Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

A few weeks ago, my computer died. The next day, driving to the Geek Squad, I realized there was a small, locally-owned computer outfit nearby. “I’ll pop in there,” I thought, “and see what they can do.”

More than one week later and after a non-refundable $50 deposit, I got an answer: “I don’t really know what the problem is,” he said. More, when I got it serviced by a big-box professional service which was able to tap into my existing warranty, all I wound up paying was the cost of UPS shipping. In less than four days, the problem was identified and solved; the computer was shipped to the west coast and returned to me in perfect working condition.

That experience both encourages and troubles me as I think about our work as The Episcopal Church.

Mostly, we’re nestled as congregations and missions and schools and ministries into a myriad of various local communities. We’ve done a good job of maintaining, even upholding the religious equivalent of small, locally owned outfits – Mom & Pop religion, let’s say. There’s real value in the experience of religious communities which are truly embedded into their immediate context and culture. Our strength as The Episcopal Church, along with other mainline Christian congregations, is that we are uniquely positioned to be authentically who Christ is calling us to be and become and to do so with theological integrity. Given the increasing push to resist the big-box chain domination of the marketplace – to “buy local” and participate in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), for instance – we could be thriving.

But we’re not.

We’re not because there’s a world of difference between the Mom & Pop shop that is locally-owned and part and parcel of one’s community and the store, regardless of who owns it, that provides a standard level of excellence – the store that’s not just ‘getting by.’ There is no excuse for failure to deliver on a product, and good community service and a nice welcome are just one step along the way to what it means to be a place worthy of one’s time and investment.

I’d say there are a few benchmarks in our contemporary marketplace that, if we do them well, would enable The Episcopal Church to become a place known for excellence while, at the same time, retaining an attractive locally-owned, Mom & Pop flair.

• Excellent, in-depth preaching. Sermons that engage scripture and the world, challenge and comfort with the profound love of God, assure the conviction of real life in Christ, and leave people wanting more should be a standard of preaching.
• Dynamic and soulful music. It’s time we started asking whether and how God is being praised (or not) in our music, instead of expecting people to simply like what we’re offering because we’re offering it. This isn’t about changing instruments or songs. It’s about changing the spirit and the context.
• Identifiable ministries that help transform people’s lives. Physical and spiritual presence, simply, ‘being here’ is a core strength of what it means to be a mainline Christian church, but what else can we point to, specifically, as what we’re doing for senior citizens, adolescents, children, young families, working mothers, those who are in job transitions, single fathers, those under-served in our communities and the work of justice and peace? (In other words, we need to market ourselves in such a way that the old joke about “working only one day a week” is only just a joke.)
• Attractive, invitational and regularly updated web presences. This includes a good website with pictures and content written for the person who’s not yet a member. It also includes Twitter, Facebook, and a blog, all of which are regularly updated with fresh material that entices and explains and invites. Email newsletters are the norm, and they should be published regularly and on schedule.

Pastoral care and meetings and the work of the church will continue, of course. But unlike my experience with the locally-owned computer repair shop, we in The Episcopal Church have a great deal of theologically trained, spiritually grounded, and competent, indeed excellent ministers – both lay and ordained – who are already transforming communities and delivering a very strong product. It’s just that we could stand to market ourselves and ‘hype’ our message a bit more intentionally, more boldly.