#89 The Most Beautiful Word...... Welcome! (10/08/03)

By Robert H. Schuller

Question: what's the most beautiful word in any language? Well this morning I'd be tempted to say thank you because I am enjoying such an ultimate success after forty-eight years in this beautiful building. And I'm so impressed with the line you've heard often;

"Success has a thousand fathers. Failure is an orphan."

Yes, if you're in business, it's the thousands of customers that are responsible for your success, and your treatment of them. In this case, in this ministry, it's the thousands of people who have encouraged me and I want to thank you today. First the people who for years and years tried to impress upon me that we needed a visitors center. The past two years were enormously challenging. And a lot of the pledges that we expected were unable to be paid, and so fortunately, we have a good bank and he's helped us through. And I'll raise the rest of the money in the years to come. It's done. We did not submit to mediocrity. And we're very proud of Richard Meier, I think, he's fabulous.

What's the most beautiful word though is welcome. I remember when we went to the Olympics in nineteen eighty-eight. Mrs. Schuller and I had friends in high level there and they invited us to come so we came and we enjoyed the wonderful seats. And when we landed at the airport, there was the word welcome, and downtown,welcome, and in the amphitheater, downtown, it was sensational, in all the different languages. But predominately in English, the word welcome, welcome, welcome. And it strikes me because what I think we were trying to do when we started this church 48 years ago, was to build a church that really said welcome, not just to those who share your faith. But welcome to the community; welcome to those of other faiths, welcome to those who don't have any faith, welcome, open. our hearts are open to you. And I asked Richard Meier to please take the front door of the new building and put in on four or eight tracks so that all the doors could slide open. It says welcome. I said, I want the front of that building, not to be like the wave a hand to somebody in the courtyard. But to be more like this, saying come in, welcome.

At that first service we had in the drive in theater, March 27, 1955, you'll see a picture was taken just before we went to the drive-in theater. You will see it in life size, the fifty-three Chevrolet, the homemade trailer with the tiny little organ on it, and the good looking guy, twenty-eight years old, and his handsome wife standing smiling because our neighbors said, if you're starting a new church, we'd better catch a picture of it and they did and it's life size in that building.

But I didn't know anybody. And only a few days before, at Bell Isles Restaurant, which used to be here at Chapman Avenue, I went in there and met a couple of guys and the one that I sat next to was Theo Weaver, and I said, what do you do. He said, I work for the telephone company. Oh. He said, what to you do? I said, I'm here to start a church. He said, Oh. I said, I need somebody to hand out bulletins at the people who come, and to take an offering. Could you do it? He said, sure. His buddy's sitting there. He said, I'll help him too.

Well Theo Weaver, I said, just smile them in and smile them out. And boy he did. Theo Weaver worked every Sunday until he passed away a few years ago. But his wife worked with him every day. So, because no one here has been a part of this church longer, than the Weaver family, his widow will be one of those that I've chosen to help cut the ribbon this morning. Now isn't that appropriate?

And then we bought ten acres of land and in the very corner we put the tower of hope. And your firm Mr. Meier has insisted that that building is in the apex, that is correct, I do believe. And your wonderful friend, Michael Palladino, thinks that I had this master plan. I didn't but God did. But that ten acres was all we thought we would ever be able to buy. And it cost us sixty-six thousand dollars and we managed to scrape, hours before the escrow closed and we would have lost the deal, we managed to buy it for sixty-six thousand dollars. But during that time there was a split in the congregation because they said, Schuller, you don't need ten acres. You should only buy two. And how are you going to pay off the debt? I had no idea. So we lost some good members. The escrow closed. And now we had a monthly payment of four hundred dollars, which was huge 46 years ago. Huge. But the Sunday after that, there was a hundred-dollar check in the offering plate, holy cow! A hundred dollars. Didn't know the name. It was there the next week, the next week, four weeks in a row. Ho Ho! It matched our monthly mortgage payment. It went on month after month. And I thought if that goes on a few years that will sure help. It went on for over fifteen years and it increased.

So that one donor that came, paid for those ten acres. The name is Vern Dragt. Vern Dragt worked as a plasterer. And then he got polio and he spent months in an iron lung. And his wife said I got to get a job to feed my kids. Welfare will take care of us, but they say I've got to sell the piano and my car. I can't do that. So she got a job selling Tupperware, would rise in the years to come to national and world vice president. But when she took her first little income, it was about eighty dollars, the first week. She took eight dollars off the top and dropped it in the offering plate. She did that every week, ten dollars off the top and they said we'll live on the balance. They became very successful.

