Excellence. It’s not an arbitrary thing. Many people use this word like Bill and Ted did [in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,"] much like some people today, especially youth, use the word ‘epic.’ Maybe the bar has been lowered, therefore ‘really good’ is equated with ‘excellent.’ Perhaps I’m getting caught up in semantics, but here’s what I’ve learned:
You can have a ‘good’ ministry by accident.
You can have a ‘really good’ ministry by accident.
But excellence is NEVER an accident.
Excellent ministries are only achieved with the following 3 things:
1. Intention – You gotta want it. You gotta strive for it. Those who assume their ministries are already awesome are kind of missing the point. There is always room for growth and improvement. So unless there has been a conscious decision to say, “this is who we are and where we are,” then the question of where we want to go is sort of irrelevant.
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I was in utter disbelief when I heard Christmas anthems being played on my friend's computer. He had been planning for Christmas Eve services as far back as August, while at that time my mind was focused on a busy September lineup of fall programs.
Granted, as a parish musician for a large congregation, he needed to be thinking that far ahead and putting those pieces together. This is often the case for larger and well-staffed parishes, but ready or not, Advent is upon us. As we have been asking here at ECF VP: Are you ready already?
Calendaring is a best practice and system that must be in place in every congregation, diocese, or organization. What can be tricky in congregations is finding the balance that makes calendaring a practical, well-functioning, and useful tool. Planning things further in advance provides stability: you can count on it, know what to expect, and have plenty of time to prepare. Keeping things open until the short term allows for greater flexibility and to adjust as needed for how things are shaping up. Large, small, or somewhere in between, there needs to norms established for how the calendar is maintained. There also must be at least one person, be it a staff member or leader, in a congregation who is keeping an eye on both the long term and short term.
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Here is a story about how a seasonal theme can emerge.
As we were putting together the church school program for the coming fall, we retained the services of a mosaic artist to help our young people create a mural for the church. We held a meeting with the artist and several members of our children’s ministry team and brainstormed what images might be encouraged for such a piece of art. Since we were planning for the autumn season, images of harvest came to mind. Our junior high teachers had said they were planning to address hunger in their class, and at the meeting we envisioned one response to hunger could be that there is enough for everyone. That led us into a far-ranging discussion of how abundant the creation is and how we as humans don’t order our lives in such a way that everyone benefits from this bounty.
What happened next was this sheer flood of images of God’s abundance and someone said, “Not just abundance, but Bountiful Abundance!” That led me to pick up my iPhone and Google “bountiful abundance” and the number one entry described the Korean holiday of Chu Suk (추석), a harvest festival full of joy and the remembrance of ancestors. This galvanized our vision, merging harvest themes with the remembrance of heroes of our lives that our All Saints celebration always engenders.
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Every field has its own language, words and phrases that have clear significance to insiders, but which are as clear as mud for everyone else. Richelle Thompson, who also writes for ECF Vital Practices, has frequently said that the Episcopal Church needs to watch its language, that our particular vocabulary (think “narthex” and “thurifer”) has a way of shutting everyone else out. We presume that visitors will know or want to know the intricacies of our denominational tongue, when all evidence points to the contrary.
For me, right now, the language that I am trying to wrap my mind around is that of organizational development. I frequently notice and am part of meetings where words like mission, goals, impact, and vision are used interchangeably. The presumption, I suppose, is that we’ve all got this vocabulary down, that the distinction between something being ‘holistic’ versus ‘synergistic’ is self-evident. It’s not. Or not for me, anyway. The end result is that our conversations can become ungrounded, they start to feel blurry and watered-down.
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Do you remember the TV show Bewitched?
Samantha, a witch played by Elizabeth Montgomery was married to a mere mortal Darrin Stephens, played by Dick York and later Dick Sergeant. Remember the way Samantha would twinkle her nose and all would be well to every embarrassing or uncomfortable situation. Samantha converted magical thinking to produce her desired states through her magical powers.
Samantha was not a dreamer or visionary. Dreamers and visionaries are active in their communities. Samantha was a magical thinker with her passive hopes magically delivered with no effort but the twinkle of her nose.
Vital congregations flourish with the contributions of dreamers and visionaries! At the same time magical thinking propels congregations into irreversible decline.
What were the characteristics of Samantha’s magical thinking?
