That is the title of our Capital Campaign to raise a lot of money for our new land and building. Most of you have seen the first conceptual drawings. If you haven’t, the material is here at the church, or you can go online to look at the long-term master plan for the land, the floor plan of our first phase, and an artist’s rendering of our first building. Keep in mind that these are works in progress; how our final building actually looks will be determined in large part by how much money we raise in this campaign. This is the biggest challenge we have faced as a church since we launched this ministry about eight years ago.

We chose to call this campaign Deep Roots because the more we thought about what our purpose is, nothing captured our purpose and intent as well as this phrase. Let me explain. The first Sunday we worshipped, February 7, 1998, I talked about having a church where the gospel was not thought of as being only how one was saved, but how one grew as well. Most of my life, for some reason (and this seems to be the ascendant view of the gospel in evangelical circles right now), I saw the gospel as the way you become a Christian, but then you move on to other things to grow more into the image of Christ. You read the Bible, pray, go to church, witness, and study, study, study. You learn theology and fine points of charts and schemes and fill your head with Bible facts. Of course, all of that is good and is an aid in how one grows in Christ, but it is putting the cart before the horse.

When Jesus was ministering in his day, the Pharisees did all those things mentioned above—they were the evangelicals of the Judean world. They were fastidious about all the trappings of religion, legalistic in their observance of days and religious discipline, and yet for all that, Jesus told them that they had missed the whole point. Quite frankly, they were the meanest people in the world and were the target of Jesus’ harshest invectives. What had happened? They had missed the gospel. Yes, they knew theology. Yes, they gave money. Yes, they were disciplined in their giving of money and time to the trappings of religious things and yet, Jesus said that they were like a cup that was clean on the outside, but filthy inside. Religion without the gospel will always make people either proud and judgmental, or it will leave people in despair.

Here is the reason. We are all born religious because we are made in God’s image. The Fall didn’t take away a “God hauntedness” in our souls. Because of this, we know that we owe God—we owe him our lives and our worship. The problem is that we all think the way to get back into God’s favor is to do something. We think intuitively that because we don’t measure up, that if will just be good and do good—God will love us. Now if you believe that, it will make

you totally performance-driven. If you are using your religious devotion to get God’s favor, it won’t be long before you will be comparing yourself to others, and the

roots of a proud and judgmental spirit will sprout. Some, however, who are more honest will see that their best efforts to get God’s love will never be enough, and they are perpetually dejected and sad. That is why most of us don’t like being around religious people. It is also why lost people don’t like to be around religious people.

Our vision in planting this church was to put deep roots in the gospel and to teach that the gospel is not only how you are saved, but the way you grow in grace is to continually sink deeper roots in the gospel. Here is the reason the gospel is how we grow: it tells us that we are worse than we thought, and if we ever forget that message, we will never bask in the wonders of grace—we will neither be amazed nor humbled in God’s presence. Why? We can point to our good works and devotion. But when we do that, we will be proud and condemning of others who are not as spiritually “together” as we are. The gospel also reminds us that we are loved more than we ever dreamed possible. How God must love me, to destroy his son, rather than destroy me.

A church rooted deeply in the gospel will be a church full of conviction that there is only one way to know God, but it will also be a church that is so humbled by God’s love for them that it will not look down pious noses at anyone who walks in their doors. It will be amazingly accepting of people whose morality, theology, and practices are bad, because the gospel reminds us that God accepted us when we were less than stellar candidates for redemption.

That kind of gospel hope will foster a deep love for the community you live in. Our goal is not to use the town we live in to get members, but to love the town! Our goal is to sink deep roots in this town and share our resources with Collierville so that we will have a great place to live. Jesus’ aim in salvation was nothing less than to see all things renewed and restored. That is the message of Easter! Jesus, in his resurrected body, is the first-fruits of what we will one day be! Jesus’ goal is nothing less than a new heaven and new earth. What that means, practically speaking, is that we plant deep roots in this place so that we can work for the peace and the total human flourishing of the city. Pray for St. Patrick to plant deep roots in the gospel. Pray for St. Patrick to plant deep roots in Collierville, and pray that God would give us sacrificial hearts to make a deep financial commitment to see this vision realized and this building built. Pray that we will have a vision to see that we are a part of something that will be here for our children’s children. That is what this whole thing is about.