Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices

A New Way to Start a Meeting ✓
Apparently I’m in meetings often enough that when I told my son I had meetings the other day, he grunted. “Meetings. Is that all adults do? Do you ever work in these meetings?” My honest answer: Sometimes. Meetings consume a l…
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…
Consensus: A Countercultural Activity
Many are saying that we are living through one of the most polarized periods in U.S. history. They point out that we, as a nation, are now divided into extremes: left and right, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican. What's more, the long-held pra…
Forty.
I’m not gonna lie. The idea of turning 40 sucked. I spent some time moping last week. It didn’t help that my kids started teasing, calling me oldy-moldy or old-and-crusty. Then a co-worker prefaced a question to me with “O, ancient one.…
Open Source Your Church
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 the…
Conversations on Governance
Conversations related to governance are everywhere. State and national elections dominate news reports. In New England, we are in the middle of Town Meeting season; earlier this week I listened to passionate arguments for or against leaf blowers, …
From Nine to Ten
My colleague’s questions flabbergasted me. The conversation had begun innocently enough. She and I had just finished a series of ten lengthy meetings that had gone, in my estimation, very well. We’d begun on time. We’d ended on time. Ou…
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…
May Editor's Letter
I like to know how things work. From an early age, I learned if I had a basic understanding of this, I made better decisions. This practice led me to my first – and only – computer-programming course. It was in the early 80s, computers were…
That Other Trinity: Results, Process, Relationships
There’s a lot of advice out there about how faith communities can work together and get things done. One of the best pieces of advice that I’ve heard has to do with the three factors that folks need to be mindful of in the midst of leading: res…
Wanted: Good Coaches
In March 2011, the New York Times ran a lengthy piece about Google’s 8-Point Plan to Build A Better Boss. Based on massive amounts of data culled from employee evaluations, the plan sought to do two things: first, it sought to name the top eight …
Will your Goals Make a Difference?
The large whiteboard in my office is full of goals. At some point in January, my colleagues and I thought it would be a great idea to write down in large scrawl ECF's yearly goals on that whiteboard. As the months have gone by, we've been …
Who Should be at the Table?
There are many tables within an Episcopal Church. There is, of course, the altar. This table is at the center of our liturgical life and serves as a reminder of the table around which Jesus and his disciples shared a final meal. But in most chu…
April Editor's Letter
“Perhaps this week, more than others, we remember our rightful place as servants of the one who came not to be served but to serve and those he loved to the end, especially the poor, the oppressed, the needy.” …
Our Future is Bright. (And lean, uncharted, and scary)
Last week, my colleagues and I began compiling “the stack,” a sizeable tower of completed applications to ECF’s Fellowship Partners Program. As the stack rose higher and higher, it quickly became clear that this year we’d had a bumper crop.…
The Other 1 Percent
I dreaded the meeting. Negative, sometimes brutal messages on listservs, blogs, and other forums had drained my energy, twisting and dampening my anticipation of connecting with colleagues. If it ends up being three days of more of the …
Noises Off
One of my favorite stage devices is the unseen character, the person who has a significant role in plot and play but is never seen by the audience. Today I am thinking about the householder in the parable of the talents. Without him, there is no…
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…
David & Goliath
Only one hospital served the small community. In a river town in Appalachia with high unemployment and even higher numbers of uninsured folks, I’m sure it was sometimes hard for the hospital to make a balanced budget, much less a profit. …
¿Por qué permanecer igual?
An English version of this blog post is available here. Al igual que muchas feligresías, la Fundación de la Iglesia Episcopal está en medio de muchos cambios. Mi amiga y colega Anne Ditzler se está encaminando a pastizales más verdes tra…
Communication is mission: Connection
Several years ago, knitting ministries were more novel than ubiquitous. I thought the ministry would make an interesting story, so I spent time with a few churches that had knitting groups and wrote a feature for the diocesan newspaper. The a…
Jesus Didn’t Micromanage
While trying to plan a fundraising event several years ago, I learned just how difficult delegating can be. I was working for a small nonprofit, and I was in charge of planning and execution. This included arranging for dinner, silent auction items…
Gathering Around Ministry, Not Minister
Over the past several years, the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) has been advocating for a new type of local congregation - one that serves as a transformational faith community. Its primary purpose is to inspire and empower members to become act…
Cupid-ity or Stupidity?
