“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” - 1 John 4:7–10
Forty-one years. One great adventure: to build the greatest caring network the world has ever seen. And what a journey it has been—side by side with lifelong friends who dared to be knights in shining armor, charging together into the Frey showing a love so that people could not resist.
And yes—it has been a party. A holy, joy-filled celebration of life, even in the valley of the shadow of death. We loved those who were dying and became their friends to the very end. We stood with families wrapped in grief, and we stood fast in the joy of living for Jesus Christ.
We were broken when Marcy Marquez, a favorite Sunday School teacher, was taken so young. When Jane Bishop, our very first secretary, passed. We wept when pastors and friends—Wayne Myers, Bill Holmes, Dr. Glen Warner, pastors Erskine Austin and David Gerszeyne—went home to the Lord. Each loss reminded us: the deeper the love, the greater the ache. And still, together, we pressed on. Even when setbacks came—like losing our property during the banking crisis—we leaned on God and one another.
And oh, the victories! One thousand and three in our first year, more than two thousand the next. Forty new believers at Christmas and Easter. Homeless men and women healed. AA groups finding sobriety and new life. The first Peacemakers Conference—where gang members, judges, pastors, educators, police officers, and prisoners sat together for three days to talk about God’s way out.
We celebrated every marriage and remarriage. Every child who grew into a scientist, a teacher, a nurse, a doctor, a pastor. We watched salt-of-the-earth kids grow up to carry God’s plan for the next generation.
Our church reached far beyond these walls: a school in Guatemala City, a campus on the edge of the Tegucigalpa city dump, schools for the poorest of the poor in Kenya. Tent City 4, Bridge Ministries, Echo Glen Christmas parties, Mercy Corps, World Vision, World Concern And of course the famous Santa Claus conspiracy, and the powerful family to family ministry touching countless lives. We launched the Health Resource Center, Excel Marketplace Ministries, the Family Center, and Washington Seminary. Each becoming pacesetters of creative innovation and state impacting ministries.
And still the victories poured in. Six thousand gathered for Christmas at Meydenbauer Center. Twenty-two Easter services in one week. Youth ministry, the Disciples program, Positive Christian Singles. The birth of the Coptic congregation, Spanish congregation, Korean, Brazilian, Native American, Pacific Islander, Indian, African American, Ukrainian, Armenian—and quarterly “mix services” where nations and cultures worshiped Christ as one. Thousands still worship today in those congregations, healthy bodies of Jesus Christ. And of course, thousands of lives coming to Jesus Christ each launching world changing dreams. 89 % of our church not being transfer growth but starting a new beginning right here as we were proudly a church for unchurched people.
We even had our trivial joys: invitations to the White House from both President Obama and President Trump—not for me, but in recognition of what you accomplished here at Washington Cathedral. Because together, we dared to try to build the greatest caring network the world has ever seen.
Yes, it’s been better than good, hasn't it?
Quite a party all the way through. Building closer friendships than any of us ever imagined.
And this Sunday, we will celebrate. Not only 41 years of Washington Cathedral, but 51 years of ordained ministry for Jackie and me. Every life touched. Every life changed. Every life given to Jesus Christ.
Won’t you join us this historic Sunday at 10:30 a.m.? It won’t be a complete party without you.
Your friend for the rest of my life,
Pastor Tim White