Being the church

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by Demi Prentiss

Being the church – it takes more than “being nice” or preaching salvation or converting the heathen. “Being the church” means “being the Body of Christ.” A transformative agent in the world. One of a community of followers in the Way of Jesus.

BeingTheChurch-JoyFMFew of us are capable of doing that 24/7. With God’s help, it becomes possible when do what we’re commissioned to do: be disciples. The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) gives the orders:

+ “Go” – into the world, not just to church

+ “Disciple” – be one, rather than “make” them

+ “Baptise” – as a sign of being born into a new life, not into membership

+ “Teach” – “at all times,” as St. Francis recommended, adding, “When necessary, use words.”

Jesus isn’t interested in our delivering a product, he’s asking us to be transformed into a new way of being – walking the Way of Jesus. For support, we draw on resources that have been part of the Christian life for millennia – prayer, study, worship, fellowship with other believers. Some of those things are provided in our church communities; all of them are accessible at all times, and in all places.

Let’s go be the church. Let’s change the world.

Salty Christians

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by Fletcher LoweSaltcellars

I like to salt my food, sometimes even before I taste it. A little salt gives the vegetables and the salad and the meat a better flavor.

Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount has called us to be the salt of the earth—note earth, not church. A congregation is called upon therefore to “equip the saints for their ministry” (Eph 4:12), in short to aid us in being “salty Christians.” We are to flavor our environment—our workplaces, our homes, our communities. The Episcopal Church’s Baptism Covenant fleshes that out: Proclaim by word and example…, Seek and serve Christ in all people…, Strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. Other faith communities have their equivalent.

The message is clear. We are to use our time and talent as God-given, using our abilities and experiences to bring the values of our faith into our daily lives. We are Christ’s salty ambassadors, exercising our kingdom citizenship in our earthly citizenship. Our oft-repeated Lord’s Prayer puts it this way: “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven….”

LIFE IS MINISTRY, or All Ministry is Apostolic, Presbyteral, and Diaconal (Part 2)

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by Edward L. Lee, Jr.

Part 1 of this blog appeared in late March. It maintained that the Book of Common Prayer establishes and asserts that there are four orders of ministry in The Episcopal Church, not just three, all sacramentally grounded in Baptism: lay persons. bishops, priests, and deacons. The sequence is essential in understanding the equality of all ministers and ministry in the Church. Ministry is the holy enterprise of baptized equals who understand that all life is ministry. Being a lay person is being a front line minister Sunday through Saturday, 24/7, 12/365.

The traditional ordained ministries — bishops, priests, and deacons — have, however, through history been regarded as the real ministers of the Gospel and Church. They got locked into that perception and role when the Church for centuries was what historians have called Christendom, an official sanctifier of empire and culture, of state and dominion, an arbiter and player in the halls of power and politics. To some extent it still is, or at least tries to be, even though the Christendom era and aura have waned significantly. The Church is now faced with the task of once again coming to grips with what it means to be baptized, “to be sealed by the Holy Spirit … and marked as Christ’s own forever.”

The Protestant Reformation introduced some key understandings of what the ministries of the baptized ought to be about even though it still clung to Christendom underpinnings. For example, it was Martin Luther who posited the broad ministerial scope of “the priesthood of all believers.” And John Calvin maintained that there is only one ordained ministry, the presbyter, and he (no women back then) was only one voice with lay elders in the governance of the Church. Still, it would be awhile before governance of the Church would not just be something akin to running the institution, as if that constituted ministry; but would begin to understand that real ministry in and for the world that God loves is inaugurated and imparted in Baptism, and is lived and exercised daily from dawn to dusk for a lifetime. All life is ministry and it is a serious vocation.

Let it be argued that the Episcopal/Anglican ordained ministries — bishops, priests, deacons — are still authentic in understanding the Church’s ministry. Yet they originate in Baptism and inform the baptized of how their ministries are apostolic, priestly, and diaconal without having to wear a bishop’s mitre, or a priest’s stole, or bear a deacon’s serving towel. Throughout any given day they manifest all three. Sadly the Church has rarely told them that, much less thanked them. Making these connections will be the subject of my next posting. Stay tuned.

