Free Coffee; Eternal Life

Sounds like a pretty good mission statement, no...?

Fr. Tim has this GREAT blog post from awhile ago on Mission Statements (and Coffee) in Churches, it is well worth a read!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

“Free Coffee and Eternal Life”

“Free Coffee and Eternal Life.” That’s the essential mission statement of any Episcopal church I’ve ever cared to be associated with. Unfortunately most vestries won’t adopt this as their actual mission statement. Something about not being taken seriously by…anybody.

If you’ve ever been through a process to revise your parish’s mission statement, you may not be able to read this because you’ve been comatose ever since that ninth committee meeting. Group writing projects that seek consensus are brutal. And they’re rife with semi-colons. A general rule of thumb when church shopping on the internet? If the mission statement has more than four semi-colons, don’t even waste your time with a visit. You’ll likely end up on the vestry in that short but heady time between filling out a newcomer’s card and being sent a pledge card.

We’ve started looking at the mission statement at St. John’s as a precursor to engaging in some strategic planning. I actually enjoy the process (don’t tell anybody) because it allows us to take a step back and focus on our passions, examine what makes us unique, and reflect upon where we want to be.

As a starting point I took a few minutes to think about my own personal mission statement. This may sound all life coach-y but that wasn’t what I had in mind. I just wanted to jot down some quick notes about how I envision my ministry in general and at St. John’s in particular. If the rector’s personal sense of mission doesn’t have some major overlap with the parish’s, there may well be a problem. Hopefully both rector and parish discern such congruence during the call process. If not, it’s a template for future conflict.

Here’s what I wrote down as my own mission statement a few minutes before meeting with a vestry sub-committee to first broach the topic of revising the parish mission statement:

Rector’s Mission Statement [written across the top of the page in my barely legible chicken scrawl]

1. Grow the church numerically, spiritually, and financially (not because bigger or more is better but because of the Gospel mandate to share the Good News).

2. Share the Good News of Jesus Christ locally, nationally, and globally.

[I had an arrow pointing off "Good News" to clarify it as the "Message of God's salvation, forgiveness, love, and reconciliation."]

3. Build joyful community where people are drawn ever-deeper into relationship with the risen Christ.

4. Help people to take their faith, but not themselves, seriously as they encounter the divine in everyday life, not just on Sunday morning.

That was it. At some point I could always extend the exercise by adding goals and objectives under each one but I probably won’t. Who has the time? But I did find it helpful and suggest everyone engage in a similar process at some point whether or not your parish/organization/business is engaging in a mission statement revision.

This won’t be the first parish where I’ve been involved in such a process. When I was a freshly-minted rector serving a parish in New York I noticed there was a major problem with the mission statement: namely that God wasn’t included. So we went through the process and, a few months and several semi-colons later, had one that much better reflected the faith of the community. I’d like to think God was well pleased.

Be a beginner!

"Be willing to be a beginner every single morning." -- Meister Eckhart

Wahoowa, we are planning a St. Paul's gathering at a UVA Soccer Game

We hope you'll join us soon!

UVA Women's Soccer vs. Georgetown photos ~ 12 August 2012

UVA Women's Soccer vs. Georgetown photos ~ 12 August 2012

A beautiful evening at Klockner! Click HERE  to view the photos I took at the game and posted on smugmug.

Practice acts of kindness ~ 12 August 2012 Sermon ~ The Rev. Peter M. Carey

The Rev. Peter M. Carey

12 August 2012 Sermon

St. Paul’s Memorial Episcopal Church

Practice acts of kindness

Acts of kindness are those things that are the bedrock of a society, a family, a workplace, and even, the church.  In daily interaction, these acts of kindness may be the things that our grandmothers taught us.  Looking people in the eye, shaking hands firmly, saying please and thank you, waiting your turn, sharing your toys, writing thank you cards, and seeking the best in one another. 

