Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

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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How do Episcopal organizations know what opportunities to take and what to leave behind?

Recently, a friend of mine was offered a big job opportunity. With it came a higher salary, regular hours in the office, and a chance to do some impactful things in the world. Many would have loved this offer (I dreamed big dreams for him). 

He turned down the new position. 

Why? In the past decade there have been several studies published about job satisfaction. This particular opportunity held all the key components that various studies ranked highly. So why did he turn it down? My friend recognized this job wouldn’t come close to utilizing his gifts and abilities. 

In my previous post "Gifts: Thank You But???," I wrote about the importance of articulating both an organization’s mission as well as clear guidelines for Gift Acceptance Policies. When thinking about accepting a gift, our parishes and Episcopal entities need to know which gifts will be mutually beneficial to both giver and recipient. This also applies to opportunities for program development or organizational structure. 

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I want to begin this week's post by wishing everyone a holy Epiphany-tide. Epiphany is a church word that gets tossed around outside of the church. Often my first response when I hear someone say, “I had an epiphany,” is: “no you didn't!” I know I am reacting to how the word gets used, but something about the word Epiphany has to do with our ability to see the “striking appearance.” The onus is on the individual and not the Divine.

In the Eastern Church they use the word, “Theophany,” meaning a vision of God. It is tough to corroborate, but theophany feels more about God's revelation of God's self, not our personal self's ability to see that revelation.

This flies in the face of the more-than-opportunistic advertise-at-every-opportunity of consumerist culture. God isn't just going to use the super-bowl commercial to get our attention. God can use the ordinary too, like eyelashes or splinters. God has used salt, light, water, mud, bread, and wine to get our attention. Occasionally God shows up in something miraculous like a burning bush, but for a mystic like Julian of Norwich, it was due to a hazelnut that she knew the whole world exists because God loves it. God is always there: revealing and revealing despite our – at times – poor perception.

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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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The new year is always a great time to think about what we want to accomplish. But all too often we make overly ambitious, impossible resolutions with their focus on our selves, our bodies, our pocketbooks. And when we fail, we revert to our old ways of being, disappointment and sometimes self-loathing just below the surface.

I wonder if we might develop resolutions with two parameters. First, we could craft resolutions guided by a simple philosophy: just one more. Instead of going from coach potato to Iron Man, pledging to hit the gym every day and reach a single-digit BMI, our resolution could be just one more work out session, one more home cooked meal, one more day of eating healthy. One more hour without a cigarette or one more percentage point socked into the savings account.

One more doesn’t seem overwhelming. One more is possible. And sustainable.

The second parameter is to think about resolutions that aren’t me-focused. Sure, losing weight or exercising more, quitting smoking or saving more money are good goals. But they target our physical and financial health. What about resolutions that support and strengthen our spiritual health?

Church leaders might consider these two parameters at the first vestry meeting of the year as they set some “new year’s resolutions.” 

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Celebrate. Listen. Be Inspired. Plan

With this new year, my ECF Vital Practices blog posts return to offering ways to engage people in prayerful discussions about the ministries and direction of their congregation. Four key practices will be explored: Celebrate. Listen. Be inspired. Plan. 

“Celebrate” and “listen” have at their heart identifying the ministry strengths that God has gathered into your congregation. In blog posts last November, I offered some examples of how to discover and celebrate these, sometimes just by listening.

ECF’s Strategic Solutions process, designed to create strategic focus and direction for congregations, begins with looking at assets, what we call “ministry strengths.” Asking, recording answers, celebrating what you find, requires intentional effort and time. Sometimes people get a little impatient when all the joyful discussions about strengths do not address problems. 

Recently, a member of the steering committee overseeing the process at an older, downtown congregation wondered aloud if the emphasis on strengths wasn’t glossing over serious issues that needed to be addressed at the church. 

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Merry Christmas from ECF Vital Practices! For each of the 12 Days of Christmas, we are unwrapping one of our top 12 posts of 2014. These reflect the most popular Vestry Papers, Vital Posts, Tools/Your Turn, and Webinars that were published during the year.

Previous entry:
12 Days of Christmas 2014: Days 7-9

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Merry Christmas from ECF Vital Practices! For each of the 12 Days of Christmas, we are unwrapping one of our top 12 posts of 2014. These reflect the most popular Vestry Papers, Vital Posts, Tools/Your Turn, and Webinars that were published during the year.

We'll contine to add posts, ending with the most popular article of 2014 on January 5.

