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A Word From the Interim Rector
PAGE 2
“Do you see what we’ve got?
An unshakable kingdom! And
do you see how thankful we
must be? Not only thankful,
but brimming with worship,
deeply reverent before God.
For God is not an indifferent
bystander. He’s actively
cleaning house, torching all
that needs to burn, and he
won’t quit until it’s all
cleansed. God himself is fire!”
Hebrews 12:28-29,
THE MESSAGE
“Change is not made without
inconvenience, even from
worse to better.”
Richard Hooker, Anglican Divine
(1554-1600)
A
s rector in a previous parish,
I was approached by
the founding father of the congregation.
I had made some deliberate
changes with which he was not entirely
happy. These changes were relatively
minor (to me). They were entirely
well planned, not at all arbitrary,
welcomed by almost everyone, and
resulted in a more inviting church and
appealing worship service than before.
But this founding father was undone
by the very thought of any change at
all. This is what he said to me, as best
as I can recall it. “Tom, when I
founded this church, my vision and
primary purpose was to create it to be
just like a museum, where nothing
ever changed. I built this church and
have worked hard to insure that nothing
would ever change here.” He was
a successful businessperson, and I
wondered to myself if he applied the
PASTORAL LETTER
same standards to his own business?
How could it survive, let alone evolve
and grow, without some adaptation
and change? I also wondered whether
he was thinking of the church as “a
museum for alabaster saints” or not?
This vision of a “display case” Christianity
didn’t ring true to my experience
nor did it square with sainthood as I
saw it (and still see it) defined by Holy
Scripture. This was a false vision of
the church to me because it made a
false idol of the past. God’s saints are
not supposed to be mere figurines
shelved and sequestered in the past,
collecting dust, but rather, dynamic,
faithful and living witnesses of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ now! So I decided
not to go there. Instead, I responded
by saying, “I can appreciate
that, but even museums make changes
in their exhibits. They schedule new
exhibitions all the time. Museums are
not exempt from change either. Nothing
in life is exempt from change.”
Gilbert R. Rendle, in his book
Leading Change in the Congregation
(published by the Alban Institute) observes
that when talking about change
in the church, one’s first reaction is
fear. Considering how change is such
a “hot button” issue at St. Matthias,
perhaps Rendle’s point deserves special
emphasis: FEAR! On the one
hand, there is the fear of too much
change, he says, involving the risk of
losing control. If that happens, things
of value may be lost. On the other
hand, there is the counter fear of too
little change, associated with the inability
to get any change started at all.
When that happens (or, I should say,
when change in the church doesn’t
happen) in a rapidly changing culture,
By Fr. Thomas Barnett
the way we share and practice our
faith may not match our modern expectations
about life in general and
how we learn (interactively) in today’s
culture. Consequently, a generation of
children may be lost only because the
church could not or would not try to
change.
St. Matthias faces an uncertain
future. That we know. That is why we
call it the interim period. The interim
period is very naturally a time of intentional
and deliberate change. But
what changes should there be? It’s up
to you. What would you say are the
driving forces behind change at St.
Matthias? What are the resisting
forces opposed to change at St. Matthias?
Only all of you can say in any
authoritative way.
I do not have all the perfect answers
for you, though I might like to
make a suggestion or two. I will not
impose my “answer” upon you. I
probably need to say that again. In
terms of the necessary sequence of
steps that make up the interim process,
I am not going to impose anything
on you that you don’t want. By
that, I mean you must decide for
yourselves what you are going to
make of this interim period. But I do
want you to see it for the golden opportunity
that it is. For the sake of
your future, there is no better time
than now to identify and prioritize the
changes and more specifically,
changes in direction, that need to be
made before calling a rector.
Occasionally I am asked the question,
“Why must this interim process
take so long?” My short answer is
simply this: Because there is so much
(Continued on page 3)
The Messenger