Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Priest Morris Thompson readily admits that, “All my life I have been afraid of evangelism.” Yet he and his fellow Christians at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Mississippi, decided that they wanted to be part of the Jesus Movement proclaimed by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in a video released they day after his installation. 

Before they got started, they stalled in the face of the unknown. HOW could THEY be evangelists? Father Morris, in his first year as Curate, reflected on his living in the old and diverse neighborhood of the church. He realized he talked daily with many neighbors, but he had never invited them to St. Paul’s. He shared his thoughts with parishioners.

Several in the congregation, including his wife Emily, had been raised Southern Baptist. With evangelizing experience, they bolstered the courage of others. 23 people went door-to-door last December, distributing parish-prepared candied pecans and flyers about Lessons and Carols and Christmas Eve services. Father Morris shared their experience in an Open Letter to Presiding Bishop Curry, which was posted on Facebook and published the diocesan newsletter.

The Lord blessed their efforts several ways…

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Our recent Vestry Papers article urged church leaders to shift their focus from “inside” to “outside,” and from church-sponsored outreach to individuals understanding themselves as “on mission” in their everyday lives. We’ve already offered ways to Break Out, Take Out, and Reach Out. Another one of the ways we Christians can “get the hell out of church” (the title of the VP article) is to Live Out – to be evangelists by carrying God’s Good News into every aspect of our daily lives.

Whenever I’m (Demi) dismayed by the idea of being the bearer of God’s Good News, I remember the disciples in Luke 10. That’s the story of Jesus sending them out, vulnerable and inexperienced, as his “advance men” for his upcoming campaign. Their assignment was to proclaim peace, accept the hospitality that was offered, heal people who were sick, and proclaim, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”

These people, Jesus’ first evangelists, knew nothing about Jesus’ crucifixion, or resurrection, or victory over sin and death, or substitutionary atonement, or how to celebrate Eucharist. So what was their Good News? Basically, “Shalom! Peace and health be with you. God who loves us is right here, near us.”

Unlike them, we are Easter people. And each Sunday, as worship ends and we hear, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” we’re sent out into our worlds to do exactly what we’ve been called to do – offer God’s peace, healing, and presence to a hurting and angry world.

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On December 13, 2015, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Columbus, Mississippi, put into action their response to Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s reminder that the Episcopal Church is part of the Jesus movement. In January, they wrote an Open Letter to Presiding Bishop Curry to tell him, and all of us, about their experience. ECF Vital Practices reached out to St. Paul's to request permission to share this story of their experience: 

Dear Presiding Bishop Curry,

We, at St. Paul’s Columbus, MS, watched the video you released the day after your installation. The one that called us to take to the streets, leave the walls that so often enclose us, and seek our congregation in the world. When we first viewed it, we conversed with excitement as to how the Episcopal Church was going to become evangelical under your leadership as primate of our church. However, a few weeks passed and we found ourselves still worshiping in our pews, carrying on within our church walls. Nothing changed. Apparently evangelism wasn’t really coming to Columbus. The realization that YOU weren’t coming to St. Paul’s to lead us outside the church was a jolt. We concluded that if we truly believed in your message, WE would have to become the agents of evangelism within our community.

So, together, we organized an event called “Southside Evangelism.” Our church is located in “Southside Columbus.” It is a historic, diverse neighborhood bordered by downtown, the Mississippi University for Women, and the Tombigbee Waterway. This neighborhood, our neighborhood, became our aim. Our goal was to simply remind them that we are neighbors, and we would like to get to know them.

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Our recent Vestry Papers article urged church leaders to shift their focus from “inside” to “outside,” and from church-sponsored outreach to individuals understanding themselves as “on mission” in their everyday lives. Last week we offered ways to Break Out.  Another one of the ways we Christians can “get the hell out of church” (the title of the VP article) is to Take Out – to re-frame our habits of prayer and liturgy to offer a “to go” alternative. Can we shift our thinking – whenever and wherever we worship – so that we are focused on the Dismissal, which sends us out to be the Church in our worlds of home and work and community?

One “take-away” opportunity is to celebrate liturgy in a non-church setting. In recent years, commuters and college students have been treated to “ashes to go,” when clergy have appeared on train platforms, near elevators, and on college campuses offering to smudge foreheads on Ash Wednesday, reminding each person “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Eucharist in an outdoor setting or across the desk at a job site, baptism on the riverbank or in a swimming pool, and stations of the cross marking scenes of urban violence have all made news in the secular press. How do you expand your imagination to invite and welcome participation in such events, especially by those who are “not our flock”? How might you encourage reconnection once the event is over?

