Rector's Message

Starting Up To Mission

So now it’s September: a new program year begins, and it is the first anniversary of my coming to Trinity. That’s a couple of causes for celebration right there! The fall start-up can be a good time to look at the things we do as a church, the programs and projects we share together as a community in Christ, and the different ways we serve the mission of God in this place.

“Mission” is a word that has been undergoing a bit of a renascence in theology and ecclesiology (the doctrine of the church) in the last few years. It is a good old traditional word of course: most of the time, when we hear the word “mission,” we think of how the church is grown, how special ministers—missionaries—are sent out into remote and faraway places to bring the Gospel to those who have never heard it, how missions are planted at the distant fringes of the church as we know it. But recently a different sense of the word “mission” has begun to appear in much church literature, a sense that I think is both broader and deeper, including more varied activities under the umbrella of “mission,” and connecting those activities to a deeper sense of the present working of God. Several authors now speak of the “missional” church—a new form of the word to distinguish it from the older form, “missionary.” In missional church thinking, mission is not simply the way the church is grown at the fringes, but mission is the heart of everything the church does. And in missional church thinking, the mission belongs first and foremost to God: instead of saying that God has a church and the church has a mission, missional thinkers say that God has a mission and God calls the church to join it. God does not so much send us out to do good works, as God works in the world and calls us to participate. Missional thinking focuses on God as the principal acting subject, and asks how we can then act along with God. This approach harks back to something St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:6: “there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone”; or, as a writer from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship puts it, “What is God wanting us to be, become and do to continue the ministry of Christ within our present community and global context?” The emphasis is on God’s activity in the world, and on how the Holy Spirit is actively empowering us to work along with God’s work.

God’s mission embraces the entire universe, and it is also specified to particular times and places and communities and persons. In its most general terms, I believe the mission of God can be described as God creating communion. God lives as a Trinity of Persons in perfect communion with each other; and it is God’s desire for the world to draw all creation into sharing that same communion of love. God activates creatures to share communion as they are able: stars and galaxies enter into communion in their complex dances of gravitational interaction; atoms and molecules enter into communion in the combinations and reactions of chemistry; plants and animals enter into communion in the delicate balances of habitats and ecosystems. In the human sphere, communion happens when people enter into relationships that build each other up, that help each other to become all that they have it in them to be, that encourage love and compassion and flourishing and joy. God’s mission to create communion includes building up right relationships of mutual well-being; it includes working for peace and justice; it includes social service and personal development; it includes contemplative reflection and active engagement. The mission of God for universal communion includes specific acts of prayer and ministry in our community contexts and individual lives. When God activates us for communion and we respond, then we are participating in the mission of God.

We can look at all our programs and projects at Trinity Church in terms of our participation in God’s mission for communion. Our fall program start-up is a moment when we can recommit ourselves to the mission of God as it is particularly activated in and through Trinity Church.

In the fall we begin Sunday School and Adult Christian Education; instruction and formation in the Bible and the faith teach us to know the story of God’s ways of love and peace and justice, and to see how our stories are enfolded into God’s story; that is part of God’s mission for communion.

In the fall we begin again our Sunday schedule of three worship services, each with their own distinctive styles of prayer and song and glorifying God; joining together in Word and Sacrament helps us discern what God calls us to do, and nourishes us with strength to do it; that is part of God’s mission for communion.

In the fall we begin regular rehearsals for the children’s, youth, and adult choirs; singing the Lord’s song and supporting the people in worship is both a gift and a responsibility that inspires and uplifts our hearts; that is part of God’s mission for communion.

In the fall we resume a regular schedule of meetings of the Vestry and other committees of the parish; taking counsel together for the leadership and support of our programs and projects is both an exercise of practical wisdom and an opportunity to discern where God is active among us and how we can join that activity; that is part of God’s mission for communion.

In the fall we have (beginning this year) our stewardship Pledge Drive; making prayerful commitments of money and volunteer time to support the church in doing the work of Christ is a key element of discipleship; that is part of God’s mission for communion.

In the fall we buckle back down to schools and jobs and things in the Monday-Friday world that we may have had a break from in the summer; every talk with a client, every interaction with a customer, every word with a student, every exchange with a co-worker, every moment spent volunteering, speaking, listening, looking, learning, giving, and receiving has in it the potential to build up a bit of right relationship, an iota of well-being, if we but open our hearts and spirits and actions to it; and that too is a part of God’s mission for communion.

All the things we do at Trinity Church, and all the things Trinity Church empowers us to do in the world, can be seen as facets of the one encompassing mission of God to create communion in God’s world. As we begin anew our program year, I invite you to contemplate how God may be calling you to join in the mission, and how the programs of Trinity Church may be channels of God’s mission for you.

Peace be with you,
Paul+