One Big Thing

In my years of ordained ministry, I have not felt more excited to begin a new church program year as I do this year at St. John the Divine. Thanks be to God we are experiencing growth in important areas of church life, including baptized membership and worship attendance. So, I am gratefully anticipating new blessings for our ministries this program year 2024-2025.

Yet, I do not recall any other time in my ministry when I have felt a greater need to stress focus on the ministry that matters most: Jesus Christ. It is into his life and ministry, after all, to which we are called. Outside of Him nothing else ultimately matters as a church. As St. Paul writes to those first believers in Corinth: “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

As I have communicated before, I discern that one of the greatest challenges we face as a parish is that we do many good things! We have an abundance of active ministries. What is the challenge with that? It is a good question. To help illustrate an answer, I refer to a fragment from the ancient Greek poet Archilochus who contemplated human nature reflecting on the differences between foxes and hedgehogs. Comparing the crafty wiles of the fox to the lumbering steadiness of a hedgehog, Archilochus famously wrote: “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

This short insight was famously picked up by the 20th-century philosopher Isaiah Berlin and then popularized at the end of the last century in Jim Collins’ bestselling book on highly successful companies, Good to Great. The idea is that great organizations embody a single-minded focus on a central goal and everything they do flows from that “one big thing.” As Berlin explained, hedgehog people and systems “relate everything to a single central vision” while foxes “pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory.”

Even if this analogy is a bit simplistic, I firmly believe our parish will move steadily toward “the great” that God intends for us with a tighter focus on “one big thing.” This orientation is more important than energy expended on multiple goals for marginal growth in many ministries.

Thus, I would love this focus question to be continually on the heart of every member right now: What would growth in Jesus Christ look like for me this year at SJD? How might relentless and faithful focus on that question help us improve structures, prioritize programs, as well as further our Lord’s Kingdom work?

Even in a spiritual body like the church, it is necessary to have objective measures to help evaluate this focus on every member's growth in Jesus. The three metrics we will be looking at closely this year around this single strategic priority are: 1) worship attendance; 2) Sunday school attendance for children, youth, and adults; and 3) people in small groups. I am convinced that if each of us commits to a personal plan of growth in Christ this year, all of those metrics will increase. Moreover – and of critical importance – this focus will be the very means by which new people in Houston will be invited into our fellowship and we become better equipped to bless those outside the church. To be A Light for the City begins in our own growth in Christ, in our own commitment to personal discipleship. I want all our various ministries filtered through this focus for the year.

One particularly important ministry to this end is The Alpha Course. SJD is no stranger to Alpha as it has been offered off and on for many years. However, this fall Alpha embodies this parish-wide focus on spiritual growth and will be offered on Wednesday evenings at the church from September 11 to November 13. Alpha is an internationally renowned course on the central questions of life consisting of 10 evening sessions that explore the faith through engaging conversation, a lovely dinner, and first-rate video presentations. We want every member to consider this opportunity and invite a friend, neighbor, or colleague to join us.

Again, what a gift and blessing to be a part of an impressively energetic and active church. If St. John the Divine is to become an ever brighter Light for the City that will mean we are committed to welcoming new people into our community, growing together in the Christian faith, and going forth into Houston to bear the gospel for the sake of others. Among Episcopal Churches, I am convinced we will be a shining example of growth, faithfulness, and missional entrepreneurship reflecting the diverse richness of the global City of Houston. We will also be a leading light of revitalization for the larger church. However, those fruits of our vision will first sprout from lives with a simple desire and clear goal: commitment to growing in Jesus. What would growth in Him look like for you this year at SJD?

Wisdom for the Week

The choices facing us are less often between stark alternatives – good versus evil, for instance – than between good things we can’t have simultaneously.  – John Lewis Gaddis, On Grand Strategy

One Good Recommendation

Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024)

Many of us are familiar with Robinson’s beautiful fiction, especially her Gilead series of novels - Gilead, Home, Lila, and Jack. This densely rich work of non-fiction on the Book of Genesis has been a part of my summer reading, and I have found it engrossing. As I intend to teach on Genesis in the winter of 2025, I am sure to reference the insights and wisdom from Robinson, particularly her arguments for the astounding uniqueness of the Hebrew conception of God relative to the religious ferment of the ancient world.