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Vision arises out of our burden to know the will of God, to become whatever it is God wants us to become.
Everett "Terry" Fullam

In a corner of Terry Fullam's office sits an architect's model of a large sanctuary, gathering dust. It is a silent reminder that visions do not always become reality.

"That's what we thought God wanted us to build five or six years ago, when our present building was first filled up," the bespectacled rector recalls with a grin. "The place was packed; we were having four morning services — time to build a bigger barn. It was going to go right out on the front lawn. The vestry and congregation were all unanimous.

"But when we went to the city fathers for approval, they were just as unanimous: NO. Our plans would be a massive overdevelopment of this wooded area, they ruled."

Only then, says Fullam, was the church ready to comprehend an alternate vision. It came as a message from the church's senior warden: "God wants us instead to build the living church, to give ourselves to strengthening his people, not only here in Darien, but across the nation and even the world."

That is what has happened. Saint Paul's Episcopal Church has become a hive of renewal throughout the Connecticut suburbs of New York City and beyond, with thirteen hundred worshipers coming to the four weekly services, two of which are held in a high school auditorium. Four times a year, pastors and church leaders trek to Saint Paul's for clergy conferences; in between times, Terry Fullam spends major amounts of time on the road, speaking mainly to ministerial groups.

It's fitting that a section on the leader's tasks begin with a discussion of vision, and it's just as fitting that the interview be with a man who has been a realistic visionary ...

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