And so their tithe paid off the first ten acres. Then when we had the dream of the tower, which is going to cost us one million, I looked for a gift that would at least pay for the chapel. We could save a lot of money if we didn't put the chapel on top of the tower. And it alone would save a hundred thousand out of the million dollars. But I went to Vern Dragt, and they said, we'll pay the chapel. And they paid that million dollars and that's why there's a beautiful chapel at the top of the tower.

Then when we came to the Family Life Center, we needed a gymnasium. And they said, what will it cost? It cost a million. They gave the chapel, I mean the gymnasium. They have been faithful for over 40. No one family has done more for us than they've done. And because of that I felt they should be represented at the ribbon cutting. Well, Vern can't do it. The polio is leaving its mark on him again. He might be there in a wheelchair, hopefully, but his family has been faithful. And today, we've asked his great.. Wow, it made me cry, an inspired tear but at least his great grandson will be holding the scissors because Vern, I don't think can do that.

Well, this church's ministry is in one word, and say welcome to people, the hurting, the lonely, the sick, the sinful, those under trial. Yes, in the new building, very appropriately you will find a sign in stainless steel lettering, it says, "tough times never last, but tough people do." And boy Vern, you're at the top of that list. Now your little four-year-old grandson will be cutting ribbon, representing the future of this ministry, which is going to be fantastic.

Welcome, that's the most beautiful word. It's what Christianity is. It's the gospel of grace. It's God saying welcome. He doesn't say welcome if, welcome when, welcome but, He just says, welcome. And that's why the slogan of this church is so appropriate. The slogan is God loves you and so do I. And we all say welcome. Wow.

And I was in Florida, and I was going to meet a member who had sent contributions from time to time, didn't really know her story. Her name was Ruby Rinker. And I found out that when she was a very young girl, living in Southern California, and going through her own problems, she went to the drive in theater to listen to this young minister preach, and she shared his faith that he was sharing, if you've got the faith, God's got the power, nothing's impossible. If you can dream it you can do it. Well, a schoolteacher, but she had her problems, marriage. Then she found herself moving to the east coast. And with the passing of a few decades, I never knew her.

She was walking one night in Palm Beach, Florida, on the sidewalk. And some man came along and said, may I walk with you. It could scare you but his voice sounded safe. And she couldn't say no, and he would have walked with her anyway. And at the end of the walk, and she could make an exit, she did. And he said thank you for walking with me. You know I've been married for a long time to my one and only wife and we always took a walk and she died. I sure miss her. So thank you for walking with me. He said, could we walk again tomorrow night? And she said yes. And they would become a very loving partnership. And I would get to know him so well with such affection that when he was dying I flew to Florida, and I did what I've never done before. I got on my knees and in my tears I prayed for him as his soul made it's exit from time to eternity. His name was Rinker. She carries the name.

But I'll tell you, if you go through Palm Beach, Florida, and you visit the Universities and the State Colleges, and the hospitals, and the churches, you will see the name Rinker carved in stone in those buildings all over the state. He started his life milking cows like I did. He became very successful and he was a Christian Capitalist, earned all you can, invest all you can, and then give all you can. And now she's telling me this story in Florida.

And she says, Doctor Schuller, you're going to build a new center, a visitor's center? Yeah. And then she told me about how we helped her, years before, over 40 years before, in the drive in theater. She said I want to write out the first check. And she wrote out a check at the table for one million dollars. And so I'm inviting Ruby Rinker to stand with us and help cut the ribbon because she launched the project with the first gift. And I took it.

You say, of course. I'm older and wiser now. I've now learned that if you accept the first gifts, you're committed. You have to deliver. So I want to thank all of you. I want you to know that God is speaking to you this morning in ways I don't know. But He's saying welcome. If you're not a believer, if you're not living an exciting life, Jesus said "I've come that they might have life and have it abundantly" and that's the last Bible verse that we put on the end of the tour on the third floor.

Now we say, you dream your impossible dream. I've done it with a dream God gave me. It was always impossible. But you came and made the impossible, possible. And when you take the dream God gives you, you're going to find friends you never knew you had. Begin by talking to God, praying to God, and taking Him into your life. Amen.