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Is our fast paced, change driven culture compatible with congregational spiritual tranquility?
As Episcopalians we pray each week "Sanctify us also...that we may serve you in unity, constancy, and peace." - Holy Eucharist II
We pray for what it is we desire and what we most need.
How do congregations make urgent vitality and viability decisions at the most spiritually ripe time? Simply, congregations must experience spiritual tranquility and constancy.
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At one of our Mardi Gras celebrations, a cook set up his fancy digital camera and it shot one frame every five minutes to create a time lapse video of the event, from start up to clean up.
With the program year approaching, I am thinking I might do the same thing to capture a week in the life of St. Andrew’s.
It would take multiple cameras because so many different spaces would be involved. The one in the sanctuary might actually capture the least amount of action. Sunday would be a blur with the altar guild arriving at 7:00 am, followed by the 8:00 o’clock parishioners, then the choir streaming in for practice then segueing into “big church.” A forum might get set up and shut down then a brief period of stillness until the evening worship team came to set up for the 6:00 pm Taize service.
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I’m packing our bags.
This weekend, half of the church is heading to the diocesan conference center for retreat. Since this is our first time, we have had lots of recommendations for packing: Sturdy shoes for hiking, bathing suits for swimming, coolers for refreshments (adult and non-adult options).
There’s no set agenda for the weekend. Some might spend the time exploring the mountains deep in Kentucky. Spelunking might be in order too, with curious souls checking out the caves – and bats. Others might find a shady spot and a hammock, perfect for reading a book or sky watching. Each morning and evening, we’ll gather for prayer, and each afternoon, we’ll enjoy another Episcopal tradition of happy hour.
More than 100 people have signed up to spend a weekend in cabins mostly air conditioned by nature, to wear flip slops while showering, and to sleep on inch-thick mattresses on a top or bottom bunk. For our congregation, the 110 people represent about half of Sunday morning attendance.
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How do congregations decide the spiritually ripe time to make their most difficult decisions?
Many Episcopal congregations are facing urgent decisions on the ways they can grow their parish, increase their pledges, and bring in more young families. Some Episcopal congregations have the added concern of asking if they should try one more growth initiative or decide if it is time to close their church building due to a steady decline in attendance and extensive operating costs. These are hard decisions that leave many Episcopalians with a mixed sense of dread and urgency.
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[Post #2 of 5 - "Do You Recognize the Signs of Your Congregation's Spiritual Crisis?"]
Spiritual desolation occurs when we cease to experience and or question the reality of God's love for us. Augustine's words bring us back to our spiritual center, "our hearts are restless, until they rest in you."
Congregations in desolation are restless and experience extended periods of disquiet, anxiety and fear. They struggle with all their energies to merely keep their churches open, maintain some communal fellowship, and administer the sacraments. These congregations may experience communal fragmentation, mutual distrust, anger, severe judgment of others, and manipulation of truth for their short-term gratification. Congregations such as these are not available for alternative ministerial paths nor are they open to hear the call to new missions.
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Spiritual Health of Congregations: Anxious Decisions or Passionate Urgency: Part 1
In the next five blog posts I will introduce congregations to the principles of the spiritual life, discernment, and making Spirit centered decisions. There are many kinds of spiritual practices. Ignatian spiritual practice is unique due to its principles of discernment that are central to an Ignatian spirituality. In this first post I introduce the necessity and value of spiritual discernment. In the next three posts I will introduce the three spiritual states: spiritual consolation, spiritual desolation, and tranquility. In the final post I will introduce spiritual freedom and the manner in which congregations need to shed "inordinate attachments" to be spiritually available to make urgent decisions.
"Urgency" is the lens I will use to help congregations make the necessary judgments of when urgency is a symptom of anxiety and when urgency is a grace, a gift of spiritual maturity and the result of being in a deep and intimate relationship with Christ. These five posts offer the reader the characteristics of spiritual desolation, spiritual consolation, and spiritual tranquility coupled with reflection questions to help congregational leaders determine the spiritual state their congregation is at this time.
