Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

So you’ve just learned that you’re about to become your congregation’s newest senior warden. Wow. Now what?

First of all, take a deep breath and remember that you’re part of a body, with many parts, with many gifts. This is a team sport. You’re not alone – not in human terms, and certainly not in the spiritual sense. You can gather a team of trustworthy advisors around you. And you stand in a long line of senior wardens – a communion of saints – whose experience and wisdom can support you.

Before you develop a year-long timeline of action items, take a moment for, as our 12-step friends call it, a “fearless moral inventory.” What are your resources, what are your challenges, and where will you find allies and mentors? These preliminary lists will grow during your time in office.

Here are some “starters” to inspire your stocktaking and perhaps point to a growing edge you might want to develop. Which one(s) will build your leadership? Which are already working for you?

Personal Passions

Every person who becomes a senior warden brings a unique portfolio to the job. Take stock of your:

• Energizers – What are your gifts? What are the things that energize you and engage your passions? When you’re doing these things, you’ll be offering your best to your congregation. Put these on the “My Priorities” list.
• Enervators – What are the things that suck your energy? These things will wear you out, and your out-sized efforts will bring only modest results. Put these on the “Team Priorities” list. As you build your leadership team, remember to gather around you (com)-passionate partners who have skills and gifts in these areas.

Hard Skills

Skills that help a senior warden function well sometimes come through previous experience, and sometimes through intentional skill building as part of the vestry team. They can even be learned on-the-job. Which of these belong on your “My Priorities” list? How can you identify and utilize your team/vestry colleagues who already have one or more of these skills? As senior warden, you can be the catalyst for this learning.

• Thinking strategically – It’s important to be able to take the longer-range view, and to “get on the balcony,” as Ron Heifetz and Donald Laurie counsel in their groundbreaking article “The Work of Leadership.” They name six essentials of break-through leadership: “getting on the balcony,” identifying the adaptive challenge, regulating distress, maintaining disciplined attention, giving the work back to people, and protecting voices of leadership from below. Who can help you develop these skills?
• Team building – Just as the apostle Paul reminded us we are one body, part of the vestry’s responsibility is to help mobilize the many members of the congregation to function as one. How can you invite partners? How well does your vestry model teamwork for the congregation, and encourage others to play their parts?
• Delegating – Sharing responsibility and authority are a hallmark of mature leadership. Giving away the task means focusing more on the outcome, less on the process. What might it mean to risk giving up control? Because failure is an essential aspect of growth, what might you be prepared to learn from failure – yours and others’ – that you could never learn from success?
• Communicating clearly and often – Telling the story well means giving enough background for people to walk with you all the way through to your punch line. Sharing the story means using multiple channels – print, electronic, verbal – and many modes – auditory, visual, kinesthetic – with various audiences – children, youth, adults, seniors, and more. Congregations love sharing stories. How can you leaders make sure you’re all equipped to tell the important, life-giving ones?
• Learning together – Learning communities forge special bonds that provide a support network for improved practice. What does your vestry need to learn together?
• Building relationships – Strong, loving relationships with God and with people are the essentials of life in Christian community. Relationships flourish where safety, trust, and openness are carefully nurtured. How can your vestry practice building that environment?
• Setting priorities – Knowing what’s important is easier when you have a vision of where you’re headed. Both the vision and the priorities grow out of the whole community, and it’s the leaders’ job to articulate them. Do you have a process for hearing what the community has to say?

Essential Growing Edges

There are some skills where a small investment in initial learning is made especially fruitful through long-term practice and development. Three areas of learning, in particular, have proven to pay lifelong dividends for church leaders. You can become increasingly more capable and more resilient as you grow in these areas. Book study or a workshop can start you (and your team) on the way. Check the list of resources at the end of the article.

• Listening – There are many avenues for learning intentional, active listening. The “one-on-one” relational meeting is a particularly focused and effective practice to identify community concerns and discover new leaders. 
• Church size typology – Arlin Rothauge, an Episcopal priest, first developed this line of thought as a way of understanding how congregations welcome and incorporate new members. Further study has shown how a congregation’s size influences its style, its organization, its assumed norms, and what works. Knowing the strengths and challenges of your congregation size will shape your work as leaders.
• Family systems theory – Rabbi Ed Friedman applied Murray Bowen’s theory to congregational life, and transformed the thinking of congregational leaders. Leaders grow in resilience as they develop a basic understanding of the role that anxiety, triangles, emotional process, and differentiated leadership play in congregations.

With inventory in hand, you may discover that there’s lots you want – and need – to learn. Be prepared to enlist supportive partners, both inside and outside the congregation. And be encouraged! There’s lots of hope and help out there.

Reports from the Field
Hear the voices of experienced senior wardens, telling where they have found strength for the journey:

Robin Schreiber (St. Bartholomew’s, Atlanta, Georgia) – “Prayer of course and talking with former senior wardens helped. Also, I worked with a very experienced and highly regarded rector who trusts his senior warden and vestry.”

Jack Hauber (Emmanuel, Moorefield, West Virginia) – “Other member of our Ministry Leadership Team and the supply priest / mentor for our team.”

Raymond Arcario (Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) – “My relationship with my wife, my children, the clergy and the congregation. The affirmation that I am having a positive impact for the good of our congregation, diocese and in service to God is powerful.”

Tracy Esguerra (St. James, Tigard, Oregon) – “The congregation at my parish has been very supportive of me…. I think they were just happy that they weren’t in my position. But it is very encouraging to hear that someone appreciates the work you are doing, especially when you wonder if your decisions are seen as favorable by others.”

Anonymous – “Hope and encouragement came from my junior warden as well as the other vestry members. We were in the final process of our search for a new rector so we became close as a vestry. Others who played this role include a leader for many years in our catechumenate program, [who] advised and listened and coached me during regular one on one meetings. Her help was invaluable.”

Karen Ogelsby (St. Michael and All Angels, Portland, Oregon) – “Past senior wardens, clergy, family and close friends within the congregation.”

Jeff Nelson (St. Andrew’s, Encinitas, California) – “My life experience as a Christian and as an Episcopalian helped.”

Karen Clausen (Grace Church, an Episcopal Community in the Southern Berkshires, Great Barrington, Massachusetts) – “I told the rector and the nominating committee that I would only take the position if it filled me with joy and was spiritually expanding. It created a standard for me at the same time it established the theme of my prayer life with God regarding my work.” “

Demi Prentiss is ministry developer for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth. For 25 years she has worked in national, diocesan, and congregational settings equipping and supporting God’s people as they become intentional partners in God’s dream for the world. She lives with her husband and two dogs in Denton, Texas.

Resources

• Church size theory, ECF Vital Practices

• Church size theory, excerpt from Raising the Roof by Alice Mann (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001)

• Family systems theory – Using Bowen Family Systems Theory, by Tim Shaprio, Alban Institute

• Family systems theory – Differentiated Leadership Made Simple, YouTube video

• Family systems theory – (practical application) - Resilient Leadership by Bob Duggan (Inifity, 2009)

• Listening and Caring Skills in Ministry by John Savage (Abingdon, 1996)

• Listening – Active Listening: Hear What People are Really Saying, Mind Tools

• Listening – Steps of a One-on-One Relational Meeting, Industrial Areas Foundation

• The role of the warden – “You’re a new warden. Now what?” by Donald Romanik, Vestry Papers

• “The Work of Leadership,” by Ronald A. Heifetz and Donald L. Laurie, 1997 Harvard Business Review

• The Vestry Hand-Off: Orientation for new members by Linda Grenz