St. Martin’s Episcopal Church

By way of introduction…

It’s good to meet you. We’re St. Martin’s Episcopal Church — a beacon of Christ’s love, spirit fed, serving others. Of course, there’s a lot more we can say about ourselves. And some of it is contradictory.

We are a parish filled with caring, resourceful and loving individuals who want to make St. Martin’s a thriving church. We support our members and we welcome visitors. We take pride in reaching out and serving our community. We value our Anglican heritage and we care deeply for prayerful, traditional and inspiring worship.

At the same time, we struggle to find our way, to identify our greater calling in the community and to mobilize our congregation to its fullest potential. We have not grown during this time of transition — and, in fact, we have not been growing for some time. We seek to learn and grow from worship, yet seldom venture far from our liturgical comfort zone. Individually, we believe that we give generously, yet our budget isn’t balanced.

With that said, and to paraphrase Isaiah’s answer to God’s call: “Here we are.” We are present. We have considered carefully what we value as a congregation and where we need to grow. We faithfully and prayerfully are seeking a spiritual leader to guide us.

Just a little of our history

In 1965, the far west portion of St. Louis County was primarily a sleepy, rural stretch of soybean fields and emerging suburban development. The Diocese of Missouri asked the Reverend Howard Park to start a mission in the area. After Howard Park went door to door to garner local support, St. Martin’s celebrated its first service on Sept. 19, 1965, in a local school.

The founding group of five families with 14 children was dedicated and energetic (and some of them still attend services here!). By 1968, a chapel was built on the existing site. St. Martin’s became a mission by 1973 and joined the Diocese as a parish in 1977.

Since then, the suburban boom has thundered across our region as corporations have come, gone and come back again and as their workers have been transferred in and out. In our history, we have had two rectors. After Howard Park’s retirement and a brief interim, the Reverend Larry Hooper led our parish for seven years.

According to the December 2005 strategic advisory committee’s report to the vestry, we are still in the midst of a fertile mission field. That report noted that there are 163,000 people within St. Martin’s boundary area. Statistically, the report said, 1.6 percent or 2,600 may be “inclined toward the Episcopal Church.”

To our east, the population, on average, is aging. To our west, the growth in families we can serve continues. We are challenged to serve both of these communities, and we do draw parishioners from as far as St. Charles County and the city of St. Louis. (Surrounding cities include Ellisville, Ballwin, Chesterfield, Town and Country and Wildwood.)

Our immediate Ellisville, Mo., neighborhood is a fairly typical middle-class, suburban outpost in St. Louis County. Nearly 150,000 people live within a five-mile radius of St. Martin’s church and, statistics show, their average household income is about $113,000 a year. About 45 percent of our households have three or more members, suggesting families with children are a key area of service.

That brings challenges and pressures of its own: Like many suburban communities, soccer practices, dance classes and school activities often occupy our neighbor’s lives. Most students in the area are served by two high-achieving school districts – Parkway and Rockwood. There’s a sense of civic pride among a number of the municipalities in the area, with community fairs, July Fourth fireworks and sports leagues.

Our families are engaged with the rest of the St. Louis community, taking advantage of amenities such as our world-class zoo, botanical garden and concert venues. And let’s not forget that most of us are proud members of Cardinal Nation!

Now, about those core values…

We’ve structured this narrative around the core values of St. Martin’s so you might have a fuller understanding of what they are and how we have lived into those values during our 43-year history.

We’ve developed these values using the results of a number of parish surveys, strategic planning meetings within the congregation, and cottage meetings with more than 100 parishioners.

Worship that feeds and inspires: All are welcome at God’s table. We value lay involvement in worship — in liturgy, music and prayer. In worship, we respect our Episcopal identity in a Eucharistic-centered liturgy.

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
Psalm 7:17

St. Martin’s celebrates Holy Eucharist on Sunday mornings at 8:00 (Rite I) and 10:15 (Rite II). We host a Eucharist and healing service on Wednesdays. Celebrating the high holidays of the Church calendar is also an important tradition.

We value lay leadership in our liturgy as parishioners participate as lectors, Lay Eucharistic ministers, prayer leaders, healing ministers, acolytes, ushers, and greeters.

