I received an airbrush for Christmas. If you don’t know, an airbrush is a tool through which compressed air propels a fine stream of paint onto an object. It is used to put artwork on the sides of vans, for jazzing up the gas tanks on motorcycles, for fine detail on model planes and cars, and, in my case, for intricate design work on guitars and basses. The one I received even came with its own air compressor. It has all sorts of attachments for making even more refined its uses. The only thing it didn’t come with was a manual.
Naturally, this means that I have to experiment with the tool so that I can figure out how it works. That’s never easy and, in the case of an airbrush, potentially disastrous. One can make a lot of errors, something I realized shortly after I managed to paint my eyeglass lenses completely opaque in a shade of Cadillac Red. However, there is also the joy of discovery as one gets to know the tool and the many things it can do, even if that learning curve is somewhat dented by the fits and starts of experimentation.
I’ve often wished that parish ministry came with a manual, too. While the Holy Bible guides us to salvation, ministry has always been the product of experimentation aided by the collective efforts of a prayerful congregation. We try new things and renew things familiar. We add services to our schedule and alter others. We try to reflect the realities of a changing society while maintaining the traditions and standards that have made us what we are. There can be moments of great success and remarkable failure. If well grounded in prayer and comfortable with whom we are as a parish, even the failures [or especially the failures] remind us of what a special endeavor is a Christian parish. The manual, then, is written with our intentions and through our travails.
If that is the case, then the manual our parish has written over the last four months has been wonderfully comprehensive. Together, through a variety of means and methods, we have begun to realize an increase in attendance and giving, new ideas and emphases, and a hopeful beginning to what a small parish can do in the contemporary age. As rector, I want to thank all who supported the varied ministries of Christ Church; those who remained positive and committed to our mission and who helped to re-establish those things that made us what we have been in the community. It’s safe to say that I’ve never greeted a new year with more hope and readiness than the one to come, especially as I now see that those things which had been cast down are being raised up, and that the old is being made new in our presence.
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look
favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred
mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry
out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world
see and know that things which were cast down are being
raised up, and things which had grown old are being made
new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Naturally, this means that I have to experiment with the tool so that I can figure out how it works. That’s never easy and, in the case of an airbrush, potentially disastrous. One can make a lot of errors, something I realized shortly after I managed to paint my eyeglass lenses completely opaque in a shade of Cadillac Red. However, there is also the joy of discovery as one gets to know the tool and the many things it can do, even if that learning curve is somewhat dented by the fits and starts of experimentation.
I’ve often wished that parish ministry came with a manual, too. While the Holy Bible guides us to salvation, ministry has always been the product of experimentation aided by the collective efforts of a prayerful congregation. We try new things and renew things familiar. We add services to our schedule and alter others. We try to reflect the realities of a changing society while maintaining the traditions and standards that have made us what we are. There can be moments of great success and remarkable failure. If well grounded in prayer and comfortable with whom we are as a parish, even the failures [or especially the failures] remind us of what a special endeavor is a Christian parish. The manual, then, is written with our intentions and through our travails.
If that is the case, then the manual our parish has written over the last four months has been wonderfully comprehensive. Together, through a variety of means and methods, we have begun to realize an increase in attendance and giving, new ideas and emphases, and a hopeful beginning to what a small parish can do in the contemporary age. As rector, I want to thank all who supported the varied ministries of Christ Church; those who remained positive and committed to our mission and who helped to re-establish those things that made us what we have been in the community. It’s safe to say that I’ve never greeted a new year with more hope and readiness than the one to come, especially as I now see that those things which had been cast down are being raised up, and that the old is being made new in our presence.
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look
favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred
mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry
out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world
see and know that things which were cast down are being
raised up, and things which had grown old are being made
new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.