Annual Address 2006

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Jamestown, New York

The Rev. Eric M. Williams, Rector

January 29, 2006

“A Time for Action”

Last year at the annual meeting I talked about our new parish plan, “Answering God’s Call.”  During the past year the wardens and vestry, along with some other committed lay leaders, have worked very hard to put the pieces of that plan together.  This past year has been about planning and organizing.  The Vestry, the Hospitality Task Force, the Gifts Ministry Team, the Healing and Health Care Team, and the Downtown Ministry Team have all been working diligently to put in place the things we need to fulfill our ambitious plan.  Right now I would like the members of all of those groups to stand so that we can thank them for their hard work.  [Applause]

But starting today we enter a new phase of our plan.  After all this planning and preparation, now is the time for action.  Later this morning you will hear in some detail from Karen about the exciting new initiatives that are the heart of our plan and about how you can get involved.  Downstairs you will see the first stage of the transformation of the undercroft based on the recommendations of the Hospitality Task Force.  You will have a chance to sign up for the gifts discovery program you have heard so much about.  You can register for “A Journey of Faith,” our adult membership class, which starts this Tuesday and meets once a month.  

As we take this big step forward, it is worth remembering that this plan is not something that I cooked up all by myself, nor is it just the bright idea of the vestry.  This plan was created after a year-long process of prayer, discernment and listening.  It is truly ours, a plan that we as a parish created together as we tried to hear what God was saying to us.  We believe that it is God’s unique call to us as a parish and that our most important task as a church is to answer God’s call.

To do this we must overcome some barriers that stand in our way.  First of all, we must overcome the perception that someone else will do this ministry.  For us as a parish to answer God’s call, we need every single one of our members to answer God’s call individually.  We have roughly four hundred members in this church.  About fifty make up the active core that bears the burden of ministry here.  One of those fifty, after hearing about our ambitious plan, said, “There’s no way we can possibly do all that!”  And she was right.  Those same fifty cannot and should not be asked to do any more.  Some of them should be doing less!  The answer is to change that percentage.  We need to at least double the number of people who are actively engaged in ministry.  My vision is a simple one.  Every member of the church should be expected to be involved in two ministries—one aimed at their own faith development and one aimed at serving others.  So that is obstacle one—we need more of our members to share the ministry and to find the ministry that fits their gifts and their own sense of call. 

The second obstacle is a related one that I have only recently really come to grips with.  We pride ourselves on being a family—a close-knit community that cares about each other.  But in fact, I believe that we are still far from being the welcoming community we need to be.  As you well know, every year we lose members to death, retirement and job relocation.  That is just part of life in Western New York.  The good news is that every year those losses are more than balanced by the number of visitors and newcomers who come to St. Luke’s.  The problem is that we lose too many of these visitors and newcomers. 

I recently called one couple that I hadn’t seen for a while.  They told me that after trying for over a year, they never felt as though they were really wanted at St. Luke’s and so they were leaving.  Others have told me how painful coffee hour is as they wait awkwardly for someone to speak to them.  Some of you have even told me how even after attending for several years, you don’t really feel like you belong.  Too many of our newcomers attend for a while and then drift silently away.  And the sad fact is that we often don’t even notice.  Here again, we somehow think that welcoming people is someone else’s job.

I believe God is calling us to great things at St. Luke’s.  I believe that Answering God’s Call provides us with a wonderful road map to help us all grow in faith, discipleship and community.  But it will take all of us to overcome these obstacles and make this plan a reality.  This is the time for action.

I invite you, I challenge you, today to take the following simple steps to answer God’s call:

1)      Take responsibility for welcoming new members and helping us build community.  Never let someone stand alone at coffee hour even for a minute.  Go to coffee hour expecting to meet someone you don’t know.  Invite a newcomer to your house for dinner, or out for lunch.  Take them to brunch after church.  Look around in church and intentionally seek out someone new and invite them to sit with you.  This is hard for most of us, but we have to do it.  If we cannot build community and include new people we should just turn out the lights and close the doors.

2)      Get involved in ministry.  Don’t start with the excuses.  I’ve heard them all.  So you’re busy.  We’re all busy.  But part of God’s call to us is to create some margin in our life.  What does it say about us and our values and our faith if we have no time for God?  I believe that we all can do one thing to grow our own faith and one thing to serve others.  The key is to do it intentionally and joyfully in the name of Jesus.  I’m not talking about busy work.  I’m talking about finding out what you are gifted at and called to do and then doing it.  If you’re doing too much (and you probably are), drop the things you are not truly called to do.

A year from now I expect to be talking about all the exciting things we have accomplished through our plan.  I expect to be celebrating our growth as we attract and incorporate more of our newcomers.  I expect to see new ministry spring up as more of our members put their gifts to use in building God’s kingdom.

I want to close with a word about our staff.  One of the great privileges I have as your rector is to work not only with dedicated vestry and volunteers, but with our wonderful, dedicated, hard working and faithful staff.  This coming year will mark a big transition in our staff as well.  As you know, we lost our sexton, Scott Kelwaski, this month.  I am pleased to announce that, after reviewing twelve applications and conducting four interviews, I have hired a new sexton, Stephen Cofer, who will start February 1.  Joshua Stafford, our brilliant assistant organist and artist in residence, will be graduating from Jamestown High School and moving off to the next phase of his exciting career.  Please keep him in your prayers as he prepares for two big auditions in February and March.  And there is, of course, tremendous uncertainty about Richard Corbin’s condition and recovery as we continue to pray for him.  But it was his plan also, having seen Josh through his graduation, to retire this year also at some point.  And Kay Stahlman, our bookkeeper, will also be retiring at the end of June.  Her position will not be replaced.  Instead the wardens, vestry treasurer and I intend to recruit and train volunteers to count the money on Sundays and to perform the other tasks that need to be done.

We will be honoring our departing staff later this year.  But please take the opportunity now and in the weeks to come to thank all of our dedicated staff, particularly those who will be retiring.  They work hard, often behind the scenes, to make sure that our programs and ministries run smoothly.  And they have done so without a raise for the last four years. 

In closing, let us pray for this wonderful parish and the exciting future that God is calling us to live in more and more.

[Extemporaneous Prayer]

410 North Main Street, Jamestown, New York 14701

Phone (716)483-6405 * Fax (716)483-6406 * stluke@madbbs.com