Our priority: Knowing Christ

Dear People of Christ Church,

This week, I'm thinking about priorities.

The vestry met this Monday and talked, finally, about whether or not we were going to go through with the training portion of the Hartford Study. I've written about it in this space before, and many of you were gracious enough to participate in focus groups last May with sociologist David Roozen from Hartford Seminary. There are eleven other congregations in the diocese who are also part of it, and, to be honest, it was kind of nice to feel chosen in being recognized as a growing congregation that was worthy of extra attention. The core part of our participation was to be four day-long Saturday trainings, and I spoke with several folks about being part of a team to participate as well as the wider vestry. It was tough to convince anyone.

So we aren't doing it. I'm excited about this decision for a numberof reasons. Obviously, I'm happy to have four more Saturdays with my family. Of course. The other thing is deeper. The assumption underlying the research model is that there are professional experts who can generalize from our demographics and one Sunday visit how to "improve ourselves," that they then have the expertise to show us how. It also felt like there was a nostalgia for a time that church was somehow easier; if we could just get back to a time when there were more volunteers, more bodies, we'd be fine. Now, there is plenty we can do to improve ourselves. And we do want to grow. As Christians, we are invited 

to place repentance at the core of our personal and community practices. How are we being open to newcomers? How are we (gently, respectfully) sharing the good news of what God is doinghere? How are we learning, how are we journeying with Christ? How are we respecting one another, how are we being open to the future and the world? How are we each, as a community and individually, transformed by the fire of God's love? Based on what we heard from the Hartford people, it wasn't clear that that's actually what would happen.

Priorities come back to purpose. One of the central tools of the book we're looking at for fall education is a process of discernment for individuals to consider what, exactly, is most important to us in our lives. This helps us to be clearer about how we use our time and money, and offers us an opportunity to be more joyful in making those choices. The authors write:

          Paul states that his ultimate goal was to "know Christ" and the power of resurrection (Philippians 3:10). We're intrigued that the core of the Bible's message about our ultimate purpose isn't about doing or achieving. It's about relationship. Anyone, no matter what their age, or location in life, whether they are rich or poor, can pursue and experience what matters most-learning to live life with God. One way to summarize this is to say that our purpose is: to live with God and participate in the restorative activity of God in our world (Scandrette 52).

So vestry is going to take another direction. Experts are not our priority. The living words and work of God are our priority. The world we encounter here and now is our priority. Our fall plan is for vestry to add a quarterly leadership-focused meeting where we dedicate significant time to bigger picture ideas and goals, to create some time for real discernment about what we're doing. We'll still meet every month for our regular meetings. A week from this Sunday our "sermon talk back time" will open a space 

for wider conversation about the readings for the day and what it says to us, to get us talking about our parish life and our own responses to Scripture. Later in November we'll look at ourparish vision to see how we're doing and where we need more focus.

Please RSVP here for Tuesday nights-let me know if you can cook, or lead a children's activity, or just come and share in conversation. 

Blessings,

Sara+