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If asked, how do you explain Ash Wednesday and/or Lent to friends? Our friends at Busted Halo are again sharing their video Ash Wednesday & Lent in Two Minutes. 

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Creating a vibrant and vital vestry is an ongoing task. The period following your annual meeting, when newly elected members join the vestry, is a good time to review and renew your congregation’s vision statement and to think about what putting this vision into practice looks like. This month our articles support you in these efforts, with our fourth article sharing a practice designed to free up meeting time to address these important issues.

What is your church’s purpose or vision? Why is it important for congregational leaders – and members – to have a shared vision? In “Fire First,” Robert Wright, bishop of Atlanta, reminds us Jesus was a man of purpose and encourages us to make explicit our fire – our common purpose - and to keep it “in front of us” as it will bless our common life in exciting ways.

Our presiding bishop calls us “To go into the world, let the world know there is a God who loves us, a God who will not let us go, and that that love can set us all free.” “Get the Hell Out of Church” by J. Fletcher Lowe and Demi Prentiss shares an approach congregational leaders can use to equip members for faithful witness in the world.

Do the things your vestry measures and reports on reflect the mission- and vision-driven aspects of your congregation? Frank Logue‘s “Reboot Your Reporting” encourages vestry members to consider shifting their focus from numbers of attendance, membership, or giving to something more elusive: transformation. To help you imagine what that might look like, he offers a resource from what may seem an unlikely source: the Harvard Business Review website.

Are your vestry meetings too long? Is too much time taken up on routine business? Ron Byrd’s introduction to using a consent calendar at General Convention convinced him to propose this approach to his vestry. He shares his experience in “The Consent Calendar.”

We encourage you to think about how the ideas presented in this and every issue might provide an impetus for evaluating and reflecting on what you might learn from the experiences of others. To help in your discernment, at the end of each article we offer a list of the resources related to the topic. If you have a resource to share, please email me at [email protected] with the link or add it to the site using the Your Turn feature. 

If you are interested in Spanish language content, please visit our searchable index for our Spanish content here. 

Please share this issue of Vestry Papers with your colleagues and to invite them to subscribe to ECF Vital Practices and Vestry Papers. Subscriptions are free. New subscribers are asked to fill out a short registration form to have Vestry Papers and ECF Vital Practices content delivered twice a month to your email inbox.

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When answering the question, “Who is your target audience?” most church leaders will say young people, or Millennials, or young families, or the unchurched. Very few will say their churches are focusing on people over 75. Yet look at the people sitting in the pews, or serving on altar guilds, or ushering, or pledging, or manning the food programs. Many are nearing 75 or are already in that age group.

Can a church be vibrant if it offers well-rounded activities for all ages, but targets older people? A church in Pennsylvania is exploring that question:

At a recent retreat, the lay governing body at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Montrose, Penn., decided to focus the church’s ministry on older people at the church, in the community, in two senior living apartment complexes, and in one nursing home. St. Paul’s, which was founded in 1831 and is housed in a historic worship space, made a gallant effort in 2008 to create a ministry for young people that included additional personnel, new furniture and redecorated space, curricula, and supplies. After four years, the vestry concluded that other churches in the area were better equipped to serve young families. St. Paul’s has decided to approach their new ministry to older people carefully, beginning by asking church members and people in the community what they want or need. They intend to begin slowly, and build a ministry that can be sustained.

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This past Sunday was a wonderful day for The Episcopal Church. Not only was Michael Curry installed as our new Presiding Bishop, he also preached an awesome sermon in which he laid out a dynamic, exciting charge for The Episcopal Church in years ahead. 

It certainly wasn’t the first time a major church service was televised or live-streamed. However, on this occaison, as I gathered with folks in my own community along with friends from many other places at a potluck viewing party in our parish hall, really did feel like All Saints’ Day this year was a great awakening across our Church!

The message Michael Curry delivered was one we’ve long needed to hear, and it has been high time for us to get on and get going as living members of the “Jesus movement." Combining a wonderfully straightforward, even traditional Christology, and a call to renew the common good, he offered a vision as well as a theology that will motivate many Episcopalians to participate and celebrate.

