Fr. Geoff Coupland 25 January 2026 Sermon
Please be seated.
I'm not sure what you're used to. So let me begin by sharing my purpose in delivering this report to the annual meeting. It is intent and I'm not sure you're used to having it delivered during the sermon time, but it sure shortens the meeting It is intended to describe where I perceive we are now What's working how it's working What we might want more of and where we might head It is offered to evoke thought, response, and hopefully action. Now I've been here as your priest in residence for just under four months. And I want to thank you for the wonderfully hospitable way that you have received me. I hope that you are beginning to feel as at home with me as I feel with you. As importantly, I want to thank you for the way in which so many of you have embraced the way in which I prefer we do ministry together. That way begins with an understanding that you and I individually and St. Matthew's as a community are mysteries to be embraced rather than problems to be solved. It encompasses searching for solutions that already exist, amplifying what is working, focusing on the life-giving forces, and affirming each other in this.
It is a way that looks for what is working well and learning from what works.
It means being who we are at our best and doing what we love to do well. So for many of you, I thank you. And I assure you that ministry in this realm will produce for you much good fruits. Now I think I want to remind you it's time to renew our vision statement. It's ancient and it's meaningless. And would someone here like to tell me what it is? There you go. There are absolutely nothing motivational in that. As we revision and our understanding of it, we will look at how we intend to make it a reality. And that reality in many ways will define the success of St. Matthew's. What I mean to be saying is this I very much like you.
I do.
And I'm glad to be joining with you.
But like every church, our church needs to be about more than individual personalities with their likes and dislikes. We need to be equally, if more so, interested in our mission. where we see ourselves going. and what we see ourselves doing. Of course, how we treat each other on the way is as important as where we are going. But we need to believe that we are making a difference. And in revisioning, we get a framework in which we can make that difference.
Together we can make a difference.
A strategic vision demands a strategic plan. So in the next year we will also work on a strategic plan. that will present achievable, I hope, long and short-term goals that are measurable, affordable, and sustainable, and that identifies the action required to accomplish them. on to financial decision-making stand.
It is my contention That we will be more apt to fulfill our purpose If we adopt if we haven't already Value-based budgeting in which each financial decision is weighed against our discovered core values and our vision statement, rather than letting our budget drive our mission. It is vitally important in a time of financial recession in this Paris that has shown some steady decline, monetarily although that shifted a bit this year, and numerically, for the last number of years, and that is in a transition We all want to know where and for what reason Our hard-earned money is being spent on our behalf by our church Is it really making a difference in the areas that we will identify that we can make a difference? We also share a common belief, I think, that is important to keep our bottom line as close to balanced as possible. This requires hard decision-making on the part of a congregational council. If we know what really matters and where our mission really is, it makes it easier to know where not to waste and where to spend. I also believe that income and expenses must be stated in clear language, and that as things change everyone should be consulted, but should not have a veto. Being together and working together for something meaningful always involves tension. That will at times obviously include contention. All organizations. Live between the excesses of chaos and over control.
congregations working at their best, maintain a tension, a healthy tension, between the requirements of living in community, that is integration, and the need in each person to be an individual, differentiation. When the contention level is too low, congregations tend to become frozen.
No challenge means patterns of doing and thinking become rigid. On the other hand, and I have the scars to prove it from my early years, too much change too fast can be toxic, producing obnoxious behavior. When people are angry and don't know what to expect next, life in a congregation gets chaotic and the work never gets done. Now I'm going to ask you all over the next course of the next couple of months to do a survey for me It's called understanding your congregation as a system. Pretty straightforward. You answer the questions and you also, you all get to fill in your own results. And then you pass them back to someone on the Congregational Council. We tally them and we'll tell you where the tension exists around here or if there is any. And it measures seven categories.
All right?
One, here they are. Strategy. The way we put our vision into practice. Authority, the ability to influence decision-making here. Process, the information sharing and decision-making procedures here. And the instant to which these procedures are clearly defined or not. Relatedness. The way we work together. Lay leadership. the ability of our lay leaders to generate intended change here. Learning. our orientation toward the past or future as it experiments with improving its life and ministry. And finally, pastoral leadership. So over the next period of time I'll hope you'll all take the time to fill those in because you've all I hope you have all had a chance To read the results of holy cow All right that provides very valuable important information, but it doesn't tell us all we needed to know And it doesn't give us a vision and a strategy That's up to us and as I said to you what I hear here I've been doing transitional ministry for over 25 years. I Can provide any amount of resource that you could ever imagine I Provide the resource You provide the outcome.
Now.
Church growth. which has I think been some of a discussion around here. Church growth is not and cannot be a goal. It is a byproduct of doing what we do best. It is an important metric to assess how we are doing, but it is not and should not be our goal. What I do know is that if we do well, what we do well, we will grow. Can you imagine that?
What does it evoke in you?
Excitement, fear, joy, sorrow, hope, despair, none of the above, all of the above.
The thought of church growth evokes many different responses, not all of them conscious, some of which are conflicting, all of them real. Which we must be mindful of and attentive to If we are successfully to make some kind of transition to the future Church growth is not a goal, but it can be planned for. Now, this church is presently classified as a family-sized church with a membership of under 50 active members measured by average Sunday attendance. you have in the past reached upper limits. You were bigger, richer. Were the expected norms have been stretched than necessary changes accommodated?
You have done a good job of adjusting to being a family-sized church. That's a good thing. But if we actually start to grow, we're gonna have to look at that again.
So, just imagine, by the way, I didn't come here to close you like somebody else said to me. I've heard enough of that stuff. I came here hopefully to give you some resources so that you can actually find some confidence in your future again.
So if we start to dream about the possibility of oh my goodness possible There's something possible here we need now to start to create space Where we can all come together and Explore our own particular desires In this matter and to identify and recognize the conflicts that exist even within ourselves about this. Will there be enough grace and love and sacrament to go around? And so we need to build as many safe settings to understand and ponder the voices that we hear in our hearts and minds. And I also have, and none of this, by the way, should be noted, folks on the Congregational Council. We have talked about doing small group meetings with directed conversations over the course of the next six months. So what does it's not about me? It's about us and Us is about God really mean to each of us as we contemplate our church.
For a time, I'm sure, as we actually start to get our heads around this possibility, there will be some confusion. So prepare for some confusion But don't confuse it with chaos. And I'm not talking about get smart. We will work a plan. I do, it does I hope. Help if you know what's happening and are a part of it and aren't too surprised.
Finally. I'm glad you're all glad of that. Finally, I want to address the issue of parish health. Healthy clergy and healthy congregations go hand in hand.
I know I've been to too many churches to quote unquote clean them up because that wasn't the truth. We want to be healthy. And we want to stay healthy. So we'll want to be clear about the boundaries and limits of our responsibilities, authority and accountability. We will want to clarify between pain that is of value and pain that's just a pain. To this end, I have shared with the congregation of council, and I think they have agreed that we will on a regular basis do a mutual ministry valuation.
Responding to pinches promptly and appropriately, rather than waiting for the crunches, Working from best practices is the preventive medicine for a preferred future.
I hope you agree.
In conclusion, let me ask you a question. Wouldn't it be great to be part of a group of people who embrace who they are, and what they love to do. in a congregation that is embracing of the mystery of life while doing what they love to do together for those they love.
Could we be those people? Time will tell.