Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

When the risen Christ appeared to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) their destination and their lives suddenly changed. Two millennia later the risen Christ still appears to his followers. The vivid experience of his presence alters their journeys as well. Not only are their lives made whole, their congregations are transformed. Today numerous Episcopalians discover the Emmaus road anew. The result is an unexpected burst of local vitality.

Soon after its Zacchaeus Project concluded, the Episcopal Church Foundation began its Emmaus Project. We determined to identify the sources of the vitality we had discovered in our Zacchaeus work. We believed that certain patterns of vitality could surface and could be linked to consistent forms of leadership in congregations and beyond. We wondered, what makes a congregation thrive? Broadly we concluded there must be a vivid sense of the risen Christ, and an appreciative response. What happens when a church responds to a new sense of being led by Christ?

So far the Emmaus Project has involved interviews with focus groups in nearly forty congregations in five dioceses. In addition we have spent time with the bishops and staffs of these dioceses and attended major diocesan events. We have also organized workshops on church life and leadership attended by dozens of people. Assessing what we have found, we are pleased to learn that the Zacchaeus Project’s findings are being extended. Our understanding of what makes a congregation thrive now has greater definition.

Worship, Pastoral Care and Education
“I remember when the diocese wanted to close this church. We couldn’t get ten people out on a Sunday,” recalled an older lay leader in one congregation. “Then the bishop sent us a new priest. He preached and he taught and he visited. And we began to grow.” Clearly one mark of a thriving Episcopal church is capable guidance by clergy. The basis of church life lies in worship, pastoral care, and education. These tasks establish the foundation of the congregation’s life.

They must be faithfully sustained and energetically linked to the contours of local life. Of course, local challenges can vary. One of the foremost marks of congregational vitality is the ability of ordained and lay leaders to formulate a mutually agreeable assessment of local demands and appropriate leadership styles. Yet certain consistent marks of congregational vitality readily appear, including:

• Ongoing development of leadership skills and the cultivation of new lay leaders.
• Regular, honest, affirmative forms of mutual ministry assessment. Regular forms of program review and long-range planning are included. These reviews stress the positive but do not deny or avoid attention to differences or tensions. Vital congregations look honestly at themselves.
• Life-giving connections to other parishes and to the diocese, and effective linkages to other groups that afford resources for the congregation’s basic tasks such as worship, education, and pastoral care.
• Examples include Education for Ministry (EFM), Disciples of Christ in Community (DOCC) and Stephen Ministries. Vital congregations consistently are linked
• beyond themselves.
• Ongoing attention to ways of integrating spiritual energies and questions into program life. Vital congregations consistently seek to embrace their members’ needs and energies.
• Sustained attention to the question of mission, i.e., what is the mission of this congregation, locally and beyond? How can the congregation grow, in numbers and in quality of common life, and in its service to others outside the congregation? We find that vital congregations enthusiastically look beyond themselves and ask how they can grow.
• Last, vital congregations find ways to utilize conflict. They are able to face it honestly and to learn from it.

The Episcopal Church Foundation invites your contribution to the conversation on vitality and the leadership needed to encourage it. We look forward to meeting you on the Emmaus Road!

An Episcopal priest with thirty years experience in parish ministry, the Rev. Dr. William L. Sachs is the Director of Research for the Episcopal Church Foundation. His latest book, Restoring the Ties that Bind, is co-authored with Tom Holland (see next article) and is scheduled for publication by Church Publishing early next year.