Vital Posts / Vision & Planning

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  • “Final Affairs” Fair Offers a Good Way Out ✓
    Our church on Saturday used the format provided on the Vital Practices website to host a “Final Affairs” Fair where members could look death in the eye and walk away smiling. The idea is have in one place information and resources about a n…
  • 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…
  • Wanna Grow! Help People Discern
    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…
  • Wanted: Fundraiser Makeover
    Today, I’m attending my first “Card Party” at my new congregation. I know I’ll have a great time kibitzing with women of all ages, visiting over the specialty sandwiches, and bidding with abandon on baskets of goodies. I like this kin…
  • 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.…
  • Surviving or growing into the future?
    Last week I remembered a resource about “survival mode” vs. “growth mode” for congregations. There are lots of resources available about this topic, but my notes pointed me to a short, easy description I could remember and share with others…
  • Editor's Letter: March 2012
    Greetings. Much has been written about the overall decline in mainline denominations. Tom Ehrich and others are calling for a ‘new way of doing business‘ – and throughout our church, congregational leaders struggle with the reality of d…
  • I Have Seen the Future: It is Kampala
    In my first 10 days in Uganda I have been taken to the capital city, Kampala, three times. All roads lead to the capital, it’s just that all those roads are in terrible condition. The freakish traffic can create jams of three hours or more. The mut…
  • The Difference Between Mission and Vision
    I enjoy helping churches and not-for-profits become strategic thinkers and doers, not just planners. Mission and vision statements are actually strategic tools that help a congregation or organization stay focused. Most churches and nonprofits have…
  • 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…
  • The Value of a Mission Statement
    Does your parish have a mission statement? Our Book of Common Prayer provides a mission statement for us all: “The mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” (Book of Common Prayer, pg. 855.)…
  • Helping out the Calendar Master
    Every congregation needs a calendar master. This person oversees all the events in the church and coordinates with outside groups. The calendar master knows which group will leave the building spotless and which ones will leave half-full coff…
  • Which Way to Worship
    As you may have followed from earlier blogs, we at St. Andrew’s, Seattle, are in the midst of launching a brand new Episcopal mission expression in a northeast neighborhood of Seattle. We inherited a fascinating building whose architecture gave t…
  • The Edge Effect
    I’ve just learned about “the edge effect.”  In nature, the interface between two ecological systems – the edge – is one of the most fertile, diverse, resilient, innovative  spaces. Think of a forest and a meadow, or a mountain and river v…
  • 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…
  • Church in the Round
    We have now officially launched our design team to re-establish an Episcopal mission in northeast Seattle that we have named, “Church in the Round.” As you may have read in my earlier blog posts, my parish has been asked to re-open a closed Epi…
  • Is it Worth It?
    “If no one else signs up to help, you’ll have to bring me in on a stretcher next week.” This was the closing line of a lay leader’s announcement last Sunday, as she pleaded for more volunteers to make blueberry cobbler for the town’s annu…
  • 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…
  • If You (Re-)build it, Will They Come?
    When I began to redesign our diocesan website, I had a few clear goals in mind: Improve navigation. Increase user satisfaction. Update the look and feel. I’ve shared this journey with you on Vital Practices because I think it’s helpful to s…
  • 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…
  • 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…
  • 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. …
  • 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.…
  • Wanted: Authenticity
    Summer is novel reading time. Trapped by the heat, I try to stay as still as possible, book in-hand, under a tree or nestled up to my AC wall unit. Two weeks ago I survived one of New York’s hottest days by reading Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from th…
  • 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…
  • Starting from Scratch
    If you were asked to start a new Episcopal Mission from scratch, how would you go about it? What principles or values would you put in place from day one? What first steps would you take in the those first days as you began? Our church may have …
  • Stewardship: Glass half-full
    The list of expenses was long. Over the past year, this Appalachian church installed a new boiler system, purchased an industrial stove and oven, and dug up half the parking lot to repair the water and sewer pipes. Bids are out for a new roof…
  • 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,…
  • Who's Blooming?
    How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light against its being – otherwise, we all remain too frightened. (Hafiz) This beautiful phrase anchors tonight’s meditation during Ve…
  • The Little Church That Could
    “We had an emergency building committee meeting on Thursday. The boiler is failing. But when I left the meeting, after 2 hours, I was so energized!” That isn’t the usual response from a property committee chair. But it was Liz’s respons…
  • Giving up Lent for Lent
    In my Resurgent Church colleague clergy group, two members shared the different ways their communities have been approaching the Lenten Season. Cynthia Espeseth, vicar of St. Hilda/St. Patrick’s, Mulkiteo, talked about the “wishful thinking hal…
  • 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…
  • Ear to the Ground
    I love this expression. It conjures up times as a kid when I literally pressed my ear to the rocky soil listening for clues about what was going on beneath the surface.  Years later, I often hear this expression in the context of what it means …
  • La Bonne Cuisine: A Mortgage and a Mission
  • Change: Top down or bottom up? Or both?
    The question of how the church must change was the theme of the opening address at The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council meeting in Fort Worth. As reported by Episcopal News Service, House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson used part of …
  • The Resurgent Church
    For the third year running I am taking part in a clergy action/study group called the Resurgent Church. It comes out of the incredible work of Anne Lukens, a rector in our diocese, who has convened small groups of 8-10 "practitioners" who meet for …
  • Red Notes
    Last week I shared some "blue notes."  Those post-it note pictures gave a sense of the reality of the church as some people see it now. While there are many wonderful aspects of the Episcopal Church these days, those particular notes sang the blues…
  • 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…
  • "Be Not Afraid" - Is Our Role Business or Faith?
    Jesus said to us “be not afraid” and yet we are afraid. We, in religious communities, are afraid that we will run out of money, run out of people, run out of energy. If our focus was on formation, not on maintaining the status quo, I believe we…
  • Happy 2011
    In the United States, the start of a new calendar year signals time for reflection and renewal and setting goals. Out with the old! In with the new! Honoring the New Year’s tradition of evaluation and goal setting, ECF Vital Practices invited…
  • What Do YOU Want for Christmas?
    This week I’ve spent a lot of time shopping. No, not in malls or online for family and friends; I’ve been ‘resource shopping’ for ECF Vital Practices, looking for tools and resources to add to our site, gifts to help congregational leaders …
  • 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…
  • Back from Nuevo Amanecer
    I’m writing this blog post on my flight back from the Nuevo Amanecer Conference, an event I attended on behalf of the Episcopal Church Foundation. This conference is a once-in-two year gathering for those who are involved in Latino ministry. Atte…
  • 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…
  • 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…
  • Holy Diversions
    I live alongside a monastic community. (Yes, there are nuns and monks in the Episcopal Church!) What a unique and amazing experience. I could never have planned for something like this…it just emerged in grace-filled ways over the last 18 months.…
  • Growth Charts
    When my parents moved from my childhood home, they asked if there was anything I wanted. They expected, I think, for me to ask for a favorite piece of furniture or artwork.  I asked for part of a doorframe.  From the time we moved into the…