Post #1: "The Value of Spiritual Discernment"
Spiritual discernment is a collection of practices that lead people and congregations through a group decision-making process grounded in the wisdom and blessing of the Holy Spirit. The group nature of this decision-making process does not necessarily lead to consensus but rather to dominant patterns of the way the Spirit manifests God's self to each community and congregation. Spiritual discernment takes intentionality sometimes manifested in length of time and sometimes in depth of listening. Discernment flows out of prayer and reflection on the scriptures and the way these texts intersect with our life experiences. Through discernment we learn to sharpen our listening skills. We learn how to know if we are moving closer to God or away from God in the choices that we make. We learn to differentiate our desires and voice from the desires of God and the Spirit's still voice.
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Part 3 of 4: Exercising Leadership with Viability Threatened Congregations. Read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
In my chaplaincy at a level 1trauma center I learned new meaning is often found when people experience extreme losses that fundamentally change their lives. Times of traumatic loss can become a paradoxical space of resurrection where loss and mini deaths often lead to new life. I recall movies about people whose traumas have revealed to them new meaning and transformation. Two such movies come to mind:
The Dolphin's Tale (2011) - Winter, the dolphin whose tail was injured found hope through a prosthesis and a young man injured in the service of his country finds renewed hope in Winter's story.
The Shipping News (2001) – The main character has a childhood experience of "drowning," an uncaring father that affects his life, and is able to find new life in new place, is able to see how the past gets dragged into everything, and finally how to break free of that past. See
http://www.textweek.com/movies/themeindex.htm.
In a similar manner viability threatened congregations, i.e. "churches at risk" or "churches in decline" have the potential to teach the rest of The Episcopal Church about grief over loss and discovery of radical new meaning. As the Episcopal Church begins the process of rethinking its governance and structure, we will need to hear congregational examples of rebirth to lead the way to discover new life. Like people who have undergone sudden trauma, viability threatened congregations who successfully rediscover their viability and vitality did not just encounter and rely on iterative change processes but rather were open to and accepted radical redefinition of their fundamental identity and purpose.
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Part 3 of 4: Exercising Leadership with Viability Threatened Congregations. Read Part 1 and Part 2.
This four-part series has been intentionally named "Exercising Leadership with Viability Threatened Congregations". "With" not "for" or "over" is a critical distinction particularly for the role of the bishop. The bishop as chief pastor exercises a crucial pastoral role with a congregation whose long-term life could be threatened by its viability challenges.
In The Episcopal Church some bishops struggle to find an in-between leadership space that avoids their being either authoritarian or passive. The bishop's exercise of leadership with a congregation is a part of their episcopal role as pastor to the diocese with the responsibility of "building up the church." In many but not all viability threatened congregations, the bishop and standing committee provide support through financial assistance. Too often financial assistance comes without an agreed upon process of accountability with timed benchmarks that the congregation is required to meet. In such instances, the result is that the bishop's and the standing committee's passive response drains the assets of the diocese for congregations that on their own cannot transform from non-viability to viability. Instead of building up the church, passive, non-accountable actions such as these hasten the demise of a congregation and the length of its suffering.
As stated in part 1 of this four-part series, the viability threatened congregation often does not have the capacity to name their needs or the infrastructure to plan a course of transformative action. In addition, the congregation's system does not allow for healthy decision making, particularly, the ability to name its prospects. Without pastoral intervention a viability threatened congregation will most often close, after a long period of decline.
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Part 2 of 4: Exercising Leadership with Viability Threatened Congregations - The Congregation's Leadership Responsibility. Read Part 1 here.
Several months after an Episcopal parish church closed I gathered its former members to engage them in a reflection process on the closing of their church and their individual processes of re-incorporation to one of three local Episcopal parishes. In a group process I asked three reflection questions of each person present. One of the three questions was "when did you know that your parish church was at risk of closing?" Several people said they had a sense over fifteen years ago! Others said they knew five to ten years ago. None present however were surprised!
While none were surprised, it is also true they admitted that none knew what to do. They agreed that they did not know how to connect their concerns with the inevitability of their parish church closing. They did not know how to name their viability challenges. Also, they did not want to believe that their beloved church was at risk of closing, so they continued to enjoy their life as a community. They hoped that their communal joy would eventually be contagious and bring more people to their parish, growing them into viability. Their hopes were not realized.
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What is unique to congregational vitality and how is it different from congregational viability in the ways that intersect with mission?
