We Discern Our Calling to Growth & Ministry

Review

Welcome to everyone here with us at St. Hagop and also joining us via livestream on facebook and watching later on facebook or youtube. The aim of this sermon series has been to start a prayerful reflection and conversation on who we are as a church and what type of culture we foster to grow us all in our Christian walk.  To review where we have been, in the first week we started off with an introduction on the importance of culture, how it is the single most important factor in nurturing individuals and a church who are committed followers of Christ. Then we talked about how a healthy worship culture, especially in our worship-centric oriental orthodox tradition, is absolutely crucial; When people come to worship, are they laser focused on knowing and growing in God?  Then, we spoke last week about how the totally natural and necessary response to experiencing God’s unconditional, self-giving love during worship, is then to offer that same unconditional, self-giving love to others. A tall task, and a life-long journey, but central to our Christian faith, which is to be lived and practiced, right here and right now!

That everyone is called to ministry is Biblical

Today we are discussing the third sign of a healthy Armenian Church culture, that we all believe we have a calling to ministry, not just some of us, and not just on a couple of hours for a Sunday.  We could put it this way, a sign of healthy church culture is that everyone is in full time ministry (Pete Scazzero).

Before we get into all the exciting practical application to all of this, I want to talk for a minute about what I think is the bad theology that holds us back and the exciting theology that leads us to the conclusion that everyone is in full time ministry. First of course it is biblical. There are a million passages supporting this Colossians 3:23 is just one. ‘Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters. In Paul’s time, slaves were one third of the population.  Paul is saying here that everyone is in full time ministry, including even slaves.  Your calling is your full life.  In Ephesians 4, the passage which informs the Bishop’s vision of building the body of Christ, we read that all of our work in church is to equip the saints (the people that is) for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Everyone in Full Time Ministry at St. Hagop

St. Hagop is the first location of this living spiritual experiment that everyone feel called to ministry of our church.  I truly believe that everything we have here at St. Hagop is a result of parishioners responding to a special calling by God to offer their gifts to this church, and then watching those gifts be multiplied and blessed by God. I think we do have a great culture of giving and service at St. Hagop.

The most visible fruits of our ministry together is the buildings we sit, the sanctuary and Shahnasarian hall. The pews, the pavilion, the curtains, the candlesticks, the flagpoles, the microphones and the video cameras, all of these are visible results of the ministry, of the investment of the people of this church in the body of Christ.  Sasoon is talented and experienced with cameras, that’s why we have cameras that are streaming this service.  Mark K. is gifted with microphones that’s why you can hear me. Karen is gifted with interior design, that’s why our curtain looks so nice, and the bridal room. Stepan knows kitchen equipment from his work, that’s why everyone loves out kitchen.  We could go on and on here, and these visible manifestations of the gifts we give to church cannot be understated.

But remember, this is the church of the almighty but invisible God, and that much of the power of the spiritual life, much of the power of church cultural happens below the surface and is harder to see with the plan eye.  For example Grace has felt called to help all of us increase our care for each other in this church with her efforts in outreach ministry. (other examples) It’s a lot harder to see care, but I can’t tell you it is the most powerful gift and force we have at our disposal here. People who know they are cared for by God and by our church family, care back for the church and others, spreading that all important element of Christ’s love that we talked about last week.

12 Church Ministries

Over the past several years, we have worked hard to delineate, celebrate and engage everyone into the primary ministries of the church.  We have outlined 12 of them and have tried to keep this before us at every occasion. 

Altar Guild/Flower Guild, Altar Service, ACYOA, Events Committee, Greeters Ministry, Outreach Ministry, Maintenance/Facilities Enhancement, Music Ministry, Parish Council, Stewardship Committee, Sunday School, Women’s Guild

Every one of these ministries is absolutely essential to keeping this church going, and they are all currently doing their job of engaging people’s talents into the building up of the church.  We have more work to do, however, to more personally and specifically invite each of you into service, ministries, things you can offer to the church and engage with us.  We always have to watch out for the same people doing too much.

This can’t be a program, or the work of one person, this has to be continued evolution in the entire culture of our church.  We have to believe and practice and ever have on our minds that everyone has something to offer, and that we all need to try and figure out how that offering can be made for God’s glory and the church.

Full Time Ministers Beyond Church

So, you can tell from the survey responses in sign 3 & 4 of creating a healthy church culture that people feel we have a good start in being a church which invites people into the ministries of our church and that when invited we all generously invest in them with our time, talent and treasure, evidenced by what we just talked about, and evidenced of course by our pledge stewardship program which continues to support our church and turn us all into better givers.  But now I want to cast a vision that begins in church but does not end there.  What would it be like for everyone to be full time ministry?  How would it be possible for all of you here to be full time ministers?

This sounds crazy maybe, but let’s leave that as a hanging mystery and start with some theology. We said how the concept of everyone being called is Biblical. Now I want to show how it is deeply sacramental.  First it is sacramental because each of us was baptized with myuron, dedicated and sealed in Christ with our Chrismation and called to follow and serve Christ all the days of our lives. But there is more. Underpinning the great church sacraments is our sacramental worldview that all of life is sacramental; that all things point to the glory of God.  God’s grace is not something that turns off and on for some people like priests and not for others.  It doesn’t turn on for a few hours on a Sunday and then turn off on Monday, like your sprinkler system. 

