Keeping it Real, One Step at Time

I spent all of Saturday in a vestry retreat. It was a long day and while we came away with few specific action items, we have a much clearer view of what we, as a vestry, should really be about. We covered a lot of good ground made great progress away from the notion that we're just the management committee/board of directors of a 501(c)(3)and toward behaving like good stewards of the long-term spiritual health of our parish community. We still have a way to go toward living into that direction and the actions we take over the next couple months tell us a lot about who we are and what we're about.

"Stewards of the long-term spiritual health of our parish community" sounds all fine and grand and important but all that and a dollar will get you a bad cup of convenience store coffee.

So I spent Sunday volunteering with Sole Care For Souls (Go to their site and give them money. Now!) They're a group of nurses working at drop in centers to provide foot care for those who need it. I'm not a nurse so my job was helping clients in and out, hauling water, cleaning basins, trying to be useful. I have great admiration for the the nurses providing the direct care. Try spending an hour and a half trimming callouses and corns, treating fungus infections, and just trying to get a guy's feet to where he can spend the day pounding the pavement without pain. What they do reminds you that Maundy Thursday is only a symbolic gesture, even if you do have to touch someone's foot.

Afterward I tried to hold the two events in my mind at once and I couldn't do it... I just couldn't do it. It was like trying to fit together pieces from two different puzzles. They sort of seemed like they ought to fit. After all, in both events I was trying to take seriously my life as a Christian; shouldn't that be enough to provide the connection? Weren't the twelve apostles a committee charged with carrying on Christ's mission? Weren't many passages in Paul's letters about how to manage the affairs of local church communities? Didn't Christ's words and example tell us to help the poor? Still, I can't create a whole from those two very different parts.

For now, I live with the question and I continue both activities. Maybe the answer is in the doing, not in the understanding why.

It Seems That Elijah is on the Vestry

So, I made it through my first vestry meeting as Senior Warden. Business was transacted but mostly we got comfortable with the loss of some old faces, the gain of some new faces, and a new format for the treasurer's report.

We also had to get comfortable with an empty chair. It seems that we couldn't get a full slate of nominees to replace outgoing vestry members so we're going one light, at least for a while, possibly for a long while. Maybe we'll just forget the rules and leave the chair permanently empty. But for me, for as long as that chair is empty, it will be Elijah's chair, the chair at a Messianic Seder that's kept open for Elijah who will show up when it is time.

The old testament makes Elijah out to be a guy you wouldn't want to mess with; mock him and he will turn your melons to stone. Nonetheless, he's identified as a defender of children so there's also an element of tenderness. In the new testament (at least in Matthew) John the Baptiser is identified with Elijah. Both were wild men, dangerous to the established order.

So for myself, I'm declaring that seat filled by a tough but tender person, so far outside the norm that most of us wouldn't know him if we saw him. Not a still, quiet voice but a thunderer, present in his absence, troubling us to stay on the right track. Maybe that seat should stay empty for a while.

So What the Heck is a Senior Warden and Why am I Happy I am One?

When I was asked to run for Senior Warden, I figured that since I was already on the Vestry, it wouldn't be that big a deal and might be kind of cool, sort of like being The Chairman of the Board, or CEO or something. And Senior Warden is kind of a cool title, like some minor character in a Harry Potter book, or Frodo Baggins' uncle or some such. It got even cooler when I found out that back in the day, Senior Warden was sometimes called “Rector's Warden” and the Rector and the Wardens were Big Kahunas in the village.

But as I write this I'm less than 24 hours from my first vestry meeting as Senior Warden and wondering what's expected of me that wasn't expected of me last month. So a little more research turns up this job description:

• Have a love of God and demonstrate a commitment to following in the way of Christ;


• Be active in and knowledgeable about the congregation, its programs and governance;


• Be known as someone who is fair, interacts well with people, and is respected by members of the congregation;


• Have respect and, preferably, affection for the rector;


• Have an ability to "check one's ego at the door," to be a servant of the people without a need to be the most important person in the congregation or to be the one with the right answers to everything;


• Have an enthusiasm and vitality for this vocation.

Suddenly I'm feeling like I'm 0 for 5 and only have one more trip to the plate. So for now I'm leaving those first five alone and I want to focus on that last one: Have an enthusiasm and vitality for this vocation.

Last night I was at a diocesan seminar for lay leaders, a Vestry 101 class, if you will. I learned a few things and met a few people, but came away with this sad impression – almost no one in the room seemed to have much enthusiasm and vitality for this vocation. People introduced themselves with words like, “I'm Joe Episcopal and I'm Senior Warden at St. Jude... (sigh) yet again.” That made me really sad, not because I felt that way myself, but because so many others did. It also made me think back to comments people had made to me like, “You want to be Senior Warden? What are you thinking?”

So here's the challenge I'm presenting to myself: Serve as Senior Warden with enthusiasm and vitality. It should actually be pretty easy. There are a lot of great things happening at St. James. There are more great things happening than there were this time last year. We may be in the same dumper as the rest of the global economy but St. James is a vital place and it's easy for me to be enthusiastic about it.

And now I'll challenge anyone who reads this – to hold me accountable and keep me honest. St. James is a great place and it deserves great leadership. I'll give it my best effort but I need to know from all of you the right places to put that effort. So talk to me, I'm listening.