Dear Friends,

On Sunday, we gathered for the second all-parish event to participate in St. Michael’s yearlong Vision & Strategy process. Thank you for showing up and participating in this process.

I’ve been thinking about the image of an iceberg. Most of an iceberg lies beneath the surface of cold water. What we see, experience, and hope for is essential—but it’s only a fraction of the planning, work, and time required to shape that experience. This image helps illustrate our purpose as a vision and strategy committee. We are called to identify the hopes we have for what’s visible above the surface—the experience of community, worship, and service. That’s the vision part. But we also have to name the steps and do the work that lies beneath the surface, what is necessary to make the vision a reality. Step by step, little by little, how will we intentionally move toward a renewed experience of our life together?

That’s why we are engaging a vision and strategy process: To answer the questions, What do we hope for our community? And, how can we move toward that vision with purpose and intention?

I also want to say that we are not here to “fix” St. Michael’s. We are here to dream—and to identify ways to help that dream come to life. We won’t be able to include every good idea in the vision or strategy, because there are so many. (Remember, this is a five-year plan, not a fifty- or hundred-year plan.) It must be realistic and attainable within that timeframe, and it must not be so ambitious that it overwhelms or extinguishes the life we already share. It will only be effective if we keep this in mind.

That’s why our congregational events have been so important. These gatherings are helping us observe and learn so much about ourselves and one another in the activity of coming together and sharing.

We are learning what is important to the people of St. Michael’s. We are discovering where relationships are strong and where they need strengthening. We are uncovering the barriers to leadership participation, what support and accommodation we need in order to say yes to opportunities and responsibilities. We are gaining clarity about our financial limitations—and how we will need to invite greater generosity and sharing of resources to accomplish big things. We are learning to speak the truth in love, to hold space for that truth, to stay present even when it’s uncomfortable, and to search our hearts for what that truth asks us to change, become, or do. We are learning how to share our physical space, even when a group is too large for a single room. We are learning what times work best for wider participation. We are hearing that not everyone feels cared for or supported in their wellness—and we are coming to see that a healthy parish must promote healthy boundaries, balance, and a spirit of reciprocity between giving and receiving.

I said in my sermon last week that making church together is hard work. It is! And, it is worth it. We have a wonderful gift in one another, in being together as the parish community of St. Michael’s.

Thank you for engaging this process wholeheartedly, authentically, and hopefully.

With you,

The Rev. R. Scott Painter, Rector

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