Mission House
“What to do with a General / When he stops being a General? / What to do with a General who’s retired?”
So begins the lines of one of the songs in the musical “White Christmas”, a movie about a little inn in Vermont, owned and operated by the respected retired general of a regiment of WWII soldiers, two of whom are portrayed by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. In the movie, after the war ends, the two men are shown to have left the army and gone on to successful careers in show business. Clearly, this is a fantasy movie! Along their travels, and while attempting to go on vacation, they happen across another entertaining pair, a sister duo whose next port of call is in “Snowy Vermont”, at a little ski lodge inn. After some entertaining shenanigans by Danny Kaye’s character, the two men find themselves accompanying the sisters to a Vermont that is not nearly as snowy as advertised. Once they arrive, they find themselves surprised to run into a familiar, commanding presence.
The retired General who owns the inn finds himself to be the general man-of-all-work at a run-down, ramshackle property. As his housekeeper tells the visitors, The General is not a businessman, and he feels as if he is failing those who depend upon him. The General keeps trying to return to the only life he knew where he felt successful, the army, but that avenue is closed to him. He does not know what to do, and merely exists, one day at a time. The arrival of these two men he commanded serves to remind this proud, tired figure of what he once had, and all that he has lost. He feels he has no future to look forward to, merely existence until he fades away, forgotten.
This is a year of the forgotten. The isolation we have each faced, on top of the isolation that naturally happens in the general course of life unless we work to counteract it, has made each of us The General, looking at the lively young entertainers with their glittering lives, who will breeze into this inn, and whirl out again, leaving The General behind. The difference is, when ever member of the cast of White Christmas is The General, there are no glittering pairs of entertainers to make the inns of our lives sparkle. There is just the daily drudgery of chopping wood for the stove, repairing the roof and stairs, and there’s not even the faithful housekeeper to remind us of the chores of living.
The General had no mission, no purpose in his life, and it took the surprise appearance of his entire old company of soldiers to remind him of the joys of being alive, to renew his purpose and give him a new mission.
The era of the manse is similar to the old General, so the question arises, what to do with the manse when it stops serving as a manse? What to do with a manse that is retired? Many church communities have faced that question, and it is a question before this congregation as well. To that end, session discussed at the September meeting forming a Manse Mission Taskforce to evaluate the efficacy of different mission opportunities or purposes for the manse building. In order to research different ideas, though, we need to brainstorm those ideas. This is where every member and friend of the congregation comes in: you are The General’s soldiers, and you all have an idea for what the manse building could be used for, anything from a teen mentoring center to emergency housing to renting to a family or renting out to groups for workshops and retreats. I have heard these ideas, more and variations thereof.
On October 18th, after worship, we will have an Elevator Pitch Brainstorm to generate a list of ideas. Your purpose is to come with your idea, and some facts about implementation. The more facts you have, the more that will help the Manse Taskforce. The membership of the Taskforce has not been selected yet, so if you are interested in making the purpose of the manse building part of your mission, then let members of session know. The next session meeting is the day after the Elevator Pitch Brainstorm, so the ideas generated at that gathering will be a major component of the session meeting. If you are unable to attend in person with your pitch, submit it to a member of session for that person to present it. Again, facts about the efficacy of implementation will serve to prove the viability of your idea; the nature of the elevator pitch, though, is to be brief and succinct, to hook the imagination of the person you are proposing your idea to. Anyone who makes an idea pitch needs to also submit in writing the idea and sources or facts about how to implement your idea to the session.
It is perfectly ok for multiple people to have the same or similar idea, or for the Manse Taskforce to ultimately select a mission that fewer people submitted, but the idea bears closer witness to the mission of the church:
We, the members of United Presbyterian Church of Schoharie, are a caring congregation of diverse people who love, trust, and obey Jesus Christ. As such, we are the body that carries out His teachings in the world today. Therefore, we intend to continue to provide a place for worship and Christian education, to encourage the community to participate with us, and to reach out to those in need.
~Schoharie United Presbyterian Church’s Mission Statement
By our loving discernment, let us show The General there is life yet.
“…And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
I love you all
~Pastor Andrea Joy Holroyd
