Annual Conference has become the Capital Campaign in the Conference to revitalize congregations, establish new ones, expand Hispanic ministry and provide and keep up facilities for camps and campus ministry.

But when I think of BHAG, I think of Noah. Noah was the recipient of perhaps the greatest BHAG ever.  God called Noah.   And then told Noah what he’s to do.

    "Build a boat."  Turns out, it's to be a big boat.   A really, really big boat.  Listen to the dimensions of the ark:  300 cubits, by 50 cubits, by thirty cubits.   You can hear Bill Cosby’s Noah can’t you?   “Riiiiiiiight!  What’s a cubit?”

A cubit—tip of the finger to the elbow, standardized at around 45 centimeters or 18 inches.  A foot and a half.

At 18 inches per cubit, lessee….300 cubits is about 450 feet long.   50 cubits wide, makes it about 75 feet across.   Thirty cubits high…some 45 feet tall.   Three stories , a first second and third deck.  Sort of the first ancestor of modern day cruise ships.   One and a half times as long, twenty feet wider than a football field, and about as tall as, well…twice as tall as our ceiling here

That’s a big boat!  And I want you to consider something….as God tells Noah about building this big boat, this ark, the special cabinet to protect the future…it was not yet a boat.   It was only a plan. A spoken idea.   A goal.   Laid out before Noah.   Before the boat was a boat, it was a goal.   And if you think the boat was big….think how big the idea was for a 500 year old man with three sons and no power tools.  

This was one big goal. But at this point, that’s all it is.

 But it’s more than big. This idea of building an ark, an enormous floating life boat is not for Noah’s purposes.   This isn’t Noah’s dream home for retirement.   This isn’t to get listed in the Book of World Records.   The Goal is big, and it is Holy.  It is for God’s purposes.  God plans to destroy creation, and needs a way of starting over.   And God has a plan…and it involves a big boat, and an obedient man. The plan and the purpose is God’s.  And God discloses to Noah what God’s part in this will be. “For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you;”   You hear it?   This big goal has a divine purpose.

The goal is BIG.  And it is Holy.  And….it is audacious!   Here’s what makes it audacious!  Into this great storage shed Noah is to gather two of every kind, male and female—the birds, the animals, even the creepy things.   Find 'em, catch 'em and put 'em on board.   Keep them alive, God tells them, so there is some matter of gathering and storing food for this floating menagerie.  And Noah’s family, and these pairs of animals, will repopulate the entire earth after the flood.  

In other words, this goal isn’t just big, it’s audacious—that is, it’s bold, it’s daring, its adventurous and its remarkable.   Noah isn’t just a boat builder, he is being asked to sign on for the adventure.   Audacious as it might be.   100 years to build the ark.   40 days and nights of storm and rain.  150 days of flood covering the earth.  And still…it’s not over.   The responsibility of carrying on after the flood.   The Goal may be big, and it may be holy, but it is certainly audacious.   So much so that we might wonder, “How could God ask such a thing?”

And so there it is…God calls Noah in a particular context, and particular time, and for a particular purpose…and that purpose turns out to be nothing less than a BIG, HOLY, AUDACIOUS GOAL.

When God calls, you can bet that if we are paying attention, there is a B.H.A.G. in store.

Something so big it may overwhelm us.    Something so Holy that we have to put away our way of seeing and understanding and trust God’s way of seeing and understanding.  The purposes are God’s, and we might not always comprehend what God is about to do.

            And something so audacious that it may scare the bejeebers out of us!   Are we ready to be as bold as God?   As daring as God?   As adventurous as God?   Or, are we at least ready to follow God’s will and let God be as bold and as daring and as adventurous as God can be?

           What’s our BHAG, as a church?

            Remember, God called Noah in a particular context.   To hear God’s call for us, we should know and understand OUR context!

            First, Ford County and Dodge City in particular is a growing community!  Currently, our population is just over 30,000 people.  From 1990 to 2000, our population exploded by 25%.   Since 2000, just 6 ½ years ago, it has grown another 4%.  It is projected to grow at least another 3% in the next five years!  Seems reasonable that a church in a growing community can and should grow.   Is God calling First UMC to grow?  

