This is not an easy task; in fact, the first casting of this vision began as early as 1990, which means we are in about our 15th year of trying to bring this to fruition. Perhaps the first lesson that one learns about vision is that visions that are easily cast are quickly forgotten, and visions that are going to have any lasting impact upon church or community must be hammered out with patience on the anvil of time. That way, whatever God is doing and seeks to do is fully absorbed into the mind and the spirit of the congregation God has called to this great work.

Fifteen years later, we are just reaching the point where we are preparing to begin the construction of a new church. Still, by no means do I discount or undervalue this interim time. What we’ve been doing in these fifteen years has not been about the business of preparing physically to build; we have been preparing spiritually to realize God’s vision for us as a community of faith. It’s what we have called at Metropolitan, “building the church from the inside out.”

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Preaching: Tell me about the relocation of the church.

Hicks: We are relocating the primary facility of the church to a 34-acre campus in Largo, Maryland. In actuality, we are only moving 10 or 12 miles from where I sit right now, so the physical distance is not great. The distance physically is minor but the distance spiritually and emotionally is major.

Preaching: For many people, that is sacred space you are leaving.

Hicks: Absolutely. As a part of our strategy, we’ve maintained a portion of the property that the church currently owns so that we will at all times still be able to come back to this street and feel as though there is some connection with our history. In addition to that we have an elementary school in the northeastern section of town and we will retain that school. So in effect we are maintaining Metropolitan Church in multiple locations, which is consistent with the trend of multi-site ministries that is gaining in popularity among churches today.

Preaching: As you’ve spent 15 years casting that vision — and in more recent years moving the church toward a specific relocation — are there some strategies you’ve used in your preaching to help the church be positioned for change?

Hicks: The whole notion of the book is to find a way to express vision. How can you function within the parameters of scripture to show that which God has said in days past is still relevant in this day and for this generation? And so I took something that was rather archaic — the des-cription of the tabernacle that you’ll find in Exodus and Leviticus and other parts of the Bible. As you know the scripture speaks in very clear detail about what the Tabernacle should look like, how it should be designed, what cloth and materials would be used, what instruments should be used in the Tabernacle. In many ways, the Tabernacle that Moses and the children of Israel built in the wilderness bears the same messages about the tabernacle that we are seeking to build today.