Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Very few of us can get excited about policy. The “committee on governance” rarely suffers from over-subscription. Even I catch myself apologizing when I include it in a vestry retreat outline.

Policy isn’t just a snore. It intrudes on our sense of community. It organizes things that should be relational. It takes all the fun out of being a congregation together.

There are lots of good excuses for putting off stewardship of structure and governance:

We have policies the policies we need. At least I think we do….

Do you or don’t you? If you can’t put your hands on them, either you don’t have them or the policies you do have are not in effect in the life of the congregation. By that I mean that they are gathering dust somewhere, shoved in a file drawer, available if the bishop or the insurance company shows up on your doorstep. But in practice, working policy is made up as we go, based mostly on what seems to make sense in the moment. It’s probably time to pull things out of the file cabinet and give it all a thorough review.

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Serving on the vestry is a call to a sacred ministry by the body of Christ. Knowing that new vestry members take office in January, ECF Vital Practices’ Vestry Papers will continue its practice of its dedicating the first issue of the new year on vestries.

Our ECF Vital Practices advisory committee and our reader surveys have a lot to offer related to information they would like to see covered in Vestry Papers. What stands out is a strong call to focus on ‘the basics’ for vestries.

Each of our congregations – and vestries – face challenges; sharing stories of facing and responding to these same challenges is one of the best ways we have of supporting each other. From our research, we’ve developed a list of vestry related topics we’re considering for this issue. Perhaps you have other topics that would be helpful to your vestry. And, perhaps, you have a success story you’d be willing to share.

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Congregations die for lots of reasons. The most insidious cause, perhaps, and the most common is death by a thousand cuts.

I love how Wikipedia defines the phrase: “Creeping normalcy, the way a major negative change, which happens slowly in many unnoticed increments, is not perceived as objectionable.”

We probably all have experience in this form of torture: A job that keeps getting duties added to it until you feel crushed under the weight or a relationship defined by snark with each comment eating away at trust and confidence.

In the congregation, the instrument of torture too often is nitpicking negativity.

A common inclination (maybe even part of our human condition) is to dwell on what’s not working. The typo in an otherwise perfect bulletin. A Facebook post that not everyone thought was appropriate. A sermon that didn’t hit the mark or a hymn that no one could sing. 

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My heart broke a bit more last night.

I was reading the Episcopal Communicators’ Talk list; one of our members posted a question related to an online article she had seen about the Diocese of South Carolina. Within the hour, other members shared what they knew, including official statements from both the Diocese of South Carolina and The Episcopal Church.

My first thought was to write a blog post about communicating difficult news. I pulled out my resources on crisis communications, started an outline. I woke up early and began my first draft. And then I stopped.

Why?

I recognized that my heart broke because it appeared the gulf between the two parties had grown so wide that both had taken steps that made it appear almost impossible to find a way to build a bridge between them.

What does this have to do with congregational leaders?

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When it comes to our commitments to church, are we about making things easier or are we ultimately about making those commitments more meaningful?

This issue came up last Wednesday night during a web conference on Identifying and Recruiting New Leaders led by Ella Auchincloss of the Diocese of Massachusetts’ Leadership Development Initiative. After Ella had presented about how churches can move toward a more networked leadership model, and about how we can discern gifts and commitment through strategic one-on-one meetings, we received a question which brought the difficulty of recruiting new leaders home. A participant asked:

“We have trouble every year recruiting nominees for the vestry. Right now we have a focus group that is working on making vestry duty ‘easier.’ But this sounds like the opposite of getting someone to commit. Thoughts?”

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In college I spent a lot of time with a group of friends, who were so nice that they didn’t like to disagree, or sometimes even express an opinion. This made choosing a restaurant difficult on Friday nights. Out of a desire to defer to each other, we would have difficulty making any decision at all.

Months ago my church, St. Lydia’s, used a two-step method of decision making that could be useful when choosing a restaurant with your friends or when making major decision in a vestry. St. Lydia’s is a new church, still working out how to make decisions, and this was a major decision about whether or not to affiliate with a denomination.

First, we expressed our personal opinions in a vote. This was based solely on our preference regardless of others in the group. There was some discussion afterward in which we explained our preference, and we could also say how strongly we felt. In college, for example, I could vote for Thai food (I loved the chicken in peanut sauce), and then I could express that I was flexible since we went to the Thai restaurant a lot. My other friend might say he really wanted pizza tonight. This was a chance to know where everyone stood.

