Friends,

We are getting to the tail end of an amazing program year at St. Luke’s. Much has changed since this time last year, and we have welcomed in many new faces into our community. St. Luke’s began to offer new events and tweaked old traditions in order to build bridges between our longtime members and the next generation. Some of the new things we tried may make another appearance next year, while others will go by the wayside, so we can continue to try on new ways of creating a faithful community. One of the long-term things we have decided to do are Ministry Fairs in the spring and in the fall.

The idea behind the ministry fairs is to have an opportunity for leaders in ministry to recruit new volunteers to help them in their ministry. We need to have a good slate of teachers for our classrooms next year, volunteers to help with Outreach, and there is always room on Usher and Fellowship Teams. I have a suspicion that there are a lot people in our pews that simply do not know they are called to be the next BBQer-extraordinaire or Greg Fortsch-esque lector. Come and join us on June 4th in the parish hall at 9:00 am and at the parish picnic to find your ministry!

The hope behind recruiting for these ministries is that eventually one of those recruits will take over the ministry when the current leaders decide to retire. The easier part of this process is getting people excited and plugged into a well-run ministry. The harder part is eventually learning to let go. Regardless if you are a paid minister like me, or if you are a lay volunteer, we should all be trying to work ourselves out of a job.

I hope to start new ministries, to grow our membership, and continue to be the Church faithfully to our community while I am here, but the litmus test of my success as a leader is what will happen when I am gone many years from now. My goal is for my successor to find a Church with vibrant self-sufficient ministries that did not miss a beat when I left my post as rector, and a Church culture based on Christian values like grace, love, and humility rather than division and obligation. I hope I’ll be missed when I’m gone, but not because the Church could not exist without me.

When we take on leadership roles at St. Luke’s we are merely caretakers of our ministry for a brief moment in the life of the Church, and I have no doubt that God intended for you to be the caretaker for that moment! When we raise up the next generation of leaders in the Church, we are not looking for someone to replicate our ministry, but someone who loves it as much as we do. If they love serving the Church, then they will learn, and when we let go, we can take a step back and see how they do it. Some of it will make us cringe because that is not how we’d do it, but perhaps we just cannot see how the Holy Spirit is shaping the next iteration of our ministry.

I have no doubt that God is calling you to do ministry in the Church. Regardless of whether or not you have begun your ministry, I hope you can join me in trying to build up the next generation, and the first step should always be ready to let go, and see what the Holy Spirit has in store.

Blessings,

Nick