Be mine. I thought this was simply a sweet if trite sentiment on a candy conversation heart. But an astute wordsmith preacher taught on Valentine's Day that this phrase takes on a dark twist in the word “cupidity.” Instead of an ar…
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…
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…
Digital Direction
All of us at ECF Vital Practices tend toward the practical. When writing about communications technologies, we are focused on helping congregations use these new tools, whether it’s creating dynamic Facebook pages, improving e-newsletters, claiming…
A Secret Key to Keywords
So we’re agreed: keywords are important. They elevate your website’s standing in rankings on search engines like Google and Yahoo. The exercise of listing keywords helps you hone in on content, and the combination of keywords and search e…
A Critical Parable
Though the following was used with youth ministry in mind, many people in leadership roles within the church fall into the same trap. Too many of us aren’t honest with ourselves, so we don’t accept our weaknesses. Many struggle with knowing how…
Seeing Jesus
As we parked, my daughter whispered: “I hope I make at least one friend today.” My husband and I exchanged the glance that roughly translates into our willingness to cut off an arm so that this could happen. “You will,” we reassur…
Light as a feather or stiff as a board? Vestry ice breakers
By the dim light of the hall bathroom, the girls could see each other. No giggles, we imposed. Then each of us placed a finger under the pre-teen girl and began intoning, “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.” Each time, we were amazed wh…
Courage
In the last two weeks courage keeps popping up. Well, to be honest, courage itself isn’t showing its face (yet). But I’ve been hearing about courage: on the radio, a friend’s Facebook post, email messages, and other conversations. Is ther…
What We Leave Behind
I pull out my diocesan credit card and survey the moving boxes. As I slide the card to the salesman, I'm distracted, calculating how many boxes I might need for my office. The salesman looks closely at the card. You have the same name as Bish…
Who are you waiting for?
The Nones are having none of it. And all of it too. Last week, in an editorial for the New York Times, Eric Weiner introduced us to the Nones. The Nones are the roughly 12% of the population (nearly a quarter among youth) who are opting out of rel…
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…
Elf on a Shelf -- and Control
I’ve heard tell of some who dismiss the Elf on a Shelf as crass marketing. They think it’s creepy for an abnormally long-limbed doll with a plastic head and black oval eyes to keep watch by day and report to Santa by night. But at our ho…
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…
Community and Security
How much is too much? I’m grappling with this question as I re-evaluate our policies about security and the Internet. There are mean, scary people out there, and I want to do my part in protecting people of the diocese. At the same ti…
All I Need to Know I Learned in…
David. Tommy. Kim. Mike. Shields drawn. Walnuts in hand. What are the rules? What makes a fair game? This little poem popped into my mind last weekend after a quick flood of childhood memories. I’m the middle girl of two broth…
Open it Up, Share it Wide
Last week I received a fairly straight forward question from a lay leader regarding vestry nominations. In addition to answering Andrea’s question, it opened the door to share a great example I just learned from the rector of St. Paul’s in Murf…
Vestry: Cast of Characters
Prudent rectors and nominating committees already are scouting the congregation for new blood. Often annual meetings aren’t until January, but now is the time for recruitment. Outgoing vestry members and/or the nominating committee need to ha…
Voices of Transformation and Renewal
I am attending the Transformation and Renewal Conference at Kanuga Conference Centers in North Carolina. Co-sponsored by the Office of Black Ministries, the Union of Black Episcopalians, and Kanuga Conference Centers, this year's gathering focuses on…
What I Didn’t Learn in Geometry, I Learned at Church
Triangulation. It’s the classic killer of many ministries. Person A tells something to Person B, and Person B takes it to Person C. The problem is exponentially exacerbated when Person C actually holds court in the first place with Person B. Ther…
Collegiality
I am writing from a break in a Clergy Day where 40 clergy have gathered together for conversation as well as to hear about an exciting program called Mary’s Hope. This has me thinking about the clergy groups I have been a part over the past 36 ye…
Refrigerator Score
Growing up in a competitive, game-playing family, if I was thoroughly thumped during a card game, then the score promptly went up on the refrigerator. The good-natured taunts of “refrigerator score” would begin about midway through a game…
Shoulders to Stand On
If you’ve ever felt paralyzed by your congregation’s glorious past, or overshadowed by the prior rector’s legacy, consider the lot of the Rev. Raphael Warnock, the current pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA. This past Sunday, jus…
Change
Every organization needs a shake-up. Not all the time, of course. After all, constancy is valuable, as long as it’s not prized above all else. But organizations, like churches, diocesan offices, denominational centers and General Conventions…
What a Relief!
