State of the Church

an address by David Harper, Rector

at the Annual Parish Meeting, March 14, 2004

by The Rev. David Harper

The past year has been a time of unusual struggle for the leaders and members of our congregation. It has been a year of transition. In my remarks this evening, I will discuss two aspects of that transition: first, the trials and tribulations we have been experiencing over the last year, and some of what I believe lies behind them; and second, the brighter future that I believe God has for us in the coming year.

We could describe where we are now as a crossing-over time. Chuck Pierce says that crossing over times have three phases linked with transition: Death, Confusion, and New. We are familiar with the first two; but as we all follow the Lord, and maintain our faithful commitment to Him and each other, I am confident that this year will be one of emerging out of that death and confusion and into a new day in the life of Church of the Apostles.

Last year was not all struggle; we also had many glorious moments. I think of Hayes’ ordination to the priesthood, on May 17. I think also of the 40 Days of Purpose, which brought us together in an extraordinary engagement with the Word of God, with each other in community, and with our neighbors. The stories of God’s blessings during that special time continue to come in.

But it was unquestionably a year in which we also found ourselves severely challenged. Nowhere is that more obvious than in our membership statistics. The first nine weeks of 2003 produced a consistent growth rate of 6% over 2002. But in the tenth week, March 9, that growth abruptly turned into a 7% decline—a change of 13%. And the decline has continued to the present time.

What was behind this troubling decline? I see at least three causes.

The first is the general confusion and changed direction of the Episcopal Church in the United States. As biblically orthodox Anglicans, we have all been deeply troubled and hurt by the actions taken at General Convention, perhaps most of all by the actions of our own Bishop, Peter Lee. You will recall his statement at the recent Diocesan Council: “If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy . . . I hope we will avoid both heresy and schism.” He and General Convention have been guilty of both: heresy in their abandonment of the clear teaching of scripture and the unbroken interpretation of that scripture throughout church history; and schism in their refusal to discern the Body, and their dismembering the Anglican Communion.

In spite of ECUSA’s and Bishop Lee’s actions, most of us have decided to stay here at Church of the Apostles. That is because we are unwilling to abandon our biblical convictions, our heritage—and to cede our property—to a Church that is having a love affair with the culture instead of remaining faithful to the clear witness and values of scripture. We have committed ourselves to a path of struggling and fighting for what we know is right. But others of us decided they could no longer support being part of a church that was following a heretical path, and have left our congregation. That is clearly one reason for our decline in membership.

A second important cause was local. We have had several important staff changes here at Church of the Apostles this year. Troubling to many in our congregation was the release of our long-time Church Administrator, Frank Gallo, on March 2. A sharp decline in membership began immediately thereafter. This is not the time to review any of the reasons for this management action. The Vestry and I believed then, and do today, that it was the right action for our Church—but we wish there could have been a better way to handle this difficult change. Yet in noting this as a cause of decline, I also want to report that the action triggered some passionate and important communication to me, other staff, and vestry members about a host of issues that members believed were affecting our congregation.

We have listened to these concerns in a spirit of openness and humility. In response to what we have heard, we are paying closer attention to how we communicate. We are working hard to ensure that we are diligent in following up on the things we start and where our people invest their time; that our direction is clear and consistent; that we maintain our commitment to ministering to the different constituencies in our congregation, including families with young children. Although many of these matters were hard for us to hear, I believe that addressing them forthrightly—and together—is an important step forward for our Church.

Both of these causes for decline over the last year are temporal. Beyond them, I also believe there has been an important spiritual dimension to our tribulations, and we must address it forthrightly as well if we are to move forward in 2004.

In Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” Satan is visibly behind the scenes, manipulating and controlling people to serve his purpose. In the garden of Gethsemane scene, Jesus crushes a snake under his foot, indicating the victory that he would win over darkness through the cross. But it was a titanic battle. Satan took the envy and malice of the church leaders, the fickleness of the people, and the contempt and cruelty of the Romans—all manifestations of human sin and failure—and orchestrated the entire thing to achieve his own ends. Satan didn’t create human sin and failure—that is the result of our free will—but he is the arch manipulator, exploiting our sin and working through the realm of the soul to accomplish his destructive ends.

