As of four days ago, I am officially now in a new ministry appointment as a United Methodist pastor in the North Carolina Annual Conference of the UMC. September 1st was my first official start date as pastor of Edenton Street United Methodist Church in Raleigh. Over the next weeks and months, I hope to make connections, immerse myself in this local community, and begin to build relationships in a new place, a new church family, and a new city and community. Since not everyone knows me in this new ministry setting, I wanted to take a moment with this blog post to share one of the foundational ways I have always understood pastoral appointments and to do so requires reclaiming a word that has often lost its original meaning in modern usage – parish.
Today, when many people hear the word parish, they think church building or local congregation with a particular address, but the original meaning referred to the larger geographic area and community in which a parish church was placed. The best modern day example of this is the state of Louisiana which retains this older language with the 64 parishes in the state, comparable to counties in all the other states in the union. In each of the five appointments I have been placed in over the past thirty years, I have always considered myself appointed to a parish in this larger sense of the word. In my understanding, that means at least in part that I am not just appointed to a church or a membership roll, as important as that is, but also to the larger community where that church is called to worship, witness, and serve. It means that when I move into a new ministry setting, in addition to my charge to listen deeply to the congregation with all of their hopes, dreams and particular challenges, I am also called to listen deeply to the hopes, dreams and distinct challenges that are found in the community around us. This is the call not just of pastors, but of all the baptized. We are a people who are called to join the triune God on a mission of love that is on the move, out of the doors, down the street, and into the broken and hurting places in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our third places and beyond.
If this is your first time discovering my blog, this is at least one reason why I refer to myself as a “missiologist” in the tag line. I believe part of my calling as one spiritual leader among others is to immerse myself in a local culture and community, fall in love with the people, learn to appreciate and celebrate what makes that community distinct, listen deeply to people’s hopes and struggles, and continue to cultivate an active curiosity about what God is already up to in bringing healing, wholeness, renewal, and restoration. And make no mistake – God is always up to something if we are just willing to stop, listen, pray, and discern, and it is often more than we could ever have imagined. Once we begin that holy work, we are then charged with finding ways to equip and empower God’s saints to join God in that ongoing mission of love and light.
With that brief explanation of at least one aspect of my philosophy of ministry, I leave one challenge for any who chanced to read this far … will you consider doing the same? Whether you have lived in Raleigh your entire life, for a few years, or you are a more recent resident – pray that God might help you cultivate a newfound curiosity about where you live, work, commute, play, and worship. How might God be calling you to see this parish with new eyes? What are the things happening in our community that we can celebrate, support and give thanks for? What are the things that break God’s heart? What might God be saying to us? Where might God be calling us to go? What might God be calling us to do? What relationships and partnerships might we discover along the way? What exciting and unexpected ways might God decide to show up and show out if we just take the time to pay better attention?
I don’t have answers to all these questions – at least not yet – but I am committed to asking them and inviting others to join me. “But seek the welfare of the city [parish] where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” – Jeremiah 29:7
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