Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Different churches often have all sorts of mission statements.

For example, the first parish I worked in had “Christ Church New Haven is an Episcopal parish in the Anglo Catholic tradition that adores Christ in the Sacrament and serves him in the poor.” It was a smaller parish than Saint Philip’s and much smaller than my last parish, so it was easier to develop a very focused mission statement for a small group of like-minded folks.

The Cathedral in Denver had a much broader statement which was, “Saint John’s Cathedral in Denver exists as a house of prayer for all people and the Episcopal Church in Colorado.” It was a very large, diverse church and it was harder to develop a statement that encompassed that diversity. Its breadth was both an opportunity for lots of people who had a wide variety of beliefs to call it a home — but it came at the cost of the kind of determined focus on specific projects, ministries, or the like.

Saint Philip’s sits, in terms of its size, almost exactly between these two congregations. Christ Church was around 450 members, Saint John’s around 3,500, and Saint Philip’s around 1,600.

We distilled our mission statement down to the relatively simple “Gathered in Love. Transformed by Grace. Sent to Serve.” I’ve appreciated the threefold shape of it that reflects how God acts in community — gathering us, transforming us, and equipping us for service. It’s not as broad as Denver’s but not quite so focused as New Haven’s. It holds in tension the specificity that a smaller parish would have with the breadth and diversity that mark a larger one.

I write all of that as a bit of a preamble to a question. If the pandemic makes us smaller, as it has so many churches, how will it help us focus? Before the pandemic our average attendance was 496. Now, including online, it is hovering around 250. I realize the many variables that the pandemic throws into calculating size, attendance, etc.

But I’m not immune to the simple math — for some time to come we will be a smaller place. It will be more intimate, we will get to know one another better, we will have more chances for conversation and prayer in small groups. Sundays will feel more like a reunion than a rally. But if we’re going to be smaller for a while then how will we use the opportunity to focus? What will our mission be as we are more tightly knit together?

For a place where we like to do everything, and seek to do it well, I wonder how a stretch of time where we need to focus our resources and energy a bit more narrowly will feel. If our mission isn’t growth for growth’s sake then what goal will we embrace? What challenge will emerge in this time?

I’ve heard estimates from large church consultants that we could be looking at 5-10 years for large congregations to recover to a “normal” operating size. That sounds daunting but perhaps realistic. We might magically find ourselves back to “normal” some Sunday soon. But if not, then where shall we focus? How will we refine our mission?

My dearest hope is that we will begin again gathered in love, transformed by grace, and sent to serve.

Fr Robert