As I sat and watched the celebration, feeling myself moved to joy at times and tears and laughter at other points, I was also aware that I had one foot in two worlds. Earlier that morning, you see, St. George’s, Valley Lee – the congregation I have the pleasure of serving – just wrapped up a three-part series in which we talked about and discerned togheter the future of our congregation. We’ve been talking about collaboration and shared ministry and, perhaps, even striking out to find an entirely new model, a new way to ‘be church’ in our community for a long while now. Meanwhile, we’ve also been participating in and leading these conversations in our region of our diocese. Our neighbor congregation, Church of the Ascension in Lexington Park, Maryland, also had these same conversations on these same past Sundays, and we plotted the same talking points at the same places on the same three Sundays, culminating on All Saints’ Day. At St. George’s, we talked about by-laws and canons and who has the right to change the shape of the parish. We talked about money and committees and pro’s and con’s of different models of being church – from Do Nothingon one end of the spectrum, to Merge Everything (and Sell Real Estate) on the other. It wasn’t necessarily the most prayer-filled series of gatherings, and we weren’t always focusing on Jesus and the mission of the church, but you have to let people find their voice, I say, no matter where that initial voice comes from.

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You may have seen a Little Free Library or two in your neck of the woods. They are popping up all over the place -- a small creative mode of freecycling that allows strangers and neighbors to share books with one another. They are basically just boxes, placed at eye level, with a door and some shelves. They hold anywhere from a handful of books to a few dozen. The idea is that you can either take or leave a book, no questions asked, and no library card required.

St. Mary's recently installed a little free library in our prayer garden. It's a small always-open space with a couple of benches and an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. People come to sit, pray, sleep, chat, and smoke (judging by the cigarette butts we have to sweep up from time to time!). Now they can read and "shop" for books.

When we put in the library, I imagined it would take the neighborhood a while to catch on. There aren't any other free libraries in our area. It seemed like a good spot; it’s on a street with substantial pedestrian traffic and next door to an elementary school. Our congregation has plenty of readers, and book donations have poured in. We've asked people to focus on children's books, with our school neighbors in mind, but we have received a predictably wide variety of things.

The library has been successful beyond my wildest dreams. Far from struggling to catch on, it emptied almost immediately. The first week, we were actually suspicious that someone was taking all the books and doing something with them. Not sure what...resale on the black market? Hoarding them in a tiny apartment somewhere? Used books are really mostly good for one thing: reading! Our initial suspicions reminded me of how little experience most of us have with given things away truly for free, no questions asked. Seeing how hard it was to offer up our motley collection of books without suspicion turned out to be a spiritual lesson in generosity and offering, among other things.

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A bivocational Episcopal priest in eastern Kentucky shares his joy at being part of a changing church.

It’s a clear morning in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. Mist is rising over the rolling hills and limestone fences. Horses graze on the dewy grass, briefly raising their heads as I drive down the narrow blacktop road.

No matter how long I live here, I give thanks each day for the stunning natural beauty that surrounds me.

Today I’m doubly blessed, because my destination lies two hours east. I’ll drive from the hills of the Bluegrass into the valleys and green mountains of Appalachia.

On the way, I’ll cross 500-million-year-old river gorges, swing around hairpin mountain turns, race down steep inclines and creep back up behind loaded logging trucks.

I’m a bivocational priest, and my work takes me all over the eastern half of Kentucky.

When my family and I came here in 2011, we had no idea what to expect. We were from the Midwest and were used to big skies, open landscapes and churches large enough to support full-time ministers.

What we found here was lush country, loving, welcoming people, and a network of small, vital but struggling congregations.

The church that called us -- St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Harrodsburg -- was typical. Yes, they could pay a small salary plus benefits, but only for two years. They had a little money in the bank, but the congregation was aging, membership was declining, and unless something radical happened, the situation was unsustainable.

Something radical did happen. In four years, we’ve gone from about 30 people on a Sunday to about 70. We’ve doubled the size of the congregation, and we’ve doubled the amount of energy, passion and tangible resources.

This took a lot of prayer, a generous measure of God’s grace (that indefinable working of the Spirit that makes the unimaginable into reality), a lot of community outreach (“Yes, we’re here and we genuinely care about you -- you should check us out!”) and a church that actually wants to grow.

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This article is also available in English aquí. 