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I was dubious.
The only item on the agenda for our two-day staff retreat: Bible study.
Don't get me wrong. I think Bible study is important. But as a type-a, list-maker, take-action person, I wondered if we would accomplish enough. After all, a two-day meeting is a big commitment of staff time, and all of our to- do lists are lengthy.
We opened with morning prayer, then launched into Bible study.
For the next two hours, our conversation meandered, moving from personal reflection to corporate insights. Still the discussion was varied enough that I couldn't even capture bullet-point notes. I was a little worried. 
But I learned a good lesson. When we root our work in scripture, we create space for the holy spirit

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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 practices of civility, agreeing to disagree, of reaching across the aisle in search of consensus, are now widely viewed as ineffectual and naive.

Against this backdrop, I find it fairly remarkable that many Episcopal churches continue to use consensus to make key decisions about their congregational life. It is truly countercultural!

As anyone who has ever been part of such a process knows, deciding by consensus can be a sort of endurance test for all involved. While inspiring, it is also lengthy, trying, and it assumes a heightened ability for working across differences. One leadership group* defines consensus decisions as "ones where each and every member of a team is willing to support and help implement the decision. All key stakeholders have had an opportunity to give their opinion and understand the implications of various options. All members, including the leader, have the same formal power to support or block proposals.” Click here for steps in consensus decision making processes.

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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 their experiences. Click on the Interview link below to watch the video or download a podcast.

It’s one of the Church’s biggest mistakes: over-reliance on one person to do the bulk of the work (planning, visioning, preaching, organizing, cleaning gutters… you name it).

In this new, inventive, age, the Presbyterian Church USA’s Landon Whitsitt, author of the book Open Source Church, thinks that the day of the ‘super-pastor’ is way over – and that the Body of Christ does its best work in collaboration. Landon says he’s a cross between a software geek and a church geek – and he’s making some interesting discoveries as a result. 

Landon thinks anybody can be a leader – and it’s up to today’s clergy and active lay-people to open up to the amazing ways God is using God’s people to touch the world. Watch or listen to this interview and be energized by this gifted theologian.

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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 becoming an office staple and ‘computer error’ was a common refrain when something didn’t go as expected. I wasn’t buying this excuse, so enrolled in a course to learn how a computer worked – and where the likely source of these errors lay.

Flash forward to 2003 and my first General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I had press credentials, responsibility to set up media opportunities for representatives from Episcopal Divinity School, and no clue about how our church was governed. Working at a seminary, there was a course I could take. It made such a difference: it was my first General Convention and I was able to explain the what, why, and how not only to secular media, but also other Episcopal media.

As congregational leaders you have responsibility related to the governance. And, while governance – or polity as it is often referred to within the Church – may not make your ‘top 10’ list of the most interesting topics, a working knowledge of how the Episcopal Church works may prove to be helpful, especially in understanding how decisions are made at the diocesan and denominational level – sometimes described as a cumbersome and messy process.

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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 churches there are other tables too. For instance, there’s oftentimes at least one large meeting table around which key decisions about the life of the congregation are made. Who should be present there?

In every church there are major decisions that require input from the wider congregation. Those who help to facilitate these major decisions will have to make hard decisions about who should be present at those meetings and who shouldn’t. This can be a fraught task. We all know of instances where people have been hurt and projects have been derailed because no one thought to get input from a key stakeholder.

Who needs to be at the table?

While there’s no hard and fast rule for this sort of decision, collaborative leaders keep key stakeholders in mind. Generally speaking, the following categories of people need to be brought into the decision-making process in some form or fashion, whether through in-person meetings, surveys, or other feedback mechanisms.*

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This article is also available in English here.

Todos hemos estado en una de esas reuniones: una reunión interminable en la que la gente dice lo mismo que dijeron otros, en que algunos hablan con el único propósito de oírse hablar o en la que las emociones fuertes impiden que se tomen decisiones. Yo estaba hablando con una amiga que integra la junta parroquial de una gran iglesia episcopal urbana. Me dijo que las reuniones a veces eran desagradables, no a causa de las decisiones difíciles que tenían que tomar de tanto en tanto, sino a causa de la cantidad de conversación innecesaria e improductiva.

Al igual que en cualquier otra organización, los egos a menudo se interponen en la habilidad de la junta parroquial de tomar una decisión. Si se une eso a la profunda conexión de los miembros con la iglesia hasta con los detalles ínfimos de la vida eclesiástica, como el color de la pintura en el salón de actos de la parroquia, es fácil olvidar nuestro verdadero cometido.

