July 9, 2006

Mission in Our Small Church

by Julianne Stokstad

Mission matters! We are a Mission Church. It is how we identify who we are. Mission matters here at First Congregational Church of San Rafael. That is how our church is known in the conference and by golly, it is how we are known in the whole country. I want to share with you the story of my recent trip back East. Perhaps some of you thought it was to visit my new granddaughter. But no, I was invited to be a panelist at The Summer Collegium at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia and they were most generous in supporting my trip and providing a stipend. It was not for anything I have done, but for what our church has done and what our church is. The program was designed to inspire and enliven pastors of small rural churches and the Lilly Foundation generously funded it.

It was last winter when Marilyn Johns, the organizer of this conference, called me. I asked her how in the world had she found our church? She said she was searching the Internet and found our website. It tells of all the wonderful mission work we do here. (if you haven't seen it, check it out!) We have not one but three pages about our mission work!

The Mission and Outreach page tells of our support of Marin Food Bank (the first Sunday of each month we collect food and by the way, we are way ahead of last year's collection), the Canal Alliance (four of us went down just this last Friday to meet and talk with Juan Carlos Arauz about how we can help them), we are founding members of MIYO, Marin Interfaith Youth Outreach, we provide a meal once a month for Homeward Bound Family Shelter, to help all you have to do is look at the sign up sheet by the library and bring what is needed, in addition to financial support of Ritter Center for the county's homeless, we are big contributors for their special needs, like our Backpack Sunday that provides school supplies for homeless children. We are a covenant Habitat for Humanity church sending volunteers on July 15 to work on a project in Oakland (there is still time to sign up.) In addition we support our denomination's One Great Hour of Sharing and Neighbors in Need programs and there is more. We have a general policy to make sure we provide 7% of our general budget to Mission and Outreach.

And then there is Every Dollar Feeds Kids, a program started right here on FCCSan Rafael in 1999 that sends nearly $50,000 each year to VAMOS programs in Cuernavaca Mexico. One hundred per cent of the money collected goes to provide nutritious meals and vitamins for children who need the food and support to succeed in school. It's now a separate 501c3 Non-profit organization but it is very much in the hearts, minds and lives of our folks here. Let's not forget Pilgrim Park, the low income housing built right here on our property more than 30 years ago to help out folks in San Rafael. So when I thought about what story to tell in my brief 15 minutes on the panel, two questions came to mind: how did this happen and what effect has it had on the congregation?

From my perspective, the health, the vitality and the generosity of spirit and resources we have in this place come directly from the dedication to mission-reaching out to help others. People know it is why we are here. People have learned that in giving, one always receives much more than one gives.

So I want to spend a little time reflecting on the lessons that our scripture gives us. Jesus is instructing his disciples and sending them out to be ministers in his name. He knew that his work was God's work and that it needed us all to help create the changes in the world that can lead to peace, justice and wholeness.

Here we know we are all ministers of Christ at least that is what we say in the worship bulletin each Sunday. You know better than to leave the ministry just up to the ordained ones. You know if you do that it is too easy to become passive consumers who sit and point at what you like and don't like in church. The point is that together we all partners in Christ's service.

In going out on mission it isn't all cake and flowers. Jesus warned them about failure and rejection. Mark was written a generation after Jesus died and so the messages in it are important for those who were early Christians. It is important to remember that even Jesus was rejected in his hometown. How very difficult it is to see in anyone something different from what we expect. "Isn't this just the carpenter, son of Mary? How could he be doing God's work?" They had seen him grow up. They thought they knew him well and their expectations limited what they saw. What blinders do we have on our eyes? Jesus instructed his disciples to leave any place they were not welcomed. Shake off the dust that is on your feet, it's not going to be easy.

Then he told them they weren't to take any supplies-no bread, no bag, no money, no extra clothes. Can you imagine the effect this might have on them? They weren't supposed to rely on their own resources, but on the hospitality of others. So if preparation isn't about material things, what do they need?

One important piece not yet mentioned is they were sent by Jesus to do God's work in name. It wasn't about them; it was about the joyful responsibility to serve others in God's name. Being sent by Jesus....think about that. The question for all of us is why are we doing the work we do?

To learn how the church got so interested in doing mission, I interviewed several leaders here at our church. First I called Mary Hargreaves who told me: 1) you need to have a lay leader passionate about mission; 2) you need much repetition to get the idea to stick in people's mind-in sermons, in programs and by folks talking about it; and 3) go out and get first hand experience, do some mission travel and mission projects. She reminded me of the words fromMatthew 25 - when you feed the hungry, you are feeding me is her biblical inspiration.

I spoke with Sue Spofford who has many ideas and great passion about mission work. She said she wants us to have a visible mission project each month, to help people understand the needs we are responding to, give folks hands-on experience so they feel they make a difference and honor the people who volunteer and work hard. Lastly I spoke with Alan Miller who told me the story of EDFK beginnings and that was the story I shared as a panelist.

What I learned is that it doesn't take a lot of people to become an active mission church. A few passionate leaders have led us to this place as an active and vital mission church. As I wonder about the future direction of mission here, I think we need to look at our reason for doing mission, at our connection to being sent by Jesus to do God's work to make the world a better, more just place.

To me what we need to consider is what is our relationship to God? If I know I am loved, forgiven and that just my presence in the world can make a difference, then I would know that even by listening and reporting what I see, by thinking and praying about my own activities and concerns, I make a difference. The energy for our mission work comes from our relationship with God. We each have our own limits---common ones are money (I don't have any extra) or time (I can't do one more thing). A church strong in worship, with vital prayer and Bible Study, with strong caring for each other, will by its very nature have an active mission.

I learned that we have a great deal to be grateful for. We have nothing to fear because we are here in this world, in this church, to do God's work. Mission in small church, we know how to do it, but it really isn't about us, it is about God. And that is the truth. Thanks be to God.