Wouldn’t it be great if we had an easy way to gauge when our churches were in trouble?
Our local utility company sent a letter this week and included a scratch-and-sniff sticker. Yes, you read that right. Scratch-and-sniff sticker. The text encouraged people to smell the sticker so folks would be familiar with the pungent smell of natural gas. This pre-emptive measure would alert people to danger because they would be familiar with the odor of gas.
Before we move onto how to apply the same methodology to our churches, let’s take a second to applaud the creativity of this company. I can only imagine the person who came up with the idea, perhaps hesitantly raising his or her hand, in a squeaky, uncertain voice, recalling the bygone days of sticker books and trading, and offering the suggestion, “Perhaps we can create a scratch-and-sniff sticker.”
Though I wasn’t in the room, I suspect the idea was not initially met with widespread applause and backslapping. After all, it’s a little silly. Except that it’s also kind of brilliant. I scratched the sticker. And so did my kids. And now they’ll know to speak up if they ever smell that stench again.
I wish I could summon the same brilliance pixies and pitch a similarly wacky but targeted solution for our congregations. But I can’t (at least not yet!).
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I recently came across an article in the Harvard Business Review on Twitter. The article is about the differences between management and leadership. “Management is about coping with complexity,” it explains. Leadership, on the other hand, is about coping with change.
There’s been some talk about the distinction between management and leadership, I gather, after Bishop Sean Rowe, at a meeting of the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church, said that he believes the Episcopal Church is over-led and under-managed. I’m not sufficiently involved in the national church to have strong opinions about this at that level of governance, but I have experienced local churches that were under-managed and others that were under-led.
A manager, according to the article, deals with planning, budgeting, staffing, controlling, and problem-solving. A leader, on the other hand, deals with setting a direction, aligning people, and inspiring people.
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A fundraising parody of the play, Book of Mormon
Chicago's
St. James Cathedral faced this fall’s annual giving campaign with an added component. In addition to asking for pledges to fund their core ministries, the cathedral paired their annual fall giving with a special appeal for facilities, a part of the diocesan campaign. This meant that potential donors would be asked to give to not only the regular campaign but also to consider making an additional gift to their diocese. If the foundation of fundraising is relationships, then this presented a challenge, as potential donors may not feel as strong a connection to the special appeal.
Terri Mathes,
Episcopal Church Foundation Senior Program Director and Consultant writes, that in addition there was a difficulty in recruiting volunteers for the effort. “Like many cathedrals, St. James is a destination parish, and the leadership expressed frustration about how difficult it is to gather people other than Sunday mornings. Believe me! We tried! We scheduled small group gatherings in people’s homes, by demographic groups, you name it; but attendance was disappointing.
"So we decided to take the mountain to Mohammed.”
St. James sought a fun way to educate the parish using well-known leaders from the Cathedral. The result? They created a short video parody of the
Book of Mormon’s song “Hello.”
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No. I don't mean Christmas, though area big box stores have been anticipating for a while now. As little Bobby's fingers are still stained with chocolate from his Halloween haul, out goes the Christmas candy, decorations, and general noelia.
The season of which I write is the season of stewardship. One of the gifts that worshiping on Friday evenings gives me is the opportunity to fill in for area rectors on Sunday morning. This season of stewardship has seen me preach less on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and more on an absent rector’s “Sermon on the Amount.”
Southside Abbey does stewardship a little differently. We certainly do give people opportunities to give of the gifts they have been given, but we do not pass a plate at weekly worship. We are fueled financially on the high-octane mix of gracious partnerships with area Episcopal and Lutheran congregations, a handful of generous individuals and families, and the Rube Goldberg-esque Leopold grant writing machine. It makes for quite the combustible stewardship season that causes funding things like our upcoming food-truck/mobile-chapel/people-mover to be comically Holy Spirit-driven.
I don't write all of this as an appeal for checks to Southside Abbey, but as a confession. I have not asked our congregation - of which three-quarters are homeless or in transitional housing - to give financially. I have asked for gifts of time, energy, presence, skill, et cetera, but not for money. This oversight was brought to me by a homeless man, who happens to be one of the most faithful people I know.
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Since I last wrote about our intrepid group of hybrid faith formation innovators, we’ve gotten to see network-based learning get off the ground in several congregations as well as in our leader’s group. The cohort continues to share an energetic mission that feels daring, messy, and life-giving. It’s been more fun than many were expecting to let go of 'Sunday School As We Know It' and try something new.
