Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices

by Anne Ditzler on February 29, 2012

I’ve been cleaning out my office. While sorting and dumping most papers into the recycling bin, a few gems surfaced. One is a simple chart called Managing Complex Change.

managing complex change

Permalink | 0 Comments Change

Communication is mission: Connection

by Richelle Thompson on February 29, 2012

Several years ago, knitting ministries were more novel than ubiquitous.

I thought the ministry would make an interesting story, so I spent time with a few churches that had knitting groups and wrote a feature for the diocesan newspaper. The article included a how-to-guide for starting a knitting ministry, prayers for blessing the shawls and a link to step-by-step shawl instructions on the diocesan website.

You never know when something you write will spark, but for some reason, this article did. Within six months, half of the congregations in the diocese had launched a knitting ministry. In the years since, the churches have placed this ministry into their local contexts: some river churches knit for barge workers, suburban churches create baby blankets and urban groups work on scarves for the homeless.

Communication is mission. It is about connecting people to each other, about sharing experiences and good ideas and providing tools and encouragement to launch similar, effective ministries.

Permalink | 0 Comments Communications, Leadership

What's the appropriate pace of change?

by Miguel Angel Escobar on February 28, 2012

As congregational leaders, you are undoubtedly aware of the need for significant changes in your church. After all, rising to the occasion, making critical decisions, and implementing positive changes in the face of challenge is what leadership is all about. And yet, in most places, leadership teams will frequently disagree about the extent of what must be changed and the appropriate pace for making these changes.

Recently, when I’ve found myself in a group that is discussing change, I’ve noticed that nearly everyone - myself included - will appeal to either core experiences and/or folk wisdom. We have all sorts of colorful phrases for helping us navigate these murky waters. These include sayings such as:

You just gotta rip the band-aid off
Slow and steady wins the race
Rome wasn’t built in a day, you know
You better go big or go home

If these sayings are any indicator, it would appear that leaders must choose between two mutually exclusive, frequently alienating approaches. Those who opt for the slow and steady approach will be deemed as excessively timid, fearful of change, and too weak to make hard choices. Yet those who opt for sweeping changes are seen as too rash.

Permalink | 2 Comments Change

Jesus Didn’t Micromanage

by Jeremiah Sierra on February 27, 2012

While trying to plan a fundraising event several years ago, I learned just how difficult delegating can be. I was working for a small nonprofit, and I was in charge of planning and execution. This included arranging for dinner, silent auction items, a speaker, and a venue. I had some interns and staff members to help, and a tiny budget. At first, I found that I gave either too much or too little instruction. I hadn’t quite worked out my vision for the fundraiser, and so we were all muddling through. The people I delegated to were sometimes frustrated by lack of direction, sometimes dreading their tedious tasks.

What I was reminded recently by an experienced Episcopal priest is that authority is not about being in charge. Authority is not about control. Authority is the ability to get things done. Yes, people like clear instructions; but it is just as true that “no one likes to coordinate other people’s plans.” Connecting the dots isn’t nearly as satisfying as making your own drawing. In the same way, volunteers, staff and parishioners will feel empowered and invested in their tasks if they are given space to use their own skills and creativity, as well as a clear goals and a vision for the project.

This is in line with Jesus’ leadership. Jesus led by his wisdom and his works. He gave authority to his disciples, which did not diminish his own authority. He sent them out to do his work with little specific instruction, only a clear vision for the Kingdom of God and the commandment to make disciples.

Permalink | 0 Comments Leadership

The ministry of communications

by Richelle Thompson on February 27, 2012

Sometimes I wish we could calculate our successes like McDonalds: 1 billion served in big, neon letters.

But church work isn’t so easy to quantify. The challenge is especially apparent in the ministry of communications. How do we know if the bulletin inserts are effective? By what measure do we decide whether it’s effective to spend marketing dollars? How much of our time should be spent exploring new means of communication, like Facebook and Pinterest and Google Plus, when even marketing gurus are still figuring out how to tame this communication frontier?

There are some methods for measuring success, from tools like Google Analytics to increases in attendance and engagement. But in the ministry of communications, so often we are planting the seeds that someone else will harvest. We tell the stories of faith that become the broad-brush strokes in someone’s narrative, so that when the person receives an invitation to church from a neighbor or feels like there’s nowhere to turn in the midst of a crisis, he or she remembers that our red doors are always open.

Permalink | 0 Comments Communications

Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices

Vital Posts

Topics

Authors

Archive