Nota de la editora: para l@s que no conocen el significado de @ en una palabra, se usa la @ para usar un lenguaje inclusivo que representa el femenino y masculino de una palabra.

Sabía que iba a cambiar mi vida
Pero no sabía cómo
Sabía que iba a brotar lágrimas
Pero no sabía cuándo
Sabía que me iba a sentir incómoda
Pero no sabía por qué
Sabía que iba a aprender varias cosas
Pero no sabía cuáles
Estoy en una Plantación por primera vez
Sabía que iba a ver una Casa grande Blanca
Y cuartos para esclavos
Al caminar hacia la casa grande
Siento como si estoy en una escena de la película El Color Púrpura
y sonrío con dolor
Me paro cerca de una chimenea y respiro
Con los espíritus de chicos y grandes corriendo a mi alrededor
Mostrándome cómo sentirme y qué hacer
Cuando toco una huella del pie de un niño esclavo sobre un ladrillo
me imagino su risa (es mi hijo en mi mente)
Lloro.

Escrito durante mi tiempo de reflexión silenciosa después de haber escuchado tres narrativas de esclavos en una de las plantaciones más grandes del sur – Stagville Plantation.

La semana pasada tuve una experiencia transformativa cuando estuve en el evento de la Diócesis de Carolina del Norte, Alcemos cada voz/Viaje por la libertad (puede leer información sobre la semana en inglés: http://lifteveryvoice.dionc.org/). Fue un evento para jóvenes y jóvenes adultos que se centró en la verdad, la reconciliación, y la paz. Estuvimos más de 70 personas de varias diócesis del país y Sudáfrica. Como parte del liderazgo y la música tuve la oportunidad de planificar y escuchar las ideas de cómo íbamos a ayudar a las personas que iban a participar, y a nosotr@s mism@s por varios meses de anticipación. Desde el primer momento sentí el amor de Dios en cada persona del equipo – la mayoría jóvenes adultos. Aunque yo sólo conocía a la directora, a mi compañero músico y a mi hijo, sentí gran intimidad con cada persona que estaba presente. Nos unía una curiosidad, emoción, y pienso que también un poco de temor por esta semana que iba a empezar e iba a traer muchos sentimientos que tal vez ni sabíamos que llevábamos dentro. Oramos mucho y nos encomendamos a Dios.

Durante la semana tuvimos oportunidades de ir a diferentes lugares claves para la justicia social y la historia de los derechos civiles en Carolina del Norte. Tuvimos la oportunidad de conocer a personas históricas y también a personas que son activistas y dan mucha inspiración. Escuchamos muchas narrativas de parte de las personas invitadas, del equipo y de l@s participantes. Cada historia, cada anécdota, cada poema, cada video, cada oración nos acercaba más y nos daba esperanza para seguir adelante. Lloramos, reímos, recordamos, y vivimos.

Un momento alto fue conocer a Latinas Episcopales y entrevistar a algunas. Pude entrevistar a Cecilia Alvarez, Canóniga del ministerio de transición y desarrollo del clero, de la diócesis de Nueva Jersey que me enseñó sobre el tiempo diario en meditación con Dios, a la estudiante Fernanda Torres que me enseñó sobre el sentimiento de aislamiento cuando eres indocumentado y a la activista y maestra Elisa Benitez que me enseñó sobre la importancia de ser una activista para las personas que no tienen una voz o que no se les escucha. Fernanda y Elisa son de la diócesis de Carolina del Norte. Estas tres mujeres me dieron lecciones toda la semana sobre el amor de Dios y la importancia de tener una relación con Dios. (Nota: Puedes ir a los medios sociales y buscar #LEVNC para ver más videos, fotos, y pensamientos.) 

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“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.”

― Jaroslav Pelikan, "The Vindication of Tradition: The 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities"

Today, many of us in the church take the term for granted, but “fresh expressions” only came into our lexicon as late as 2004. That was the year when the Church of England published their report, Mission-shaped Church, that said, among other things, “A fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church.” Mission-shaped Church called for a “mixed economy” of traditional and new forms of church, realizing that it is no longer sufficient to rely on the established parochial system to receive new converts, raise them into the faith of Jesus, and send them out into the world to be missionaries of Christ’s love.

That was then. Or was it? Since “fresh expressions” is now a common term among church geeks, and since we’re so excited, nowadays, about church planting and getting out of our established inheritances and into our neighborhoods, it’s nice to look back and see how things have changed. Or have they? Really, have things changed all that much?