¿Cómo tomamos decisiones en medio de todo eso y evitamos quedar empantanados en egos y emociones?

Es un ejercicio útil repasar ocasionalmente la dinámica y los procesos del grupo. La conversación, ¿ayuda o entorpece la toma de decisiones? ¿Dominan todas las discusiones un puñado de personalidades fuertes? ¿Es una junta parroquial o un grupo pequeño o una feligresía que trabajan unidos para cumplir con su misión de traer el amor de Cristo al mundo? ¿O la gente está demasiado apegada a la manera en que son las cosas o al sonido de sus propias voces en una iglesia cada vez menos llena? Idealmente, la conversación debería servir a la iglesia y a su misión, no a los que están teniendo la conversación.

En un nivel diario y práctico, aquí hay cinco guías para la conversación empleadas en el Seminario de la Calle, una comunidad de Oakland, California:

Hable según su propia experiencia y evite generalizar. Sea lo más honesto y auto reflexivo posible. Note cuando esté tratando de manejar lo que piensa la gente de usted diciendo las cosas “correctas”. Nótelo y después deje de emitir juicios sobre los demás. Suponga que hay buenas intenciones. Adopte una actitud que permita verdades múltiples y complejas. Evite el impulso de planificar lo que va a decir mientras que otro esté hablando. Confíe en que tendrá las palabras adecuadas cuando llegue el momento. Es importante que nos hagamos preguntas constantemente sobre lo que vamos a decir y por qué lo diremos, así como sobre cómo estamos sirviendo a la iglesia y a su misión. Cuando nuestras palabras están dirigidas al servicio del prójimo y al amor de Dios, la iglesia puede crecer con fuerza.

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 actively engaged in God’s mission in the world. 

This new idea of congregation requires a very different leadership model. The role of the priest becomes that of a catalyst, facilitator and community organizer who helps to raise up lay leaders as full and equal partners in the mission and ministry of the congregation. Rather than a top-down, hierarchical structure, the congregation organizes itself and operates on the basis of trained and empowered teams of lay people with clearly delineated roles, responsibilities and accountability. While the priest, as leader, may ultimately be responsible for the well-being of the entire congregation, he/she is not expected to do it all by him/herself. 

Under this approach, the congregation gathers around “ministry” and not the “minister.”

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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 print publications, seeking stories or mentions of resources that may prove to be of interest to congregational leaders. What I often find are gems – such as the Diocese of Texas’ Newcomer Ministry Project – hidden away on a diocesan, agency, congregational, or institutional website, with only the people belonging to that group aware of its existence.

I am grateful for the generosity of so many in our church who are partnering with me and the team at ECF Vital Practices to share these vital practices through a central clearinghouse, making it much easier for congregational leaders to find them.

For February, we have four new articles related to our theme of Real Basics for Vestries, each of which offers a practical response to a common congregational challenge.

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Happy New Year!

If, as Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says, “Mission is the heartbeat of the Church," then the vestry is the life-giving oxygen that keeps the heartbeat on a steady course. Our focus for this month and next is Real Basics for Vestries, offering strategies for congregations looking to try different ways of addressing familiar challenges.

Here’s what you’ll find in this issue:

With recent Episcopal Church data showing median Sunday attendance at 65, and almost 300 of the Church's approximately 7,000 congregations reporting an average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 10 or less, some small congregations can no longer support the traditional vestry model of governance. In All-Church Vestry, Rebecca Hendricks provides a look at a different model, the vestry of the whole, being used in a number of small churches in the Diocese of Eastern Oregon.  Recognizing that the parish administrator is often the person who keeps the day-to-day aspects of a congregation running smoothly, Jeremy Sierra shares Managing Staff: 7 Things To Consider as it relates to providing a good working environment for key staff.  In Lessons from Babylon, Christopher Johnson offers a strategy as old as Jeremiah for moving out of the comfort zone of ‘the good old days’ and learning how to navigate our changing world using the resources already present in our communities.  An update from the Church Pension Fund, Providing Pensions to Your Lay Employees by Pattie Christensen and Michael Macdonald, to help vestries with plans for adding their qualified lay employees to The Episcopal Church’s lay pension plan no later than January 2013.