The new youth minister is finally arriving! I know it can feel like such a relief when the new person is starting after your church has spent months, and in some cases more than a year, searching for the perfect youth director. But before you ha…
Conflict and Decline
Here’s a set of numbers that should give us pause. According to the 2010 Faith Communities Today Survey conducted by the Episcopal Church’s Office of Research, we are a conflictive church. In that survey 61% of Episcopal churches reported that…
Learning Together
How do you learn? How do you put your learning into action? There is no simple or single answer. Much research suggests people learn in a variety of ways. Some are better at conceptualization, some in experimentation, yet others in reflection u…
The Youth Minister Left. Now What?
Many volunteer youth workers are left with this question when their youth director/minister has been fired or has resigned unexpectedly. This time of transition can be sad, confusing, and frustrating. It’s often a time for grieving. And though ev…
Back to Church Sunday
I’m not normally a fan of made-up national-something-days. They sometimes seem contrived, like National Uncles who Once Took You Fishing Day (and you can buy the card at Hallmark). But I might be willing to …
Vestry as Spiritual Leaders?
How would your vestry's work differ from current practice if the spiritual health of the congregation was its primary obligation? One of the best kept secrets in the Episcopal Church has to do with the wide range of work that vestries can ta…
From Death to Life
This week I’ll attend a big staff gathering where we’ll review statistics and trends about the Episcopal Church. I don’t like hearing the bad news about decline. It sucks my energy and can leave me with a “why bother?” feeling. But I have…
Rising Dough, Growing Communities
Nearly every weekend that I’m home I get out the flour, water and yeast and begin to make bread. Hearth loaves, baguettes, buttermilk currant loaves and more. What began as a hobby two and a half years ago has become a passion of mine, and I oftent…
Who do you say that I am?
Can you be Christian all by yourself? If you never go to church and you never talk about your faith and you never mention Jesus in any of your relationships, are you a Christian? I’m not sure. To me, the living out of our Christiani…
Being and Doing
As our congregation gears up for a very busy fall, I am struck once again by the dynamic of “being” versus “doing.” As a die-hard activist I always have to be reminded that our state of being is just as important as what we accomplish. …
Leadership Self-Assessment
This blog post was originally written in Spanish and is available here. How many times in the middle of a major project have you asked yourself, “Am I being a good leader?” I believe it’s safe to assume that most of those who…
Autoevaluación de un líder
An English translation of this blog post is available here. ¿Cuantas veces te has preguntado estando en medio de una tarea larga y complicada si estas siendo un buen líder? Creo que tengo razón al suponer que los que seguimos de cerca …
New Year. New Options?
