The campaign is changing gears now, as we try to make sure we’ve touched base with all the households we haven’t heard from. We’re checking to make sure everyone is  OK, and to find out if there is anything else that St. Margaret’s church family can be doing to care for them.

It was an optimistic gathering, as we took stock of where the last year and our Break the Bonds campaingn had left us.

The coming year looks very promising. Many families have responded to the call to clear the way for a future without debt dragging us down. We may not be able to completely wipe out our bond debt, but we can certainly take a serious bite out of it. With smaller interest payments eating away at the operating fund, we can focus on rebuilding our ministries instead of cutting them back.

Much time was spent on the retreat working with the data from the Imagine Gatherings. We are using it to clarify our vision of who St. Margaret’s, we the church, want to be. We are using it to set priorities for the coming year, and plan programs for the future. Vestry members took on assignments as we continue to work with the data beyond the retreat.

During the weekend we also had a chance to get to know our new Vestry members better. With five incoming members, we’re back up to a full strength Vestry of twelve members. Last year we operated with only eleven members, since there were only three in our incoming class. Between the Break the Bonds campaign and the Dreamers & Doers Auction, there was a lot to do in 2011, and it was a hard year to be short a member. We’re all looking forward to 2012 as a year with a little less work spread among a few more people.

By the time we headed home on Sunday afternoon, we were refreshed and ready to take on the new year.

In Pastor Mike’s eyes, it takes three things to make a church great:

1. Exalt the savior
2. Evangelize those outside the church
3. Equip those inside the church to be disciples

The evangelism that he spoke of was not the bible thumping, threat of damnation kind. His vision of evangelism was being a servant to the community. He believed that spreading God’s love was all that was required to bring people to Christ. He trusted that doing these three things in the right balance would cause their church to grow, without explicitly seeking new members.

It struck me that this is very like St. Margaret’s approach to evangelism. We divide our energies between:

1. Worship
2. Outreach
3. Pastoral care and spiritual growth

We also trust that the Lord will bring people in our doors if we are going about His business. Many of our struggles are also about finding the right balance between these three areas, though it is an elusive goal.

It was interesting to me to see a church that was so diffferent from St. Margaret’s facing many of the same challenges, but on a different scale. It was gratifying to know that we are actively seeking that balance.

I see St. Margaret’s as a great church. How do you see it?

Commitment cards are being returned, and pledges for debt reduction are already being filled. A separate bank account has been established for proceeds from the debt reduction campaign to ensure that funds pledged for that purpose are not mingled with funds pledged to the operating fund. Everyone wants to see the maximum possible amount applied to reducing the bonds’ principal.

The rest of the congregation will be asked to return their commitment cards on Sunday, Dec. 18. We have a great start, and with your help our goal is within reach.

The All-Church Brunch is this Sunday at 10:00 am following the single 8:45 am service. During the brunch there will be a Children’s St. Nicholas party in the undercroft.

The Break the Bonds campaign is essentially a discernment process on a communal and personal basis, and any spiritual discernment should be rooted and grounded in prayer. To catalyze this process, we offered a committed day of prayer on Saturday, November 5, from sunrise to sunset for adults, in the Sanctuary, with complementary programs held for children and youth.

The intent was not to sit as a group and offer prosperity prayers “dear Lord send us a bunch of money”. Rather, the day was designed to create a contemplative environment where each of us might get in touch with the Kingdom within.

The principal choreography for the day was inspired by the liturgy of the hours devised by St. Benedict in the fifth century and broken down into six of the monastic hours [Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers] punctuated by four hourly periods of Thanksgiving based upon prayers from the Book of Common Prayer. The start of each hour was announced by ringing of a bell, or gong, and a short period of chanting.

In the weeks leading up to the event members of the congregation were invited to submit written prayer requests; whatever prayers came into our hearts as we personally communed with our Lord. These prayers were collected in an attractive crystal bowl as a critical focus of the day. A Eucharistic service was held as an integral piece of the opening hour, Lauds, and these prayer requests were communally blessed by all attendees. During each hour some participants took a handful of these for personal prayer time; it was particularly moving as people kneeled at the altar and humbly offered these written prayers at the foot of the Cross.

When the event was first announced as each hour consisting of a short liturgy and then 40 to 50 minutes of contemplative prayer, several potential attendees said “I cannot sit in silence for that long a time”. However a common theme heard after the event was how surprised they were that the hour went so fast.

This may have been catalyzed by the prayer booklet built for the Day, which was itself an artistic gem. Six possible contemplative prayer practices were summarized to assist us in attaining the suggestion from the Book of Common Prayer:

Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.

