Christ Episcopal Church
	Riverton, New Jersey
	“Accentuating abundance” January 2006 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 21^st 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 150^th 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 Bring gloom down to the minimum Have faith, or pandemonium Liable to walk upon the scene 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