We have a thriving Altar Guild, a sanctuary choir, a bell choir and we have made a number of attempts to start a children’s choir. Children age 4 to 8 attend children’s chapel from the start of the 10:15 service until the passing of the peace. Lay Eucharistic visitors are sent out at the end of the 10:15 service to minister to community members who cannot be with us in church.

We want to be uplifted, inspired and filled with joy in our worship! We want to learn and grow – and we seek a spiritual leader who can gently guide us to new experiences in our liturgy.

Serving others: We strive to offer opportunities for members to provide Christ-like service to our suburban community and to the world.

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
1 Peter 4:10

St. Martin’s early years were marked by a commitment to serve the local community. Early on, a lack of social outlets for youth inspired us to create a Youth Coffee House that served up to 300 teenagers on Friday evenings from 1968 until 1973.

This tradition of service has continued through an active outreach program. St. Martin’s assists a local food pantry called Circle of Concern including funding an annual scholarship. In 2004, St. Martin’s inaugurated a fundraising event called Harvest for Humanity whose proceeds benefit Episcopal City Mission (a ministry providing chaplaincy services to youth in detention centers), Circle of Concern and Habitat for Humanity.

Through the Diocese, we are involved in promoting awareness and action on the Millennium Development Goals, specifically in our companion Diocese of Lui in Southern Sudan. In fact, in May 2008, we sponsored a community walk-a-thon that raised more than $18,000 — enough to fund a well in the parched Sudan diocese.

Our history is also marked by a commitment to care for others. In 1988, our associate rector spearheaded the training of Stephen Ministers who help those in crisis both within the parish and in the larger community. This remains an important ministry.

In 1971, St. Martin’s founded the Howard Park Early Childhood Center to meet the needs of infants, young children, teens, and their families with mild-to-severe developmental delays. The center grew from one teacher and three children to more than 50 employees serving 200 families. In 2001, it outgrew the parish’s space. It now operates independently down the street from our church.

Now, we are searching for the next unifying vision that can serve our community and unite us in Christ-like service.

Lifelong formation of Christians: A growing relationship with God transforms lives. We share the good news of Christ through love and liturgy. Christian formation serves our adults and children to teach what it is to be a Christian and to discern our individual calling.

We proclaim Christ, we teach everyone we can, all that we know about him, so that, if possible, we may bring every person up to full maturity in Christ.
Colossians 1:28

We are keenly aware that this is an area of opportunity for us. Since St. Martin’s inception, there has been a focus on Christian formation – for children and adults. With the addition of an associate rector, St. Martin’s led the way in the Diocese for innovative and moving Christian education. In years past, St. Martin’s had an extremely vibrant and active youth ministry, with dozens of students involved in Sunday School and youth groups.

While our numbers are down substantially from our historical highs, we have dedicated volunteers working on relevant and engaging programs during this transition time. We currently use Godly Play for our youngest members, Living the Good News for elementary and middle school students and Journey to Adulthood in our high school class. Our adult program offers weekly Sunday classes addressing a variety of Biblical and contemporary topics.

Our senior high youth participate each year in a mission trip, in recent years traveling to Katrina-stricken Mississippi and to youth work camps in Michigan to rebuild and restore broken communities. Vacation Bible School is a source of pride among parishioners, allowing for the creative expression of Christ’s spirit in all generations who participate.

Recent years have brought a focus on providing education and Bible study for adults in all stages of life. Our active adult Christian formation team has developed programs on the Millennium Development Goals, Islam, Episcopal Church history, individual spiritual profiles in 2007 and 2008. We also have several active Bible study groups.

Hospitality and fellowship: We believe evangelism is a ministry of hospitality. We provide a warm respite for all who venture in, a Christian home for individuals and families seeking to experience and share Christian fellowship and community. We care for each other and minister to those in spiritual, emotional and physical need.

Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Romans 12:13

To the larger community, there was one event at St. Martin’s that defined the parish: The annual garage sale. Starting in 1972, this enormous event drew scores of parishioners into its planning and execution each year. For a week, our entire building was converted to a department store in preparation for the Friday-Saturday sale. The tradition ended in 2007 when the vestry determined that fellowship and financial gain could not justify the wear and tear on the church — and the diminishing corps of volunteers.