Pico Iyer was quoted in the prayer booklet:

Silence is a precious commodity. It has been said that noise is the signature tune of the world but silence is the music of the spiritual world.

We had about 90 attendees on November 5, distributed over the ten hours. They were able to quiet the internal noise inside their heads and hear this music. Some people stayed for just a few minutes, and others stayed for more than a single hour.

Fortuitously, November 5^th has some significance in the history of the Anglican Church. It celebrates the thwarting of an assassination attempt on King James, who was the leader of the Church of England in the 17^th century. We remember James for sponsoring a new scripture translation that bears his name: the King James Bible.

November 5^th was established in England as a day of thanksgiving for the King and is named after the leader of the potential coup, Guy Fawkes. To this day celebrations are held usually involving some kind of bonfire though commercialization has led to losing the original intent.

However, we closed our Day of Prayer with a holy bonfire!

One of the lines in the closing liturgy for Vespers read:

Let our prayers be counted as incense before you and the lifting up of our hands as an evening sacrifice.

Fortunately it was a beautiful sunny fall day and we embodied this prayer by members of our youth carrying the written “Prayers of the People” to the fire pit, and joyously burning them.

Thanks be to God!

The things that are important to the youth that St. Margaret’s (as a whole) currently does: 

1. Northwest Harvest
2. Hosting dinners (like Bridge Disabilities) at St. M’s
3. Helping each other
4. Mission trips
5. Hosting events like Cursillo and HYC
6. Andrew’s Glen
7. Making people’s lives better
8. Congregations for the Homeless

1. a Greenhouse space on our property where we could grow food for needy people and learn about stewardship of the environment
2. More youth acolytes/involvement in worship (especially voiced by current acolytes)
3. Teen Joyful noise?
4. Youth music – more involved with service.
5. Training for youth to participate in service
6. Involvement with elderly in our community
7. Hang out with little kids more
8. Involve our hobbies at church

It’s really encouraging to see the Youth interest in worship services, environmental stewardship, inter-generational gatherings, and service-oriented activities. What a great group!

Over the past month, over twenty people opened their homes to host Imagine Gatherings.  At these fun and social events, participants enjoyed food, wine and fellowship, and shared their vision for a St. Margaret’s five years in the future.  The results are both hugely varied and singularly focused!

The question was this:  In five years, I want St. Margaret’s to be…

Here’s some of what you said:

• Full of children
• Debt free
• Joyful!
• Lively!
• Inclusive
• Tithing to outreach
• A community center for the arts
• Welcoming to newcomers!
• More diverse
• Fully staffed for children and youth ministries
• Filled with music!
• Connecting the generations
• The Rock
• Overflowing with volunteers
• A center of spiritual education and worship

There are so many more ideas and focuses, and we will be sharing them all with you over the next few weeks!  At this time, we want to thank all our hosts, our coordinators and especially all those parishioners who took the time to come and share their dreams for St. Margaret’s.

At the end of Saint Margaret’s Day of Prayer on Saturday, November 5, all the prayer requests that had been collected over the past few weeks were burned, sending the prayers in a billow of smoke straight up to heaven. One among those requests was one from me.

Following Colin Charlton’s instructions to pray for whatever was on my heart, this request was not anything to do with the Break the Bonds campaign. It was a prayer for a young soldier who has become very dear to our family.

While my daughter Stephanie was at Western Washington University, she met Matt, a pre-med student who is a medic in the National Guard. He has become a treasure to Stephanie, and to our whole family. It would be a privilege to some day call him a member of our family.

Matt has been deployed to the Middle East before, and he learned a few months ago that he can expect to be deployed again, some time around September 2012. Although not unexpected, this news has been very sobering for Stephanie. My own father served in Vietnam, so the prospect of Matt going to war again brought back memories of missing my father. I truly did feel Stephanie’s pain, so my prayer was for safety for Matt on his deployment.

On Sunday, Stephanie received a phone call from Matt. His news had Stephanie bouncing up and down on the sofa. He had been at drill this weekend and found out that his unit’s deployment may be delayed until May 2013. This pushes it out until after Matt should be in medical school, and while he is in medical school, he is not considered deployable. Stephanie’s joyful relief was palpable.

When Stephanie got off the phone I told her about the prayer request that I had submitted. Her eyes got huge, and her jaw dropped. She immediately recognized, as I did, that this was God’s answer to my prayer. In His mercy, He is not only keeping Matt safe in the Middle East, He is preventing Matt from going at all. And it all happened in one day. God is so good!

Do you have a story about the Day of Prayer? Share your story here by replying to this post.