Recently, Phelps County Focus ran an excellent article about Marie Allen. Marie is the Lead Pastor of the Vineyard in Rolla, and has been a major factor behind the success of The Mission. She is retiring from the Mission’s board of directors so that, among other things, she can focus on the Vineyard’s next big thing. But she leaves it in excellent hands. The incoming board president, Sean Harris, has a different skill set that is perhaps better suited to the next phase of the Mission’s evolution. The executive director, Ashley Brooks, is incredible and keeps things humming along as she pushes to increase the impact that the Mission has on our community and on individuals who are in need.
Ashley has been the executive director for just over three years. I have been serving lunch on Fridays for just under three years, having started just after Easter in 2018. Sometimes I think, Wow, it’s been three years already! Sometimes I think, Geez, it’s only been three years?
The nature of this form of ministry or service is that people burn out, move on, or just find other priorities. It’s hard to see people who are in such dire need all the time and not hurt for them. It also gets frustrating seeing people go through the same downward spirals, due to mental health issues or addiction or whatever. So I understand the burnout effect. Volunteers also have their own lives and own issues. Some fade away because they have health problems, or their work schedule changes, or their family needs them. Some move to a different part of the country—particularly students, who are by nature temporary residents. The pandemic has accelerated some of this churn, as many of The Mission’s volunteers are in a demographic that is highly susceptible to serious illness from COVID-19.
A volunteer organization like The Mission—or a church, scout troop, 4-H club, etc.—always needs to be building up, or else it will decay away. The same is true of any organization. In any given year, some fraction of employees will leave almost any large business, including a university. If you do not replace them, you will soon discover that you are unable to fulfill the objectives of the organization.
I worry that we, as a nation, are seeing the effects of failing to keep building. At some point in my lifetime, organizations of all kinds decided it was OK to just get gray. They failed to bring in another generation to carry on the work. Look at our political leaders: President Biden is 78; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is 70; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is 78; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 80. Among Congress’s senior leaders, only Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, age 56, is below normal retirement age. Dr. Anthony Fauci, age 80, has been the director of NIAID since 1984 (37 years). I say this not to cast aspersions on any individuals, nor to say that someone’s age impairs their ability to contribute to society. But someday, Biden, Schumer, McConnell, Pelosi, and Fauci will be unable to continue. That’s a given. Who has been groomed to carry on the work?
One possibility is that the work itself changes. I have been reading a lot about church development lately. This is probably the first time ever that there has been such an emphasis on remote participation in the life of a congregation. If church leaders continue to do things as they have always been done, congregations will die. Instead, church leaders need to address the current cultural moment. We are a society splintered as never before, but with the same yearning for connection. “Institutions” are devalued, in favor of autonomy and freedom of conscience. If we do not bring in new people with new ideas and new ways of being in community, we will fail to be relevant. The message doesn’t change—the kingdom of God is at hand!—but the methods we use to spread that message and the impact of that message on each person’s life must change.
The instructor for my class on preaching implores us to “live the story, know the story, craft the story, and tell the story.” The story is that the kingdom of God is at hand, and we are tasked with making it real in the lives of all people. Let us keep building that kingdom, by spreading the message in new ways to new people and welcoming them all to share in God’s love.