Go for the Gold (and Silver, and Bronze)
One of my favorite cyclists did not win his Olympic race. On the second day of this year’s games, the best cyclists in the world took their turns racing in a 30+ kilometer sprint through and around the city of Paris in the men’s time trial. The cyclist gave his all and came in third.
Though he is one of the best cyclists of all time, he did not win. But in the mind of the Olympics, he did win: he earned bronze, and though he did not win the coveted gold, he is still an Olympic medalist. That alone is the achievement of a lifetime!
This week, I am at Bellwether Farm for my second and final year of the College for Congregational Development; learning practices for making congregations of all sizes, locations, and settings become more healthy, faithful and effective.
One of the core concepts is something they call “Sources of Transformation:” what are the things in the life of our church that are sources of real, lifelong, heart-level transformation? I’m not talking about programs, mind you, but things that change our hearts. Let’s ask ourselves: what are our sources of transformation?
Each congregation is called to excel at some things. After all, none of us can do everything at a gold-medal level. In what is Trinity called to excel? Perhaps it is in our liturgy and music. Perhaps it is in social justice, study and learning, or something else entirely. Though we may have different ideas of where our strengths lie, identifying them will help us enhance and sustain our ministry.
This means we also must consider things we are not quite as good at. For example, we will never be a suburban neighborhood church, and that’s ok. There are likely many things we do well that may not be our primary strengths – call them our silver or bronze strengths – and that’s ok too. And believe it or not, there are things for which we might not even make the podium.
When we discern our core strengths and other things we’re pretty good at, we will grow as a place of transformation. As we begin a new program year, I hope we’ll experience those events and activities not as ends until themselves but as vehicles for transformation. May our busyness and our silence draw us ever close to the heart of God!
Faithfully,
The Very Rev. Bernard J. Owens