At our annual meeting later this morning we will elect several new vestry members. One of my long-term goals here at Grace is to change the image of vestry service from an obligation of drudgery to a formative opportunity for Christians who enjoy having fun. As you know, however, vestries often get a bad reputation for focusing on the wrong things, often small stuff. At another church, I had a vestry member with a wry sense of humor. One time, when the vestry got wrapped around the axle on some $39 item, he chimed in with the observation, “That’s about as important as pimples on prom night.”

A long-standing problem in the Episcopal Church from top to bottom has been the tendency to focus on small stuff and ignore the big stuff. I won’t depress you with statistics because they are about the past and we need to be about the future. But just look at the opportunities around you. Look at all the space in here for new friends, old friends, guests, visitors, newcomers, and all kinds of new people.

You don’t need a Ph.D. in theology to understand the big stuff of the Bible. It is right there in the Gospel you just heard. What does Jesus tell us to do? A) Baptize people, and B) teach THEM what Jesus has taught US.

What if we took everything we did at Grace Episcopal Church and held it up to the Great Commission? What if we asked the question about every issue, “How does such and such help us either baptize new people or teach people what Jesus taught us?”

If we used the Great Commission as our yardstick, how would that make us different than we are now?

We would value the outsider, the stranger, the guest, the newcomer, more than we value our members. I am convinced that God sends messengers (angels) to us all the time. Many times we turn them away because they are different. At the peace we would seek out people we do not know and we would work to develop new relationships, new friendships.

We would value non-Christians more than Christians. We would do this, not because we want to add X new members to our rolls this year, but because we are excited about showing them about what God is doing in our life and in the life of this community.

I know, I know. Episcopalians are about as eager to talk about what God is doing in their life as they are to volunteer for a root canal. Most of us do not have the vocabulary or skills to talk about God, so we leave people with the impression that God must not be doing much here and they go somewhere else where they can find that excitement.

I ask you. Do you think God is at work in positive ways directly in Grace Episcopal Church in Muskogee? If we cannot convey to new people our own sense of excitement, then I guarantee you people will go somewhere else where there is much less to be excited about. What if we spent this year intentionally building the skills and vocabulary to work with newcomers and guests? What would happen if new people came to this church a year from now and after a while simply said, “Oh wow”?

There is no silver bullet, no magic elixir to grow a church. All I can do is be your cheerleader and point out to you all the good things that are happening here. You get to decide if God is behind this or not. As you think about this question and as you pray about this question, you get to discern if maybe you have experienced “Oh wow.”

And if you have, I invite you to learn how to pass it on.