Immersion

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by Herbert Donovan

Baptism: The word literally means the action of immersion in water.  A more commonly acceptable meaning, among Episcopalians, is the action of sprinkling with water. Many Christians hold to immersion, as in Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptism, as the most effective way to symbolize our being made clean by God, and clothed in God’s Spirit, for this life and the life to come.  While most of our Prayer Book service assumes the sprinkling or pouring of water, it is interesting to note the rubric, i.e. “direction”, on page 307, where we read that the officiating clergy “immerses, or pours water upon, the candidate”.

A priest tells the story of how he was in the action of sprinkling a baby at Baptism, when an old man in the congregation, on observing his action, spoke out in a loud voice, “”More water!”

God grant that our intentions and actions in services of Holy Baptism, whether as officiants, candidates, Godparents, family or friends, may be to immerse ourselves in God’s healing and strengthening action, that we may live more perfectly as His children, now and forever.

Life Is Ministry —

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or All Ministry is Apostolic, Presbyteral, and Diaconal (Part 1)

by Edward L. Lee, Jr.

How’s that for a mind-boggling church-y title! But please, keep reading.

First, let’s start with the Book of Common Prayer. Go to page 855 in the Catechism and the section titled, “The Ministry.” It begins:

Q: Who are the ministers of the Church?

A: The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.

Q: What is the ministry of the laity?

A: The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world; …

The rest of this section identifies and spells out the particular ministries of bishops, priests, and deacons with such words as “apostle” (bishops); “to bless and declare pardon” (priests/presbyters); and “servant” (deacons).

In short, we are a Church of four orders of ministers, not the traditional three. The first is the laity, the baptized, followed by the ordained ministries of bishops, priests, and deacons. This sequence is one of elemental and essential equality in its understanding of ministry, of Christian discipleship. It’s communal, not hierarchical, and certainly not patriarchal. The primary and front line of ministers are the baptized laity; the baptized ordained persons empower, support, and sustain the laity like, for example, the conductor of an orchestra. Yet the result is always a concert of communal endeavor and commitment, an enterprise of equals. That’s ministry.

Or as expressed insightfully by a perceptive presbyter:

“Life is ministry. Ordained ministry is a role within the ministry of the people of God, and I think we lose our bearings when we see it as something other than facilitating the whole.” (James Callaway, Trinity News, Trinity Church, NYC, Summer 2014)

Amen! Life IS ministry and the baptized laity live it daily in the tasks and on the frontiers of their lives. And it’s as apostolic and presbyteral and diaconal in character and function as that of those facilitating clergy who participate with them in Christ’s relentless yet glorious “work of reconciliation in the world.”

In my next blog (Part 2) I’ll break open those churchy words in the title and illustrate how every person’s ministry is apostolic, presbyteral and diaconal. Stay tuned.

Finding your calling

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by Fletcher Lowe

“Jesus is in the legislature. If he were not there I would not be either.”

Rep. Byron Rushing, Member of the Massachusetts State Legislature

Lent is a season of penitence. In keeping with that we Episcopalians in the Liturgy put the Penitential Order front and center. We talk a lot about sin and forgiveness and reconciliation and redemption—all significant Christian themes.

That being said, let’s take a second look and go back to the reason that Jesus went into the wilderness. It was not for repentance; it was for vocation. As I read the accounts, it was to figure out what his mission and ministry were to be. Now the devil helped him in that by offering him at least three other options—each of which he refused. Out of the 40 days he emerged with his mission/ministry: to proclaim the Kingdom of God is at hand. His teachings and healings and other miracles gave credence to that.

For me that provides an alternative focus for Lent: to critique how I am doing in understanding my calling as a follower of Christ in my daily life and work. Relevant questions might be:

  • In whatever I do, what is the faith connection?
  • In my everyday life, how is God calling me to “proclaim by word and example…, to seek and serve…, to strive….,” as we affirm in the Baptismal Covenant.

Each of us, by the very nature of our Baptism, has been sent “into the world to love and serve the Lord.” That world is wherever and with whomever we “live and move and have our being”: in our work and home and community and school.

Christ, in his 40 days in the wilderness, gives us a model: to take some time focusing on what we do beyond Sunday. Thanks be to God who gives us the opportunity, in our own way, to be “Christ” with those whom we meet in everyday life.

