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  • Who’s New and Who’s Missing ✓
    Click here for a Spanish version of this blog post.  Each Monday for a half-hour four of us gather and go through an exercise called “Who’s New and Who’s Missing.” It is a quick check-in the day following worship services to keep us mind…
  • I do my filing once a year whether I need to or not.... ✓
    I just booked the cottage at our diocesan retreat center on the Olympic Peninsula for my annual Advent filing marathon retreat. In a 36-hour period in a beautiful relaxed setting accompanied by French-roast coffee in the morning and a good red wine…
  • Handcuffed by governance? ✓
    Do you believe the Episcopal Church's system of governance helps or hinders your congregation's ability to carry out God's Mission? During her remarks at the Executive Council's first plenary session, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori chal…
  • Technology: Tools for Churches
    My girlfriend and I have been watching Downton Abbey, which you may have heard about if you live in the Western hemisphere. In the last episode of season one, set in 1914, the Earl’s country house gets a telephone. Some of the staff wonders whom …
  • Silence in the Office and the Meeting Room
    For the first time in my life I have my own office. In the past I’ve shared offices, sat at the receptionist’s desk, which was basically in a glass box, and had a desk in the office lobby, where I never knew when my boss would pop out of his of…
  • Do the Right Thing!
    Churches often fail to observe copyright laws, or even the basics of courtesy. We have this unfortunate habit of thinking that just because it is "for the church" it is OK if I make a few copies of this or that. So, Sunday School teachers photocopy…
  • Emailing vs. Spamming
    When does email cross the line and become spam? Using email as part of your congregation’s communications strategy requires collecting email addresses. What’s our responsibility regarding stewardship of this resource? Last week, this questio…
  • Christlike Conversation
    Este artículo esta disponible en español aquí. We’ve all been in one of those meetings: a meeting that goes on and on, in which people repeat each other or seem to speak just to hear themselves talk or in which strong emotions inhibit th…
  • The Blurry Line Between Personal and Professional
    Though we often try to keep them separate, work life and personal life intermingle in any job. For the staff of a church this is especially tricky. The church is deeply personal for members of the community. It’s a community made up of relationsh…
  • Small Groups
    I have served on vestries and participated in men’s Bible studies and groups for young adults. All of these groups have defined boundaries – not everyone can join them. There is a part of me that is a bit uncomfortable with a group in which membe…
  • Taking Care of Business
    I've been getting email inquiries about money. Not scams urging me to wire funds to needy causes abroad, nor do I mean grant requests. These come from parish leaders wrestling with money and finances. Some of the questions are fairly straightfo…
  • Being Nice or Not
    I sometimes have trouble distinguishing between being nice and being kind. In my experience, it’s a distinction that church leaders often struggle with as well, especially staff. This may not be true in every church – we all know that some peop…
  • Editor’s Letter - February 2012
    Greetings. One of the joys of my role as editor of ECF Vital Practices is the discovery of resources to share through this website. Each day I comb through email messages, online publications, Facebook, as well as a variety of websites and prin…
  • Administrator as Minister
    While I was working at an Episcopal Church in Houston, I’d often spend hours listening. I’d listen to the homeless men and women who came in the door, I’d listen to people who called up with messages for the priests, and I’d listen to paris…
  • Interruptions
    I worked at a church in which the fire alarm would occasionally go off. There were never any fires, just a little too much incense or something like that. I was the parish administrator, and occasionally I’d be working on the service and the ligh…
  • 13 Bosses: Supervising the Parish Administrator
    The rector would like a printout of the leaflet by Thursday. The choir director needs a few checks written for musicians playing at a concert on Friday. The treasurer is requesting a report, the senior warden needs to schedule some roof repairs, a…
  • Our Very Own Christmas Special
    Here's a guilty pleasure: Christmas specials.  I like them on TV (Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas come to mind) and I especially like them as desserts. "I'll have five of Santa's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies, tha…
  • Feeling Connected
    Editor's Note: ECF Vital Practices welcomes Jeremiah Sierra who will share his thoughts, experiences, and recommendations related to our churches from his vantage point as a parish administrator. It’s a funny thing when someone asks you not to…
  • Beyond Functions: An Incarnational Ministry Fair
    With Kick-off Sunday under our belts, many churches turn to the Ministry Fair to jumpstart recruitment for all the numerous parish ministries needing warm bodies to keep their mission going. Many times these look like this: a parish hall set up wit…
  • Be Ready
    Two nights ago I arrived home to find no power on the property. So much for plugging in the laptop and writing a blog post! But I got the flashlight, managed to warm up some dinner on the gas stove, then went to bed early. The power outage is a…
  • Taking it to the Streets
    Members of another urban congregation are picketing the second service of St. John’s in Columbus, Ohio. The service is Street Church, where for the past five years, the Rev. Lee Anne Reat presides over a full Eucharist on a street corner in…
  • Tax Credit?