Previous entry:
12 Days of Christmas 2014: Days 4-6
Next entry:
12 Days of Christmas 2014: Days 10-12

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As the end of the year approaches I’ve been thinking about resolutions. What do I want my year to look like? Where do I want to be at the end of 2015?
I like the practice of coming up with New Years’ resolutions. Setting goals and evaluating where I am and what I can do better is a helpful exercise. These resolutions also give me the illusion of control, that I can take my life into my own hands and remake myself. It's just a matter of willpower. 
Or is it? I recently came across this quote by Wendell Berry: “Let tomorrow come tomorrow. Not by your will is the house carried through the night.” Jesus, likewise, reminds us no to “worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.” 
These are not simply exhortations, “not to worry.” They are also reminders of how little control I have over the future. Illness, economy, weather, community—all these things move us in one direction or another and are beyond our control.

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What do you do when a gift received may not be the right fit?

With Christmas comes an ethos of increased giving in our country. Hearts are opened wide and the spirit of giving is encouraged. Yet, how many of us have opened a present to find that the contents were not exactly needed---or wanted? 

A few years ago I opened a gift to find a candle that made me sneeze. I had trouble thanking the giver as I fumbled for a tissue. The giver loved the smell and thought I would too, but I wasn`t able to benefit from her generosity.

What can we do when a gift isn`t right? 

I once worked with a client whose congregation received a large sum of money to pay for a new organ. A generous gift, except the current organ was in fine condition and didn’t need replacing. To use this gift as intended, this parish would have had to accrue debt by purchasing a new organ (which the initial gift didn`t completely cover) and changing the construct of the nave to accommodate a larger organ.

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Merry Christmas from ECF Vital Practices! For each of the 12 Days of Christmas, we are unwrapping one of our top 12 posts of 2014. These reflect the most popular Vestry Papers, Vital Posts, Tools/YourTurn, and Webinars that were published during the year.

We'll contine to add posts, ending with the most popular article of 2014 on January 5.

Previous entry:
12 Days of Christmas 2014: Days 1-3
Next entry:
12 Days of Christmas 2014: Days 7-9

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On November 8, 2013, the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded hit the central islands of the Philippines. The islands of Leyte and Samar were hit the hardest, with more than 6,000 dead and 1,000 missing. Southern cities like Tacloban and Surigao were devastated, with infrastructure damaged so severely that rescue and recovery seemed next to impossible.

After military responders opened a path into the impacted area, Church staff arrived to see what infrastructure remained and how its buildings, people and resources could be mobilized to help. Episcopal Relief & Development’s partner E-CARE (Episcopal Community Action for Renewal and Empowerment), the development organization of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, worked with the National Council of Churches to quickly establish food distribution centers at churches in the most devastated areas.

But one thing was different about this response. Rather than preservative-heavy canned and processed foods, the distribution centers handed out healthy, organic biscuits and noodles, along with a high-energy powdered nutritional supplement that could be used to feed infants as well as kids and adults.

How did they do this? Where did these supplies come from?

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Merry Christmas from ECF Vital Practices! For each of the 12 Days of Christmas, we are unwrapping one of our top 12 posts of 2014. These reflect the most popular Vestry Papers, Vital Posts, Tools/YourTurn, and Webinars that were published during the year. 

We'll contine to add posts, ending with the most popular article of 2014 on January 5.

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A few years ago I was part of a large staff that afforded me a big, cushy office. I had lots of wall space for posters – Jesus Died to Take Away Your Sins, Not Your Minds – and the like.
Beyond the standard fare, I also had a reprint of a poster produced by the Diocese of Ohio from 1938. The poster depicts Mary, with the baby Jesus clutched in her arms, mounted atop a donkey. Joseph looks behind to see if he is being followed. It bears the phrase: “In the Name of These Refugees . . . Aid All Refugees: Through Interest – Friendship – Gifts.” This reprint came from Episcopal Migration Ministries and – while we may not use words like Refugee anymore – I love the sentiment. This is a time of year to treasure the vulnerability of God as the baby Jesus in our hearts.
These days, whenever I see a baby, I marvel. We were all once that size. We were all dependent upon someone to feed us and bathe us and change us and make sure we didn't suffocate or get sick or throw up too much. We were all completely dependent upon others for care and love. We were all that small. . . and through the Mystery of the Incarnation, so was God.

