Make a New Normal

Leadership From the Side

At particular junctures in our common life, members of the Episcopal Church have come together to call upon its people and leadership to read the signs of the times, to discern the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and to act with boldness to proclaim the gospel in new contexts and situations. One concrete method that call can take is a Memorial to Church. We believe that we have reached one of those critical junctures in the life of our church, and respectfully submit a Memorial calling for the church to recommit itself to the spiritual disciplines at the core of our common life, to go into our neighborhoods boldly with church planters and church revitalizers, and to restructure our church for the mission God is laying before us today.

So begins the explanation for A Memorial to the Church a letter written to General Convention by a collection of upstart Episcopalians who include a church planter, a publisher, a Canon to the Ordinary, and a seminary dean among them. This isn’t some half-brained operation. This actually is the church.

At a time when it is easy to be pessimistic about leadership there are moments when we realize the true nature of things. That we have been wrong to leave things up to chance or the regular order of things. The church waits for General Convention to act and General Convention waits for the church to act. Meanwhile we are waiting for someone to act.

At first glance, this short letter, the “memorial” is both easy to agree with and to dismiss. And yet, its revolution is found in its simplicity. That it comes from what seems like left field. That it comes from a smart group of people who aren’t officially connected by the institutional church, but are “networked” through like-mindedness. They are the evidence of a Spirit-moved order of things. Of not top-down or bottom-up leadership, but leadership from the side. Calling us out. Calling us up. Calling us off our butts.

4 responses

  1. colettect Avatar
    colettect

    Thanks for this. I became a member of a much different church in my early 30…long, beautiful story but that church is long gone. I don’t know if I might sign but I asked. I’d love to sit as I once did in a church where everyone didn’t look like me, where I was able to use my talents for something other than making the church look nicer, where the Rector didn’t spend most of his time trying to impress the Bishop and the Bishop lead rather than react so as to not hurt anyone’s feelings. I’d love to see an election based on how one has served God and God’s People rather than served one’s own popularity. I’ve done it all from prayer to teaching kids, youth and adults, to helping plant a new church and more but leaving that 1st church at which I became an Episcopalian, left me with a deep hole in my soul. I miss the very church where, although I’d attended church from infancy on, I found Christ serving in my best friend’s wedding. Amazing! Challenging. I’d found the Mystery of God, as much as a human can. Your sermons often bring that back to me: thanks for that, too!

    Christ, teach me to love as You love.

    Colette

    1. Thank you for sharing that experience with me! The hard work of faith and sharing with other people – even when we can’t feel that same exact love, that same grace and presence. It reminds me of that story of Mother Theresa not feeling the presence of GOD since her younger years – the thought of serving and living in spite of not having that feeling is a powerful witness, and rings so true to me – at least at this point in my life!

      But I love the chase, of seeking it, of looking for the grace, even in our imperfect church.

      D+

      1. colettect Avatar
        colettect

        Thanks…the Darkside of the Mountain is always the toughest place to find myself but, hard as it is to be here, I know when I emerge, I will have grown nearer to GOD and better understand GOD’s journey for me. Your almost daily messages have helped me immensely and I am grateful to God for your words. Blessings and Peace, Colette

        1. Thank you, Colette! And blessings and peace be with you, on both sides of the mountain.
          Drew+

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