Video Transcript
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. And as we continue moving quickly in this program year, which is full of energy and enthusiasm and activity, including all that is going on with celebrating our 150th anniversary of being a diocese, I want us to think intentionally about purpose, and to think about our purpose as followers of Jesus Christ, individually and in our households and in our churches.
I’ve had any number of people – from congregations, clergy, from my bishop colleagues – I’ve had any number of people talk with me in recent weeks about our need to be much more businesslike in how we make our decisions, that we need to “trim the deadwood,” as someone said to me. Get rid of the things that don’t work. Shore up our strengths and determine how best we can operate.
There is some truth to that, but there’s an even larger dissonance that comes with that, and it comes because of this. When Jesus began his ministry, he started a movement, a movement of people who followed him, and there was only one thing they were trying to do, and that was to be in a life where God was primary. They wanted to follow him into better relationship with God. They wanted to follow him into sharing God’s love and mercy and justice with other people. They were following him, and in doing so, they became a movement. Nowhere along the line were they asking themselves, as any business would, what can we sell or what can we provide in order to gain income so that we can make a profit and be successful at profit making. No, their idea of success was connecting people to God and connecting people to each other through the teaching of Jesus and through following Jesus.
And over 2000 years later, that remains what the church is about, especially in the time that we’re in. We are in a time that has become increasingly secular, and our emulating the American business place is not going to stop the time around us from being secular. As a matter of fact, it will make us more like the secular that is around us. Instead, what I want to invite us to do is ask ourselves about purpose. Every single day as you go about your work, ask yourself, What am I doing to follow Jesus Christ today? In what way am I connecting people to God and connecting people to each other through God’s love and through the ministry of Jesus Christ? How am I doing that? Ask yourself in your household, In what way are we connecting people to God and connecting people to each other? Ask yourself that about your church, especially if you’re in church leadership, or you’re a member of the vestry or wardens or you’re clergy, in what way are you connecting people to God and helping to connect people to each other through Jesus Christ?
This is the mission of the church. I’m not making that up. If you read scripture, you will find it right there. Jesus said, Follow me. And Jesus also said, Take care of the least among us. And when we do that, people can’t help but be drawn to us. Let me be clear about something. I am not talking about a formula for growth, but I will say this, every time there has been a pattern of growth in the church, the church in this country and the church worldwide, the growth has not come from running a business. The growth has come from sharing God’s love and mercy and justice with those who do not know God’s love and mercy and justice.
It is our 150th year of serving God’s people and God’s church in northern New Jersey. One hundred fifty years. You don’t get to do that because you’re trying to drive a profit and loss statement. You get to do that because you know who you’re following, Jesus Christ, and you know what you’re sharing God’s love and mercy and justice. We may be a business, but we’re a business like no other business.
