Commissioning Lay Leaders

Last Sunday the Rev. Tim Kingsley, Provost at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Minneapolis, commissioned Mustard Seed community member Linda Brandt as a Minister of Innovation. I have to admit that for years I only commissioned lay leaders engaged in church ministries: vestry members, altar guild participants, chalice bearers, lay Eucharistic visitors, etc. These ministries are important, but not the only ministries lay leaders are called to.

One day a member of my church asked if I would commission her for her new job working with immigrants. She felt God’s Holy Spirit calling her to take the job and wanted our faith community to know what she would be doing, and to surround her and her new ministry with prayer and support. Her request made me realize how church-focused our Commissionings had been. It also made me think about the Prayers of the People. We began to pray for the different professions and vocations of the people in our faith community each week: lawyers, elementary and high school teachers, businesspeople, social workers, nurses, doctors, musicians, writers, and academics.

Below is the liturgy used to commission Linda. May all of us do a better job commissioning lay leaders for their ministries inside and outside God’s church!

Dear friends in Christ,

It is with gratitude and hope for the future that we commission Linda Brandt as Minister

of Innovation for this beloved Cathedral community.

Linda, you are called to seek out the mustard seed in all that we do — the small

beginnings, quiet hopes, and hidden possibilities through which God brings new life to

the Church. Your ministry is to cultivate and care for these gifts with faithfulness and

attention, trusting always that God alone gives the growth.

As you serve among us, may you help this community remain open to the movement of

the Holy Spirit, attentive to where God is leading, and courageous in responding to new

opportunities for ministry and mission.

We also entrust you with the work of serving as liaison with the innovative ministries of

our Diocese and the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, strengthening partnerships,

encouraging creativity and helping us learn from the wider Church.

Linda, do you accept this commission?

Response:

I do, with God’s help.

May God bless you with wisdom, imagination, patience, and joy in this calling. And may

this Cathedral continue to grow in faith, service, and love through the work entrusted to

your hands.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.