Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

In response to ECF’s recent announcement of the publication of the new Vestry Resource Guide, a congregational leader asked:

Is going through this [the new Vestry Resource Guide] worthwhile as a vestry retreat?

My response to her was ‘yes.’ During the research that preceded this recent revision, I heard many stories of congregational leaders designing vestry retreats around individual chapters from the Vestry Resource Guide (VRG). As a result of this listening process, the focus of this edition is both ‘here are things vestries should be thinking about’ and ‘how might these approaches and practices be adapted to work in your context?’ To assist with this discernment, we’ve continued ECF’s practice of providing discussion questions at the end of each chapter. We’ve also added a list of related resources at the end of each chapter to help vestry members find additional information on the covered topics.

Many of the chapters in the new Vestry Resource Guide also include a case study showing how a congregation has approached the topic being discussed in that chapter. Our intent is to encourage vestries to consider the discernment process used by that congregation. ECF blogger Anna Olson describes the process this way:

“What wasn’t working? How could they tell? What did they figure out about why it wasn’t working? What gave them the courage to ditch the ‘always do it’ way? How did they work with people’s doubts about change? How does what they decided to try reflect what they figured out about their people, their place, their strengths, and weaknesses?

“Now you’ve got something you can use, even if your context looks very different from the one you are reading about. What isn’t working in your place? What would it take to change it? What is it about your particular place that makes this thing not work? What are your people good at? What makes them feel able to give of themselves? How might you use that knowledge to come up with a new idea of your own?

“Someone else’s something may not work for you. What can you learn from someone else’s effective discernment to make your own effective as well?”

Updated to reflect ECF’s belief that strong lay and clergy teams are at the heart of healthy, thriving Episcopal congregations, this publication is available in English and Spanish, in both print and electronic formats. (Review a sample here.)

Has your congregation used the Vestry Resource Guide at a vestry retreat? Would you be willing to share your experience in the comments section below? Or, as a Your Turn resource? 

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