Where Gladness & Hunger Meet

At this year’s Annual Meeting in January, the wardens and I proposed that we embark on a year of vocational discernment together as a church community. This was rooted in the results of last year’s CAT (Congregation Assessment Tool) survey that told us it was time to focus on our mission as a congregation, on what we are doing together.   At the Annual Meeting in my Rector’s Report, I proposed we spend:

“(a) year of seeking to more fully understand and inhabit our parish’s calling from God.  I propose that we spend some intentional time this year where we sit together and pray together and talk together and try and listen to what God might be saying to us together as a parish community.     I will be working with the vestry in the coming months to create opportunities to do this sort of discernment work together guided by the Holy Spirit. 

This isn’t “strategic planning.”  This isn’t “long range visioning.”  This isn’t about crafting a new mission statement and it isn’t necessarily even about a new initiative (though it may result in one).  Because discernment of this sort isn’t entirely about us - it is first of all about God.   It is about asking where God might be calling us.  It is about listening to what God might be saying to us through the needs and circumstances of the world around us and the deep desires and the good spirit implanted in our hearts and in our midst.   We are to listen.   And then we are to act - courageously and generously - on what we hear together.   To walk in the direction in which we are being led.   To be on the way together.   To journey with one another and with Jesus into our shared future.” 

With the input and leadership of the vestry, we embarked on three “discernment retreats” this Spring - one for the vestry, two more open to the wider Saint Elisabeth’s congregation.  We began the day-long retreats with the Ignatian Examen - practicing noticing God’s presence in our daily lives and our response to that presence.  Then we moved into the meat of the retreat work itself.  In an environment of prayer and with intentionally open hearts and minds, we engaged with the question of what God might be calling us to do together as a parish.   We utilized materials and exercises from the College for Congregational Development (CCD) - in which I have been trained - to undertake this work together.  We were seeking to understand where God is already at work in the world around us and in our parish and where we might join in that work - where God is inviting us or calling us to do that.  (The word “vocation” comes from the Latin vocare meaning “to call” or “to summon”)

We took a look at where we find God present in our parish and in the world, where the world and our parish are crying out for God - where we sense God’s presence and absence.   We made big lists of all of these things.   And then the retreat participants were invited to highlight what they thought were the most important or vital items on these lists, and to identify common themes and threads - to narrow down what was a huge list of things.  These results represented the “need” side of God’s calling, the “world’s deep hunger.”

The CCD model for discernment is inspired by the following quote by Presbyterian minister, author and theologian Frederick Buechner:

“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

So now with our somewhat pared down lists of areas of potential “need” from the three retreats, we held an all parish meeting to get more deeply at the other side of the equation: our deep gladness, our sense of call and commitment as individuals and as a community.

At the parish meeting in April, I hung sheets of newsprint on the walls of the Guild Room with the various themes and items that had emerged from the retreats…the full list is included at the end of this article if you’re interested.   I then gave each participant five votes (represented by star stickers) to go put on the newsprint.   We removed the sheets of newsprint that didn’t get any votes further paring down the options.   Then I invited each participant to go and stand by the one sheet of newsprint that they felt most strongly about and that they were committed to working on in some way, personally.  We did this exercise a couple of times, discussing the results and why people stood where they did until we had five “clumps” of folks standing around five sheets of newsprint.  (Note: The word “clump” is not found in the CCD materials…)

At the end of the day, we had reached consensus around five areas to which we feel most strongly called by God right now as a congregation.   They are:

Feeding Our Neighbors  Encompassing St. Elisabeth’s existing commitments to Family Promise and the Soup Kitchen and extending our commitments to include collecting food on a regular basis for a local food pantry and volunteering to assist in the work of the food pantry. 

Welcoming and Including Families and Children Supporting our families and children through existing programs (Sunday School, potlucks…) and new initiatives (parents groups, social events, additional educational opportunities) and welcoming and including new families into the life of our parish as well.

Living with Love Articulating shared norms and precepts of our common life that foster healthy community and relationships. (Like the recently approved vestry covenant) “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…” -John 13:34-35

Linking Community and Worship  Working with the Rector to increase congregational participation in worship, particularly among kids.

Creating a Welcoming Physical Space  Continuing to work to maintain and improve a beautiful and accessible physical environment (building and grounds) that supports our mission and the growth of our church families.

I am so grateful for the open hearted and thoughtful participation of so many of you in this discernment process.   Now it is time to begin to join God in this work that we have been invited to share in.   To that end: I challenge every member of the St. Elisabeth’s community to commit to supporting at least one of the initiatives above in some way.   In the next couple of months, small groups will begin to assemble to discuss how to engage with these areas of mission.  Please reach out to me or Caryl in the office if you would like to be a part of one of these groups.   If you don’t have time to come to meetings or serve on a team like this - I totally understand!  But you can support these ministries in other ways: by being willing to help with one time volunteer opportunities that might spin out of these areas (a parish clean up day! A request for Sunday School volunteers!), for instance.  Or by increasing your annual pledge, if you’re able.  Also, I would encourage all of us to hold these undertakings and areas of focus in our prayers!

The CAT survey told us that we are a “high energy” congregation.  So let’s channel that energy into the work that God has given us to do.  And it is important to note that none of this is set in stone forever: we will make necessary adjustments as we go and reflect regularly on where God is and isn’t leading us in this work.   As a parishioner at a former parish of mine once said, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape.”

As we move from contemplation into action, let us hold in our hearts this great prayer for the Church from the Book of Common Prayer (which actually comes to us from the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary!):

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Faithfully,

The Rev. Adam Spencer, Rector