A question never asked until . . .

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Until I was a bishop. The question: “Is being bishop your baptismal ministry or is it a position in your career as a minister?”

It was asked by a 16-year-old young man and candidate for confirmation during a day-long teaching session on baptism I was leading in a Western Michigan diocesan deanery.

He wasn’t trying to be funny in a “gotcha” moment. He was serious because he “got it.” He got the connection between baptism as a Christian identity and therefore baptism as the basis of all ministry for both lay and ordained persons alike. He was beginning to understand that baptism is the first order of ministry in the church and not ordination, not even that of a bishop. (See Book of Common Prayer, p. 855, “The Ministry.”)

As soon as he asked, I realized I had never been asked it before — never during my seminary years, never during any of the canonical requirements leading to ordination, never in the course of my conversations and searchings regarding what I wanted to do with my life. Baptism and being baptized, being “sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever,” never entered the vocational equation. In  time, only ordination was discussed as “real” ministry and never was it related or connected to my baptism.

Baptism as an actual order of ministry is not yet fully realized because for centuries that was and has been confined to ordination.  But we now have the opportunity to change that.

How do the ordained let baptized persons know and claim their identity as “called and sent” ministers of Christ in the world? When they affirm, empower, lift up, and thank the baptized for their ministries on behalf of the Gospel in their daily lives 24/7. And that will begin when the ordained can truly acknowledge that being a bishop or priest or deacon is in fact their own authentic baptismal ministry, a vocation long before it was manifest by ordination.

For me it was late in coming, but I hope not too late, thanks to a teenager’s question a couple of decades ago.

What does baptism mean?

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by Demi Prentiss

There’s plenty of debate among theologians and scholars as to the meaning of Jesus’ baptism. There’s much less uncertainty around what our own baptisms mean for us:

  • We have joined God’s mission.
  • We are commissioned to pattern our lives after Jesus – the very definition of being a follower.
  • We are sent out from our safe havens to be risk-takers, helping to shape a more loving and more just world.

Simple. Not easy.

To deal with that problem, Adam Hamilton, as he recounts in his book The Way, gave each of his 8,000 congregants a laminated tag to hang in the shower. He asked them to pray these words each day:

Lord, as I enter the water to bathe, I remember my baptism. Wash me again by your grace. Fill me with your Spirit. Renew my soul. I pray that I might live as your child today, and honor you in all that I do. Amen.

 Simple. Not easy. So remember to walk wet. It takes practice.

What do you know about your baptism?

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by Herb Donovan

When was it?  Where?  Who took part? I understand my baptism as the response of my parents and other loved ones to God’s action already taken for me by God naming me as His child.

My baptism took place in September 1931 at the Rocks Chapel near Eutawville, SC. I was about six weeks old.  My father, an Episcopal priest, officiated.  My parents had been married in the same chapel over a year earlier.  I understand that about a dozen family members were present.  I have seen a picture taken on the occasion, of me in a dress, held in the arms of Mother’s older sister, my Godmother.  I remember visiting the chapel as a boy, shortly before it was destroyed in preparation for a lake coming into the area as part of a redevelopment project.

These facts about my baptism are important to me because they are the place, time, and persons involved in my beginning as a child of God.  I am ever grateful that my parents, godparents, and other caring persons over the years have helped me try to grow into the person that God continues to call me to be, and that He continues to call me to reach out to others in His name.

What is a successful congregation?

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by Peyton G. Craighill

The answer to that question is clear. A successful congregation is:

  • On Sunday morning, a full church,
  • And at the end of the fiscal year, a balanced budget.

Any rector or senior warden knows that. It makes perfect business sense.

The only trouble with that answer is that it is not Christ’s answer. Why does Christ establish congregations? The answer to that question is also equally clear.

Christ’s purpose is to help him to fulfill his Great Commission that his Heavenly Father gave to him through his birth at Christmas, reinforced through his baptism in the Jordan River. After Christ’s Ascension, he was present on earth primarily through his Body, the Church. That means every one of us that shares with him in his baptism shares with him also in that Great Commission — to live out in our daily lives the Good News of the power of Christ’s love, justice, and peace.

The first answer is focused on attraction; the second on sending. The first answer says come; the second answer says go!