| Rector’s
Annual Address to the Parish
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Most of us here on the North Shore of Chicago have heard about Willow Creek, a mega-church in Barrington. Willow Creek was started in 1975 by the Rev. Bill Hybels going door to door and asking people if they weren’t already going to church what would get them to church. From that modest beginning emerged the 23,000 member, $100 million edifice to the west of us that has become the model for church growth across the country. What Bill Hybels discovered in that initial door-to-door survey was that people said they wanted Biblical teaching, music, and drama that was relevant to their lives. Any of you who have been to Sunday services at Willow Creek know this to be true as there couldn’t be a less “churchy” edifice or service, but which has proven to be hugely entertaining, even inspiring, in fulfillment of what Bill Hybels found to be the need of those he surveyed door to door. Despite their Sunday morning departure from most mainline Christian denominational offerings, the mission of Willow Creek remains traditionally evangelical to “turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.” Transformed lives is that church’s mission, and in that one particular is a mission that we share. At Christ Church the transformation of lives is the product of fully realizing our explicit mission statement which reads,
That mission statement was fashioned by the Vestry of this parish in the Spring of 1993, shortly after I arrived as Rector. It continues to define us and identifies worship, formation, pastoral care, and outreach as four components of what it means to grow through God’s love in Christ. Throughout the rest of the ‘90s we confronted the question of how our space and our buildings did or did not facilitate that mission. The resolution of that dilemma was a complicated, time-consuming, and expensive proposition that resulted in the Sunday morning and midweek configuration and consolidation we now enjoy. That process was not an end in itself, but a means by which we could be more faithful, more equipped to fulfill the transformation that comes from our worship, formation, pastoral care, and outreach. How we are succeeding in the implementation of that mission is one purpose for this Annual Meeting. It gives us a chance to thank God for extraordinary gifts we have been given to be faithful in what was in anyone’s mind an incredibly challenging year past. A recession, two wars, and a change in the administration formed the context for so much of both our fears and our hopes. In the realization of our mission Christ Church continues to be served by a dedicated, talented staff working in conjunction with your wardens and vestry who in turn provide leadership for the many ministries in which all of you are engaged. What we are able to do together is truly astounding by any measure. My colleagues in ordained ministry this past year, Jeanne Stewart and Josh Walters, have brought wonderful gifts as priests and in their oversight of specific areas of ministry. We bid Josh a fond farewell last November and know that he is finding a receptive and happy congregation at Grace Church, Massapequa, Long Island. I am especially grateful for Jeanne’s attention to the pastoral needs of Christ Church in my absence. Last summer she had nine deaths and attended to them with such grace. We are so happy to have Jeanne and her family as part of our family. Molly Ethridge as our Parish Administrator has a creative energy much like that bunny with the tom-tom which has been rewarded not only by our amazement and gratitude for her accomplishments, but also by any number of national awards for her work on our communications. Rena Kowalski ably assists Molly in the office administration with a deft facility for keeping our computers and other office equipment functioning properly and efficiently and as inexpensively as possible. Cathy O’Brien manages all of our bookkeeping with a smile and good humor while keeping track of so many complicated transactions. Richard and Elizabeth Clemmitt are true stars and provide us with a music program which is one of the best in the country. Kirstin Synnestvedt is no longer assisting but we have been grateful for her support and are delighted at Jay Peterson’s having joined us as Richard’s assistant. Missy Harrison continues to renew and strengthen our church school program and the Christian formation of our children and young people so much so that we again have a space problem that needs to be creatively addressed. Missy’s husband, Jim, has been our Seminarian Assistant since last spring and we rejoiced in his ordination to the Transitional Diaconate last December in anticipation of his ordination as a Priest this coming June. By virtue of the Vestry’s adoption of the 2010 budget Kathy Shanley presented earlier, Jim will become our Curate beginning July 1. The Diocese of Chicago is fully supportive of this call by citing our outstanding record of raising assisting priests and by giving us a substantial financial grant for that purpose from the Lily Foundation. Charlotte McGee holds the dual position of Parish Paper Editor and Rummage Coordinator. The Rummage report that Robin Anstaett wrote speaks for itself in the vitality and success of Charlotte’s passion for outreach and her infectious enthusiasm. Jim Caldwell is our Facilities Manager, charged with the maintenance and upkeep of our thousands upon thousands of square feet of buildings. His is a complicated job and his patience as well as good humor under those circumstances is truly a gift from God. Mario Ruiz, our senior sexton, had a crisis last summer when he landed in the hospital for brain surgery. He continues to recover successfully and we value Mario and his family as a real treasure in our midst. Dominic DiPaolo is our junior sexton, and effectively assists in keeping our buildings clean and welcoming. In