When I was little, my mama read me a book called Paddle to the Sea. The story begins with a boy carving a miniature wooden canoe with a person sitting in it. The boy gives his creation a mission and a name, Paddle-to-the-Sea. On the underside of the canoe, he inscribes a message, asking anyone who finds the tiny paddler to help him on his way. Then, the boy sets the little canoe on a snowbank on a hill, ready to slip down into a stream when the snow melts.
Streams lead to rivers, and rivers find the sea. Paddle-to-the-Sea encounters curious adventures, including a close call with a saw mill, and depends on the kindness of passersby to bring him back to the water. Again and again, he pursues his journey and lives up to his name.
I love children's books that linger in my memory and teach me again in adult life. I'm thinking about Paddle-to-the-Sea today as I return to this journal to catch you up on the remarkable progress of Ancient Faith Ministries. Like Paddle, we encounter adventures, but our mission keeps us moving forward.
We're accommodating growth, serving a changing audience, and reminding ourselves to reconsider things we've always done that may be obsolete or ready for improvement. Let me share three important items that are representative of this season at Ancient Faith.
When I joined Ancient Faith in 2016, I was the 10th or 11th employee and the youngest. I was in my 40s, and my coworkers were mostly founders or long-time employees. I like to think I was the beginning of the next wave. Within a few years, several more employees joined the team, and the trend continued to our current staff of 26 (almost 3 times as many as in 2016). In the past 5 years, the median age of our employees has dropped significantly. Where I was the youngest in my 40s, we now have a number of team members in their 20s and 30s.
This is a tremendous blessing! Our next generation reminds us daily that Ancient Faith has a future. It's right in front of us, happening in every meeting, on every project, at every event. These young people contribute their faithfulness, their education, their first-hand perspective on generational differences and needs, their useful tech skills, and their inevitable impetus to grow what we're doing, to change it and expand its life.
In a few days, Fr. Andrew Damick, our Chief Content Officer, will be moving to North Carolina. This week, he packed up his studio, the little Ancient Faith Radio outpost in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. It's the end of an era, but it makes possible the beginning of another. Ancient Faith will be opening a new location in the Raleigh area. Like our headquarters in Chesterton, IN, it will house staff members (led by Fr. Andrew) and audio and video broadcasting spaces and equipment. It's a big step to have two locations. We're so excited!
We're a virtual office, for the most part. We have employees in 13 states. Our Chesterton staff work in person, but the rest of us work from home. There are advantages to a virtual office. We need skilled workers who are also Orthodox Christians. Removing geographical barriers makes it easier for us to find exactly the right person for each position.
But we are incarnate beings, living an incarnational faith. We're excited to be expanding the physical presence of Ancient Faith with this new location. The Raleigh area, like many around the country, is witnessing the surge of converts to Orthodoxy. The local parish is bursting at the seams. We look forward to being present there and participating in that life.
The longer we serve as an online ministry, the more firmly we believe in the importance of getting offline. Human beings need to be together in person. There is nothing natural or spiritual about online interactions. The internet is an incredibly valuable purveyor of information (although also of many other dreadful things), but it can never replace our incarnate life. It can never replace going to church or sharing a meal, or compensate for the atrophying of social and spiritual life it constantly tempts us to.
As a ministry, we think often about how best to serve you. Our online presence is an act of service, an offering of evangelism, edification, education, and engagement in the space where most of the world can daily be found. This year, we're throwing ourselves into serving by expanding our in-person event offerings. We've hosted several events each year at Antiochian Village (the women's retreat, the singles retreat, the Lord of Spirits Conference, and others). This year, we're partnering with parishes to bring Ancient Faith Events to more locations, making it easier for more people to attend. We'll be in Franklin, TN, Raleigh, NC, and Spring, TX this year, in addition to our Antiochian Village events, and we're already booking for next year. Find out where you can join us here.
Paddle-to-the-Sea had only his own journey, one journey from the mountain to the sea. An organization is different from an individual in this way. It is the sum of all the personal journeys within it, but it transcends them all, God willing. We grow old and retire and die, but, God willing, others come to take our places, to expand our ranks and our hearts and minds. You are part of that kindly will, the hands who help us over the obstacles and set us back in the water, again and again. God willing, you are the reason for our existence and the support that makes it possible. We are thankful to have you with us on the journey.