The Magic Paintbrush

4:20 PM Unknown 2 Comments

An old Chinese folktale tells the story of a young man with a magic paintbrush.  One night the young man dreamed that an old man gave him a magic paintbrush to use to help the poor people of his village.  He woke to find that paintbrush and used it to help his neighbors.  If the people needed food, he would paint a stream to irrigate the fields.  When the farmers struggled or went hungry, he would paint more food. 

Of course, as legend would have it, a local rich man wanted to be more profitable so he stole the paintbrush, but it would not work to fit his needs.  So he sent for the young painter and demanded that the young man paint a mountain of gold.  However, the young man painted a sea first.  The rich man then demanded that the young painter create a boat so he could sail to his mountain of gold.  The young painter did, and as the rich man sailed away, a wave capsized the boat.  The painter was set free to return to his important work of helping the poor people of his village.  The young painter was greatly loved by all. 

One of our congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee is trying a new approach to ministry.  I like to think of this congregation as the congregation that is learning to dream with a paintbrush. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Memphis recently held an event where six of the members of the congregation that still live in the neighborhood where the church is located, invited their neighbors to a meeting at a neutral location. They created a gracious invitation and then essentially asked their neighbors, “If you had a magic paintbrush, how could you improve your neighborhood?”

This small group of church members did not invite their neighbors to a church service.  They did not try to sell their Christian education programming, or even try to get their neighbors to step on the church property.  Instead, they built trust and now have been invited into a partnership with the neighborhood to work on holistic neighborhood transformation.  They identified mutual concerns around the issues presented such as having children who are home after school without adult supervision until late in the evening, issues of blight and safety, and concerns about healthy and constructive outlets for recreation for 4th and 5th graders in the neighborhood.  And this group is creating a plan to move forward and to respond to these concerns, standing next to their neighbors. 

It began with a question and an invitation, all on neutral ground. If you had a magic paintbrush, how would you paint the kingdom of heaven here in your community? 

Upcoming Diocese of West Tennessee Workshops

Missional Ministry in the Grace Margin – Two days:  February 13th at St. James, Union City and February 20th at St. Mary’s, Dyersburg. 

The next Diocesan Holy Currencies Workshop is Saturday, February 27th at St. Mary’s Cathedral from 10am – 4pm. 

For more information please email Canon Burruss