Please God Give me Patience—and do it right now!

That was the old Mark Twain adage—true today as it was 100 years ago.

In our busy lives today, patience is often not something we have much time for, yet deep down we know that our life is not a race to the finish line.

More importantly, we realize that rushing ahead often means missing out on the beauty, joy and love around us every step on our journey.  It is tempting to call it the restlessness of youth, except some of us have been so busy rushing through life that we can only savor the few times we did stop and listen to the quiet.

I remember, in my own case, when that realization hit me.  I was standing in the cathedral grove at Muir Woods with my children.  The silence, the majesty of those ancient living things, and the realization that they live so long by pure and perfect grace. Now my children are adults and I still savor those few rare times of silence as I held them tight wondering how many such examples of pure and perfect grace did I miss by rushing to beat the traffic home.

Stop blubbering and listen:

St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, Danville, California is one of twelve parishes in the Diocese of California searching for a new Rector.  While these parishes each have different characteristics that make them unique, they share common bonds in more ways than one.

I’m not talking about their affiliation with the Episcopal Church or the Diocese of California. As seekers of a new rector to guide their faith journey forward, they also are seeking the views of their congregations on the qualities, traits and skills they should look for in the candidates.  And they are all listening—not always patiently—for God to guide them on this uncertain journey. We are all impatient to find a new Rector and get back to “normal” in our parish lives.

The Search begins with Prayer, Listening and Self-Study

We know from the lessons and case studies of other congregations searching for new rectors that the process takes time—a lot of time.  The typical search process takes a year and one-half.  I have described it like painting your house: 80% preparation and 20% implementation.

We know from the research that there is a logical and predictable transition from grieving the loss former rector, discerning who the congregation is and what it seeks in calling a new rector, and then preparing to have a conversation with the candidates before choosing a new rector.

We also have learned from the experience of others that rushing the process or setting arbitrary deadlines has a way of backfiring since so much of the success of the call process is not the call itself but the preparation, and discernment, and consultation and consensus-building that informs it.

God has already chosen the next rector of St. Timothy’s Danville. Our job in the search process is to listen for clues about who that person is, talk to each other about our hopes, dreams and fears for the future, pray for guidance, and hold each other tight in the silence until we feel that pure and perfect grace.

So I worry when I hear that the Vestry has set a December 2011 deadline for the new search committee to present candidates for rector because we have so much listening, praying and preparation work to do before we get to our new Jerusalem in this next stage of our faith journey.

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Living into Our Church Mission

One of the most daunting challenges in imagining St. Timothy‘s future in 2020 is the realization of how many hands are at work today actually doing the mission and ministry work of the church.

Our list of parish ministries reads like a small phone book.  Are we really going to do a detailed plan for each of these parish ministry areas?

Part of the process of listening for what God is calling St. Timothy’s to be at the end of this 2020 planning journey is looking around to see what God is already calling the people of our congregation to do.  That list of ministry programs represents God’s call because a need was felt and we responded.

Our 20/20 Vision challenge is to accept God’s call by identifying our mission and ministry work today and asking those involved in each area to help us identify unmet needs, reach out to the unserved or underserved, and imagine the new possibilities for each program is we worked together collaboratively with other congregations across the Diocese or around the world.

We are already doing this aren’t we?

Fruits of the Harvest is a living model of how one congregation can serve the ministry and mission work of the church by enabling others to do their best work.  Each of the FOTH causes lives into our mission call and minister to the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ.  When we help those causes through our outreach efforts we are serving God.

Stephen Ministers help transforming lives reason and pray their way from where they are today to where they seek to go.  The path is hard but the process is pure and holy.  A Stephen minister listens patiently and walks the path with us not telling us what to do but holding our hand while we make life decisions and pray for God’s help.

Altar Guild is as old as the church providing a ministry that prepares for our corporate worship and helps us gather around the table as one family in Christ.  This is not a job, it is a calling.  And there are scores more ministry needs that call to the people of St. Timothy’s.  Many don’t need or want a big elaborate program—they just do it, mission and ministry one-on-one.

