Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Creating a time line is a fun, interactive way to engage a congregation in telling stories that help people learn about each other and what they have in common. This is not an exercise to compile an accurate account of your church’s history – it goes much deeper into shared faith and values.

To start, determine your goal for the exercise. Would you like to learn what gifts for ministry exist within your congregation? Would you like to better understand how your members perceive your parish’s impact on your neighborhood? Perhaps your church has combined with another and you’d like to know more about your separate histories and how values and culture are unique and/or shared.

Next, gather the materials you need: 10 feet or more of newsprint paper and lots of color markers that won’t bleed through the paper. Another option for the paper is to use brightly colored paper rolls found in teacher-supply stores. Choose a color light enough so writing is easy to read.

Hang the paper horizontally on a wall in a place where people gather, such as the room used for coffee hour. Devise a way to keep the color markers handy. Draw a horizontal line all the way along the center of the paper. A foot or two from the left end, dissect the horizontal line with a vertical one. Above it, write the year the church was founded, and a short descriptive phrase such as: St. Luke’s dedication May, 1935. If you are made up of more than one congregation, place lines in approximately accurate spots to recognize the start of each.

Now the fun part. Invite the congregation to participate in filling in the time line with specific experiences that you request. Request no more than two specific experiences, or else your line will become too full to analyze. This is why it is important to first determine what you most want to learn. Here are some examples:

• Show on the time line a high point memory of your time at _____ Church.
• Show on the time line a very spiritual experience that you have had at _____ Church. 
• Show on the time line a time when you were very proud to be a member of _____ Church. 
• Show on the time line a highpoint memory of when _____ Church represented Christ in our neighborhood or community.
• Show a time a high point memory of a way that you used your personal gift(s) to support a ministry of our church. Include what that gift was (sewing, music, money, reading, teaching, etc.)

Some basic instructions for everyone to follow:

• You can either use a few words or draw a picture (pictures are preferred!) of your memories, at/near the year each occurred.
• If someone else has already cited the same experience you want to include, either add to their drawing/words, or just put a star next to the other person’s entry. An event with many stars shows that it was meaningful to many people.
• Do the best you can at placing your event at the appropriate time it occurred, but no worries if that space is taken. Just get close, or draw a long line from a spot on the line to your entry in an open space above or below the line. 
• The time line will remain on the wall for the next ____ Sundays. Please participate before __(date)__.

Designate a few people to draw their entries on the time line before the congregation is invited to do so. The first folks will provide the relative placement of years. If your church was established 100 to 150-years ago, you might mark a small area as “pre-20th century” or designate areas for decades. There is no point saving a large area for ancient history, although you certainly want to be open to people sharing significant history, such as the wedding of great grandparents at the church in 1893.

Plan ways for the congregation to discuss what the time line reveals. Consider inviting a small committee or the Vestry to do an initial analysis that will jump start a larger audience. Create questions that offer meaning to what people observe on the time line, such as: 

• Did you learn anything about our church or anyone that you did not know before?
• Do you see any trends in the history of spiritual (or outreach or ministry) experiences within our congregation?
• What types of experiences seem to be the most meaningful to people? (Worship? Mission trips? Outreach?)
• What gifts for ministry exist in our congregation? Do any surprise you? 
• As you think about our church and these entries, does it seem anything is missing? Why or why not?
• In the case of two merged congregations: What does the time line tell us about what our two groups have in common as far as our ministries and what we value?

Church leaders should use the information revealed in the exercise in future planning. In the meantime, celebrate the gifts and experiences with which God has blessed your congregation.

Don't miss a blog post! Subscribe via email or RSS, using the grey box on the upper right.