May 2016
Transition and Change

Navigation Aids

What resources are available to congregations navigating a significant transition that also offer support or opportunities for deepening our connection with Christ and preparing us to carry on Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world?

Wrestling with foundational questions related to our buildings or the impact smaller congregations and shrinking resources have on staffing, program, and ministry or dealing with an unanticipated and potentially costly event, could push congregational leaders to despair. However, change can also be viewed as an occasion for new life and seeking new life more truly reflects the Good News we have received.

There is growing consensus that collegial and cooperative relationships among individuals and communities are finding traction both within and outside institutions of all types.* This is especially true in faith communities as they navigate the many changes being experienced in churches of all sizes.

How might we encourage our diocese, deaneries, neighboring congregations, and other faith communities to explore collaboration? Is this a viable path for making our churches more stable and sustainable? Might this provide new opportunities to engage God’s mission more effectively, releasing through us attentiveness to justice, formation of disciples, speech of and action on the Good News (evangelism), and support for all this through generosity?

Here are three viable pathways for engaging mission in our Episcopal context: Apostolic or diocesan networks, missional alliances, and ecumenical partnerships. Each offers a variety of connections for the purpose of mission.

Apostolic (Diocesan) Networks

Local faith communities in the Episcopal tradition are naturally tied together through the bishop and organized into dioceses. These connections are vital to the life of any congregation. One regular connection is episcopal visitations that build hope and a feeling of relationship to the larger church. Another is the provision of resources that no congregation could mount through their own resources (e.g. conference centers, camps). Dioceses may also provide a framework for strengthening connections between churches through regional deaneries, clusters, or networks.

Among the many services a diocese may offer to congregations, critical services include serving as a source for help where there is distress in the congregational system, raising up people for ordained leadership, and resourcing leadership transitions. Distributed throughout any diocese are riches of talent and expertise; when a diocese facilitates linkages this wealth becomes available to many. The challenge for dioceses is how to make the existing connections missional, discharging old processes and systems which are not missional, and raising up new networks as needed. Some dioceses have developed robust networks of congregational specialists available to work with congregations in a variety of areas.

If your diocese does not yet facilitate missional networking, be bold. Talk with your diocesan staff about the connections and resources you seek. If they don’t exist, consider helping to start conversations and enlisting others to help form the networks that are needed. Explore the resources included at the end of this article to learn how other dioceses are encouraging collaboration and networking.

Missional Alliances

A missional alliance focuses on connection and collaboration. It is based on the belief that we are better together than we are apart. The principle honored here is that every local church should seek to be in some form of a missional alliance suited to their gifts and needs. These alliances may be in two forms: association with other Episcopal churches or collaboration with local agencies or institutions.

Alliances with other congregations range from worshipping together in the summer thus providing clergy of each congregation time off, to sharing a Lenten bible study or other programming, or, as in these four Northern Indiana churches do, coming together in formal partnership, sharing clergy and other resources while each maintaining their distinct parish identity and structure. Churches with financial resources might link with a smaller church which, if relieved of the cost of bookkeeping, for example, be able to use these funds in other ministry areas.

Collaboration with a local agency or institution offers a path for neighborhood engagement. A friend of mine says that every church ought to be connected to a school in some diaconal way. The nearest elementary school can generate a list of needs so long that any church will find an abundance of opportunity for engagement. All Saints Episcopal Church in Concord, North Carolina
and Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan are two of the many Episcopal Churches committed to long term relationships with local school partners

Ecumenical and Interfaith Partnerships

Our brothers and sisters in other denominations, faiths, and traditions
have something to offer. Breaking out of denominational “silos” allows us to share in ways that make our local communities more just and stable. While ecumenical partnerships are desirable for all of us, the potential for resource sharing could be especially helpful for small churches.

These types of networks and partnerships may be seen in the form of formation and education found by linking up with a neighboring church (or churches) for vacation bible school, practical sharing of a staff member (secretary, sexton, book keeper), or working together to address an area of human need in their shared neighborhood. There are models in place. Many communities have cooperative social and/or medical ministries. Some have shared educational associations. There are ecumenical or interfaith groups and clergy associations. There are Lutheran-Episcopal congregations, such as St. John’s Episcopal and Hope Lutheran, who overcame challenges both before and during the early years of their merger. In Tillamook, Oregon, four Protestant Church members of the Tillamook Ecumenical Community moved beyond collaborating to support the community’s many social service programs to form a shared worshipping community. Each of these partnership types not only gives life to Jesus’ prayer “that all may be one” but offer us realistic opportunities to serve God.

Navigating Your Own Path

How might these three pathways – diocesan networks, missional alliances, and ecumenical partnerships – provide resources or options for your congregation as you discern your response to what God is asking of you at this time? How might you strengthen or change any relationships already in place? Are there new relationships that might provide support as you strive to carry out Christ’s work of reconciliation in your community and the world?

As we make use of these relationships we proclaim our true identity: we are blessed so that we may be a blessing. (Genesis 12:2)

* The Starfish and The Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom (Portfolio Hardcover, 2006)

Try This

Randy invites us to consider three pathways in our search for addressing not only the challenges our congregations may presently face but also in response to what God is calling us to do at this time. Have you explored opportunities for networking or collaboration that may exist in your local area? Here are three questions to get you started:

In your congregation, what areas of mission would be fortified by a connection to the people with skills, talents and experiences of other churches?

Is there an Episcopal congregation or one of our ecumenical partner churches with whom a partnership would be fruitful? Are there opportunities to collaborate with other local agencies or institutions to strengthen an existing a soup kitchen or school or clothing ministry (to name just a few) and also expand the heart of mission in your congregation?

What other faith communities are in your area? Do any of them share common mission areas? What might you do together: share a building, serve a community need, do Christian formation? What other faith communities are in your area? Do any of them share common mission areas

Randy Ferebee is a retired priest in the Diocese of Western North Carolina. Currently he is helping restart an Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach, SC. He is a founding director of Epiphany Institute + Consulting and was instrumental in helping the Episcopal Church Foundation establish an alliance with Kanuga Conference Center to offer the annual Church Leadership Conference. Dr. Ferebee is the author of Cultivating the Missional Church (Morehouse/Church Publishing, 2012).

Resources

  • All Our Children: A network that promotes faith-rooted community partnerships with public schools 
  • Pooling Resources,” Nancy Davidge, ECF Vital Practices’ Vestry Papers, July 2014 
  • Who Can You Call?,” Chris Meyer, ECF Vital Practices’ Vestry Papers, May 2014 

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This article is part of the May 2016 Vestry Papers issue on Transition and Change