Episcopal Charities Action Networks. We know Episcopal Charities as the outreach arm of the Diocese of California but now they have a new approach for encouraging congregations to recommend good causes and support them through collaboration.  Called Action Networks this new strategy enables congregations in each Deanery (county) to combine their efforts and see Episcopal Charities match them with funding to live into the chosen ministry or mission need.  It is a way of leveraging our combined efforts to make a material difference for many causes.

Our 20/20 Vision process is designed to give each of us many opportunities to roll up our sleeves and do the mission and ministry work of the church in ways large and small each day.  Our goal is to get every person in our congregation involved in some ministry that calls to them.  It is a process of discovery, of seeing new needs and meeting them, discovering new ways to make a difference and doing it in one person’s life as a lay Eucharistic visitor or hundreds as a volunteer at Loaves & Fishes or a Scouting leader or convention delegate.

What is God calling you to do to support the mission and ministry work of the church?

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Organic Farming for Members

 

Steve Mason asked me to substitute for him at the St. Timothy’s table at the Danville Farmers market and this morning was my maiden voyage at that ministry.  Steve has it organized so well that it was snap to set up.  The crowd was light given the threat of rain, the Danville arts fair going on downtown a block over and last week was the end of fresh peaches so the market was full of flowers and green stuff to eat which while healthy will never compete with the seduction of fresh peaches.

I talked to many St. Timothy’s people including one ‘wise guy’ who asked me if I was in training for my next career as a Walmart greeter!  He may not realize he is one step away from a cart with very squeaky wheels in his future—but I digress.

Steve’s coaching about what to expect was spot on.  I had many people pass my table who did not make eye contact fearful, no doubt, I would try to convert them or something.  By many did say good morning and a few thanked me for coming out on a rainy morning to be there—“it’s nice to see organic gardening of the faithful” one woman said smiling as she walked by.

I was asked by one woman what that metal tower was out front of the church?  She was referring to our new bell tower.  Oh nice, she replied ‘will you be doing bell concerts?  Alas, the single bell from the old Anglican priory hardly a bell choir makes.

So is this a ministry that matters?

I came away from my three plus hours of mostly people watching concluding that indeed it does matter because it makes St. Timothy’s more visible to the community and for every 100 people who avoid eye contact and pass you by there is one who feels called in some way to connect with us—and that makes it all worthwhile.

Just like the woman who came up and pulled out her check book and wrote St. Timothy’s a five dollar check for being so bike friendly.  She apparently uses our parking lot for her rides up and down Mt. Diablo. She said, she went to St Joan of Arc Catholic Church but if she were church shopping she would want a friendly place just like St. Timothy’s.

And little did she know that she had described our 20/20 Vision goal better than an army of marketers because it is who we are and how we feel called to welcome all who love God and seek Christ in their lives.  Call it the Virginia Woy Effect, but it was gratifying to know that by living our core values and being true to what we believe God is calling us to be for the people of the San Ramon Valley that the message is being heard.

So thank you Steve for a Saturday morning well spent planting seeds of faith and harvesting Good News.

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Steven Changed Us for Good

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led to those who help us most to grow

If we let them and we help them in return

Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true

But I know I’m who I am today because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun

Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood

Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

But because I knew you I have been changed for good.”

—–From Changed for Good from Wicked

That was the song sung during today’s goodbye celebration for Steve and Jane Strane and their daughter Susan as Steven retired as Rector at St. Timothy’s after 22 years.  We should have bought shares in Kleenex because there was not a dry eye in the house.  But for all this raw display of emotion there was a feeling of love and joy.

The story of the call process that brought a 38 year old guy who had never been a rector and had been a priest-in-charge for only a year and one-half turned out pretty well.  It was testimony to a good selection process that involved the congregation to live into their aspirations for the parish and match those needs to candidates who shared that faith journey.  And it continued to work well for 22 years.  Steven told the crowd he had not imagined spending so much time in one place but he always felt there was more to do here and each day was a new adventure.

So now we start anew looking for a new person to come into our lives for a reason.  We too are led to those who can help us most to grow—if we let them and we help them in return.  That was the secret sauce wasn’t it—we needed someone to help us grow as a parish.  And we had the good sense to let Steven help us, to trust him and love him and accept him as our own—and in turn Steven turned into a parish priest respected by all, loved by all, held up by all because we knew him we have been changed for good.

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