Dear St. Lukers,

Last week I had the privilege of leading one of our Partnership classes, Discover St. Luke’s, for people who are either just getting to know St. Luke’s, or for people who are moving toward Partnership (membership) in our church.

We spend most of our time going through St. Luke’s mission statement, which also happens to be the subject of the current worship series. It’s always incredible to see and hear how people who are first encountering St. Luke’s experience things that have become central to who we are and what we’re about, and, as always, there was an incredible amount of joy and appreciation for our particular understanding of mission and discipleship as a church. But – this hasn’t always been our mission statement.

I hope you’ve been digging in with our current worship series, Rooted in Purpose, as we go deeper with the “roots” of St. Lukes, through our Wesleyan heritage as well as the book of Ephesians. Our roadmap for this series is that very mission statement, “Awakening Disciples to Reveal the Kingdom, and Revealing the Kingdom to Awaken Disciples.”

It was just a few years ago, just before the pandemic, that we developed this iteration of the St. Luke’s mission statement. The previous version talked about “building” the kingdom and disciples. With some of our leadership, we discussed if it was time for an evolution of that statement, and there was a consensus that there might be a more nuanced way to talk about discipleship and kingdom work. We dug in to our Wesleyan theology, asking what might be a more specific way to describe our mission, distinctive to our theological tradition.

We felt like the words “kingdom” and “disciples” were still exactly right, but there was a feeling that our work with and for both of them was slightly different than “building.”

“Building” implied a beginning and an end – which we know for our discipleship, that God’s prevenient grace begins to work in us long before we are aware of it, and that the kingdom is both already and not yet – a reality that is “in process,” if you will.

It’s how we landed on “awakening” for discipleship – to recognize that we aren’t building disciples, but awakening ourselves and others to the presence of God already at work in their lives.

But the part of the evolution of this statement that I find most powerful is the other word that we added in place of “building” – to “reveal” God’s kingdom. Because, you see, the kingdom is already springing up all around us. Every time we hear a story of kindness, of mercy, of justice, of redemption – that’s God’s kingdom at work. When we look around and see the potential in our community or our families – that’s God’s kingdom ready to break through.

God’s kingdom is already all around us – no building needed. But we get to point it out. We get to help uncover it with works of justice and mercy, by working toward equity and inclusion for all people, by advocating for the marginalized.

This Sunday, that’s what we’re going to talk more about – what it means to be revealers of the kingdom, to shine light in spaces where the kingdom is hard to see, and to amplify the light on places the kingdom is already alive and well.

Join us at 9:30 or 10:00 for worship, where our praise team, choir, and orchestra will guide us into growing in how we understand God’s kingdom, and our role as “Kingdom Revealers.”

See you there!

Pastor Melissa

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