Like the people in Jesus time, we too are fickle. There has been a long-standing tendency in this congregation to mistrust leadership—especially clergy leadership. This mistrust was likely triggered by certain leadership failures, failures to which we are still prone and which are inevitable because our sinfulness, inadequacies and frailty. But the persistent intractability of this mistrust suggests that something more is at work. It is critical that we understand what that is as well.

Francis Frangipane, founding pastor of River of Life, describes how his church would experience periods of growth—but these would always fall apart, and membership would plummet. After this had happened a few times, he began to pay attention to what was going on and look for underlying causes. He discovered that a spirit of Jezebel was at work in his congregation.

Here are his own words:

“If you’re going to fight against this thing” (the spirit of Jezebel)—“and you’re going to fight against it—you need to recognize what it will throw against you: it will throw discouragement at you. I wish I hadn’t been so blind, so I could have seen this earlier… there was a spirit that came—its name was “fault-finder.” This thing would get inside people and it would divide the church. It began to divide people from people, one from another, and it tried to turn many of them against me. I had made a mistake of doing warfare with some of the people in the church against the powers of darkness, without instructing the church on how to be on guard against what the enemy would throw against them…I let the people know about warfare now. It saves me a lot of stress…This fault-finder thing would come into the congregation; we would hit a certain number, and then that thing would come and it would scatter the flock. We never could figure it out. We would talk to the people, and…a new crop of problems would show up. So we began to war against this fault-finder spirit…You need to know what you are fighting.”

As his people united in prayer, River of Life experienced a dramatic turnaround.

Tonight, I am calling all of you to prayer. I am asking you to begin using the prayer chapel. I am urging you to come to the concerts of prayer that we are holding now on the last Sunday night of each month. God will give us the breakthrough we seek, but only when we humble ourselves before Him, repent of our hard hearts, and cry out to him to revive us. As we unite in faithful and fervent prayer, we will move through death and confusion, and enter the new thing God is preparing . . .

Church, there are many signs of hope ahead. Let me go back to the crisis in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion. In our fight against the heresies of ECUSA we are not alone. We have great support for our position in the Anglican Communion around the world. Here in the United States, we have created a Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes—an alternative structure for orthodox Episcopalians. We will join this Network once its structures are in place and the opportunity is provided. Like most of our sister churches, we have not yet applied for Adequate Episcopal Oversight, which would place us under the covering and care of a bishop outside the Diocese of Virginia. But we are well aware that the time may come. I am in close touch with some of my fellow rectors, to keep our lines of communication open.

We are still living awkwardly in the tension between remaining part of the Episcopal Church, and our transitioning into the Network. Until that transition is effected, and we are under different authority, we must elect our vestry in conformity to diocesan and national canons, and ask these elected leaders to subscribe to a Declaration, in which they promise not only to believe in and obey scripture, but to yield their “hearty assent and approbation to the doctrines, worship and discipline of The Episcopal Church.” They will be asked to do that at the next meeting of the Vestry, March 23. I might say in passing that the congregation is welcome to attend these meetings.

Since we are still part of this diocese of Virginia, I have accepted Bishop Lee’s invitation to be part of a Reconciliation Commission, the result of a Council resolution, that will meet for the first time tomorrow morning. Of the 14 members, two are from this congregation: myself and Hugo Blankingship. Altogether, about half the Commission are people of orthodox faith. My interest in agreeing to serve on this group is not to seek theological or doctrinal reconciliation—we are way beyond that point—but to explore ways to protect the legal, ecclesiastical and spiritual interests of churches like ours. I know I also speak for Hugo when I ask you to keep us and this Commission in your prayers.

The future looks bright for us as we affiliate more closely with the wider Anglican Communion. We will be released to embrace the best of our tradition. with its magnificent blend of form and freedom; of scriptural faithfulness linked to a passionate engagement of reason; of respecting leaders while celebrating the ministry of all of God’s people; and of being able to be a Great Commission Church without embarrassment.

Having addressed what is happening at the National and Diocesan level, let me turn to our own church. What lies ahead for us? Already we have changed the sign on the street . . . and that is only the beginning.

Let me highlight some of the things God is preparing for this year.

1. We will be completing our long-awaited Strategic Plan

A group of vestry members and staff began work on the Plan in August, 2002, with the help of a consultant. Our goal was to redefine our vision and sharpen our focus.