Here’s a small sampling of what’s been happening:
At St. Andrew’s Episcopal in Arlington, VA, my co-leader Day Smith Pritchartt continues to build on the success of
FISH: Families Integrating Sundays and Home.
At St. Paul’s Episcopal in Kansas City, MO, Megan Castellan gathers families for a similar program called
The S.P.O.T. (St. Paul’s Online Theology).
At the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Outer Banks, Margaret Sequeira is teaching
Parents As Spiritual Teachers via Google Hangouts.
At First Presbyterian in Libertyville, IL, Roberta Dodds Ingersoll has helped open up “Club M.O.M.”—previously an in-person, weekday group at the church—to some working mothers who can’t attend in person.
As our leader group has reflected on our experience via Facebook and in our video conferences, we’ve identified two key lessons that are shaping our understanding of this new area of digital ministry.
One size definitely doesn’t fit all
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Sometime Facebook gets it right, serving as a wonderful vehicle to see how God is working in the world.
All too often we think that we don’t have the right words to tell about our faith, we don’t know what to say, or whether we’ll come off too pushy. In a post I read this morning from a prison ministry in Southern Ohio, I’m reminded that a vibrant faith is lived out, that indeed, they will know we are Christians by our love.
“Went to Kmart to look around and comparison shop in order to put together 20 personal care packages. Did not intend to make a purchase tonight but the Lord led me otherwise…laundry soap was on sale buy one, get one free, so I got 20. Can't pass up a bargain.
(A lady in electronics) asked what I was going to do with all that soap, so I told her about the prison ministry…she wanted the name of it and the church involved…she then proceeded to tell me her son is incarcerated and would be coming home soon.
“Went on through the store and two more people asked about the soap so I was able to share with them the ministry. Proceeded on to the towel aisle where bath towels were on sale too. Yes, we got 20 of them too!
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“Man plans and God laughs.”
Has this wonderful Yiddish proverb ever been uttered in your vestry meeting? We can spend months planning a project or a new ministry, but sometimes it just doesn’t get traction. The wheels of our motivation and creativity get stuck, or some new priority rises up to block our path, or no one volunteers, so the church chugs along in the same ol’ ruts of the road.
We intuitively understand that getting people involved in the early stages of change creates support, buy-in and ownership. But how do we get folks to pay attention, let alone volunteer to help?
For the next few months, my ECF Vital Practices blog posts will offer 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. Most importantly, as each practice is employed, pray.
There are many ways to build consensus once you get a group together. Vestries, like many boards of directors, often sequester themselves away in annual planning retreats where the brainstorming is fun, team-building thrives and priorities become obvious. In a company, executives leave the retreat and start implementing with employees who are paid to follow. In a congregation, leadership leaves the retreat and hopes that the next newsletter and coffee hour forum will entice one-fourth of the one-third of the members who came on Sunday to help.
Okay, so it’s hard. But we hold to God’s Word, “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2: 10). Since God created each of us to do His work, how He must delight in bringing our diverse gifts together in His church! Begin your congregational planning by celebrating the gifts God has gathered together in your congregation.
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Note: This blog post is also available in English
here.
Nuestras comunidades episcopales del este del estado de Massachusetts y la Iglesia Episcopal toda, acaban de perder a uno de sus más queridos obispos de los últimos tiempos. El obispo Marvil Thomas “Tom” Shaw III fue elegido obispo diocesano en 1994, año en el que la diócesis de Massachusetts pasaba por momentos de pérdida, tristeza, y confusión. La llegada de este monje perteneciente a la orden religiosa de la Sociedad de San Juan Evangelista, de inmediato se sintió como un regalo de gracia divina que iniciaría y acompañaría el largo y complicado proceso de perdón, reconciliación y curación que pedían a gritos los corazones de miles de episcopales profundamente afectados por el suicidio de su predecesor.
El legado que nos deja este querido monje es inmenso. Primordial ha sido el alimento espiritual que recibimos al escuchar sus meditaciones y sus sermones, todo ello proveniente no sólo de una rutina diaria postrado de rodillas en su pequeña celda, inmerso en la oración ferviente, y la lectura constante en el silencio de las horas antes de la llegada del amanecer, sino también del impulso y establecimiento de muchos programas, así como de nuevas leyes, y estructuras para el cambio social resultantes de su atento escuchar con el corazón abierto y compasivo las necesidades, los sueños, y los deseos de las numerosas, y diversas feligresías y misiones que visitaba como pastor de todas ellas.