addition to their competence, the members of the staff form a truly remarkable collegial team, genuinely concerned about one another and the parishioners of this church. We are blessed by their gifts and devotion. While not a member of the staff, Heath Missner has been engaged in a three-year program of preparing for the Vocational Diaconate, which is to say a Deacon who does not go on to be ordained a Priest. Heath will continue to assist in various ways on Sunday mornings, and in her support of the church’s ministry of care and outreach which is the special calling of a Deacon. Bev Prevost is also not a member of the staff but exercises a ministry of welcome and care (and music) that is a special joy and support to me. That our two daughters and their guys could all be with us over Christmas was all the gift we needed for this Christmas to be the best ever. My love for my family and theirs for me is grace upon grace, the gift that really does keep on giving. While the general job description of the staff would seem obvious, what the Vestry does is not so obvious. And yet, each warden and member of the Vestry has an area of responsibility that is specific and largely measurable. The Vestry is divided into Program and Administration oversight. The Wardens and Vestry work with the clergy and other staff in the planning and execution of programs and tasks necessary in the fulfillment of our mission. In 2009 Steve Hudson was the “Program” Warden and David Russell who filled Dietrich Knoer’s unexpired term was “Administration” Warden. Members of 2009 Vestry and their areas of responsibility were:
Not voting members of the Vestry, but vital to its responsibilities were
In 2010, Robin Anstaett is succeeding Steve Hudson as Program Warden, Julie Flood will take on Vestry oversight of Outreach, Marcy Champagne will take on Grounds, Lawson Whitesides will work with the Finance Committee with a concentration on Planned Giving, and Kurt Anstaett will chair the Finance Committee which will include Investments. Mary Downie is a new parishioner with experience of service on St. James Cathedral’s version of the Vestry, and will succeed Kurt Anstaett as our Clerk. Last year was certainly a challenging year for us at Christ Church in large measure because it was a challenging year for our nation and our world. At last year’s annual meeting I identified the recession as a particular concern for us, first because of the impact on all of you in your jobs and wellbeing, but then collaterally on the parish itself given the significant deficit the Vestry was committed to address. This year’s stewardship efforts might be perceived as a leading indicator of the economy at large, but I view it as a wonderful example of your support of the vital ministries laid out before you in the Annual Reports. We have a net increase of approximately $130,000 in pledging, and although we expect a certain amount of attrition, that increase will cut into our deficit significantly and puts us on a very different trajectory than was the case last year. Kathy Shanley’s Treasurer’s Report bears that out. All of you are to be thanked for that response which gives us such hope for our financial future. Despite being a really tight financial year, 2009 had some terrific highlights that would include but certainly not be exclusive of the choir trip to Salisbury, England, the Alpha program, record Rummage outreach in general, and raising the resources to build a school in Renk, Sudan. For me, one highlight was the Vestry’s granting me a month of sabbatical time which included a two-week course in Turkey on “St. Paul and The Early Church.” I was pleased to share that experience with you in two forums last October. What about 2010? What are the challenges that we need to identify and address? I’d like to deflect that for one minute by returning to the experience of Willow Creek Church. A few years ago, Willow Creek undertook a study to find out why after a $70 million capital campaign their congregation was declining. Of course when you are a 23,000-member church, “decline” can be a relative term. But nonetheless, the study was designed to determine how successful Willow Creek was in transforming people’s lives. The study tried to find that most elusive quality or condition: the health of the human heart. For all of its size, for all of its numerical growth, for all of its hundreds of ministries, the goal of spiritual growth defined as increasing relational closeness to Christ, was not as robust as it would appear from the outside looking in. Burnout, returning to more traditional settings, any number of distractions from spiritual upward mobility were among the culprits. This discovery is described in a book outlining Willow Creek’s process of analysis and their learning from that called Reveal. Of all the mega churches in this country, Willow Creek had the courage as well as the insight to challenge its own success. So what does Willow Creek have to do with us? Bill Hybels, the founder and senior pastor of Willow Creek has long asserted that “the local church is the hope of the world.” For years he has provided leadership for congregations just like Christ Church not to become small Willow Creeks, but to be places of transformation in the spiritual lives of its members. He contends that we have all the resources we need to mobilize our members to do great things for God and for our own spiritual journeys. Part of that challenge for Christ Church is a challenge for the Episcopal Church as a whole and in fact, for all mainline denominations in the United States. For well over twenty years the majority of Americans describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” Denominational loyalty is at its lowest ebb, perhaps ever. Competition and consumerism is the way to win souls with entertainment a high priority on Sunday mornings. Christ Church is certainly not immune to that reality, nor are we entirely