It Felt Good!

This past Monday was our first Vestry business meeting since our affiliation with ACNA.  We had our normal Vestry prayer meeting on the 2nd Monday of the month – but this was the first business meeting.  And, for the first time in the 9 1/2 years I’ve been rector at SAMP we did NOT discuss TEC at our Vestry meeting.  Nor did we discuss property issues, legal issues, employment contracts, 501(c)(3)’s, trusts, asset protection, by-laws, articles of incorporation or parishoner departures for other biblically faithful denominations/churches.

It was oddly delightful.

Odd because for the first time we realized how just much of our time and energy had been devoted to such things – even though we had held before one another – and the parish – the message and practice of “keeping the main thing the main thing.”

Instead, we talked about our understanding that the church does not have a mission, rather, the mission has a church.  And in light of this we looked ahead into the next ministry year at the questions of where and when to plant a new church(es), the deveolopment of our worship arts ministry/offerings and the engagement with a process of establishing St. Andrew’s as a site for formal Christian education – preferrably in partnership with an accredited organization such at St. Paul’s Theological Centre in which we’d function more formally as the local hub for regional training.  Then we put feet to intention and formed a Vestry team to work with the staff as we develop a strategic plan so that we might effectively pursue these hopes and dreams birthed within our hearts.

At the end of our  2+ hours of discussion my Jr. Warden, smiling, said it was the best conversation we’d had in a few years.  By the time I got home another one of my Vestrymen had texted me:  ”It felt good tonight, I don’t mind 2 hour meetings when we’re actually making progress.  Thank God we’re back to focusing on our true mission.”

Thank God, indeed.

And it did feel good.