Atentos y atentas a cada uno de sus mensajes siempre nos sentimos como llevados y llevadas de la mano a alabar con gozo mientras meditábamos profundamente en un Dios todo amor, un Dios presente y activo en nuestras vidas, un Dios que no se cansa de llamarnos a caminar a su lado de muchas maneras, inspirándonos y alimentando la pasión, y la fortaleza necesarias en la lucha por la justicia, la paz y el bienestar de todo ser humano. Sin forzarnos a hacerlo, Tom nos inspiró a que descubriéramos nuestro propio tesoro en la rutina de explorar la oración y la lectura, si no antes del amanecer, por lo menos al empezar nuestros quehaceres diarios. Esa manera de darle comienzo al nuevo día, además de acompañarnos a lo largo de las horas, nos mantiene constantemente, y de mil formas orando ante todo lo que se nos presenta y con grandes deseos de volver con regocijo al silencioso refugio de nuestras oraciones.
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Nota - Este artículo es disponible en español aquí.
Our Episcopal communities in Eastern Massachusetts, along with the entire Episcopal Church, recently lost one of its most beloved bishops.
Bishop Marvil Thomas, “Tom” Shaw III, was elected diocesan bishop in 1994, a year in which the Massachusetts diocese was going through a difficult time of loss, sadness, and confusion. The arrival of this monk, belonging to the religious order of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, immediately felt like a gift of divine grace. A gift that initiated a lengthy and complicated process of forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing; something felt in the hearts of thousands of Episcopalians who had been profoundly affected by the suicide of his predecessor.
Shaw’s legacy is immense. The spiritual nourishment that he shared with us was primordial. When listening to his meditations and sermons, most of which stemmed from not only his daily routine of fervently praying on his knees in his tiny cell and reading in predawn silence, but also from his fostering of new programs and legislation aimed at social change. His insights came from listening with an open and compassionate heart to the needs, dreams, and wishes of the diverse congregations and missions he routinely visited as pastor.
When we listened to his sermons we always felt that we were being taken by the hand to joyfully praise and deeply meditate on a God that is all love and ever-present, a God who never tires of calling us to walk by His side—inspiring us and nourishing the passion and strength needed in the struggle for justice and peace. Without forcing us to do it, Tom inspired us to discover our own treasure in the routine of exploring prayer and reading, if not before dawn, at least before starting our daily chores. He taught us to start each day in meditation, constantly remaining in prayer, in a thousand different ways about everything that crossed our paths.
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File this under “Borrowed from Another Church” or “How a Decentralized Budget Works.” I’m talking about how we raise awareness and investment for outreach at St. George’s, Valley Lee – what we call the Second Collection.
It’s really very simple: we’ve cut outreach from our centralized operating budget so that we can more effectively make the connections between the work of justice and the craft of worship on the Lord’s Day. During the offertory at Sunday worship, someone carries a large basket alongside the offering plates. The initial concept was that people would bring in non-perishable food donations to support the work of several local food pantries, along with their financial gift to support the church. People forgot to bring the canned goods, however, but they still wanted to help. “Can we give some loose change, instead?” a few asked. Which gave birth to the idea of the smaller basket that comes around during the offertory. (The related principle being that if you want to give money to the church, especially so the church can give it away, we’ll always find a way to support you in doing that!) People toss their loose change in the smaller basket and, for those who bring in the canned goods, there are larger baskets in the entryway to the church and parish hall.
What we flippantly call “outreach” in the church is really intended to be a much more radical thing. That is, we’re really talking about creating relationships of awareness and building the capacity for advocacy. The point is to expose people, including people of privilege, to those who struggle with not having enough, and to build that relationship between one’s Sunday morning pew and the immediate community’s real needs and opportunities. This isn’t all we do to engage the work of justice at St. George’s, Valley Lee, but the Second Collection is a very simple, very direct, and very impactful way to “strive for justice and peace.”
Communication – that is, listening and teaching – is important to developing this new approach. For starters, we feature a regular, weekly announcement. Additionally, we’ve occasionally changed the four food pantries based on what we’re hearing from our community and the ways they are – or are not – getting involved in and aware of the work of those places on the ground. Here’s how we begin the write-up in our bulletin and newsletter:
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I love a good story.