    Today’s blog post might just save your congregation some money. Last week, Bishop Curry of the Diocese of North Carolina learned that two of the congregations in his diocese were eligible for a tax credit through the Health Care Act of 2010. …
  • Program Year Start Up Checklist
    This time of year, I feel like my old elementary school principal. It was his job to get old Boardman School whipped into shape for the school year. It was an old, old building but when the kids arrived on the first day of school it smelled new. Ne…
  • Taking My Leave
    I am five months away from the first sabbatical of my 30 year priesthood, not too early to start planning for my leave time and what will go on at the parish while I am gone. I am very blessed to have two of my priest associates on board to take o…
  • Volunteer Accountability
    It’s tough being a volunteer or lay leader. Volunteers are often under-appreciated, over-worked, and mis-managed. It can be equally difficult when a volunteer drops the ball. Sometimes volunteers don’t show up because they had something els…
  • Hard Decisions, Winning Strategies
    I’ve been musing about an article in Newsweek by Jack and Suzy Welch. Jack Welch was, of course, the chairman and CEO of General Electric for 20 years, leaving in 2001. He wrote the book, Winning, with his soon-to-be wife, Suzy, amid some controv…
  • Annual Review
    This morning I took the cats to the vet. Not my favorite thing to do, as my two cats are experts at eluding capture. Yet, over time I’ve learned ways to make ‘herding the cats’ into their carriers an easier task. I haven’t, however, figured…
  • Administrator as Minister
    When I called Gwen at 9:15 Monday morning the parish office was already abuzz. Gwen, our parish administrator, had just returned from a week vacation yet still took time for a long conversation with me. The purpose was a bit unusual – an intervie…
  • The Next Meeting Tango...
    You're at the end of a long meeting. Significant issues have been discussed, weighed, and finally decided. Then the next-meeting tango begins. Out come the Blackberries, iPhones, Droids, and the seriously un-flashy, but always reliable paper calend…
  • Hard Times/Courageous Change?
    Yesterday started on a good note. I got two promising leads for new clients and won the drawing at the Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast. Later in the morning I met the woman I’ll be collaborating with on a project for a current client.…
  • The Church Website Through the Ages
    It all started back on October 23, 1995. That’s the first record of a conversation in which a member of the congregation asked the minister during the coffee hour “Do you think we need a homepage on the World Wide Web for our parish?” Th…
  • Summer as its own Liturgical Season
    This week we enter one of my favorite seasons of the church year. I don’t mean the Season of Pentecost. I mean the Season of Summer. While not strictly its own color-coded calendar section, the liturgical Season of Summer probably represen…
  • Editor's Letter: Caring for Each Other
    This month Vestry Papers continues to explore the theme Caring for Each Other, with a special focus on caring for the newcomer in our midst and the ways we care for ourselves as a congregation so as to maintain – or restore – our vitality. …
  • What's your Impact?
