"Sent by Jesus, we set our sails to
be filled by God's Spirit,
inspiring us to praise,
grow and serve."
These brief words contain a wealth of imagery and meaning.
Sent - The Greek word for "send" is apostello. An apostle is one who is sent on behalf of another to deliver a message.
By Jesus - we are first and foremost a Christian community, part of the body of Christ. Our calling is to be Christ incarnate (in the flesh) for each other and for the surrounding community.
We set our sails - from the beginning, the St. Barnabas community has used a sailing ship as its logo. The reason for this is to remind us that Barnabas, the apostle whose name we bear, was a missionary who traveled by ship around the eastern Mediterranean sharing the gospel of Christ.
To be filled with God's Spirit - A sailing ship has no power source of its own. It is dependent on the wind to be able to go anyplace. In both Hebrew and Greek, the word for "wind" and "spirit" is the same. The wind that empowers the St. Barnabas ship is the wind, or spirit, of God.
Inspiring us - "Inspire" literally means "to breathe into", to be "in-spirited". This again is a reminder to us that the motivation for what we do comes not from within ourselves, but from God's unilateral action for us in Jesus Christ. As Martin Luther wrote in explaining the Third Article (the "Spirit" article) of the Apostles' Creed in his Small Catechism: "I believe that I cannot by own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith. In the same way, the Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth..."
To Praise - The word "praise" was chosen to sum up the centrality of worship for our congregation. Our original mission statement said, "The source of our life together is the Word and Sacraments, celebrated in our worship." Gathering to worship and praise God, to hear the God's word proclaimed, and to receive the sacraments is the single most important thing we do. It underlies and sustains every other ministry and program of the congregation.