The focus for our conversation on August 1 was the center of our common life, our worship.  While we considered both the physical aspects of the worship space and the emotional and structural aspects of the worship experience itself, most of our comments addressed the physical dimensions of the worship experience. 

On August 15 we will be focusing on the ways that we reach out to the broader community.  There are two parts to this conversation.  One is the way we see ourselves and thus the way we describe ourselves to others.  The second is how we tell others who we are.  One is the content of our identity and the other is the medium for expressing to others who we are.  I want to direct my comments here to the first part of the question: who do we say we are?

This is very difficult for a number of reasons.  The most immediate of these is that we each have a different story we will tell to explain who Pilgrim is because we each experience Pilgrim in a different way…in our own way.  No two of us has the same experience so no two of us tells the same story.  While this is an obvious problem, it can be overcome by all of us sharing our stories and finding a shared story.  We can do this if we want to.  The more difficult problem is that we may not want to.  It is not that we are reluctant to share our stories but that we may not want to develop a shared story…a common statement about who we are and what we are up to. 

As soon as we say clearly and specifically who we are, we will be defining ourselves in a way that some will not agree to or identify with.  In 1954 we made a clear and powerful statement about who we were. We drew a bright line to show where we stand.  We are staying at 826 Union and we are welcoming people of all races.  And half the church left. 

It is much safer from the perspective of institutional maintenance to try to be all things to all people.  That way we can easily appear to be what anyone is looking for.  “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”  Welcome, yes.  Comfortable, perhaps not.

We are considering here the question of mission.  Who are we and what is it that we do and for whom do we do it?  Any voluntary association or corporation, if it wants to be effective, must have a clear mission.  The more the people who form the association or corporation can “own” the mission, the more effective the organization is likely to be.

One of the things that inhibits the effectiveness of not-for-profits is the phenomenon known as “mission creep.”  This occurs when the activities of the organization begin to move beyond the core mission.  This dilutes the resources and the thrust of the organization.  For us to know if we are poorly focused we would need to be very clear about our focus.

To help us get a sense of just how narrow we want our focus to be (broad enough to be inclusive but narrow enough to be effective) I want to present a perspective for what I envision as the mission of Pilgrim.  I want to be clear, however, that I am not expecting that everyone (or perhaps even anyone else) will share my perspective.  The issue I want us to address has to do with the way that we engage around the question of what we stand for and what difference we hope to make in the community and in our own lives.  I will say just a bit here and spell it out in greater detail on Sunday with a PowerPoint presentation.

Pilgrim is a faith community.  Faith communities are very diverse.  They can be Christian (church), Jewish (synagogue or temple), Muslim (mosque), Buddhist (sangha), and so on.  All faith communities have certain qualities and purposes in common.  Humans need communities of faith.  Pilgrim should strive to meet these needs well.

At the same time, Pilgrim is a unique entity.  There is no other faith community that is just like Pilgrim.  Indeed, Pilgrim is a changing, and hopefully growing and evolving institution. At this moment in the development of Pilgrim, who are we and what is it about us that makes us unique?  Can we discover what that is and, if we can, will we want to tell that to others?

So there are two aspects of our mission.  One has to do with the ways we are a faith community like so many other faith communities.  We fellowship with each other, we seek to have a positive impact on the world around us, and we support each other in our own spiritual growth.  The second has to do with the unique aspects of Pilgrim.  We are informed by and articulate a progressive and post-modern interpretation of the teachings of Christ, we are radically diverse and inclusive of all types and conditions of people and families, and we are intentionally working to build relationships with each other that embody the best of what it means to be mutually accountable.

I will say more about all of this on Sunday.  I hope you can be there.

Mark