Although we are still in the dog days of August, congregational leaders are starting to gear up for September and the start of a new program year, planning ministries and other activities including worship, music, Christian formation, and outreach.…
Waxing nostalgic: Back to school
Bring on the routine. In 12 days, the kids begin school for the fall, and our family settles into a regular schedule. Homework, dinner, a little TV. Piano practice, art lessons and for the first time, maybe karate. I say maybe, because t…
The Hunger Games
As I mentioned in my post last week, summer is novel reading time. I recently read the first two books of Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games, a popular and unnervingly dark young adult novel. In this series a violent society pits starving teenagers …
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…
Sharing Time
It's not easy to share my husband. The call came about an hour before we planned to leave for a short-but-much-needed vacation. An elderly parishioner died, and the family wanted the funeral on Thursday, smack dab in the middle of our four-day …
Shooting Stars
Every diocesan office, every church staff has some superstars. They are creative thinkers – and doers – with boundless optimism and energy. Their job is a ministry, a calling, and they pour both their ability and heart into the work. And it…
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…
The Value of Advice
In The Episcopal Church (and maybe all churches), we have lots of listening sessions. These are times for the stakeholders to come together and talk to the leadership about their wants and desires. The leadership, in turn, is supposed to listen wit…
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…
Doing the Trim Work
I hate to trim. While the kids are away for a week at the grandparents, my husband and I are toiling through a long-delayed to-do list. That includes painting several rooms. Since my husband is at least seven inches taller, he works on …
Dog Paddling at the Deep End of the Pool
Ever learned to swim by being pushed into the deep end of the pool? It isn’t pretty and can be downright terrifying, but there’s a strong incentive to figure out what works! In the past two years, I have served as the chair of two committees i…
Editor's Letter July
One of my earliest memories of church is of the kindergarten room in the basement of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Wakefield, Mass. It is Epiphany, and there is a large felt board on the wall with figures representing the Magi’s visit to the baby Je…
Ten Tests for Growth
“Provide more practical tools for congregational leaders,” say respondents of a recent ECF Vital Practices survey. A look through the variety of resources that flood my inbox on a daily basis provided a resource developed by the English Diocese o…
Led by Children
The nursery renovation began with a 5-year-old. Our church is nearly 200 years old, and some of the toys in the nursery surely witnessed the first service. We even considered carbon-dating. But to be honest, our attention was on the adu…
"Make Yourself at Home"
“Make yourself at home.” I’ve heard, and uttered, this phrase thousands of time in my life. And, depending on the situation, I either follow through or I don’t, my actions guided by the intangible ‘vibes’ my senses pick up. I sto…
What Makes Community?
“Negotiating limited resources creates community,” says Don Bisson, a Marist brother and widely respected leader on the interrelationship of spirituality and psychology. When I heard this claim last week from Sr. Carol Bernice, reporting on…
Raising PKs
My daughter was only four months old the first time I truly understood the challenge of raising PKs – priest kids. I held her in my arms as we waited by the door for my husband to lock up the church. Her little face peaked out from a caterpil…
Diocesan Ministry Fairs
Worship in the Diocese of Chicago last Saturday was fantastic. Why worship on Saturday? The opening of the annual diocesan Leadership and Ministry Fair. Bishop Jeffrey Lee, Vicki Garvey (canon for Christian Formation), and Dent Davidson (Missio…
Osama bin Laden: To rejoice or not?
