The Important Thing is to Stay On the Path!

The first verse of a wonderful Lenten penitential hymn goes like this:
Creator of the earth and skies,
to whom the words of life belong,
grant us your truth to make us wise;
grant us your power to make us strong.

That’s been my prayer for this week!

It’s been a great week of conversations and contacts and questions and ideas and research. Clergy friends and laypeople from a variety of denominations have been very generous with their time, insights and advice, and have referred me to others who can help and/or who might be interested in being part of this adventure. Additional conversations have been scheduled for the next three weeks.

This Monday and Tuesday a church planting summit was held in Texas. You can read about it on the Anglican1000 website: Church Planting Summit  Over the next couple weeks I’ll be talking to at least three people who were at that summit to gain additional perspective, resources, ideas, etc.

I’ve been fully aware in my head that the whole path won’t be clear all at once – that we shouldn’t expect to see more than just a little bit ahead of where we are at the moment, but that we should move ahead with what we know and with where God seems to be leading, while staying attentive. The important thing is to stay on the path! But as I’ve been talking to old and new friends this week it’s been so cool to see one idea expand into another and to experience some little “course corrections” early in the journey. I wouldn’t have started this journey if I didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do, and my conviction about its “rightness” has grown throughout this week.

But, project manager that I am, I have still started a task list and a project plan and a Gantt chart even though I know that big and small things can and will change considerably. I just can’t help myself!

Two questions will need to be answered pretty soon. If you would like to offer your thoughts on either of these, please leave a comment on this blog entry or send an email to MplsAnglican@aol.com

1) What should the name of this church be? It would be nice to start referring to it as something other than “a new Anglican church for southwest Minneapolis,” and it will need a name to start the incorporation process.

2) When should it meet, especially in the initial months? On the one hand, a non-Sunday-morning timeslot would be great for people who want to be involved in the startup of this church but who also want to continue to worship and serve at their current church. On the other hand, a typical Sunday morning timeframe would be best for folks who want to involve their whole families right from the start since conflicts arise with kids’ and other activities almost any other time of the day. As some of my friends observed this week, it should be possible to rent lovely Sunday morning space from a Synagogue or a Seventh-Day Adventist church!