We began by asking God to show us where He wanted to take us. That took us into developing new calling, mission, and values statements. Now we were able to draw up five strategic goals, to tie our five Purposes to our new calling and mission. The next step was to figure the ways to get there—how we should implement our strategic goals. We finished that work a couple of months ago. Now, Neal and Tom Fish are helping us put together something called a Balanced Scorecard, which will take our 23-page plan, and set it out on a single page, around a single focus.

Here are some of its key elements:

Our Calling

To make visible the power of God’s love so all may come to know Christ

Our Mission

We will make this power visible to those who want to get real with God through

Dynamic Worship

Authentic Community

Practical Teaching

Servant Ministry

Creative Mission

Our Values

Love

God loves us radically and completely, without discrimination based on race, gender, marital status, background, or any other human judgment. As a church called to make visible the power of that love, we welcome and embrace all who come through our doors, and all who come within the reach of our ministries.

Prayer

As a “prayer-empowered” church, we recognize that making the power of God’s love visible can never be a human achievement: We are completely dependent on the power of God working in and through us. That power is readily available; it is prayer that will release it. Jesus promises us: “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matt. 21:22)

Balance

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” (1 John 5:7-8) We welcome and embrace each of these three aspects of God’s revelation. They provide a remarkable understanding of the Triune nature of God, and give us an integrative model for how we approach our life and ministry. We call this “Three Streams, One River.” For a fuller treatment, see Appendix 1, pg. 17, and Endnote iv.

Innovation

God calls his people to be innovators and risk-takers for him. (Luke 19:13). One of the founding principles of the congregation was that we were to be an “experimental church”—a church that would not be afraid to try new ways of doing things. We honor the Lord and build his kingdom when we serve him in a spirit of adventure and imagination.

Transformation

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has power to change lives. Paul wrote: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). We believe that God accepts us, just as we are—but wants to transform us to become like his Son, Jesus Christ. Through all the ministries of this congregation, we expect to see God taking ordinary lives, and transforming them.

Teamwork

We cannot accomplish our mission by individual effort alone. We encourage individual initiative—but none of us are lone rangers. At every level, we endeavor to function as a cohesive team as we share the work of ministry. Luke 5:6-7 provides a picture of what this looks like. Peter and his friends had caught so many fish that the task of hauling them into the boat was beyond them; in fact, “their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them.”

Excellence

God asks that we give our best as we serve him and one another: (Matthew 25:21). We therefore seek excellence in all our endeavors—in our relationships with each other, in our stewardship of the resources God has given us, and in our dealings with those outside our church community.

Selflessness

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45. As followers of Jesus, called to embrace selflessness and sacrifice, we determine to live that out in our financial stewardship, in our lifestyles, and in our willing service to God and to one another.

Our Three-Year Strategic Goals

Strategic Goal 1: Worship -- Pitcher’s Mound

Increase the ability of our weekend worship to help all who attend to experience a life-changing encounter with the Living God.

Focus : The crowd—those within this metropolitan area “who want to get real with God.”

Strategic Goal 2: Membership -- First Base

Increase the number of people engaged and interconnected with others in the church family.

Focus : The congregation —those who want to become part of our church family through membership, as defined in the Membership Covenant.

Strategic Goal 3: Discipleship -- Second Base

Increase the number of people who are committed to growing as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Focus : The committed—those who desire to commit themselves to become more like Jesus Christ.

Strategic Goal 4: Ministry -- Third Base

Increase the number of people who are serving the Lord through this congregation, according to his plan for their lives.

Focus : The core—those who desire to discover their shape for ministry and exercise that ministry in the church.

Strategic Goal 5: Mission/Evangelism -- Home Plate

Increase the number of people actively engaged in sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Focus : The world —those who need to know Jesus Christ.

You will see that our strategic goals are all geared towards growth. Growth in our personal lives, and growth through reaching more people with the Gospel, are mandates that our Lord has given to His Church. If we are not seeing conversion growth through the ministry of Church of the Apostles, we are not obeying the Great Commission. Both the vestry and staff are united in our conviction that God wants to grow this church. I want you to catch a vision for that growth, and to begin praying that God will release it.

So we will complete our Strategic Plan over the next few weeks, and I can’t wait to start putting it into action.

Worship Design Team

We’ve already launched the new weekend service format, with not only different times, but different styles. We made the change because so many of you wanted it—and we’re excited to see how God will bless this radical departure from our accustomed pattern.

