As I prepare to leave St. Mark's and take my new title at St. Francis, there is a lot that I am mulling over in my head in terms of planning and the future of the new parish. Obviously one can only plan so much from afar. With the weekly schedule, for instance, one has to get a feel for the parish, and what times work best for people for masses, classes, and such before deciding that all weekday and holy day masses will be at noon, or whatever.
But it is possible to think in generalities, so I ask myself the question: "What do I hope to accomplish as rector of St. Francis? What is the point of it all?" And the answer is not anything like: grow the parish into 300+ people; get new members; start a great youth ministry program and other 'programs'; become an anglo-catholic/anglo-papalist liturgical museum; fulfill the MDGs established by the U.N. The answer is none of those things. The answer is to be found in the pages of the BCP, in the ordinal, specifically. There the vocation of a priest is laid out. A priest is to be devoted to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. (p. 560) A priest is to work for the perfecting of the saints. (p. 538) A priest is to be a shepherd of souls, and to lead men to everlasting life. (p.539) A priest is to be a messenger, watchman, and steward of the Lord. He is to teach, and to premonish, to feed and provide for the Lord's family; to seek for Christ's sheep and for his children in this world that they might be saved through Christ forever. (pp.539-540) I will not type out the whole charge here, but would commend it to anyone who is interested. That is my number one purpose as a priest: to help people get to heaven, and God willing to make it there myself one day. If a priest doesn't build his ministry on that basic foundation, everything else he does will come tumbling down. If he does build off of that, everything else will develop naturally at the appropriate time. The parish will grow; youth ministry will be developed; programs will be initiated; the holy sacrifice of the mass will be the most glorious thing this side of heaven. Why? Because Christ, when He is lifted up draws all men to himself (John 12:32). Those things will all come about if I, and the people of the parish, are faithful in our various vocations, and if we keep the main goal in mind: salvation from sin, hopelessness, and death through the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these things are means to that end.
I think that churches get it completely backwards when they talk about "growth" and "programs" before they talk about Jesus Christ, and glorifying Him, and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth - in word and in sacrament.
