On Sunday, we had a new priest. For the day. And our priest made his way to her congregation.
Pulpit exchanges aren’t a new concept, but I’d like to promote a resurgence. Having clergy swap for a day can be an important exercise in understanding a theology of connectedness that is at the heart of the Anglican Communion. There are other benefits too: it can be a refreshing change for the congregation. And for the clergy. It’s also a good opportunity for the leadership of the laity to shine, as they lead and support the visiting priest through the local rhythms of worship.
All too often we get caught up in the life and cycle of our own congregation, forgetting that we are bound by tradition and history to 70 million Anglicans around the world. If these connections seem too big to comprehend, consider how we also lose sight of our connection to the wider Episcopal Church, to our diocese, and even to our deaneries—the congregations nearest in geography. This is a human condition. It happens in all parts of our lives. Our homes are places of refuge that we don’t often leave to meet our neighbors and connect with those around us. In our work, we forget the needs of other departments. It’s a natural tendency to focus on our own needs, our own circles of family and friends.
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Walking into your first meeting as a new leader of a group can be unnerving. You may have known the members for years as part of your church community, but this new situation may feel like you are entering a room full of strangers. According to
Kanuga Conference & Retreat Center’s teambuilding expert Christine Murawski, there are five principles to consider to help your first meeting go smoothly.
Be Authentic
You have been called to serve in this leadership role, and your true self is what is needed. Behave otherwise and people will notice.
“There are times when a new leader knows the previous leader and his or her personality style. It’s tempting to try to match their approach,” said Murawski. “However, the key to your success is to relax and be your authentic self. Your team will acknowledge your leadership differences, pick up on your confidence and will want to follow.”
Prepare
Get ready for your meeting well in advance by creating an agenda. This exercise helps you set clear goals and envision how the meeting will go. Plus, having an agenda allows you to be organized and confident during your meeting. Allow extra time in your agenda for participants’ thoughts or extra topics your team may believe are important to bring up. Share your agenda with the group at the beginning of the session. Doing so sends the message that you respect their time and desire their input.
Be Flexible
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There’s tradition, Episcopal style, and then there’s rock royalty. A congregation in the heart of Kentucky decided to marry the two for a good cause.
When the local food pantry needed help, the folks at St. John’s, Versailles, got creative. They held a Beatles-themed Eucharist, with the offering earmarked for the pantry. Instead of hymns, the congregation sang Beatles songs, some of which were tweaked slightly to be more faith-focused.
Before we move too far, let me offer an important caveat: I’m not a fan of gimmicky worship. Our tradition is rich and broad, and I don’t think we need to “spruce it up” with the latest and greatest. But for me, there are some important exceptions. I still get goose bumps when I think of my first U2charist. The merging of my tradition with some of U2’s soul-stirring songs moved me deeply. When Michael Curry, then a priest and now presiding-bishop elect of The Episcopal Church, took to the pulpit, my heart was laid open, primed by music that had fed a searching teen.
I wouldn’t want a U2charist every Sunday but on the rare occasion, I’ve found the service to be a wonderful companion in my faith journey. I suspect the same would be true of a Beatles Eucharist.
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On Saturday I was in Union Square with a clipboard and a petition, attempting to get strangers to sign. In recent months as I’ve become more involved with the climate change movement, I’ve found myself further and further outside my comfort zone, and this was just the latest example.
I believe strongly in the cause of fighting climate change, so I am happy from time to time to do this kind of work. I am a somewhat shy person, and it helps me grow personally. I also know there are other people—more outgoing people, for example—who will be a better fit for canvassing in the long term.
In any group that relies on volunteers, there will be times when its members will have to step outside their comfort zones. We’re not called to do only the things that come easily to us. This is as true in climate advocacy as it is in churches.
However, if your volunteers are constantly asked to do things they do not enjoy or for which they have no aptitude, they will burn out. As I’m learning, sometimes we all have to say, “No, I’m not the right person for that.” As the group’s leaders or chairperson, you can empower your team members to say that.
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There’s a show that airs on ESPN called Pardon the Interruption and it gives me agita. It’s a roundup of the day’s sports news hosted by a couple of loud, contentious talking heads with strongly voiced opinions about…everything. It’s kind of like the sports version of the McLaughlin Group, the long-running PBS news show that puts liberals and conservatives around a table and lets them have at it. Both shows are 30 minutes of people interrupting one another in what is basically, at least to my ears, a verbal food fight.
