Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Editor’s Note: Guest blogger Chris Yaw’s passion is healthy churches. His ChurchNext ministry puts the spotlight on a diversity of ministries that are flourishing. He records and shares interviews with faith leaders so others can learn from their experiences. Click on the Interview link below to watch the video or download a podcast.

It’s one of the Church’s biggest mistakes: over-reliance on one person to do the bulk of the work (planning, visioning, preaching, organizing, cleaning gutters… you name it).

In this new, inventive, age, the Presbyterian Church USA’s Landon Whitsitt, author of the book Open Source Church, thinks that the day of the ‘super-pastor’ is way over – and that the Body of Christ does its best work in collaboration. Landon says he’s a cross between a software geek and a church geek – and he’s making some interesting discoveries as a result. 

Landon thinks anybody can be a leader – and it’s up to today’s clergy and active lay-people to open up to the amazing ways God is using God’s people to touch the world. Watch or listen to this interview and be energized by this gifted theologian.

No time to watch? Here's a synopsis of the conversation based on my notes:

• Give the Work Back to the People Landon admits this is the hardest part of Open Sourcing church: the good people in the pews have been programmed (for years) to not do what was thought only the clergy could do. Show up late for church, refuse to say the opening prayer – put the work back on the people – they will respond.
• Church Like Wikipedia? Landon say’s we’ve got a lot to learn from a community that’s open to anyone’s gifts, yet is very clear on what it is: an encyclopedia. Of course, we’re the church – but when was the last time we defined exactly what that meant?
• A School of Love No longer the most effective social service agency or center of social interaction, what the church is, and can be well into the future, is a school of love – where we learn to get along with God and one another, learning the lessons of love.

About Landon Whitsitt Landon Whitsitt is a writer, speaker, theologian, and artist. He is the author of Open Source Church: Making Room for the Wisdom of All and Theology is Art. A former congregational pastor, Landon currently serves the Presbyterian Church (USA) as both the Vice-Moderator of its General Assembly and the Executive of the Synod of Mid-America. You can find him online at landonwhitsitt.com.

Books Landon Recommends 

• Tribal Church – Carol Howard-Merritt 
• Failure of Nerve – Edwin Friedman 
• Where Good Ideas Come From – Steven Johnson 
• The Lean Start-Up – Eric Ries