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“I wonder if they celebrate Christmas in heaven?” This is one of the many musing questions my mother used to ask. 
The Bible describes non-stop celebration in heaven, but here on earth we mark the seasons and designate Holy Days. I feel sorry for Christians who do not pay much attention to the liturgical year beyond the “big days” of Christmas and Easter. They miss so many opportunities to gain deeper understanding of God’s plan and Jesus’ walk on earth.
Even Episcopalians throw Christmas parties in Advent, go caroling to shut-ins, and have St. Nicholas visit our Sunday schools. But in our community worship, we wait with anticipation. 
The readings of the liturgical year provide spiritual focus in the midst of all the secular frenzy. They help us remember that Christmas is not just a sweet story of a baby in a manger. God’s Word from ancient prophets and Revelation tell us that Jesus’ birth and death were part of a grand design to bring each of us to an eternal, intimate relationship with our Creator.
Author and Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister explains it beautifully:

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Wait for the Lord. Patiently wait. Wait for the Lord.

It’s the congregational response for the sung psalm we are using in my parish for the season of Advent.

How do we wait in times like these? In an Advent where #blacklivesmatter and #handsupdontshoot are the trending hashtags, when the non-verdicts roll in and our young people explode in rage and despair, is waiting enough?

I am waiting. I still believe that there is more yet to be revealed, that God’s power is greater than the forces of evil, that our salvation is closer now than on the day we first believed.

But I am more conscious than usual about how I wait, where I wait.

This Advent (probably any Advent), waiting with the doors closed and soft music playing and lovely candles lit is not enough. Waiting that is passive is not enough. Waiting in places that muffle the voice of Jesus, crying, “I can’t breathe!,” is not enough.

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In the area where I live in Sri Lanka, we are currently experiencing an extended water cut, a result of inadequate maintenance of public infrastructure. The last water-cut we experienced in early-August (for similar reasons) lasted four days. Household potable water is a comfort my neighbours and I have grown so accustomed to that it leaves us scrambling to find alternatives. And of course plenty of grumblings and complaints.

In between these two water cuts, I visited one of Episcopal Relief & Development’s programmes in India, where piped household water is a luxury. In fact, having a water source within walking distance has been a luxury for as long as the eldest resident can remember.

Episcopal Relief & Development began a partnership with the Diocese of Durgapur to accompany a group of 36 isolated villages, mainly populated by the Santali tribe, in community development activities. One of these activities was the provision of rain-water reservoirs.

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“How are you, young man?” he said to me as we were both headed into the gym locker room. We’d said hello from time to time before, and it sure is nice to be called ‘young’ these days. Technically, I am younger than he is; he’s probably in his early 80s, I guessed.

It was the middle of the day, after I had a long stretch of morning get together’s and before two evening meetings. I was taking a mental health break, so to speak; the very best kind. He was in there as he normally is at that hour, or at least he’s there whenever I’m there mid-day.

“I’m fine,” I responded, pleasantry to pleasantry. “How are you?”

“Oh, I’ll be much better an hour from now!” he said, grinning.

It is kind of funny, I thought. He’s certainly retired, certainly done with needing to keep up appearances, certainly able to sit back and coast for a long, long time. He can do whatever he wants to do, can’t he? In fact, he doesn’t need to do anything, let alone push his body and get his heart rate up for nearly sixty minutes.

But he does. He may not like it – “…I’ll be better an hour from now,” he said – but he’s doing it, still, and keeping it up. Good for him. Honestly, I’d like to be like him when I find a few more gray hairs on my already salty salt-and-pepper head, although I fear that I’ll still find plenty of excuses not to go to the gym, not to push myself, not to keep it up.

There’s something to be said for my friend at the gym, the kind of character like that tortoise in that well-known fable: he keeps going, no matter what. He may not like it all the time, he may wish he were doing other things, and no one is forcing him to be physically healthy and well. And, yet, he keeps going, keeps working, keeps doing it.

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Top Ten Resolutions for Church Leaders in 2015

ECF Vital Practices, after taking a look back at the questions you asked us, has pulled together a top ten list of resolutions for congregational leaders to consider in 2015. If you find this list helpful, please subscribe to ECF Vital Practices to receive updates twice a month with recources for your congregation.

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I wish our churches were more like my local hospital.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been to the hospital three times for some routine appointments and tests. Each time, even before I arrived at the right department, I felt warmly welcomed. Every person greeted me in some way, with a genuine smile or a good morning.

It made me feel like they liked their work, they felt a part of something bigger than themselves. They made me feel like I mattered.

I want to bottle up their hospitality and ship it off to every congregation in the country.

On Sunday and definitely on Christmas Eve, our churches will be filled. Visitors may be sitting in your regular pew. C-and-E’s (Christmas-and-Easter attendees) will be back. And this is a wonderful opportunity to exhibit gracious and gentle hospitality. A warm smile goes a long way. A kind greeting can set folks at ease.

If you’re at a loss of what to say to visitors, consider these examples: 

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