Much of ministry, like life itself, is an interruption. You can plan out your day and yet, depending on what arises, it often veers off in a completely different direction. Those plans you had to write that newsletter article? That gets trumped when you get a phone call that someone took a fall and is being transported to South Shore Hospital. Or that time you carved out to sit in your office and go over the budget for an upcoming meeting? That goes out the window when a parishioner comes in with news that her father just died.
You can either rue the disruption of your regular routine or you can view it as an opportunity to serve others. And you learn pretty quickly that people are much more important than your own calendar or deadlines or to-do list.
Jesus certainly knew what it was to get interrupted. During his brief, what I like to call “rock star” phase, when people hounded him wherever he went, his life was one long interruption. He couldn’t go anywhere without people wanting his attention or a healing touch or a chance to take a selfie with him. If he wanted a quiet moment for renewal he had to slip away by cover of darkness to find a place to pray — and even then people caught up with him and interrupted his private devotions with their own needs and concerns. Something he never once complained about.
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In response to ECF’s recent announcement of the publication of the new Vestry Resource Guide, a congregational leader asked:
Is going through this [the new Vestry Resource Guide] worthwhile as a vestry retreat?
My response to her was ‘yes.’ During the research that preceded this recent revision, I heard many stories of congregational leaders designing vestry retreats around individual chapters from the Vestry Resource Guide (VRG). As a result of this listening process, the focus of this edition is both ‘here are things vestries should be thinking about’ and ‘how might these approaches and practices be adapted to work in your context?’ To assist with this discernment, we’ve continued ECF’s practice of providing discussion questions at the end of each chapter. We’ve also added a list of related resources at the end of each chapter to help vestry members find additional information on the covered topics.
Many of the chapters in the new Vestry Resource Guide also include a case study showing how a congregation has approached the topic being discussed in that chapter. Our intent is to encourage vestries to consider the discernment process used by that congregation. ECF blogger Anna Olson describes the process this way:
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From the beginning of his ministry as the seventh bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana, the Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II has beamed a spiritual focus to follow. Personifying the lighthouse on the diocesan seal, Little has delivered powerful messages that illuminate priorities for Christ centered living and ministry.
Communicating the right priorities is one of the keys to strategic leadership. I offer a glimpse of Little here as a model of such leadership.
Little’s strategic legacy began with his seating sermon in 2000, in which he called on his new flock to embrace the lighthouse as a vision for individual and congregational ministries. To prompt and guide, he set four core values for the diocese:
A passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ
A heart for the lost
A willingness to do whatever it takes
A commitment to one another
Throughout the 15 years since that sermon, Little gathered story after story of how these values are beautifully lived in the parishes of northern Indiana. While he loves recounting them, he’d rather that everyone become skilled at telling his/her own story.
Strategically, the Bishop sought to strengthen congregations so that people have stories to tell. He named the Rev. Canon SuzeAnne Silla as Canon to the Ordinary and blessed her to use her extensive congregational development experience to establish the Diocesan Congregational Development Institute (DCDI).
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Leadership challenges come in many forms. One constant we must all face is the ever changing nature of God’s creation, including that of our faith communities. Effective leaders recognize this and pray and work together, seeking understanding of situations and options, and modeling a willingness to move forward, even when the way is unclear.
This quote, from SSJE’s Brother Give Us A Word meditation, captures this constant state of change and reminds us that:
“God prunes, and, as He prunes, enables the tree to grow with a better growth. He cuts down in order that He may graft in, and He would let the old life grow with new fruitfulness.” - Richard Meux Benson, SSJE (1824-1915)
Our June contributors share stories of change that encourage pruning and grafting in ways to cultivate congregational vitality and fruitfulness.
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I was at a parish recently for an all day workshop. The parish leaders were struggling to recruit new volunteers and keep the volunteers they had from burning out.
One parishioner made this key observation, “It’s frustrating for our workers to show up for an event that is poorly attended.” Put another way, their volunteers are disheartened when their work doesn`t produce an intended impact or make much of a difference on a specific ministry at their parish.
Across the United States, nonprofits are seeing a decrease in volunteerism. A September 2014 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes a ten-year low; the same report shows that states with the highest unemployment rate also report the lowest number of volunteer hours.
Just because you have extra time, it doesn`t mean you are going to spend it volunteering.
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While my wife browsed TJ Maxx for summer trousers, I sat on a curb outside and observed people going in and out of TJ Maxx. Here is what I observed:
Perhaps 95% of those entering TJ Maxx were female. The majority of them were middle-aged white women. Of the women under age 40, the majority were Asian. Those entering with babies were almost all Asian.
I didn't see a single African-American customer, or Hispanic customer, and only one South Asian.