    Could anyone have anticipated the impact of the resurrection? Talk about long-term outcomes! Jesus had a plan in mind, but the disciples seemed surprised and amazed by the early impact of their ministry with him. Feeding more than 5,000 people,…
  • Editor's Letter: Caring for Each Other
    Our congregational life is a common life, complete with the joys and challenges that come from being in relationship. As congregational leaders, our role involves managing the sometimes ‘sticky wickets’ of relationship that hamper our work of b…
  • 10-Minute Rule
    If the church is on fire, tell the rector. Otherwise, in the final 10 minutes before a service starts, try to resist peppering your priest with questions or reports about some failure of performance – people or facilities (or both). I…
  • Backbreaking Meetings
    So far this week: eight meetings in three days. Whether I like it or not, meetings form the backbone of my day, vertebrae linking ideas, people, and action. Yet one-third of all meetings are considered unnecessary by the people who attend them.…
  • Google and the Human Touch
    Leading a team is really hard. Can Google help? Two weeks ago, the New York Times ran an article on Google’s 8-Point Plan to Build a Better Boss. The 8-Point Plan was the fruit of a two-year project in which a team analyzed Google performance…
  • State of the Church Part 2
    How do you summarize the state of the Episcopal Church in one 20-page report? What status reports are most helpful for the church-at-large as it seeks to live out its mission in the world? How do you crunch a sea of statistics into a usable form fo…
  • State of the Church Part 1
    I am currently at a meeting of the House of Deputies State of the Church Committee in Atlanta where we are preparing the 67th report of this committee. Since 1808, every three years our report has been submitted to the General Convention of the chu…
  • Trialability
    Podcasts, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook. We hear continually how churches need to embrace the new social media to help share our good news. Yet so few of us do it, or it takes forever to get it going. What’s going on? Trialability. …
  • Responding to the Call, Part 2
    Back in November, I wrote about forming the fourth mutual discernment group in my four years as rector as another member of our church seeks clarity on a call to priesthood. In the intervening months our bishop and Commission on Ministry have draft…
  • New Ministry Celebrations
    I have attended the new ministry celebrations for two absolutely amazing women priests who have now become rectors in the Diocese of Olympia. Rachel Taber-Hamilton is now in charge of Trinity, Everett, and Carla Pryne is the new pastor for Holy Spi…
  • A Tapestry of Ministries
    It was a week of snow, ice, wind, and rain. Numerous flight cancellations and airport closures laid havoc across the country. Add to this job layoffs, pay cuts, and budget struggles. Not to mention planning for Lent and preparing a Sunday sermon. …
  • Proceed with Caution
    The front page photo shows a car buried in snow. TV news reports tell stories of collapsed roofs, frozen pipes, and hazardous travel conditions. In my neighborhood the snow piles are getting smaller. Walking home from an appointment, I saw de…
  • What’s Your Church’s Economic Worth?
    When St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Waco, Texas closed their school in 2006, it impacted both the congregation and the community. Students and families needed to find new schools. School faculty and staff were unemployed. The empty school buildi…
  • Snow Days...
    Eastern Massachusetts is in the midst of its fourth or fifth ‘major’ snowfall since Christmas. The governor has asked all ‘non-essential’ workers to stay home; the TV crawl is filled with notices of closed schools and organizations, includi…
  • New Kind of Potluck at the Annual Meeting
    An announcement of the annual meeting can be as welcome as the postcard reminder of your  dental appointment: You know you’ve got to do it, but you’re not going to enjoy it.  Often, it seems, annual meetings stick to the same-old agenda -- …
  • Thanks for Sharing
    In High School my friends and I would sometimes say “Thanks for sharing!” in a tone that only high schoolers can truly pull off: sarcastic and sing-songy at the same time. Directed at a friend, it became both a loving tease and dismissal, as sh…
  • My December To Do List
    I tried to switch my calendar, address book and To Do Lists to my iPhone to help organize my life but it just didn’t work. I have switched back to my trustee Daytimer with two pages per day for appointments and lists. It is the same system I have…
  • Making a List....
    Yesterday, on a day off, I felt caught in a strange place between endings and beginnings. I had my usual list of personal tasks to accomplish in limited hours. Yet it had the strange aura that only comes at this particular time of year. Encroaching…
  • New Year's Resolutions
    The Church year has just begun with Advent I so now is a great time to make some resolutions that will make parish ministry more manageable in the year to come. Here goes: 1. Making a list and checking it twice. Buckle down and get all the data…
  • And the Gold Goes to ...
    E-mail addresses are gold. By Olympic award standards, the bronze medal goes to snail mail addresses. Cell phone numbers snag the silver. But e-mail addresses rise to the top of the podium. Managing the database for a congregation…
  • The Balance Between Crazy and Amazing
    My diocese is not known to have many money problems.    But when a committee started drafting the 2011 budget, they realized we were facing a shortfall. Like every church organization, we’ve tightened our belts, frozen salaries, and made toug…
  • Is your vestry 'committee of the whole,' leaving a hole?
    Click here for a Spanish translation of this blog post.  Does your vestry try to do it all in monthly slugfests where every issue the church faces is pulled out on the carpet and discussed? Does most of the thinking come off the top of the head?…