January 15, 2012
This is my tenth Annual Meeting as the Rector of St. Paul's. After a decade, I still feel a deep sense of gratitude to God for this calling and our work together. By the grace of God and because of the faith and works of so many of you, St. Paul's continues to proclaim dynamically that Jesus is Lord, and is a leader in the Diocese of Atlanta and the Episcopal Church nationally.
I am extraordinarily grateful for the work and dedication and good humor of our Vestry. I would like to especially thank the Executive Committee of the Vestry, Doris Oglesby, Josephine Reed-Taylor, Muriel Jones and Reuben Mc Daniel. Most especially I would like to thank Muriel Jones and Reuben McDaniel, your Wardens, for their love, support, vision, candor and competence. I have learned very much from both of them and they have served St Paul's faithfully.
Thank you also those who cooperate with God heroically in this place week after week: Carol Murray, Carol Chestnut, Helen Martin, Ricky Wood, Saritha Wood-Harden, Tiffany King, Byron Harrison, Joy Jones, Michelle Vereen, John Dantzler, Sylvia King, Reggie Gentry, Shun and Laura Haynes, Willie and Leteria Clemons, Ken Singleton, Kim McDaniels, Pat Ouisley, Eva Bird, Robert Byrd, Melissa Coleman, Agnes and Len Anderson, Rebecca Smith, Bill Pillow, Kim Adams, Gloria Poe, Jim Harden, Jay and Arthur Richardson, The Daughters of the King and of course, each of the Sunday School Teachers. On behalf of all of St. Paul's, thank you for your service.
Thank you to the staff of St. Paul's also. Thank you to Jean Hazzard for her 14 years of service and to Mother Nikki Mathis for her 3 years of ministry, and thank you to our current staff and support team: Trey Clegg, Chanda McKnight, Kelly King, Leslie Epps-Bodrick, Ron Pace, Kathy Dumas and Father Charles Fischer for all of your patience and hard work.
I have three brief points to make this morning: points about transitions, purpose and planning. St Paul's is a growing congregation. We are alive and vibrant. It has been miraculous to watch God consistently bless St. Paul's with people and possibility. When we started together our budget was 198 thousand dollars today we have given 966 thousand dollars. When we started praying and singing together there where 151 people in worship, on many Sundays now we are more than 500. God is doing this at St. Paul's when the average worship attendance in the Episcopal Church nationally is 69 people! Nationally, churches are closing or unable to hire clergy because there is no money. God has been good to St. Paul's. Because of this growth we are in transition. All of the familiar ways we organized ourselves, our processes and our proceedings, are in transition. Of course they would be. To include more than 400 people in any organization is to have to learn how to adapt; to learn how to be the same church but organized different. This has been the work of the Vestry for the last couple of years. I have to say it is hard work. St. Paul's did a very good job in being church when we were 151 people on Sunday, but we are still learning to be a church of more than 500 on Sundays. We are in transition.
You have been wonderfully patient with me and with the Vestry as we learn and adapt and adopt new best practices for a church our size. I want to say thank you for that. As we go forward together, I would ask you to focus on the blessings that have called us to these transitions. For example, it is one thing to provide a breakfast for a congregation of a 151 people, and another thing all together to provide breakfast for 500 people. But, thank God we have people to worship with and feed! We are learning how to expand in every area of the church and ask that you pray for us and be patient with us as we learn how to welcome and serve all the people God is sending to us. I would also ask that if there is a matter that you are concerned or confused about and that you would like to give constructive criticism on, that you speak directly with your wardens or me. It is not helpful nor is it Christian to speak to everybody but the person you have a concern with. "The bible tells us, "if you have something against your brother or sister go to them."
The second point is related. I want to talk about purpose. If I were to ask you this morning what the purpose of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is, what would you say? Maybe some would say, that St. Paul's exists to serve the spiritual needs of its members. Others might say that St. Paul exists to bring people to Jesus Christ. The bible says the purpose of church is both. To singularly be focused on our existing membership and their needs is a mistake. It turns church into a closed club. It's the beginning of decline. To be singularly focused on guests without a sense of tradition, cohesion and belonging makes church an experience and not a community. St. Paul's can have both. We can have both! There are people, right now, who are speaking in these either or terms. And let me say, you are dividing the church. You are working against God's purposes of unity and evangelism. Our purpose is to win people to Jesus Christ, to welcome them home to St. Paul's and to be Christian family together. I am asking you today to join me in that purpose.
Finally, let me remind you of a daunting fact, the gain and successes we have experienced together while glorious, are fragile. Jesus famously said that "...seed, that falls on rocky places will spring up, but because the soil is not deep, it will soon whither." In this season of blessing and increase we must make the faithful and forward thinking decisions that will focus our actions and will produce the deep soil necessary for St. Paul's of 2022.
To plan for 2022 is to first be clear about the purpose of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. You have already heard from the Senior Warden and have been given a copy of the strategic plan: "Moving from strength to strength." Please read it and pray over it. This document is just the beginning of St. Paul's imagining itself, vibrant and healthy for the next ten years. I look forward to our March meeting and regular Town Hall Meetings in the interim, where we will have architectural renderings and more specifics about the square footage and capital necessary to accommodate who we are now and hope to be.
Some will say that this kind of growth talk is too much for St. Paul's but I disagree. Some are saying growth talk is about the ambitions of one person or just a few members, again you are wrong. If you read the history of our St. Paul's, you will notice that we have growth and change and success in big things in our DNA all along. 131 years ago, we started as a bible study, just out of slavery, in a loft in the west end. We grew there until we had to find a church building. We moved from that building to another. When fire took that one, we bought an existing building. The story goes on like that until we landed on Peyton Rd in the 1960's. Then, the Bowden Hall was the sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchen, storage room and special events facility. From those humble beginnings we dreamed of this sanctuary and with the faith and planning, generosity and vision, of many of you and many who have died, here we sit! But now the time has come to dream, plan and work again! I believe St. Paul's purpose for existing is to proclaim Jesus is Lord and to welcome people home to Christian family. I believe that the growth and health that God has shared with us over the years is God's favor encouraging and confirming that it is time to dream, plan and work again. I am completely convinced that we are supposed to be the church that leads in music and preaching and service to neighbor locally and globally. We are supposed to be that church that leads in the Christian formation of children. And, we are supposed to be that church that influences the leaders of this city and beyond for the gospel's sake. Atlanta needs a vibrant St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
Just before Beth and I joined you ten years ago, a man tried to discourage us from coming to St. Paul's. He told us we should stay in New York, "...why would we leave a Cathedral in Manhattan, to go to a little black church?" he said. But we read St. Paul's history and we believed God was calling us here. I am sure God did call us here. After all of his trying to convince us failed, he said to us, "...Who knows, St. Paul's just may be a sleeping giant." And as far as that is concerned, he was right. But the giant is awake now! How tragic it would be to put the giant back to sleep. Not to plan to grow, is planning to decline! St. Paul's, God has blessed us to be a blessing. The changes we are encountering are only to ensure that we will be a thriving Episcopal Church not only in 2012 but also in 2022.
To those of you who have worked so hard to bring us to this day, for all your generosity, patience and kindness, please accept my most sincere thank you. Remember "God can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine according to the faith at work in us." God Bless You St. Paul's and thank you.
The Very Rev. Robert C. Wright
10th Rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Atlanta, Georgia