More than half of those who went in came out empty-handed, having browsed but not purchased.
This wasn't a text-while-walking crowd. Most came in alone. These were "lumpy" people, looking (I speculated) for affordable fashion to make them feel less lumpy.
None of these observations has any value component. They are simply a profile of those entering this one store. But imagine how helpless you would be as manager of this TJ Maxx branch if you didn't know who your customers were. If the manager is smart, he is measuring everything I observed and far more. How long each customer stays inside, the exact percentage who purchase or don't purchase, the actual average sale, what they bought, where they browsed. And how the metrics are changing.
Imagine trying to lead a church and not having such metrics available to you. How would you know how to serve people if you didn't know their gender, age, race, socioeconomic circumstance, average stay time, and what "products" they actually consumed. You would always be guessing, and in all likelihood, you would be guessing wrong, because you would assume the next twenty people in the door would be like you.
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Several years ago I was inspired by a wonderful Southern Baptist friend who could, at the drop of a hat, quote a relevant verse from the Bible, no matter the situation. I realized how few verses I knew by heart, so I became determined to memorize some scripture.
I started with an easy one – the 23rd Psalm - as my husband and I drove to a get-away weekend in the hills of southern Indiana. I had the psalm committed to memory by the time we made it to our charming rental cabin, positioned next to a pond. A rickety set of wooden stairs descended from the gravel drive, beckoning me to come closer to the still waters. I sat on the steps, listening and watching nature reveal the secrets of the ecosystem around me. I repeated the psalm, and meant every word of it.
God restored my soul in those moments. I could have driven home right then and felt as refreshed as the entire weekend was supposed to offer.
As a consultant with the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF), I help congregations with projects for which volunteers are needed. Sometimes potential helpers are ruled out “because he is just really burned out right now,” or, “she says she can’t do one more thing until the rummage sale is over.”
I get it. Do-ers of the Word need some time to refresh along their busy way. Similarly, all worship and no action might prevent people from deepening their faith through service.
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We were standing and talking in the entryway of his church as the afternoon light on this early spring day flooded the well-designed and beautiful, inviting space. His is a large church, a new church building and a congregation that just keeps growing. It’s not a mega-church, he was quick to add, and I agreed; it felt warm and welcoming and I, for my part, felt downright connected to those with whom I was worshipping.
“What are your other services like?” I asked, noting that as a working pastor I don’t have the opportunity to worship at other churches as much as I’d like.
“The 8 o’clock is kind of the ‘original’ church,” he said; “traditional and simple. The 9:15 is a blended service, and the 11 o’clock has organ and choir and probably more hymns than at this evening service or the 9:15.” He said all this as the praise team was breaking down their instruments and wrapping up their chords. “It takes a lot of coordination of volunteers, but each service also takes on its own style and shape and meaning.”
At these words, as if on cue, a vast wall behind the altar table slid open and a few volunteers slid the drum kit back into its resting space. At the same time, two others were rolling the altar table to the center of the raised platform while another rolled the piano back to the left-hand side. “There it is,” he said, “now it’s all set for next Sunday’s 8 o’clock.”
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It was a rough first Sunday of Lent in church. Attendance was low, especially in one of our services. There were some explanations for the absences of our regulars (aren’t there always!). But the bottom line was that we had several new folks who were inspired by our Ash Wednesday outreach, and they came for the first time on a Sunday to find the church feeling awfully empty.
On Monday, I shared with my clergy support group that I felt like things were stuck at church, that we are just having the same problems over and over and making no progress. A colleague shared similar frustration in her context. When someone asked what was making us feel that way, we both realized it really came down to one rough Sunday. I had experienced poor attendance and frustration with the way we welcomed newcomers. My friend had had a hard meeting with church leaders. We had both let one Sunday color our perception of our entire ministry.
Maybe it’s just me and my friends, but I suspect we’re not alone in allowing ourselves to get swept onto the Sunday roller coaster. One good Sunday and we’re in the clouds. Church is growing! We are successful! One bad Sunday, and it’s all over. The church is dying. We are failures.
This roller coaster is not a clergy-only ride. A low Sunday or two, and my parishioners are glum as well. I cheerfully remind people that it’s the long haul that counts, but they often seem as unconvinced as I am.
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This past weekend a very close friend of mine got married. I was a groomsman (there were two grooms, in this case, and my wife was a groomswoman), so I wanted to give him a toast.
I started thinking about the toast more than a week before the wedding. I made notes in a notebook and in my phone and wrote down stories and asked for advice. I was fretting about it for days.