While the garage sale was often viewed as the centerpiece of parish fellowship, it is by no means the only piece. A motivated group of women in the parish recently revived the Episcopal Church Women. The Men’s Group meets regularly for golf and monthly breakfasts. Our active fellowship tradition includes the Mary & Martha Guild; the retirees’ monthly lunch meetings and day trips; a book club; and our monthly “grand coffee hour” during the Sunday School hour. And, of course, we gather for coffee each Sunday after services.

We also view evangelism as a ministry of fellowship and hospitality. After being chagrined by hearing about visitors who were not properly greeted on a Sunday morning in 2005, we worked hard to correct our deficiency. We developed a formal greeter program for newcomers, with careful consideration to how they are welcomed and the information they receive about St. Martin’s.

In 2008, we rebuilt our web site (http://stmartinschurch.org) with an eye toward providing plenty of information for our regular members and easy access to the basics for visitors and newcomers.

Stewardship: We recognize that all we have, are and hope to be is a gift from God and belongs to God. We are a richly blessed congregation. Our members are invested in our parish community. We exhibit good stewardship by giving our time, talent and treasure.

The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:40

From the beginning, St. Martin’s valued being good stewards of our facilities. We feel that the building shouldn’t be used only on Sunday. St. Martin’s opens its doors for a number of community organizations and causes.

In 1976, St. Martin’s was the benefactor of a $1 million gift from George H. Packwood, a deceased parishioner. Over the years, the fund has been managed conservatively and used to fund church capital improvement projects. The fund’s balance is $705,000.

In 2006, the vestry ran a “mini-capital-campaign” to raise money to repair the roof and siding on our aging building. We matched parishioner donations with a small infusion from the Packwood Fund and made more than $100,000 worth of repairs.

While we may have trouble meeting our budget, St. Martin’s has many individuals who are extremely generous. Our parish gives, but we struggle to meet some of the needs of our physical plant. While we have made considerable progress over the last year, we still do not meet our full diocesan assessment. We believe we need to build the vocabulary of stewardship into the culture of St. Martin’s, so we are all more comfortable with what it means and how to practice it.

Still, there are many people at St. Martin’s who generously give their time, talent and treasure. Recent or ongoing examples include the repainting of the Sunday School classrooms this year; the Men’s Group each year taking its turn hosting the monthly birthday party for the juvenile detention center; food collections for the Circle of Concern; our Prayer Chain; sponsoring the Ulster project; Stephen Ministers; and the 2008 health and wellness fair.

Going forward

Given our past and our present, where are we headed in the future? We’ve considered it carefully within St. Martin’s vestry, the search committee and the wider parish community. We have hosted cottage meetings with many parishioners, meetings designed to hear the thoughts, fears, and expectations of our members.

We drafted a timeline of our church’s history with an eye toward learning from that past.

And from all that research, we set these goals for St. Martin’s Episcopal Church:

• Discern our unique call within the West County community and fully live into and grow that ministry with the active support and contribution of our members.

• Attract more youth to our Sunday School and youth group programs.

• Raise up leaders and servants within our parish.

• Develop a culture of stewardship so we can be better stewards of our time, talent and treasure.

• Become welcoming disciples who teach the Good News and serve those in need.

We are ready to move forward.

We seek a full-time rector who, paraphrasing the Prayer Book, will “serve and labor together with us and with fellow ministers to build up the family of God.” Our goals for our rector include:

• Leading us in joyous worship that inspires, feeds and sends us forth. Our rector will challenge us to think by making the Gospel spiritually relevant to us. Our rector will enliven our liturgical tradition.

• Being available for our members when they need spiritual guidance and counseling. Our rector will help us raise up lay ministers who can provide pastoral care — and will know how and when to delegate the ministry.

• Helping us to be a vital Christian presence in our youth’s lives through worship, education, service and fellowship opportunities that feed and attract young members.

• Being a good teacher and spiritual guide who can broaden and enrich adult formation in scripture, the Episcopal Church and the making of disciples.

• Helping us to discover what God is calling us to do in our community and beyond — and unite us in that call.

• Guiding us to be the best stewards of our time, talent and treasure that we can be.