Another new introduction this year will be Life in the Spirit Seminars. These were first developed in the 1970s, to help people experience the grace and power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. I am thrilled that the Worship Design Team has recognized the need for this as one of its plans for implementing its Strategic Goal. We will be offering this 7-week course in early May.

Membership Design Team

The Membership Design Team has launched a completely new approach to our small groups ministry. Home groups will remain much as they are at present—but the new model provides for Discipleship Groups, Help Groups, Activity Groups, and Ministry Groups. Our goal is to provide more places where our congregation can discover authentic community—but also the means for reaching out to people outside the church.

Discipleship Design Team

The Discipleship Design Team has launched the CCN simulcast teachings initiative—starting with the BIG CHANGE seminar next Saturday. They have also have started a Life Skills Ministry that will offer professionally designed courses that help people "Make Life Work". They have added the Good Sense Budget Course to that ministry this year to go along with the Living Your Strengths Course.

Ministry Design Team

In 2004, the Ministry Shepherding Group will complete the work it began last year, under the leadership of Tom Fish, of coming alongside all our ministry leaders, one-on-one, to offer assistance and encouragement. Their goal is to do this every year. This year the Team is also deploying a Making the Connection Group, to help our members find their way into their God-appointed area of church ministry. Expect another ministry fair later in the year.

Mission/Evangelism Design Team

The Evangelism Design Team has re-launched Alpha this winter with great success. Over 40 people are participating. They will launch the next Alpha right after Easter. Over the past year, the mission and ministry fairs signed up over 100 people for ministry.

Children’s Ministry

Kristin Colligan is building several teams to provide a Saturday evening Children's Church, and building others to provide this program. They are developing and preparing an Alpha Class for kids, as well as a children’s Life in the Spirit for 2005. Summer Camp will include Junior High this year, with Greg leading worship. Their theme is “Tools for Survival”

Youth Ministry

Greg Griffith joined our staff last year as Senior High Youth Pastor, with a plan to take over both Senior and Junior High areas. That transition has already taken place, with Laurie Harmer now working in a part-time supportive role with the Junior High students. Greg is focusing on building a foundation for a strong ministry. As he evaluates and considers changes, he is developing student ministry teams, and also a comprehensive communications plan to ensure that students, parents, staff and congregation know as much as possible what is going on with our Youth Ministries.

New Campus

At our services last night and this morning, we commissioned Jerry and Celine Baker to head up our capital campaign fundraising effort, taking over from Tony Rossell, who left the church last spring. You will be hearing from them later.

The vestry, staff, and I are united in our conviction that God is calling us to go ahead with building a new home. We are fully aware of the crisis in the national church, and the risks this might pose for church property. Since we hold the title to our property, our rights of ownership might only be threatened if we severed our relationship with the Diocese of Virginia. We have retained skilled legal counsel to guide us in these matters; and our hope for the Reconciliation Commission is that it will find an amicable way to part company while safeguarding our property and other assets.

God called us to build before this crisis hit us, knowing exactly what was coming. Our confidence in pressing ahead is rooted in our confidence in God’s call. He who has called us is faithful, and He will do it. Jeff Ross will be giving you a report shortly on where we are up to in this venture.

Transitions

We are experiencing transitions in several areas of ministry leadership. I would like tonight to pay tribute to some faithful leaders who are laying down their responsibilities.

At this point, I can only quote Hebrews 11:32: “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets . . .”

I don’t have time to tell about all the faithful people who are continuing in their ministry responsibilities, the unsung heroes of our church’s story: people like Fawn Phillips, Rick Flint, and Larry Driver, who lead the worship at The Father’s Blessing.

I don’t have time to thank by name the volunteer teachers, lay pastors, home group leaders, members of vestry, and praise band worshipers. Would that there were time to name the Design Team members, Sunday School teachers, youth pastors, worship support people, intercessors, 40-Days leaders . . . the list goes on of people who have borne the heat and burden of the day.

All I can say is, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

I’m almost done. But let me finally ask this: What about you? Our transitions have led to many changes and some departures in the last year. But they have also opened many new opportunities. As we work here at Church of the Apostles to birth a new form of Anglicanism in America, what will be your part? Where is God calling you to serve? What does he have in store for you? Just as I asked you to pray for spiritual revival for our church, I ask you to pray for strong spiritual direction in your own walk. God has a plan for you. And I believe it is for you to blossom here at Church of the Apostles—beginning right now.

Posted on: Sun, 14 Mar 2004