I don’t rejoice that Osama bin Laden is dead. To be certain, I am glad he can no longer mastermind terrorist attacks. I am thankful he will no longer be able to lead disenfranchised zealots to attack innocent people around the world. His …
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…
Lunch is on Me
Each Eastertide I try to inject some fun and relaxation into the lives of parishioners. For the third year running, I will host “Joy Walks;” a four-mile trek around the glacial lake that gives our Green Lake neighborhood its name. But the n…
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.…
Bishop Sutton on Leadership
The clergy of the Diocese of Olympia just ended a three-day retreat led by Bishop Eugene Sutton of the Diocese of Maryland. The assignment he had given himself was to help this gathering of priests and deacons, “connect role and soul.” In four …
Soul Food Pyramid
Have you had 6-8 servings of sacred story? What about the recommended monthly 2-4 servings of Christian action? The Soul Food Pyramid outlines what is needed for a healthy, balanced spiritual diet. Developed by the folks at St. Patrick’…
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…
Leave
A New York Times article last summer began, “The findings have surfaced with ominous regularity over the last few years, and with little notice: members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension, and depression at rates higher than most A…
Rev. Peter J. Gomes, Harvard Minister, 68
While driving outside of Boston on Tuesday morning, I heard the bad news: Rev. Peter Gomes had died. I was saddened by the news, but I also knew that I was not mourning alone. Like thousands of people in the communities of Boston and Cambridge,…
Academy Awards and Church Announcements: Time to Cue the Orchestra
How many of you have sat through announcements in church, wishing you could treat them like acceptance speeches at the Oscars? When they get too long – or boring, you could cue the orchestra (or organ) music, and the teen daughter of a cele…
30 Years and Counting
Next week I celebrate 30 years as an Episcopal priest, but I feel like I am just getting started. Time has flown by. At my 30th reunion at Yale Divinity School this past fall, a large number of us gathered and relived memories that were as fresh as…
Meeting without Meeting
If you're involved in diocesan work (or on staff, like me), then you spend a lot of time in your car, driving to meetings. My diocese is about five hours long and three hours wide -- and we're one of the lucky ones. I know some of the western d…
Stories and Numbers
Stories and numbers: we need both. Stories motivate; numbers evaluate. This point, about the need to use both numbers and stories in our ministries, has pressed on me from all sides this past week. It started through commentary here about a…
Baby Boomers: Put down the microphone
When the Twin Towers tumbled down, I held my newborn daughter tightly and prayed that we would work to end the violence, to find a way to connect despite different faiths and cultures. I suspect Christina-Taylor Green’s mother felt the same…
Resolution #2: Invest in Leadership
While at seminary, in a course on homiletics, I received a worksheet called "Troubling Texts." It was a short list of the hardest passages to preach on. At the top of the list was Jesus' line in the 26th chapter of Matthew, after the disciples comp…
Strategy and Relationships
We’re kicking off the year in a big way. Tomorrow I head to the Diocese of Spokane to spend three days training about seventy-five lay people, clergy, and bishops in organizing for mission. Why? To equip us to respond to God’s call to serve the…
Behaving Badly (and Publicly)
Sometimes people behave badly - and the media (willing participant or not) gives them a platform to advertise the bad behavior. In a recent situation, a former parishioner and church employee was interviewed by a local newspaper. She misled the…
Responding to THE Call
I had someone come into my office and share that they wanted to become a priest. This will be the fourth time that as rector I have responded to such a conversation by pulling together a formal discernment group. They will meet over nine months …
Back to basics
The first semester of our experiment ends tonight. My church is a typical county-seat congregation in the foothills of Appalachia. If only Christmas Eve were our typical attendance on Sunday mornings, we’d be a packed 150. Instead, most Sun…
Who Presides When the Bishop Comes? We do.
When Bishop Greg Rickel makes his first official visitation to St. Andrew’s this Sunday, he’ll join a priest, a deacon, and a lay presider at the altar for a celebration of the Eucharist that stretches the rubrics but models the theology of our…
Conventional Wisdom and Gene Robinson's Retirement
Last week in my blog I held up our General Convention as an object lesson in applying human reason as a theological authority. With the announcement of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson’s retirement I am remembering the most meaningful example of this I…
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…
Leadership in the Feligresía
This past weekend the Episcopal Church Foundation visited the northern part of the Diocese of Puerto Rico. We were there at the invitation of Bishop David Álvarez and Fr. Juan Monge with the goal of presenting just about everything we possibly cou…
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…
Church and Sate
The separation of church and state is a key cornerstone of the U.S. government. At the same time, everyone at my noonday meeting on Tuesday had cast their vote in a local church. This juxtaposition struck me today as we move from one of the most…
Conventional Wisdom
We had our elections for General Convention deputies at our diocesan convention this weekend; I was chosen to go to Indianapolis in 2012. The head of our deputation is Katrina Hamilton, the first layperson elected. This will be her third convention…
Saints Alive
Faye laundered money. Literally. At the small, rural church, she collected the offering at the end of the service and hid it in her clothes hamper until she could make it to the bank. We discovered the occasions when she washed the purse wi…

Vital Posts / Leadership

Browse

Related