All Aboard the All Saints Mission!

Left of Center is our Cruise ship

On our recent excursion to Alaska we sailed the inside passage along coastlines of snow capped mountains, glaciers, and icebergs.  Viewing the landscape and wildlife God made it clear to us that he makes beautiful things.

Happily I discovered there was a chapel on board our ship. Since I brought my prayerbook and daily office readings, it seemed good to take advantage of a quiet place to say morning prayer each day.


One morning I grabbed my book and set out to find the chapel. Passing casinos, occasional piano bars, gift shops with an assortment of alluring booze, and night clubs, I found what I was looking for.

Tucked away but clearly marked on the port side amidship sat the quiet sanctuary.  An elegant set of double doors with a pointed arch communicated that this is the chapel.  The ante-room floor was adorned simplistically with a rose pattern mosaic tile and nothing on the walls to distract.  Entering the chapel I wondered if I would be the only one in attendance.  I was.  I sat down to the traditional office and read my prayers and readings as I do in the chapel in church.  This chapel hosts on-board weddings for guests is adorned with some non-descriptive stain-glass windows. The false windows had the look of shepherds in an attempt at traditional religious imagery.

The wondering eye also fell on chintzy frescoes of naked cherubs and something that looked like a Greek god with dragonfly wings.  Some of the design was comical but looked like a sincere attempt to cover all the religious bases.  I appreciated the attempt.  After all, the ship designers could choose not to have a chapel at all.  On a cruise ship whose primary purpose is to make money every square foot counts.

Although it was quiet, the chapel was not spiritually moving, so the next few days I opted to say the Daily Office on the balcony of our room.  Each morning I grabbed my prayerbook and made way five feet from the bed to the deck chair.  Proximity makes getting up for prayer very easy.  I looked out over the sea and watched as we passed those snow capped mountains and valleys carved by glaciers.  I took note of the occasional whale rolling across the surface of the water.  As I prayed one of my family would come out, sit in the other chair, and listen as I recited  the prayers.

Surrounded by the beauty of creation and hearing the Scriptures I felt God's presence.  Thinking on these three things: the Scriptures, the ancient prayers, and God's creation, I had this clear sense of the vastness and timelessness of it all.  These three things were here before me and will be here after me.

I stopped to consider that these glaciers are living ice sheets constantly being formed and eroded; you can't tell how old they are.  But for thousands of years they rub back and forth on the mountain valleys that they chisel out.  They are the handiwork of God.

As Kate and I watched one humpback whale in the distance splashing his fin over and over again on the water, I asked "What is he doing?"  I could only think that he looked to be playing.  What a life he leads.  He worries not about what he will eat, what he wears, nor where he will sleep. The Father in heaven provides for him.  His whole life is a series of eating, mating, migrating, sleeping, playing and singing his whale songs.  And this goes on and on from one generation to the next.

And so it occurred to me how out of touch we humans are with the created order.  We have so complicated our world that we forget that life is to be enjoyed in the presence of God doing what he made us to do, to love him, one another and bring others into that relationship.  The mountains and glaciers function the same way.

Everyday new snowfalls pile on at the top.  Under the weight of thousands of years of accumulation the compacted ice cuts through rock and shapes a landscape.  As the glacier recedes it leaves a hard surface prepared to recieve molds and spores blown by winds that travel around the world.  When the spores finally manage to stick to the face of the rock they create soft landing surfaces of plant life.  All this takes decades.  Seeds land on the molds and then root into the rock to grow plants and finally trees begin to appear that completely change the landscape again.

It takes time and tenacity.  At each stage of change the landscape changes from barren rock to furry moss to plant life. And the whole project can't be sped up because it's all in God's time.  Considering the time it takes I am both in awe and impatient about the process.  I want to see the beautiful thing that is coming next.

When it comes to this church I feel the same way.

Here we are toiling away.  We make adjustments to the staffing to help us focus in areas that have needed nurturing such as communications and family & children's ministry.  We've approved resources to be put forward in nursery and children's ministry. We've put resources to fix up the bathroom facilities.  It's been a slow process of trying to figure out what really needs to happen.

We have in place the tools we need to incorporate new friends, brothers and sisters into our parish family.  And so we wait patiently.
 

It occurred to me that as God was making all of these beautiful things around us, he had in his minds eye what the mountains and sea, birds and fish, would all look like.  And he had in his minds eye how he was going to do it.

And then I realized...At church, we have the, "How we're going to do it," part.  But we still haven't grasped the vision of what we want to look like.  "What is our vision?"  We know our mission is to "touch lives for Jesus..."

But why are we doing that mission?

Touching lives for Jesus means that our own faith reaches out to allow others to come to know him as well.  We are Touching lives for Jesus so that those lives might be brought into the family and adopted as children of the Father.

We have put the instruments of effective ministry in place to help us plan and implement for the vision.

As I said in my address at the annual parish meeting we quantified that vision to make our Sunday attendance 200 so that we can more freely support the ministries of All Saints and live out our Christian values of Worship, Love, and Service.  More invitations means more lives touched by Jesus.

In order to do that we all have to be on board with that plan.  It takes you volunteering for community events and services and participating in our family activities. Our Jazz fest and other musical offerings are an example.  Our Christian Education opportunities are faith-filled and fun. It takes you serving with our children's ministry. We've had to postpone our Vacation Bible School because we needed 15 excited volunteers to participate to help touch children's lives for Jesus.

God is chiseling and cutting us into a beautiful landscape.  It will not take a thousand years like mountains and valleys.  But in God's time and by your faithful ministry we will live into the mission and fulfill the vision! What role will you take in the shaping of this church family?