immune to the controversies within the Episcopal Church—controversies that are becoming increasingly shared with other denominations such as Lutherans and Presbyterians and Methodists and Baptists and Roman Catholics. Issues of gender and sexuality, issues of hierarchy and church governance, issues of Biblical authority swirl around us as unsettling and contentious challenges to consensus and common purpose. Add to that the continuing realities of global economic uncertainty, two wars, natural disasters such as Haiti’s horrific devastation—it’s no wonder we can find ourselves in a retreat mentality, defensive, reactive, fearful. All of the above can appear and feel so overwhelming at times, life’s problems, demands and expectations—you know the list as well as I do. And yet, I’ve been learning that there are any number of things over which I have no control but that I have a deep responsibility to make a difference in those places where change is possible. The word “courage” is part of a prayer I recite daily as well as the phrase “Thy will be done” from another prayer I recite daily. Therefore, the challenges for this coming year are really opportunities to be faithful and creative in our mission to transform lives. Let me offer three “ticklers.” The first will be an alternative to our traditional Lenten mite box offering. A good friend of mine who is a priest in this diocese recently retired and I asked him if there were anything he looked forward to not doing any more. Without hesitation he said, “Lent.” With Lisa Kerpan and Missy Harrison’s collaboration, we’re going to give Lent at Christ Church a creative nudge that will have as its purpose the support of microloan financing in the developing world. We’re going to do that by giving all of you an opportunity to receive a loan from Christ Church in order to increase its value that will in turn provide the seed money for Episcopal Relief and Development’s micro-financing program in developing countries. It will be described fully in the upcoming Parish Paper as well as in announcements on Sunday morning, and should be fun for all who want to participate. Fun in Lent. Now there’s an idea! Another leap of faith we’re considering is beginning next September having the whole parish from our youngest to our oldest members given the opportunity to read and study the whole Bible in nine months. Every church school class, every Sunday Forum, every individual member will be given a curriculum, a week-by-week schedule by which week by week we will cover everything from the book of Genesis to the book of Revelation according to the appropriate level of each age group. The whole parish would become a kind of “Good Book Club” with multiple opportunities to go more deeply into the basic story line the Bible presents. Part of my incentive for thinking about this possibility is the fact that every study of spiritual transformation within parishes includes a greater awareness by individual members of Holy Scripture, of the Bible. This could be fun, it could be exciting, it could be challenging in a very accessible way, and I’d love to hear your feedback. Another opportunity we are considering next fall would be a Friday night, all-day Saturday conference entitled Encountering Islam. I believe there is a deep hunger and a great need for all of us to understand more fully this third great Abrahamic religion alongside Judaism and Christianity. My host for the Middle East trip I took three years ago, Bill Sachs, is willing to come to the North Shore, perhaps mid- to late October with an expert team, including an Imam or scholar of Islam, for presentations, workshops, and plenary discussions so that all of us might have a deeper understanding of the second most popular religion in the world. Our world needs this kind of insight and sensitivity in order to confront stereotypes that demonize whole religions or groups of people, stereotyping that so often results in vulnerability of the innocent. We’re hoping that other churches will want to take advantage of this weekend and that the word will spread once we have a firm date in mind. All of these “ticklers”—I could probably come up with a better word than that—are simply intended to illustrate how any of us, as a community or as individuals, can be drawn closer to God in an intentional way. While I might identify that as a challenge for 2010, it’s truly the heart and the soul of what it means to be a Christian community and a member of that community. This isn’t to say that any of us have it all “sewn up,” tightly weighed and packaged, as if there’s only one way to engage fruitfully on that journey. This church, and I believe the Episcopal Church at large, has a vocation to welcome and engage anyone who walks through those doors and to extend that welcome to this table in our midst. Ours is to be an engagement of heart and soul, free from the kind of judgment or critique I find so arrogant so often. Those with questions are welcome here. Those who don’t know where to start are welcome here. Those who have heard the story before and need a refresher course are welcome here. Those who have an insight to share are welcome here. Those who want to offer but one gift God may have given them are welcome here. And in that welcome we offer friendship and communion in the person and spirit of Jesus Christ. There is no room for coercion or condescension as if there’s only one right answer and you don’t have it. However, there is wisdom and insight to be shared and enjoyed in the mutual expression of how any of us come to know God and make ourselves available for God’s service. St. Paul told the Early Church that, “We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, for whom the whole body…upbuilds itself in love.” That’s our calling, and it is in that spirit that I continue to be blessed and privileged to serve as your Rector. Thank you. |
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