I recently presided at the memorial service for my grandmom, Ann Titsworth Carey, and I was reminded of many of the “little things” that Grandmom did herself, and also demanded of her kids and grandkids.  She was the ultimate churchlady.  She took seriously God’s command to love one another.  She brought flowers to shut-ins for 18 years, and stuck around to chat and visit every Sunday afternoon.  She wrote all 5 kids and 11 grandkids frequent cards.  She wrote thank you notes.  She took in people in need.  She picked up hitchhikers and people who were not even seeking a ride.  She really did so many acts of kindness, and I was reminded of the fullness of her gifts for others, which went far beyond our own family.  The ancient command of God to show hospitality for the stranger was not an academic construct, but an actual part of her daily “to do list”.  For her, the walls were permeable, she did not see what divides us, but rather what connects us.  She was not an Episcopalian, but she did, I think, embody the maxim, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.”

Spending time with my family and remembering Grandmom, I realized just how important these acts of kindness are, and just how much I can do more.  I can forget that God really wants us to sweat the small stuff!  Even the most basic habits such as saying please and thank you, looking people in the eye, saying hello, writing thank you cards, visiting those in need – these most basic habits are not to be trifled at by each of us.  Of course, we dream huge dreams of what God may be calling us to do!  We seek a vision and goal, which excite and animate us, however, without the bedrock of these little acts of kindness, we may not have the foundation to build our dream. 

To use other examples, at every level of music and sports, the fundamentals are essential.  In music, doing proper warm-ups, and practicing scales and patterns is required of all musicians.  Of course, music is more than mere warm ups and scales, but without these “basics” nothing else can be accomplished.  In sport, I have seen that no matter the level, the basics have to be taught and retaught and retaught again.  The basics have to be practiced and re-practiced and re-practiced again.  Go out and watch Coach London’s football squad and you will see many of the same sorts of drills that I was doing 30 years ago in my aborted attempt to be a football star.  Go out and watch our field hockey and soccer teams and you will see those women running sprints.  Running.  Just running up and down the field.  Wouldn’t you think that they could move to a higher level of drill?  Well, even they have to hammer home the basics.  If you think you’re going to play Bach’s Cello Suites or win a gold medal, you better keep concentrating on the fundamentals.

In our lives should seek to reach audacious goals, however, I would also hope that we keep concentrating on the little things.  “We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” – Mother Teresa.  In this loving church family, I thin of the ways that we “build one another up” and that we “bear each others burdens” (Galatians), and I celebrate all the ways that this loving community reaches out one to another.  I reflect on what Nik preached about last week about the ways that we all are “empowering the saints for ministry,” and those saints are you and me – think of the ways that we each are helping one another to consider the “better angels of our natures” as we seek and serve Christ in all persons.  God wants us to keep practicing acts of kindness.

I think of the little things that my Grandmom did in her church, such as invite strangers to church (how audacious!), greet newcomers, visit the shut-ins, reach out to those in need, volunteer for Hospice, teach Sunday School and work for Meals on Wheels.  There are saints among us who are doing all these things and much more.  How much more can we do? Can we say hello to someone who looks new, or is perhaps someone who is returning to church? Can we be curious about one another, and build up those connections between us – making contact and building relationships?  I have experienced the deep and abiding love of God made real in this parish already, and I am so grateful, and I know that it is this love and community that brings us here, and keeps us coming back.

Many of these acts of kindness are written about in the letter to the Ephesians, “be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another” … “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us, a fragrant offering and sacrament to God.”  Lord knows that we can truly be bold in our love and compassion for one another, and that as we love and build up one another, we also naturally find ways to reach out to the world in need.  As we find ways to be bold here in this place, building up the body of Christ, and empowering the Saints for ministry, we also will naturally be bold outside our walls.  However, our boldness is always grounded in the little things, our dreams and goals find their foundation in the acts of kindness that we do as a Christian community.  Just as the letter to the Ephesians says, “speak the truth” and “be members of one another.”  When we are truly kind, loving, tenderhearted, and forgiving, our boldness will be grounded in wisdom and humility, and God will empower us to help transform the world – starting first with the doing all these little acts of kindness with great love.