It’s not uncommon for my husband to turn his head and see tears in my eyes. And a smile on my face. He knows I am reading something that has touched my heart.
Stories move us. When I ask workshop participants whether they prefer reading a story or a report, well, I expect you know which option most people choose.
As communities of faith, we have stories to share. Telling each other our stories - face-to-face – often seems easier, putting them in written form, harder. This issue of Vestry Papers focuses on helping all of us become better storytellers, in person, in written form, and on social media. During the past year, I’ve kept a list of congregations – and individuals – whose storytelling impresses me and invited some of them to share the approaches that work for them with all of you.
If you find the information in this issue useful, please consider two things: Sharing this issue with others and becoming a subscriber.
Our November issue includes:
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At some point or another, we’re all drinking from the firehose. We have way too much to do, coming at us too fast.
For me lately, and I suspect for many of us, the hose has been less a source of water for growth and more a way to put out fires.
As leaders in our churches, our communities, and our workplaces, part of our job is to put out fires. The Internet connection dies; we fix it (or call the right people to fix it). The wrong date for the spaghetti supper is in the church bulletin; we make an announcement and send out an update. Someone is sick, and we cancel long-standing lunch plans to stop by the hospital.
Fires happen, and we need to be ready to extinguish them.
But what happens when all the water goes to the fires and none to new growth and nurturing? We’ve put out the fires but to what end?
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The change in seasons always comes as a bit of a surprise. I know it happens every year, but having lived in Texas for so long where fall isn’t all that different from summer, I never really expect the weather to actually change. But then it does.
“Leadership is for a season,” I heard a priest say recently. I’ve been thinking about this topic since I decided to step off my church’s leadership team. I enjoyed being part of it for two years, but now I want to focus on other things. I’m feeling a little over-churched (having a job in the church, too).
At various times I have been under the illusion that something that works should work forever. I’m always surprised when a to-do app that was really helpful suddenly ceases to meet my needs, or something I used to enjoy becomes a chore.
This shouldn’t be surprising. As the seasons of life change—you get a new job, you get married, you simply get older—some of the things that once worked don’t seem to work anymore.
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I'd like to start this post with a joke.
Q: How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change!?! Why should we change? We like the old light bulb. The Edison family donated it in 1886. See the wall plaque beneath the old bulb?
This little humor is to prepare you for the reality that we do the liturgy a little differently at Southside Abbey. Having said that, there is much about our liturgy that will be familiar, even to those who are change-phobic. We follow the four-fold shape of Gathering, Word, Table, and Sending, but we change it up just a little bit.
One of the great gifts we have been given as followers of Jesus is this sacred meal where Christ has promised to be present in, through, and with us. We celebrate this reality with bread, wine, and a meal, but in the Church we have so stylized that meal that many of our guests and sojourners can scarcely recognize the meal aspect of it.
At Southside Abbey, we are trying to reclaim that sense of a true meal in a very real way.
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I keep getting in trouble with my snarky rejoinders to the endless blogs and advice columns exhorting me to keep my church website up to date. Some people dismiss careless website management as inexcusable sloppiness. Others patiently explain once again that they are not asking for that much, just accurate service times and directions.
Let me clarify. I would love to have a website that is up to date. I even understand why it is important. When I was working in a non-parochial job, I once walked twenty blocks with a three-year-old only to discover that the church “wasn’t doing the family service at 9” anymore. I look for information on the web all the time. I get it.
Here are the points I am trying to make. One, for many struggling churches, the resources at hand are simply insufficient to do even all the things that are clearly important and urgent. Website maintenance is an ongoing thing. It requires the continuous presence of someone who knows how this particular website works, remembers to check it, and has the right information to put on it. If that sounds simple, you don’t live in my world.
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Okay, so I might be underestimating a tad, but here’s an idea for a quick-and-easy fundraiser.
Think about upcoming church-wide events. Hymn sing? Thanksgiving gathering? Wreath making? You want an event that will attract a significant proportion of your congregation—and maybe even one that people from outside of the church already attend. I also suggest an early evening event and one with time and space for people to meander. After you’ve picked the likely candidate, add in a Christmas boutique.
The idea is simple: Announce during church and in your newsletters (print and electronic) that you’re inviting vendors to exhibit during the selected event. There’s no charge (or you can charge—your call) but you invite the vendors to donate 10 percent of their sales to the church (or specified ministry). Your role is to do some basic coordination and promotion: How many tables needed, communicate date and times to the vendors, and advertise in different venues.
