Friends, who is ready to celebrate?

On Sunday, we will give thanks to God for 75 years of mission and ministry through Saint John’s. We will observe Holy Communion that morning in honor of Saint John's 75th birthday. And even if you did not RSVP for the birthday dinner, please come to our 4:00 celebration that includes past pastors and special music. The 11:00 am worship service and the 4:00 pm celebration will be livestreamed at stjohnsaustin.org/live.  If you are attending the birthday dinner, please consider signing up to volunteer, we still need some folks to bring cookies and help with cleanup. You can sign up for a volunteer spot at signup.com/go/XnMsFti.

In recognition of our 75th birthday, we present three-quarters of a century of Saint John's in the new book God’s People: 75 Years of Saint John's, the "inspiring story of one United Methodist Church in Austin, Texas, that refuses to give up or give in." The book, written by former staff member and church leader, Sally Rodgers, is now available in soft-cover and Kindle. Order yours at Amazon.com, or you may buy one at church. There is a copy in the library if you want to try before you buy.  

Two other books about our history are available for checkout from our recently renovated library in the church building, 1968's A Mind to Work by Lucille Hickerson Jones, which covers the early years of Saint John’s, and St. John's: Its Life and Times, a second history published in 1985 that tells stories of the Saint John’s spirit that remained diligent and Christ-centered. Both provided rich background and color for the new book.

Following in an excerpt from God's People: 75 Years of Saint John's. Enjoy this story, it’s one of many that makes Saint John’s such an inspired place. I am looking forward to celebrating our rich history with you!

A high-pressure system moved in on the Chesapeake Bay, making the weather even drier and hotter than normal on an August day in 2005. The bay looked as dark as stout beer, as blackouts rolled across Maryland and most of the eastern United States. 

It wasn’t exactly how Rev. Bobbi Kaye Jones and Rev. David Gilliam, who were serving as co-senior pastors at Saint John’s, pictured their mini-vacation after a church conference in Washington D.C. When their sessions finished, they decided to take off a few days for “resting and thinking and sitting around enjoying ourselves,” Gilliam says. 

As they waited out the blackouts, they went back over their notes from one of their sessions about creating an overarching purpose for a congregation. They spent most of the day thinking about a mission for Saint John’s. 

What was the church about? 

It was a question Saint John’s started asking itself the year before, when leadership, longtime members, newcomers, and visitors shared what they were looking for in a congregation and how – or even if – Saint John’s was fulfilling their needs. The church longed for an identity and purpose.  

Throughout their ministries, Jones and Gilliam spent countless hours in planning meetings that produced benign mission statements, “boring paragraphs” that no one in the congregation could remember or more to the point, even understand. 

“What’s the good of having a mission statement on a wall somewhere?” Jones says. “We wanted everyone to internalize it so that when they were in the grocery store and someone said, ‘Tell me about your church,’ they knew what to say.” 

Then it came. 

“It dropped down,” Jones says of the statement’s formation that day. 

And it started with the question, “What are we doing here?” 

We are creating a community where God’s love changes people and God’s people change the world. 

“It just came fully formed,” Jones says. “It gives a sense of something that we affirm and strive for. It's aspirational as well as formational.” 

The character-defining mission statement that the wife-husband team brought back that August was just one of the couple’s many touches still felt at Saint John’s. It was during their leadership that the church completed its renovation project – including a refurbished sanctuary. Intentional faith development and risk-taking mission and service became “fruitful practices,” as Bishop Robert Schnase shared in a book of the same name, and calls to action. Their focus on hospitality brought young families and seekers from all across North Austin. The church found new life with Jones and Gilliam at the helm, at the time it needed it most. 

***  

To this day, the Saint John’s community still reads its mission statement aloud on Sunday mornings. Although it’s printed in the bulletin and flashed on the big screen above the altar, most recite the 16 words by heart, a sacred piece of doctrine as important to them as any creed found in the hymnal. 

“The kiddos say it, the youth say it, and the adults say it: We are creating a community where God's love changes people, and God’s people change the world,” says retired pastor Mike Renquist. “It means something to everyone.” 
 

Grace and peace, 
Hilary Marchbanks