By Map and Compass

Editor’s Note - This is the second of three posts about Congregational Vitality. 

In my last post I shared that vital congregations are built on the shoulders of vital people. If the clergy, lay leaders, and volunteers of a parish who are the members of the Body of Christ are not healthy, how can we expect that the Body itself will be healthy? The truth is that we can’t. 

Today I want to discuss how even a healthy Body, if aimless and without a sense of direction, can still into unhealthy patterns of behavior. 

I will never forget driving with my dad when I was about 9 years old to pick up a part he needed to repair his van. He had never been to this shop before so he did what most people did back then: he took out his trusty map and began to plan the route. I distinctly remember looking over his shoulder as he laid the map on the hood of the car and got his bearings by coordinating the compass rose on the map with the direction of the sun. If I didn’t know any better I’d say we were going on an expedition to a faraway land to seek lost treasure.

As a student of history I’ve often been fascinated in how people solved problems with the technology and tools of their day. The ships that sailed across the globe didn’t always have the Global Positioning System (GPS) as their guide to remain on course. They used the stars, a compass, and the most accurate map they could find to help them cross long distances. In the end, it sometimes took a fair amount of both luck and skill in order to get to their destination. 

One of my favorite quotes about the nature of the Church is from the English missionary and saint, Boniface who said, "The Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life's different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship, but to keep her on her course”.

As the Rector of a parish I love this image because it reminds me that the life of a faith community is much like the journey of a ship. The people onboard have gathered together for a common purpose to reach a common destination. The survival of the ship, its entire mission, depends on remaining on course in the face of all the challenges she is facing. It’s for this reason that a faith community should have a clear mission and vision. Even a ship on calm waters can find itself shipwrecked if it strays from its appointed course. 

"Even a ship on calm waters can find itself shipwrecked if it strays from its appointed course."

Over the last few decades the Church as an organization has sought to adopt and integrate the practices of the corporate world into how the Church plans and conducts its business. This has meant looking at how the corporate world organizes itself, manages money, and sets its goals. It’s why many faith communities and dioceses hired consultants and coaches and began to incorporate the language of the corporate world into models into everyday parish life. The Church looked at the success of the Fortune 500 companies and asked “what can we learn from them?”. One of the most popular lessons adopted in this process was the notion of establishing a mission and vision for the Church. 

One of the first things I did after coming on board at my new parish was to begin to work with the vestry and the staff to ask what our vision and our mission was. While I used some of the language of business I also tried to keep the practices of prayer and discernment which the Church has historically done well to guide the process. The corporate world does have something to teach the Church. But the Church shouldn’t let go of its own best practices and history of spiritual practices. The corporate world and the Church do not share a mission and a vision because by our very nature we are different in our substance and our purpose. The Church is the Body of Christ composed of members whose identity is found in God. The purpose of the Church is not profit but rather to be prophetic (if you’ll excuse the play on words). 

The vision of the Church as a whole and for faith communities in particular can best be determined by asking “what is the world we wish to create?” In other words, ideally, what do we want our community, both within our four walls and outside, to look like. This is vitally important. As Christians we have been called to realize the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven on earth. That’s why we say in the “Our Father” …”on earth as it is in heaven”. We know that the world in which we live is not as it should be. It is broken and fallen. It is full of violence and suffering caused by broken and fallen people. Sharing in God’s work of redeeming the world is our sacred call. 

A healthy vision of the world resembles the vision of Jesus in his preaching. Time and again Jesus upended the social order by proclaiming that the greatest in the kingdom were those whom society had relegated to the bottom. Jesus identified with the poor. Therefore, any vision we have of the world that we wish to create has to be conscious of caring for those whom Jesus called “the least of these”. It is why Jesus humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples and ultimately endured the humiliation of the cross. The kingdom of God calls people together to a fuller sense of community around the person of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t seek to exclude anyone but it is clear that the world we envision is Christ-centered. 

"The kingdom of God calls people together to a fuller sense of community around the person of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t seek to exclude anyone but it is clear that the world we envision is Christ-centered. "

The mission of the Church is the “how” of creating that world we have envisioned. How are we going to work with God to reconcile this broken and fallen world? How are we going to live as individuals and as a community so that our lives are a reflection of the wholeness and holiness to which we have been called. One of the first things I do with any group with whom I am working who is discerning a new mission is to ask if they looked it up in the book. Why reinvent the wheel when it's been for us? In the Episcopal Church, the Book of Common Prayer provides us with an excellent mission statement. 

“The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” - BCP 855.

It is a simple, straight-forward mission that demonstrates our desire as followers of Christ to create a world built on God’s reconciling love through the love of Jesus where all are welcome. In a world of disunity and disintegration the Church has the mission of building bridges where there have been only canyons. The broadness of that mission statement allows individual faith communities to discern how they might apply it to their context. 

Vital congregations know their mission and through that mission seek to work with God to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth. These faith communities also make sure that every member of the Body knows that mission and their role in it. Everyone is encouraged to discern their gifts and recognize how they have been called to serve as the hands and feet of Christ. The catch is getting there. So how do we remain on course? Just as my father had to navigate the streets using a map and his keen sense of direction, the Church also has to navigate itself through perilous waters. Thankfully we have our own compass and map. Our compass is the life and light of Chris within us that answers Christ’s call to the Church to be holy. Our map is the Word of God itself.

Compasses and maps work best when they work together. A compass is useful in telling us in which direction we might find home but it can’t tell us all the obstacles we will find along the way. A good compass always points north. A map can tell us about the nature of the path we need to walk. It can show us what to avoid and the quickest way home but it can’t confirm for us the direction to which we should travel. A good map is detailed and unambiguous. 

As Christians, the life and light of Christ within us point us towards Christ. The presence of God in the temple of our souls is always seeking God. It is like an antenna that picks up on the magnetic signal that Christ sends out to any who would hear them. The closer we get to Christ the stronger we feel the pull.

What is the mission and vision of your faith community? Is it clearly articulated? If you are a  leader in your faith community, are you preaching and modeling it? If you are in the pew, are you listening to it and then proclaiming it to others? The good news is that even if we aren’t clear about our mission and vision that Christ is sure. It is why he has given us a compass and map and then called us to him. So if you’re feeling lost I encourage to take out the map, lay it on the hood and find the sun, or rather find the Son and start your journey.