Today marks two weeks as the Rector of St. David’s Church.

I have been gently (and lovingly?) chastised for not blogging more. Okay, so I have been a little busy. But with a yielded spirit of repentance, here we go....

What is so important that the Rector doesn’t have time to blog? Well, I have been busy with assessment and evaluation of the parish. I am in a period of discernment. I am trying to figure out what is really going on around here. I’m all: Who’s who? and What’s what?

The challenge is to identify the blessings and to tell the truth about where the parish falls short of God’s best. So far it appears that my pre-call assessment of St. David’s short-comings have been fairly accurate. But, and this is a big BUT, as I make my initial parish visits I am finding that I have vastly under-estimated the richness of the blessing and the scope of the ministry opportunity here.

My consistent reaction in my first two weeks on the job has been: WOW.

I find myself somewhat in the position of the man in Jesus’ parable who found a treasure in a field and “went and sold all he had” to buy that field – only more so. Every rock I turn over, I find another treasure.

“There’s another rock.”

More Treasure!

Check it out:

People are genuinely focused on faith. They got it. They want more.

People are "hungering and thirsting" to have the Scripture opened to them. There is a genuine recognition of biblical authority, and this without the barnacle of fundamentalism.

People value that quality of the St. David’s community. They seem willing to invest in nurturing the vitality of that community.

We have a strong staff with passion, gifts, and commitment. I find myself in the surprising role (for me) of slowing people down. They tend to say, “Let me at ‘em!” “Let’s go!” “Charge!” I find myself saying, “Uh....Where are we going?”

Parish leaders are willing to learn. I have begun a class on Wednesday nights called, Bound Together For Life. It is a kind of a Spiritual Formation 101. The first class drew 99 people. The second class drew over 100. More importantly, I am receiving emails from participants that suggest they are digging deep into the principles I am presenting.

The parish has well-organized worship leadership teams. These include the Choir, a Contemporary Worship Band, Ushers, Greeters, Lay Readers, Lay Eucharistic Ministers, Altar Guild, Sound Techs, and Vergers. (A Verger here is a kind of Sunday morning Field Marshal who makes sure all the ‘I’s’ are dotted and ‘T’s’ are crossed).

The members of Vestry are emotionally healthy, intellectually alert and they really care about the mission of the church. (This may seem to some like it should be “a given” but, unfortunately, this is not the case in every parish.)

The congregation that gathers for worship on Sundays is responsive and alive. For example, I have made a couple of very minor adjustments in the liturgy and the congregation has been affirming, supportive and “game.” True, these have been simple things – like asking the congregation to take a more active role in the Eucharistic prayer. But, there are churches where the “last words of a dying church” ("We have never done it that way before!") would have echoed through the rafters.

The parish has a magnificent Pastoral Care Team. Pastoral care needs of the parish are quickly identified and lay pastoral care providers are deployed to meet the need in a timely fashion. The parish not only recognizes that pastoral care is the responsibility of the community (and not that exclusively of the clergy), it also embraces the principle in practice.

And last but not least: The people pray.

This list does not exhaust all the blessings I am discovering. But how long can a blog be? Besides, most of the blessings will continue to go unidentified. I am just not smart enough or spiritually alert enough to catalogue “all the abundant blessings in the heavenly places.” The stuff that I can name is just the copper coin – the real gold is more than I have the competence to declare.