A Word from the New Missioner

I recently watched again the inspirational Ron Howard movie “Apollo 13” – the story of a crippled spacecraft with astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert finding a way to survive a malfunction and return to earth. Mission Control in Houston is working just as hard to bring them home. The mission changed from landing on the moon to getting the astronauts safely home. The malfunction demanded innovation, creativity and teamwork to accomplish the new mission. There was a sense of urgency.

Remember this scene?

Several technicians in Houston dump boxes containing the same equipment and tools that the astronauts have with them in space onto a table.

A technician says “We've got to find a way to make this [square CSM LiOH canister] fit into the hole for this [round LEM canister]... using nothing but that” [pointing to the stuff on the table].

The Church needs to realize the mission demands a similar response to a new environment – we need innovation, creativity and teamwork for reaching new people and forming new disciples for Jesus. We need to take risks, make mistakes and ‘double down’ on our core mission.

At the end of the movie Jim Lovell (the voice of Tom Hanks) narrates the following: Our mission was called "a successful failure," in that we returned safely but never made it to the moon.

The Church needs similar ‘successful’ or ‘excellent’ failures – we try some new things to enlarge the Kingdom, plant new seeds of faith and hope in a malfunctioning world – and trust the results will bring us all… ALL – Home. This is the type of work we will do to welcome people, parishes and property returning to the Mission of The Episcopal Church.

The Rev. William Coyne
Missioner for Returning Congregations

[email protected] | 843-614-0679