Other than setting up and tearing down the tables, the onus is on the vendors to prepare their space. If they don’t sell anything, no harm, no foul. If they do, then it’s a win-win. The small or home business vendor earns a little money, and the church receives a donation. And add a third win in there: church members have an opportunity to do some low-key holiday shopping while supporting local merchants/vendors.
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I went on a ghost tour a few years ago in Lower Manhattan . We walked by old buildings and parks and our guide told us about the people who had died there and also about the occasional hauntings that had been reported. It was more of a history and local folklore tour than a ghost tour. I would argue that the things that haunt us are not spirits of the dead but memories of the past.
We can often feel these “ghosts” of the past in old church buildings and in our communities. In the churchyard of Trinity Wall Street, where I work, more than 11,000 people are buried, from extremely wealthy people and founding fathers to the poorest of New York’s residents. I’ve heard no reports of ghost sightings on the grounds, yet Trinity’s long history affects what Trinity does and how it understands itself.
We can often feel these ghosts in our relationships. A parishioner who has had a bad experience at another church may be extra-sensitive to what the priest says or does, for example. That parishioner might not be responding simply to the individual, but to the ghosts of past priests.
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"A funeral can be a profound expression of what we believe and what we hope. It can form or reinforce that hope where it may have grown thin. Not only does the Sunday morning context strengthen the experience of the funeral, then, but the funeral can strengthen the experience of Sunday morning as well."
Last Sunday morning, the congregation of The Advocate gathered to say goodbye to one of our own. We commended him to God’s loving hands, and committed his ashes to the ground in the churchyard. It was our primary liturgy of the day.
While baptisms take place in the context of principal liturgies more often than not, and weddings occasionally do, Sunday morning funerals are rare. There are good reasons. A funeral is usually a gathering of those who knew the deceased, who want to express condolences to the family, or to show their respect for the one who died. If the funeral is on a Sunday morning, not everyone gathered will have that intent; the liturgy may feel unwelcoming. Newcomers and visitors could feel left out of the congregation’s corporate grief. Parents might be challenged to know what to say to their children. In short, hospitality can be compromised.
A Sunday funeral could establish an unwanted precedent. Others may want their own funeral, or that of their beloved, on a Sunday morning as well. That could get out of hand fast. There could soon be more Sundays with funerals than Sundays without. We might then have to designate funeral Sundays, the way we designate certain Sundays as more appropriate for baptism. With cremation gaining traction in the society around us, it could certainly be possible. But it would be weird.
The main reason, perhaps, to avoid Sunday morning funerals, is that funerals can be a downer. For the most part, people don’t go to church on Sunday morning to see a box containing the remains of someone we knew or did not know perched before the altar. It is one thing to be reminded of Jesus’ death, quite another to have to think about our own.
All of these are reasonable objections to a Sunday morning funeral. But there are times when it is just the right thing to do.
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Last night my best friend and I finished reading “The Fault in our Stars.” This instant classic was recently made into a box office hit as younger people, millennials, enjoyed its rich vocabulary, tender but teenage angst filled romance, and its existential wanderings about human suffering.
By far, one of richest lines comes part way through the book when the protagonist is in a conversation with her father and is told:
“Our universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part is because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed.”
As a financial resource consultant for the Episcopal Church Foundation, I am often asked about millennials. Here is what we know, generally, from Pew Research to date:
Millennials are defined by being children of divorce
Millennials celebrate diversity
They are formed to be socially conscious
Parents/Mentors are advocates and friends
First generation of children with schedules
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Oversized spiders hanging on front porches and cobwebs strewn across shopping aisles remind me that Halloween is just around the corner. I’ve never been a big fan of this holiday, myself, although I’m equally keen to re-claim it as a Christian thing, or at least something that has – or had – roots in the Christian experience.
That’s why the Episcopal churches in St. Mary’s County are planning an All Hallow’s Eve gathering. We want to re-claim it as ours, so to speak, and we think it’s a pretty good evangelical offering to local kids and families. Even better, this year Halloween falls on a Friday night. We can really do something fun and festive and not worry about getting the kiddos back home at such an early hour. And even though Halloween is just over one week away, the good news is that every congregation can plan to pull off something – and there’s still one Sunday in which you can make the announcement and drum up attendance!
Here are a few thoughts you may wish to incorporate in a church-based Halloween party.
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