Meanwhile, you already know that Dodge City is becoming a more diverse place.   In 2007 demographic updates, Dodge City is 51% Hispanic/Latino, 44% Anglo, and 5% other ethnic or racial groups.  The Hispanic/Latino group is expected to grow by 19.8% in the next five years.  (remember, compared to an overall growth of 3%)   Is God calling First UMC to be a church of the community and what does that mean for us?

Before you answer that in your mind, consider this.   As Dodge City becomes more Hispanic/Latino, we are also becoming younger and younger!  The average age of a person living in Dodge City is just more than 32 years of age, nearly five years younger than the national average in the United States as a whole!   We have more young families and children in Dodge City than the United States on average.  Now, would it surprise you to learn that Dodge City has 6% fewer single mothers than the national average, and 5% more married couples living in a household than across the US in general?  It’s true.   The implications:  Dodge City is a community made up of families with children living at home.   How might God be calling Dodge City First UMC in light of this particular context?  What might God be saying to us?

Let’s put the ethnic picture and the age picture together.   Here’s last year’s school demographic information from USD 443.   Of the total USD student enrollment of just over 5900 students last year, 66% were Hispanic/Latino.   Let’s break this down a bit more. Kindergarten through 6^th grade…the totals from the elementary centers and intermediate centers, came in at 74% Hispanic/Latino, with some grades edging 76% Hispanic.  That’s 3 out of 4 children who speak Spanish and identify ethnically as Latino.   

    Could it be that we are having trouble hearing God’s call because it is coming to us in Espanol?   These are our neighbors and friends.  Our livelihood depends upon our Latino friends and neighbors.   This week, I was getting blood drawn only to hear a man in the next curtain over talking about sending “them” all back to Mexico.  By “them” I assume he meant any brown skinned person with an Hispanic surname.   If that happened, think about it.   Our schools would be 1/3 to ¼ their current enrollment, receiving 1/3 to ¼ of the available state tax funds.   Our retail would almost immediately close up shops all over the city, and our two largest employers would likely be forced into bankruptcy.  This is our context, or more importantly our community.   In this context, in this day, what does God want us to do?  And are we willing to listen and obey?

Incidentally, of the 5900 students in the district, nearly 4300 of them qualify for free or reduced lunches.   That’s 72% of our school children in this district qualify for free or reduced lunches.   Can you hear God?  

Let me move to a few other factors in our community context.   People in Dodge City are largely not attending worship—less than a third of the community attend worship on any given Sunday.  Yet, as a whole, people in Dodge City identify faith as very important to them.   Among Hispanic/Latino people, that number is extremely high.  And people in Dodge City prefer “Historic Christian groups,” and that bodes well for the UMC.  Hispanics in general are 18% protestant, and believe that the church has something to offer in helping their children and helping them assimilate into American culture.  By the way, 84% of Latino/Hispanic people say this is very important to them, that is, to blend in.

That’s a start as we begin to think about the particularity of our place and time.   Our context.   God’s call for Noah came in a particular context, and so does ours.   And God’s plan in that particular context was a BHAG.  A BIG, HOLY, AUDACIOUS, GOAL.

Is God speaking to us?   What is God saying?    Chances are, if what we hear is a tweak here and there to try to recapture some past vitality, it in all probability is not God speaking.   But if it’s something that big, so big it overwhelms us, and so Holy that it accomplishes God’s divine purposes, and so Audacious that it scares and excites us at the same time.   Well then…we just might have a  BHAG on our hands.  

But here is the good news…if we are discerning enough to hear, and faithful enough to respond, God is big enough to provide.  If we can hear, and obey, God will provide…all that is needed to reach the goal.   God does not and will not call us to fail.   Noah was 500 when God came to him with a 100 year construction project.   God provided Noah with the lifespan to complete it.   God came to Noah with an enormous plan, and provided Noah with the skills, resources and energy to complete it.   If we can hear, and should we obey, God will provide.   That’s how a BHAG works.

            Next week, the rains come down and the floods come up.  And the creation is destroyed.