The reality is that things have begun to change, and there are exciting changes on the margins of our church. There are projects and really creative projects, at that, as leaders and communities begin to devise fresh expressions of our ancient, apostolic tradition. In certain, quite particular contexts The Episcopal Church has a new look that’s brimming with deep faith and artistic energy. And yet dioceses, as such, and that old parochial system aren’t changing much whatsoever, and the promise of a “mixed economy” in the church, today, is no more present than it was when we first started talking, now more than a decade ago.

But as I write there is a change, and a very real change for the church. In fact, it was passed with notable success in that most established of inheritances: General Convention. I’m not talking about all the money for church planting (though that’s great), nor all the resources for revitalizing established congregations (again, wonderful news), nor about digital evangelism. I’m talking about the most basic, most fundamental thing: freeing up our communities so when we gather for worship we are less beholden to the limitations of traditionalism (that is, the worship of the thing; not the purpose for which it exists) and more engaged with the process of carrying forward our ancient Christian faith in new, fresh expressions.

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In the past few months, there has been a lot written about millennials. Namely, what they want, why/why not we should care about their characteristics as a generation, and conflicting information about what the Church should do in light of this information. 

In April 2015, a popular Christian speaker and author, Rachel Held Evans, published a Washington post blog that quickly went viral. 

In it she cited a study published by Pew Research for the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Research showed that over 25% of the Millennial Generation claims no religion affiliation. She described in detail the efforts made by churches to be relevant and to reengage this demographic. Evans suggests that instead of looking at market research to determine what is cool for the moment, millennials are looking for authentic worship.

“If young people are looking for congregations that authentically practice the teachings of Jesus in an open and inclusive way, then the good news is the church already knows how to do that. The trick isn’t to make church cool; it’s to keep worship weird.” Her blog’s thesis was to embrace what the Church does well instead of changing it to meet the culture. 

She writes,”I believe that the sacraments are most powerful when they are extended not simply to the religious and the privileged, but to the poor, the lonely and the left out. This is the inclusivity so many millennials long for in their churches, and it’s the inclusivity that eventually drew me to the Episcopal Church, whose big red doors are open to all — conservatives, liberals, rich, poor, gay, straight, and even perpetual doubters like me.“

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"...open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us." (From Eucharistic Prayer C, The Book of Common Prayer, page 372)
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Easter is not confined to a day, to that Sunday morning that falls each year after the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. Easter begins at the empty tomb but does not end there. It unfolds over fifty days, culminating at Pentecost.

The claim that Jesus was raised from the dead - that his body is not there but is to be found in the world, is the beginning of a journey, not a litmus test of belief. Trusting that claim sends us out into the world. Every time a loved one dies we have a choice to renew the claim that Jesus' death is the first fruits of resurrection, and that in death our lives are changed, not ended. Resurrection is a way of life.

This Easter Season, I've been reflecting on a thread that begins at the empty tomb as the fourth gospel writer remembers it, and then continues on the road to Emmaus as Luke tells that story.

First, from the twentieth chapter of John's Gospel: there is this exchange between Mary and the man she mistakenly believes to be the gardener, but who is in truth the resurrected Christ. Perhaps Mary does not recognize him because she is till in shock, and grieving. Whatever the reason, she is blind to who is right before her very eyes, at least until he speaks, calling her by name. Only then are her eyes opened.

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Hint: It’s not about making coffee.

Churches could learn a few things from Starbucks…

Starbucks is one of those places that, even if you don’t go there, you know it’s the place to go.
It’s the number one coffee shop in the United States, maybe even in the world. It’s almost like Starbucks was selling something addictive…

They are, of course. Starbucks sells coffee, which contains the drug caffeine. But as far as we know, Starbucks coffee contains no more of the drug than the coffee sold at it’s two biggest coffee competitors, McDonalds or Dunkin’ Donuts. Starbucks doesn’t even sell better coffee, regularly coming in #3 behind McD and DD in blind taste tests.

It’s not about advertising, either. Starbucks hardly does any, compared to its competitors. You won’t find the Starbucks mermaid popping up on your TV next to the words “I’m lovin’ it.” Nor will you find a single billboard proclaiming, “America runs on Starbucks.”

