Creating a Space for Yes

I'm a “yes” man. I'll admit it, though maybe not the way you are imagining. As facilitator of a non-traditional community, people approach me with all kinds of questions: 

• This All Souls' Day, can we host a meal and worship service at our local homeless center that honors all of the homeless who have died in the previous year? 
• Instead of washing feet this Maundy Thursday, can we collect shoes for our neighborhood elementary school? 
• Can we embody ministry equality and hire a Lay Missioner? 
• I heard about a Church with a Theologian-in-Residence; can we have a Theologian-in-Residence? 

I have been filled-with-the-Spirit or foolhardy enough to answer, “yes,” to all of these questions.
While it is better than being a “no” man, I did not set out to be a “yes” man. I set out to create a safe space for those I serve – a space safe enough to ask questions, but also a space safe enough for the questions to become declarations: 

• We are going to print prayerbook breviaries full of our favorite prayers and readings to give to people we love. 
• We are going to buy a Loaves-and-Fishes Food Truck to share food and celebrate Holy Communion with the poor in our city. 
• Our worshiping community is going to raise $700,000 to give away, making 2014 the Year of the Jubilee.

I was miles away from home when it happened, when the questions turned into statements. A group of lay leaders got together without me and decided to make 2014 the Year of the Jubilee in our community. They decided to raise the aforementioned $700,000. While this might sound pretty good to some of us involved in parish leadership, they also added the caveat that every penny of this $700,000 would go to justice ministries and not one penny of this sum would be spent on our own worshiping community.

I returned home to this news, and it hit me: this is what can happen when a community is open to the movement of the Holy Spirit. This is way bigger than anything I could have dreamed up. I can already hear my inner cynic clearing his throat, but I'm a “yes” man now. The conversations among community leaders have already begun. We will raise that $700,000 and my “yes” will turn into a “YES!!!”

This blog post was originally posted on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts Blog on August 21, 2013, and is reprinted with permission.