By The Rev Ken Howard

Some of you may know that my last congregation was a new church startup.

As such, we went through many iterations of status over a decade or more: from a diocesan mission to an organized mission to a parish without boundaries to a parish with boundaries and property to a parish with a building.

We knew our diocese was antsy about spending on anything that wasn’t a sure thing, and that a mission could be closed at any time. So after a thorough examination of the mission-to-parish canons and discovering that the criteria for parish status focused on attendance, membership, and giving to the diocese, but said nothing about property or a building, we decided to set those aside and go full-speed ahead to meet all the numerical criteria.

As a result, we achieved parish status in under 5 years! And became the first thriving new parish in our diocese in over 40 years!

Within a few more years, we were able to convince our diocese to purchase property for us. Once the deal was closed, we decided to do another creative, out-of-the-ordinary thing; we asked the bishop to come and consecrate the property before we had a building. We planted a cross and a memorial garden on a rise in the middle of the property.

By the time our diocese approved the construction of our building and it was time to break ground, several of our parishioners had died, and we had buried urns containing their ashes in the memorial garden.

And wouldn’t you know it? We found out the afternoon of October 30 that the builders had set construction to start on November 1. And the memorial garden was in the way and had to be relocated.

So here we were on All Hallows Eve – me, our deacon, and members of the vestry – digging up graves and carrying them in a holy procession to a location and re-burying them. And all of this while trick-or-treaters walked by on the sidewalk in their Halloween costumes.

Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?

In fact, our deacon told me that she learned three things about God that night:

1. 1. God is crazy.
   2. God thinks he has a sense of humor.
   3. Sometimes, God is actually funny.

One could say this was a story about a church being nimble, rolling with the punches, and turning something that could have been a nightmare into something holy—and humorous, to boot.

So if your congregation or judicatory has significant challenges, don’t let them become a nightmare. Instead, look for God’s grace and humor, as well as the opportunity God may be providing you.

And speaking of opportunity, if there’s one thing we at FaithX excel at, it is helping congregations and judicatories identify and engage missional opportunity in themselves and in the communities they serve.

Happy All Hallows Eve!
From your friends at FaithX