Additionally, the ECF Vital Practices archives include a variety of articles, blogs, and other resources related to vestries. To access them look for our Topic menu on each page and click on “Vestry.” To get you started, here are links to some of our more popular Vestry Papers articles relating to real basics for vestries:

Vestry101: http://www.ecfvp.org/vestrypapers/issue/vestry-101/ Vestry Meetings: http://www.ecfvp.org/vestrypapers/issue/vestry-meetings/ Vestry Orientation: http://www.ecfvp.org/vestrypapers/issue/vestry-orientation/ Buildings and Grounds: http://www.ecfvp.org/vestrypapers/issue/buildings-and-grounds/ Financial Planning: http://www.ecfvp.org/vestrypapers/issue/financial-planning/ 

Over the next two months, ECF Vital Practices will be adding to this content with additional Vestry Papers articles as well as related Vital Posts, VP Talks, and Tools. I also invite you to use the Topics index on each page of the site to find other resources related to the ministry of the vestry including past Vestry Papers articles, blog posts, and the many resources found in our Your Turn and Tools sections.

I invite you to add to this content by sharing your healthy practices in the Your Turn section and by participating in VP Talks and/or posting comments related to our articles, blog posts, or other content.

Faithfully,

Nancy Davidge
Editor, ECF Vital Practices

In this season of gratitude and abundance, I am particularly thankful for the breadth and depth of ministry and leadership among the laity of our congregations. I mention this not only in the spirit of thanksgiving, but mindful that many of our congregations are also entering a season of transitions. In the coming weeks and months vestry members will attend their last meetings, slates will be made up, and annual meetings held, not to mention the innumerable movements in non-elected committee chairs and team leaders.

As stewards of this abundance of time and talent, we as church leaders must not get so caught up in the administrative practicalities and logistics that we lose site of the pastoral moments, the opportunities for discernment, and the care of the good and faithful servants who are indeed our most precious treasures.

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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 Murfreesboro, TN.

Question:

Should the names of the individual(s) who are being considered for nomination to the vestry be published in the church bulletin? Also, in the bulletin, should the parish be informed of how many vacancies there are and that nominations are being accepted?

The short answer: yes!

The more communication and transparency, the better. In our experience, vestries and parish leaders almost always need to ramp up communication about all aspects of parish life. Never assume that one form of communication, or a single announcement, will reach people. Important messages need to be communicated repeatedly and in different formats, such as the bulletin, e-newsletter, small group gatherings, from the pulpit or lectern, and one-on-one conversation. If there is a Nominations Committee, they should communicate the steps of the process, the number and type of open seats, and the “slate” of names the committee has proposed. Also – don’t forget to publicly thank the individuals who are rotating off!

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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 have a serious meeting and look at the composition of the vestry – what skills and gifts are leaving or missing?

Here are four key characters that I think any vestry needs:

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“Teach the vestry to teach,” says Bishop Claude Payne (retired from the Diocese of Texas).

Two years after hearing Bishop Payne convey this idea at a clergy gathering, it’s still sticking with me. Especially today, as I reflect on the webinar I led last night about Sound Practices for Vestry Leaders.

One of the participants asked a tough question: “As a vestry member, what do you do when your priest wants to control everything?” Ouch! Unfortunately, many of us have been in situations where this kind of behavior by clergy was evident – maybe not all the time, but enough that it stifled creativity and shared leadership. I don’t want to single out clergy or rectors as the only culprits – we know lay leaders who are controlling, too. But rectors hold an essential and influential position of leadership in congregations, so their style matters.

At least one alternative is to follow Bishop Payne’s advice: clergy can teach the vestry to teach. Why? Of course it could build a more positive relationship with the vestry. But there are other reasons:

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While most congregations elect vestry members in the new year, it’s not too early to be thinking about who will serve next. And not just thinking, but praying and discerning.     

I remember one annual meeting, midway through the agenda, when it was time to elect wardens. My heart sank upon realizing the floor was open for nominations – with no candidate. How could it be possible, I wondered, that parish leaders hadn’t identified anyone in advance for this essential leadership position? Perplexed and nervous, I couldn’t believe we were going to make this decision on the fly.

One upside of that situation: the long-term senior warden was stepping down. At least the clergy and vestry had taken steps to return to best practices of term limits and rotation.

Thankfully, the other upside: we elected a fantastic new senior warden. All credit goes to the Holy Spirit. During a few moments of (panicked) silence, a respected member of the congregation nominated, from the floor, a woman who was somewhat new but very engaged in congregational life. A discussion of real discernment ensued among everyone gathered. Did she know the responsibilities of the position? Would she have the time to serve well in this role? Did she have experience that would be relevant to the responsibilities?

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