Some part of me wanted to impress everyone. I wanted to demonstrate that I was funny and clever and an excellent writer. I was having a lot of trouble figuring out what to say.
That is, until I remembered that this wasn't about me. This was about my friend and his wedding and saying whatever reminded him that he was loved and supported in his marriage and that we were grateful to have him and his husband in our lives.
This lesson—that it's not about me—is a useful one in ministry and in many aspects of community life. In most things we do in our churches, the goal is to love and minister to others. It's not to demonstrate how good or clever or right we are.
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ECF Vital Practices recently reposted on its Facebook page a list of signs of healthy church. It was a fine list for the most part, and like most such lists, it emphasized empowering people to identify and use their spiritual gifts and talents.
I wonder a bit about our rush to place the gifted in ministry, to find the right person for the right post so that all will run smoothly. We swim in the currents of a culture that treasures efficiency and competence. We love a well-run organization and we search for busy, competent people with track records for getting the things done.
I worry that we muddle competence and giftedness, and sometimes leave faith out in the cold all together. A well-run church may or not be faithful. It may or may not be steeped in love, forgiveness, and humility. It may or may not witness to a resurrection that comes out of the abject failure of a humiliating death.
Competence may get in the way of remembering that we all depend on God, and that God's ability to create something from nothing depends not at all on our efficiency.
Give me a bumbling effort drenched in prayer any day over a well-oiled operation with no room for incompetence, or the incompetent.
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I am so not an engineer. I’ve never been a huge devotee of personality typing, but even I can see that whatever personality types make good engineers must be extremely different from my own. We see things differently, approach problems differently, and even evaluate outcomes differently.
Greater Los Angeles is full of engineers, and my vestry reflects this abundance. My last two senior wardens, as well as the clerk of the vestry have been engineers. It’s been awesome. Their gifts of organization, project management skills, meticulous spreadsheets, and focus on problem solving have helped to pin me down to earth, and to turn creative speculation into real projects.
Earlier in my ministry, I might have felt threatened by the sorts of piercing questions engineers tend to ask. How and when exactly will this get done? What will it cost? What tools do we need? How will we know when it’s finished? I might have rolled my eyes after the meeting, sighing over the joy-killing realism, the lack of room for rushing wind and fiery spirit.
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Vestries: Start Strong in 2015 Are you interested in practical, spiritually grounded resources for your congregation? Consider a free subscription to ECF Vital Practices: A collection of articles, tools, and resources by and for congregational leaders. With a subscription, you’ll receive 12 issues of Vestry Papers as well as the monthly Vital Practices Digest delivered to your inbox.
In this month’s Digest, we’re offering 5 ways to help your newly forming vestry get off to a strong start, with the 5th being a calendar template to assist you in setting up your year round stewardship program.
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Priests should practice PDA.
Before someone files a complaint, let me explain. First, I mean married priests. And second, I mean chaste and sweet PDA. Holding hands at an open house, an arm around the waist or shoulder, a peck on the check or a smooch goodbye. None of the sloppy, get-a-room PDA of frat houses or high school highways. But rather public displays of affection that signal deeply rooted affection and love for the significant other.
Why do I think this is a vital practice?
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I thought I knew my leadership style pretty well. I was the reliable person who showed up every week. I didn’t usually say much, but I could be counted on to be present and to offer an opinion when I felt strongly. Yet, during my time on my church’s Leadership Table (what most Episcopal churches would call a vestry), I found I was fulfilling a slightly different role: the person who asked hard questions.
From time to time, we all surprise ourselves. This has happened to me often, especially when I find myself in a leadership role.
Last year, I stepped off the Leadership Table, which led me to reflect a bit on my experience. My church, St. Lydia’s, is a young congregation. I participated in the process of coming up with our governance guidelines and helped guide as we moved from parish hall to rented space to our own storefront. I loved being on the leadership team. The group is optimistic, courageous, and supportive and it was overwhelmingly positive experience.
During my time on the leadership team I found a thoughtfulness and thoroughness in myself I hadn’t recognized before. I found I was one of the more cautious members, encouraging us to ask difficult questions and think about what to do if things don’t go as planned, without acting out of fear.
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Welcome 2015!
For many congregations, January is the time for annual meetings and vestry elections. Changes in leadership teams bring opportunities to explore new ways of looking at the familiar challenges facing your congregation. As new vestries form, fresh perspectives emerge as the group begins their work together to discern what God is calling them to do.
To kick off the beginning of the new year, we invited experienced leaders from across our Church to share a leadership approach, experience, or strategy. Here are their stories:
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