So if it’s not about better coffee, stronger caffeine, or better advertising, what is it? Why are so many people addicted to Starbucks? If you ask the Starbucks CEO, he’ll tell you. It’s not about making better coffee but about the Starbuck’s experience. Starbucks knows how to create an experience and provide a sense of community that fill a deep-down need.

So let’s ask the real question, “Why are so many people addicted to the Starbuck’s experience?”

Here are ten reasons:1

Reason #1: Starbucks’ mission (the “why”) is greater than their product (the “what”). Starbucks’ mission is “to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” Inspiring and nurturing human spirit is so much greater of a mission than selling people coffee in neighborhood stores. It is transcendent and transformational. It aspires to make a difference in the world. People want to be part of something greater than themselves.

Lessons & Questions for Churches. For a church to be vital and effective, its vision and mission also must be greater than its product. What is your church’s product (what it does every Sunday)? How is that different from your church’s vision (what it aspires to be) and mission (why it exists)? In what ways are the latter greater from the former?

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Neither rain nor sleet, neither blizzards nor other weather foes will keep a good church down.

With a hat tip to the postal service, church leaders across the Northeast (and now Midwest) are finding ways to gather, despite mountains of snow and bone-chilling temperatures.

At a church in New Haven, Connecticut, the congregation was invited to worship via Facebook.

The priest, Alex Dyer, told Episcopal News Service: “A large part of incarnational ministry is meeting people where they are, and in a New England blizzard that means they are at home. Asking people to put themselves at risk just so they can meet in the ‘correct’ building just doesn’t seem to make sense… Right now, these services are the exception and not the norm,” Dyer said.

“They could never truly replace the real experience of communal live worship, just like webcasts from other churches are not quite the same. Many people will look at the flaws, but I challenge people to let down their guards and look at how it could be useful. Social media is a tool and there are some instances where this tool is very effective.” 

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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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The bride stood just a few feet away from where she sits on Sunday mornings.   

Two years ago, she cold-called the church, looking for a place to get married. The priest encouraged her to come on Sunday morning. Check out the church. See if it’s a place that you’d like to worship.   

She came to church the next Sunday and met a few folks. The music director happened to make an announcement, inviting people to join the choir. The young woman decided to try it, and she attended rehearsal the next week. Over the next two years, she found her place in the congregation, making friends in the choir. When she announced the wedding date, they took up a collection for a present.   

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This year for Pentecost, God gave me a basketball team.

I don’t usually ask for much for Pentecost. On Christmas and Easter, I will go so far as to ask for a little extra in the way of attendance, a little special spark in the music and the decorations, a small inspiration for my sermon.

Pentecost, I usually take as it comes; but I’ll confess to feeling kind of down this year. I needed a sign of hope.

Attendance in our aging congregation has been sagging a bit, and the relationships we are building with our neighbors have not translated into the big Sunday boost everyone has been waiting for these last thirty years. The altar guild didn’t quite muster the energy to put up the heavy red frontal, so we just had the red pulpit hanging and some red flowers. It seemed a little sad that the birthday of both the big Church and my little congregation was probably going to be one more quiet Sunday, short on rushing wind and tongues of flame.

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Thinking about hospitality and evangelism.

At some point, you found your way and were welcomed into your congregation. It is easy to forget, though, what the experience is like to look for a church or be a visitor at a church service. As we make our Lenten journey toward Easter, we invite you to think about evangelism and hospitality, to make visiting your church easier and welcoming to new people or those who haven’t been there for a while.

Do you find these monthly digests helpful? If so, please subscribe to ECF Vital Practices and invite your church colleagues and friends to do so as well. You will receive our midmonth digest in your inbox along with our monthly Vestry Papers publication. Also connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation and think about sharing your great resources on Your Turn.

Find a Church
Evangelism also begins with how people can find you. How are people in your community, or visitors from out of town, going to find out about your church? Is your congregation taking full advantage of the free website listings available to it? Nancy Davidge's “Find a Church” shares how congregations can research, plan, and keep these free online directories updated and fresh.

Hospitality Matters: Seeing Our Buildings Anew
What people see – or don’t see – when entering your church can make a lasting impression. In "Hospitality Matters: Seeing Our Buildings Anew," Eliza Linley shares some great ideas, small and large, for sprucing up your church. When reading through the article, take note of some smaller projects for Easter and think about some other ideas to work on later this year. 

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