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Restoring All to Unity with God Remains Church's Mission, New Director Affirms

Episcopal News Service. October 14, 2004 [101404-1-A]

Thursday Thesis: Meeting People of Purpose

Restoring all to unity with God remains Church's mission, new director affirms 'Anglican Communion means mission nurtured by community and faith,' Lemler observes

"The mission of the Church," reads the Book of Common Prayer (page 855), "is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ." The ways in which the Episcopal Church is living out this mission are the focus of an October 11 Episcopal News Service interview with the Rev. James B. Lemler, the Episcopal Church's newly appointed director of mission who served previously as dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Following are his responses to interview questions posed by ENS director Robert Williams.

ENS: What are some realities of mission at this time in the life of the Church?

JL: I think that we’re all aware that this is a critical moment in the life of the Episcopal Church and of the Anglican Communion. There are all kinds of visibility and conversation and press about it. I hope that in this moment we see clearly the truth of the vitality and focus that we have in our mission.

Part of the broader context of the moment is not what’s happening in the Anglican Communion. It’s the immense change and transition that are happening globally in our church, our society, and our lives. A really excellent writer in this area is an Episcopalian named Peter Vaill, and he describes the present change that we’re experiencing as “whitewater change” —- like whitewater when one goes rafting. While we experience anxiety and disequilibrium and there are questions about everything from the authority of the Holy Scripture to the moral tradition to what God’s calling us to do right now—so much of that is really the massive, fast moving change of the present moment.

These realities call on us not to become distracted but to be on task about our mission and to know that we have to support each other and create collaborations and mutual ways of sustaining each other. For me, it calls us to two things. First, to realize that the first purpose -- the first call -- of the church is to restoration, reconciliation, and renewal. The more we focus on that, the more we can negotiate these whitewaters of change.

The other thing that we’re called to do is to own and celebrate the gifts that God gives to us as the Episcopal Church, which are myriad. God has given us these gifts of resources, of a vision of growth, of a very lively way of approaching scripture and proclamation; of a spiritual tradition that has mystery and a contemporary sense of the world. Those gifts can sustain us if we utilize them in a stance of learning and communication and negotiation during a time of such massive change.

There will be some commentary from the Lambeth Commission report about what the Anglican Communion means. What I would remind us is that the Anglican Communion means mission nurtured by community and faith.

ENS: What about congregational growth at the present moment?

JL: Some congregations in the Episcopal Church are growing dramatically today. Many congregations are remaining stable, and some are declining in membership. One of the difficulties of focusing on growth in the life of the Church is the unintended message that if congregations are not growing numerically, they’re substandard. That is not the case at all. Congregations are at different places in their life cycles and circumstances. They have different contexts and communities where they do ministry, and many are in communities that are changing dramatically and have numerous societal challenges to meet.

The point of the 20/20 Vision for every congregation, whether it’s growing, remaining stable, or declining in numbers, is that the leaders of the congregation need to spend time in prayer and learning and reflection focusing on their call. Out of that call they will find their vitality and the way that God is directing them.

ENS: How is transformation achieved through Christian formation?

JL: For individuals and for congregations one of the most important parts of transformation is Christian formation. The Presiding Bishop has called us to grow in our maturity and our spirituality —- in our hearts —- into the maturity of Christ. The way that happens is through a process of formation that is really transformation -- that transforms the individual believer in a way that the experience of God is even more powerful and palpable. Congregations, then, are those communities of learning. In times of transition like this, what organizations must do is to become learning organizations, and congregations are that, at their heart.

One of the great gifts that God has given the Episcopal Church is that there is a real transformation of Christian education right now. The excellent programs for children such as Godly Play, Catechesis of the Good Shepherd; the focus on ministering with adolescents through Journey to Adulthood; fine diocesan and national programs for catechesis of adults, what’s sometimes called the “Journey in Faith” movement—there are so many resources that are now available.

The other part of that is what this center does as a resource for learning and transformation in local congregations. The resources for children, the Episcopal Council of Christian Educators, the National Episcopal Youth Event, the national College Student Gathering, the resources for young adult ministry—there are so many that people aren’t necessarily aware of out of the work and vision of the national center.

ENS: What are some of the mission priorities of the Episcopal Church at this time?

JL: One of the dimensions of the 20/20 Vision, and I believe at the heart of the mission of the Episcopal Church and the Church Center, is the awareness that if we are to grow as a church we must serve communities and be open and inviting to those that have not been well served by the Episcopal Church in the past. Part of being a church of invitation is the welcome of the rich diversity and multicultural dynamics and dimensions of American society.

That’s why we have ethnic congregational development missioners who not only focus on advocacy and the realities of their own ethnic communities, but also are very concerned about the life and development of ethnic congregations. It’s evident in women’s ministries, focusing on nurturing women’s leadership throughout the church. It’s true in the invitation to people of different sexual orientation, different perspectives on the life of our society, and to young adults.

It’s true in the congregational development and communication offices where resources are being developed to reach out to people who have felt unwelcome and excluded in the life of the church in the past. There’s a wonderful alignment between the mission of welcoming and extending God’s invitation, and the way in which we are devising our resources and programs.

ENS: What is your experience of mission locally in a congregation?

JL: I’ve served as the dean of a seminary, a college chaplain, in Episcopal schools, but most of my ministry has been in congregations. What I learned in a congregation I served for many years is what an alive mission congregation that welcomes everyone can be like. We were racially diverse, we had strong family and children’s ministries and ministries with gay and lesbian people, we did both worship and learning very thoroughly and were a servant community in the city where we found ourselves. My view of mission is formed by that experience of a local congregation, of how the people and leaders of a local congregation can come alive to their own call.

[thumbnail: The Rev. James B. Lemler,...]