Congregational vitality has risen to its appropriate place of prominence in The Episcopal Church through the prophetic work of Stephanie Spellers with her book, Radical Welcome, Tom Brackett's emphasis on church planting and many other creative Episcopalians. The Episcopal Church has the gift of Bob Honeychurch, a wonderful missioner for congregational vitality. Many dioceses also have congregational vitality officers or congregational vitality is one area of responsibility for a member of the bishop's diocesan staff.
There is an abundance of lists of vitality characteristics that assist congregations in making their own self-assessment that might lead to new commitments or mission initiatives. Among these lists I particularly recommend to readers, the list included in Born of Water, Born of Spirit: Supporting The Ministry of the Baptized in Small Congregations by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook and Fredrica Harris Thompsett.
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The best beer in the world is made by Trappist monks in Belgium. Or this is what I was told by 99% Invisible, a podcast I listen to occasionally. The beer is called Westvletern 12, and in order to purchase it you must call one of the monks and make a reservation. If you are able to get through (the line is often busy), you must drive to the monastery in Flanders, Belgium, and pick your case. One per person. Except for a growing black market, there is no other way to get the beer.
Lots of people want to buy the beer, but they monks aren’t really interested in making more. The podcast concludes that, “The ‘customer service’ is not designed to provide convenience for the consumer of their beer, it is designed for monks themselves. Their ‘customer’ is God, so to speak.” The monks make beer so that they can afford to be monks. They are monks first, brewers second.
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My assignment at this [77th General] convention has been to track the movement to re-organize the entire structure of the Episcopal Church. A strong consensus has emerged that it is time to re-boot the way we are set-up – General Convention, Office of the Presiding Bishop, Church Center staff, Provinces, Commissions and Committees – calling into question the whole shebang.
This morning the Legislative Committee on Structure moved forward on how we are going to get this done.
They considered resolutions that would have called for a constitutional convention, a special convention, a change to a unicameral house, and ones that would have assured whatever group gets to decide would have a large percentage of young adults involved.
What they have come up with is a plan for special commission accountable only to the next General Convention that is to propose the full re-organization by November of 2014. To come up with their plan, they will be required to engage dioceses, provinces, individual congregations and “other interested individuals and organizations not often heard from.”
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Our churches "should be the heartbeat of mission and service, not the heartache of history and loss."
Today Congregational Seasons celebrates The Episcopal Church Building Fund (ECBF) for its passion, vision, and pastoral care of congregations that seek to be both vital and viable!
ECBF, you are the quintessential mustard seed story in The Episcopal Church. You have inspired more congregational work through the efforts of two people than organizations with many more staff and team members.
In ECBF's own words:
"The ECBF has developed a process to help congregations identify their place in the community — to understand their relevance; to build mission and value in the world around them, and to use their real-estate assets to develop financial self-sustainability.
Our church buildings are more than bricks and mortar, they should be the heartbeat of mission and service, not the heartache of history and loss. As congregations find a role in their community, they can also find creative and innovative ways to sustain themselves financially. Most congregations believe their buildings are used regularly, but self-assessments of space repeatedly show that is rarely the case. From parish halls to naves, useable space sits empty, seldom used to its fullest potential."
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While the ‘where and how’ of communications has changed dramatically since Vestry Papers’ 2008 issue Parish Communications, the ‘who, what, when, and why’ has not. During the summer, we’ll look at ways congregations are successfully merging the tried, true, and the new in communications.
Central to each of our July and August articles is a strong focus on the practical: how to incorporate an effective communications strategy into the congregation. This includes specifics related to the time commitment required and how staff and/or volunteer roles and responsibilities have been shaped to provide for this communications activity.
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Farmers understand branding.
There’s a long history of branding cattle as a way to distinguish one herd from another. The brand of a well-respected rancher is sought after and considered more valuable. From this agrarian perspective, branding is about creating a guide to choice.
The Vikings used the word “brandr” – which means “to burn.”
Taking these two meanings of branding can help inform our work today. Branding in a church setting isn’t about making more money or selling more widgets, but it is about helping people choose, helping to spark the fire so their hearts may be, as theologian John Wesley wrote, “strangely warmed.”
A brand is a collection of perceptions and impressions formed about an organization – in our case, the church. It is the personality of the organization expressed visually and verbally, aimed at creating meaningful connections between the brand (the church) and people.
As I shared earlier, our diocese is embarking on a branding project. Since this is new territory for me, I asked our consultant to share definitions of different brand terms. I promised to share them with you, so you can feel more informed than I did!
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