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Christ
Episcopal Church
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Riverton, New Jersey |
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“Accentuating abundance” Over the last
few months, Christ Church has been remarkably blessed with two visits from
our Diocesan Bishop, the Rt. Revd. George E. Councell.
The first was for my institution as Rector in October, which occurred just
two weeks before the second anniversary of his consecration. The next time
was for our sesquicentennial celebration in December. On both these
occasions, he mentioned that his presence was part of what he has been
calling his John 10:10 tour: “Looking for God in all the right churches”. John
10:10 was the scripture that came to him in prayer (it was a simple prayer
which consisted of one word, “HELP!”), while he was driving to his first
Episcopal visitation. The verse is part of Jesus’ description of his ministry
as that of the Good Shepherd of the sheep. Here our Lord states that he came
“that they (Jesus’ followers) may have life, and have it more abundantly”. As
a result, Bishop Councell has believed that his
ministry is in part to acknowledge, confirm and encourage abundant Christian
life throughout the 160 odd parishes and missions of our diocese. Along with
his visitations (and he has managed to visit nearly 130 of our churches by
this point), Bishop Councell has called for what he
has termed a diocesan visioning process. Through this, he hopes that we can
begin to actively discern God’s will for our church in New Jersey for the 21st
century. So, on a diocesan wide basis, we will take a look at who we are,
what we are doing, where do we want to go, and how do we get there. I am honored
to have been appointed to the steering committee of this process, and during
January I will be away for three days of training in the Appreciative Inquiry
(AI) approach to organizational development. The easiest definition I can
think of for AI comes from the old Johnny Mercer song, “You've got to
accentuate the positive [and] latch on to the affirmative”. Or as defined
in the Appreciative Inquiry Handbook, “Its
assumption is simple: Every organization has something that works right –
things that give it life when it is most alive, effective, successful, and
connected in healthy ways to its stakeholders and communities. AI begins by
identifying what is positive and connecting to it in ways that heighten
energy and vision…” Our trainer, Rob Voyle is an Episcopal priest who has developed this
program specifically for use in churches and teaches this program from a
Christian viewpoint. Since Jesus in John 10:10 states that abundant life is
one of the gifts he brings to his people, and that he calls us to seek and find
the best in each other, seeing Appreciative Inquiry from the perspective of
our tradition should not be difficult at all. And given our Diocese’s rather
rocky ride over the last decade, it offers a positive and fresh perspective
from which to view our common ministry. Now
while I am getting this training as part of a diocesan responsibility, it
will give me tools I can use to enrich our life at Christ Church. The
Appreciative Inquiry method fits well into my own style of leadership whereby
I seek to encourage and strengthen those things that the parish is already
doing well. But beyond this, I hope my training will open new avenues to
approach the final two questions facing not only the diocesan visioning
process, but us: ‘Where do we want to go?” and “How do we get there?”. For,
through the profile and search process, Christ Church did an exemplary job in
identifying “Who are we?” and “What are we doing?” In this 150th
anniversary year, we have been honoring and celebrating “Where have we been?”
So as we approach our first anniversary ministering with and to each other,
it is appropriate to begin to consider the question of our own vision of the
future, and to pray, “Now what, Lord?” And in discerning our Lord’s answer to
that question, we will find even more good and joyful things upon which to
build the Kingdom of God in this place. For in “accentuat[ing] the positive”, Mercer encouraged and exhorted his
listeners, You've got to spread joy up to the
maximum And
to that I (and I hope all God’s people) say: AMEN! See
you in church?! See you in church?! The Revd Richard C. Wrede, Rector |
