Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Sometimes the best way to bring about needed change is to actually break something.

The damage in the parish hall at St. James Anglican Church in Perth, Ontario caused the congregation to post signs forbidding skateboarding on the property. St. James had a vision and a plan – and skateboarders were not part of it. Until, the day a parishioner recognized,

"We saw a stranger knocking at our door and we chased him away. Only later did we realized this was Christ giving us an opportunity to do outreach...”

Today, because a few parishioners were willing to open the church – and their hearts - to the youth who were hanging around their property – most of whom had no experience of church, St. James has a thriving Skater Ministry. 

When something breaks, someone will spring into action. And action is what it takes to bring about real change. In this series of Vestry Papers articles we explore ways to break out of expected patterns of behavior, opening our hearts and our minds to the Holy Spirit, to help us recognize where God is beckoning us to go.

In Vestry Papers this month:

Like many small churches, Christ Episcopal Church in Biddeford, Maine had seen its resources rise and fall with the economic tide of the community. Shirley Bowen’s “Seeds of Hope” shares how this congregation multiplied their ability to serve Christ after deciding to disband as a parish.


“Shattering the Status Quo” by Todd Ousley challenges congregational leaders to break out of familiar patterns by entering into an exodus experience as a way to open themselves to get ‘Egypt’ out of their systems.



Across our church, congregations are looking around their neighborhoods with new eyes and discovering there is much for us to learn about our neighbors. In “Expanding Our Understanding,” Sam Dessórdi Leite offers resources to help non-Latinos answer the question: Who are Latinos?

Following each article is a list of resources offering additional information and/or practical tools. Interested in what else might be on the ECF Vital Practices’ website? Use the Topics index on each page of the site to find other resources related to leadership including past Vestry Papers articles, blog posts, and the many resources found in our Your Turn and Tools sections.

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Faithfully,

Nancy

Nancy Davidge
Editor, ECF Vital Practices