This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker
Dear St. Paul's Family,
Over the past month I have had the pleasure of reading a book entitled How to Lead When You Don't Know Where You're Going: Leading in a Liminal Season by Susan Beaumont. Along with my studies, I've been able to join in a series of webinars with the author herself. It's a delightful book that weaves together many of the concepts I've learned in other contexts, and combines them with fascinating new approaches. The book was published right before COVID, and the contents apply remarkably to this pandemic (and eventually post-COVID) world as well.
Susan quotes Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, who describes entering a liminal season as "... a sweet spot between the known and the unknown where originality happens; the key is to be able to linger there without panicking." I've thought about that quote a great deal since I first encountered it. I think it applies to our St. Paul's journey. I wonder and revel in how we are between what we have known about our faith community and where God is calling us next. I wonder if lingering without panicking, while we discern what's next, might be beneficial to us?
Another concept, presented by the author, is newer to me. That is the belief that an institution itself has a sort of soul. This soul keeps us true to who we are as a group of people and provides us resiliency. Susan describes the "Journey of Institutional Soul" in the following (non-linear) steps:
Divine spark
Founding vision
Institutional birth
Leadership transitions
Wounding and strengthening
Dark nights and glory eras
Liminal season(s)
These components help form, identify, and strengthen an institutional soul - which is sort of like an institutional identity. We know some of these things about ourselves from the profile generated in 2018 when we were looking for our next priest. We indicated a value in: traditional, eucharistic-centered worship with quality music; our beautiful worship space; traditions of mutual prayer and support; thought-provoking teaching which opens us to the wider church; and sharing our building and grounds as a community asset. We love God. We love each other. And we want to share that with more people.
Susan also talks about how the institutional soul emerges through the stories we tell of our faith community. And that when we are looking for God's direction in our midst we are actually discerning. Discernment might best be described by author Ruth Haley Barton as:
"An ever-increasing capacity to 'see' the work of God in the midst of the human situation, so that we can align ourselves with whatever God is doing." It is also "A quality of attentiveness to God that, over time, develops our sense of God's heart and purpose in the moment."
God cares about us, about our decisions as individuals and as faith community. And a discerning person, a discerning church, is looking for the ways God is already present and how we can join in that presence.
Our worship committee decided back in December that we would NOT host a meal nor a specific study during the quickly approaching Lenten season (although we will still offer Stations of the Cross). After we made that decision I've wrestled a great deal with what we might do instead and I'm sensing a deep desire for discernment ... for an awareness of where God is present right now ... for a sense of God's heart and purpose for us ... and to do that in prayer.
It might seem early to talk about Lent, but it's less than 3 weeks away. For this Lenten season, we will settle into discernment, into prayer. We will each have homework for every single day of Lent: to both pray specifically for each other and the church while also creating a quiet prayer space for ourselves where we might discern and witness God already in action. Over these last two years we have made good administrative and organizational decisions, of which we should be proud. We have tightened up our finances and delivered exceptional worship, even amidst a pandemic. We have welcomed new community partners into our spaces and strengthened existing relationships. We have welcomed new members. And now, well where might God be inviting us to join in the work he's already begun now?
Between now and Ash Wednesday we will be finalizing our Lenten homework and practices. We will build on what we have already done/experienced (Anglican Rosary) and add new components (more intentional periods of silence). We will look and listen for God in the same ways, and in new ways. We will "see" and recognize God's work already at hand. We will share those witnesses with each other.
I don't expect the heavens to open and God's voice to boom a direct command for St. Paul's to follow. I DO believe that by leaning into and listening for the Holy, we will quietly and consistently continue to make decisions and take actions that align with God's work here in LaPorte. I hope you will join us. I hope you will share YOUR experiences and learnings.
There is a chorus of a hymn goes "be still and know that I am God". (You can listen to it on YouTube here, if you'd like.) That chorus sounds in my ears as our Lenten season quickly approaches. It represents a stillness and a profound connection to the Holy that is always there ... if we are simply still enough and quiet enough to witness it. Let's get ready to do that this Lenten season my friends. Let's get ready to "be still and know that I am God" like we never have before.
Blessings,
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)
Announcements & Requests
Join us Thursdays at 9am for an offering of Morning Prayer (side altar of church) followed by a book study of Bible Women: All Their Words and Why They Matter (parish hall). All are welcome.