The Rev. Frank Logue currently serves as the Vicar of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia.

 

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Essay Responses

1. What are you passionate about in your ministry, in your personal life, and in the world around you?

I am passionate about being a co-creator with Christ. This works itself out as I use my God-given gift for creativity in my ministry, my personal life and the world at large.

In my ministry, I push myself to not fall into a rut or pre-existing patterns, but to find new creative solutions. For example, this desire causes me not to settle for writing little speeches each week on the biblical text and its application. Instead, I work to pray through the text and decide how I think God is challenging me and the people of King of Peace to live out that text more fully. Then I try to think of creative ways to teach the point of the sermon. Often, this is a very speech-like sermon on the passage. But it may also take the form of storytelling or a play and may incorporate multi-media and props.

The goal is engaging the congregation with the text in such a way that the biblical story takes root in our lives and in our common life. The objective is not something clever that people will notice, but sparking inspiration with the hearers. In this, I am co-creating with the Holy Spirit who speaks through and in spite of my flawed creations.

This creativity plays itself out in everything from our building and grounds to our events and ministries. When I get it right, the result is not due to my efforts alone, but involves the imaginations of the congregation as well. An example of this is our successful Trunk or Treat which has brought hundreds to King of Peace on the Eve of the Feast of All Saints. The event was the brainchild of a couple in the church. I put them together with the director of our preschool. Then they gave ideas out to the congregation and invited others to create booths and games for the kids. The end result is a big community event pulled off with the combined imagination and work of many. My involvement was minimal, though I do think the approach is one I help foster.

In my personal life and in the world at large I use my gifts for writing, photography and graphic design to benefit other groups from Habitat for Humanity to Honey Creek. As with my sermons and events at King of Peace, I push myself to not rely on easy answers, but to look for creative new options. I find that amazing things are possible when we let creativity spark new ideas.

We have to find the courage to be unafraid to fail and fail boldly, for no worthwhile venture was ever a sure thing. This is why I seek ways to harness the creativity which is God’s gift to the wisdom and discernment which also come from God in deciding the times when it is prudent to step out on faith and take creative risks.

2. Please elaborate on an occasion or experience, during your ministry, of significant personal growth or change.

Building a first permanent church building for King of Peace was a several year process of personal and professional growth. My wife and daughter and I had said before coming to Camden County to start King of Peace that we wanted to do something so big that if God was not in it, we would fall flat on our faces. The building process challenged that foundational principle as I experienced numerous times when failure seemed more likely than success. I had to change my approach to leadership for the project to succeed.

I came to believe in leadership by self definition. In this, I am indebted to Rabbi Edwin Friedman who wrote about it in his book Generation to Generation. He teaches that a leader must always be accountable for naming where a group is going and why and then staying in touch with the group throughout the process. If the leader does not get anywhere near where his or her vision was heading the group, the person is not a leader. But if the leader always arrives exactly where and how stated in advance, the person is not a servant leader. A servant leader charts the course, but then continues to listen to the group and get feedback and make course corrections.

I did the basic design for our current building, charting out the floor plan and creating the elevations. This gave me something specific to use in casting the vision to the congregation and working with an architect. I wanted the building to look less ecclesiastical and more commercial as it would later house the preschool and fellowship hall while sitting next to a future church building. I hoped that the later building would clearly be the church and so I thought a different look would make that distinction. The architect showed me how the visual vocabulary for the first building would set the tone for all future structures. He taught me what the congregation then echoed, that we needed the first building to look like a church.

During the project, the congregation also helped me to work through some political, engineering, and fundraising issues in ways that I could never have gotten through them on my own. I discovered fully a truth I knew before dimly at best—God does not give the answers to one person. No matter how talented any one person is, God gives the answers to a community and the input and work of many is needed for any great work. I may not have the needed faith, wisdom, strength, and so on. But we do.

Our finished building is not perfect, but the building meets our needs well and is as attractive and useful as it is because of the parts that others brought to the table. The personal change came in learning how and when to let go of my personal vision as a group vision takes shape which is better than anything I could do on my own.

3. What are the touchstones in your faith that will guide your responses to the issues now facing—some would say threatening—the Episcopal Church and the world-wide Anglican Communion.

A touchstone was used in ancient times to determine the quality of gold or silver. I believe in the primacy of scripture as the fullest revelation of the will of God and so use it as a touchstone for all areas of my life.

I hold a sacramental view of scripture not so different from how I view what happens to the bread and wine in communion. I know the host at my church to be real homemade bread and I know its ingredients. I also know what brand of wine we buy. This knowledge does not replace, but supplements my sure and certain knowledge that God is made fully present in the Body and Blood of the Eucharist through these elements.

In the same way, I know that humans wrote scripture. They were inspired by God, but they were human. I know much about the texts and how they came together to our present collection of sixty-six books. This knowledge supplements my understanding that the human words embody God’s presence to us in the scripture. Scripture was not just inspired in its writing but the Holy Spirit continues to inspire us as we read the words. We are also aided by God-given reason and the voice of the church through its councils and creeds.

Yet, I find that too often we apply scripture wrongly at worst and haphazardly at best due to an improper use of the Bible. Tragedy strikes; then we run to the Bible for answers. The text wasn’t designed to work that way. The Bible is not a troubleshooting guide for life. The Bible is God’s living word created to speak to your heart each day.

This has long been the Episcopal Church’s way to encounter scripture – as part of a pattern of daily reading. With daily scripture reading, you can marinate your life in God’s word. What this will do for one’s outlook over time is revolutionary. Rather than encountering issues in life and running to the Bible for answers, you immerse yourself in the Bible daily and live into the answers from that new outlook.

So my primary touchstone of scripture is not a text in isolation, but a text read and studied in community and as a part of worship. For we do not, after all, believe the Bible itself to be the primary revelation of God. To do so is bibliolatry or worship of a book rather than the God who inspired the book. We know Jesus to be God’s main and fullest revelation.

The touchstones of my faith then are scripture read in worship by a community of faith. I know that I can err in my own interpretation of scripture, but I trust Jesus to guide his Body, the Church, by the power of the Holy Spirit. With the ongoing inspiration of the Holy Trinity these touchstones help me discern where God is leading his Church.