Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Every month ECFVP offers five resources on a theme. This month we've asked Paul Klitzke, Rector at Church of the Ascension in Dallas, TX, to offer a vlog sharing how he uses the different resource types on Vital Practices. Please find his choices below. Please share this email with new members of your vestry and extend an invitation to subscribe to ECF Vital Practices to receive Vestry Papers and this monthly digest.

You might have seen Fr. Paul in one of his many video offerings over the past few years, including his “Clergy in Car” series. In true Paul Klitzke fashion, he is offering a video tour of the Vital Practices website to share how he and his congregation use all the available resources as idea generators to add new life to their ministries.

The articles present on the Vestry Papers page are a treasure trove for anyone hoping to find resources and equip their Vestry. Even after participating in 15 years of monthly Vestry meetings, there is always more to learn and new techniques to use. Recently, I've found “Five Ways to Become a Transformational Vestry” helpful in thinking about new leaders to recruit onto Vestry.

The Vital Practices blog is a great place to find more topic-centric posts that can easily be shared with your congregation or leadership. These make great extra resources to share in church publications or to highlight a current issue. I recently shared “A Holy Quarantine” with my congregation as they continue to grow spiritually during the pandemic.

Similarly to many worshipping communities, the church buildings at Ascension are used by many different organizations and entities during the week. On the Tools page of Vital Practices, I've found the "Calculating Cost of Space Usage at Your Church" tool helpful in figuring out the actual costs associated with each space on campus, and they even adapted it to help with splitting costs between the church and school.

Using the Webinars page, you have the ability to see upcoming webinars and to attend them 'live', but I prefer to go back and watch the recorded webinars when I'm researching a particular topic. I like to watch, pause, rewind, and take notes. I often share past webinars with my church leadership, such as “The Quiet Center: Cultivating Inner Peace in Unsettling Times.”

When looking for idea generation and techniques on a specific topic, the Topics page is a vital tool. Last year when discerning an approach to stewardship, I found the “All Saints’ Mad-Lib Pledge Card” which I and my leadership then adapted for our fall pledge campaign with great success.

The Rev. Paul Klitzke is the Rector at Church of the Ascension in Dallas, TX. He is a life-long Episcopalian, and is married with two children. He has served in a variety of settings including Alaska and Hawai'i. God and family are his top priorities in life, but he also really enjoys cycling and tacos.