Remember the 110/10 rule.  We have 110 waking hours in the day. If you are really active in the church in worship and parish council, perhaps you spend 10 hours directly serving church.  God bless you, we wouldn’t be where we are without you, we need more!  But it cannot be that 10 hours we work for God and 110 hours we are agnostic.

God’s grace is always on, for all people at all times.  It is to us to discern this calling through prayer, formation and fellowship with other Christians, starting here at church, by permeating every waking hour of our lives, which is us our highest purpose, expressing our deepest self.

Ministry is not just for Church & Priests

One of my favorite quotes of all time that I have shared once before in a sermon is by the Russian Orthodox theologian Paul Evdokimov who breaks down all the false barriers we tend to put up about who is called, who isn’t, what is sacred and what isn’t.  He writes, “In the immense cathedral which is the universe of God, each man, whether scholar or manual laborer, is called to act as the priest of his whole life-to take all that is human, and to turn it into an offering and a hymn of glory.”

Encountering God and sharing the love of Christ is not restricted to church, the whole world is God’s cathedral.  Ministering holy things is not the exclusive domain of a priest, we are all called to the fundamental duty of the priesthood to take all that is human and to offer it back up to God in thanks and glory. To point to God in every situation and every way.  It isn’t easy work. It is very humbling, but also very powerful and rewarding. As a priest of the church, I work in a church. But you can be a priest at your work, in your family, in your life.  And we all minister together at church.

Priest at Work

Let’s start with your workplace, because that is where most of us spend most of our time, and if Christianity is a lifestyle and not a hobby, the full time ministry you are called to will mostly be in your workplace. How? Well you are to do a priest’s job at work, to lift up the mundane things we do, knowing that it is all ultimately revealing of God.  And you are to remember that the people around you, the good and the bad, are eternal souls fearfully and wonderfully made. 

• If you are an accountant, you are counting numbers with stewardship and care
• If you are a car mechanic you are fixing cars with love of God for clients
• If you are a garbage man or janitor you are cleaning for God and like God
• If you are a waiter, your customer is Jesus
• If you work at home, you do the dishes and deal with diapers as ministry

But I Hate My Work

The objection to this is well expressed by several parishioners who have come to me sharing major dissatisfaction with their work. Der Hayr, you don’t know how bad the people are there. My boss is terrible. What I do has no meaning, it has nothing in common with the deepest part of who I am.  I’m just keeping my head down until I can retire and be free. These are hard situations to endure, and sometimes God does indeed call us to move from an unfulfilling job to one more significant.  But for the vast majority of people, this opportunity isn’t available or is out of our control. And the truth is that, even if you move into the best most significant job you can think of, the struggle to find joy and meaning in work, ultimately is a prayerful discipline worked out with God.

I know this, because I have a great boss (hi Bp. Daniel). I work with great people. My work is as meaningful and significant as it comes. But I have struggled for all the years of my ministry with the discouragement that most of how I spend my time is not doing ‘real ministry.’ Now, there is some truth in this. We as a church and I as a priest always have to fight to keep our focus on the things we should be doing and not what we could do, focusing on the things of God and not all the side tracks. 

All Work Can be Ministry & Calling

But an equal part of the problem is not form without but form within.  I think we all tend to have a dualism about what is sacred and about what isn’t, I know I do.  When I am preaching, doing a funeral, or baptism this is clearly ministry, the work of God.  But when I am participating in a parish council meeting, this is not ministry but bureaucracy and drudgery; the enemy of ministry! But the whole truth, the sacramental truth is that everything we do, even the most simple drudgery, can be done with faith, offered back as a hymn of praise to God.

A parish council meeting has endless opportunities to point to God in the everyday, making more real any sermon that is preached.   Budgeting can be ministry. Conflict resolution can be ministry. Delegation and building leadership is ministry. Even washing dishes, and fixing ACs and toilets can be ministry, though I admit I am still praying to change my attitude on these.

Importance of Attitude

There is a great scientific study done at Harvard that helps us see how important our mindfulness and attitude is in our work.  A psychologist names Ellen Langer did a big study in 2007 where She gathered hotel maids from different hotels and asked how often do you get exercise.  2/3 said they don’t get any exercise ever. She then split into two groups, to one group they informed them that the work they do (cleaning hotel rooms) is good exercise and satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle. Subjects in the control group were not given this information. Although actual behavior did not change, 4 weeks later, the informed group perceived themselves to be getting significantly more exercise than before. As a result, compared with the control group, they showed a decrease in weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index. These results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect.

Importance of Mindfulness with Church

Even though they were all exercising all day, these maids did not think they were exercising, and until they did they did not reap the benefits.  I think the same happens with us at church.  We have endless opportunities for ministry in daily life and we probably already do some. But if we daily realize what we are doing and what we could yet do as ministers, we would reap the benefits. I will not pre-judge this customer, she is a child of God.  I will forgive my colleague though they do not deserve it, for I am forgiven despite my faults.  I will change these AC filters with the love and joy of God in my heart, because I am alive and healthy and can do a small part in keeping God’s world turning.

Conclusion/Summation

Next Time

We were forced to take out two signs of healthy church culture today, which worked out fine because they were related, creating a culture where people discern their call to ministry, they invest in their ministries and we help equip each other for this ministry. Next time we will go to our final, most challenging and interesting sign of healthy church culture, that we witness to others of the Armenian Orthodox way.  That is, that the Armenian church is not only for Armenians and their spouses, it is all a gift given for sharing, that all people not only hear the fact that Armenians were the first Christian nation but see the example and witness of people who are first Christians in everything they do.