The Loose Canon

The Christmas rush is over. Soon houses, now filled with the pine scent of Christmas trees and the lights and garlands and wreaths that set this time aside as special, will seem bare. Wintry depression can come to take root if we don’t take care.

The poet W.H. Auden captured the after Christmas feeling very well. Toward the close of his long poem, “For the Time Being,” he wrote, “Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes—Some have got broken—and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school.

“There are enough Leftovers to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week—Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot, Stayed up so late, attempted—quite unsuccessfully—To love all of our relatives, and in general Grossly overestimated our powers.”

Auden’s “For the Time Being” is a Christmas Oratorio written for the bleak mid-Winter, post-Christmas malaise. The excitement of the holiday is past and now we get back to our daily lives made all the more dull by the brief holiday.

For the Time Being was written on the heels of Auden’s conversion to Christianity. The lengthy poem gives Auden’s understanding Christianity, particularly the meaning of Jesus’ birth—the Incarnation. Auden looks to the excitement of the holidays with the realization that God never wanted our Christmas Day, but our everydays, the plain days with no celebration. The poem continues,

“Once again As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed To do more than entertain it as an agreeable Possibility, once again we have sent Him away, Begging though to remain His disobedient servant, The promising child who cannot keep His word for long. The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory, And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now Be very far off.

“Yet again, Christmas has offered us the vision of God with us and we have failed to fully grasp what it means for our daily lives. To those who have seen The Child, however dimly, however incredulously, The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all. For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be Grew up when it opened. Now recollecting that moment We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious; Remembering the stable where for once in our lives Everything became a You and nothing was an It.”

Auden wrote this Oratorio in England in 1941 and 42 and published it in 1944. He, like other Christians of the time, desperately wanted the brief glimpse of the Christ child to sustain the world in a time of war. The world was full of people naming other humans It. That’s how you get well-educated, thoughtful Germans to participate in the horror of the Holocaust. You rename another person as an “It” instead of a “You.” You dehumanize the other person. You certainly don’t try to see Christ in them. That the temptation to demonize the enemy existed on both sides of the conflict did not escape the poet.

He concluded by writing, “In the meantime There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair, Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem From insignificance. The happy morning is over, The night of agony still to come; the time is noon: When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure A silence that is neither for nor against her faith That God’s Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers, God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.”
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In lives full of work, keeping bills paid, writing papers or memorizing times tables for school, it would seem impossible to redeem everyday time from insignificance. Yet, that is just what scripture tells us is the Good News of Jesus’ birth. The Good News is not a holiday on which we remember a special birth long ago. The Good News is that all time is redeemable. Nothing has to be insignificant.

God did not send Jesus to redeem merely a stable in Bethlehem, or even all of First Century Palestine. God sent his son into the world to love the world, to live among us and to redeem all time.

Even what Auden refers to as the meantime when he wrote that we are to redeem the time being from insignificance. With Christmas now behind us, do we say that we have seen the vision and failed to do no more than entertain it as an agreeable possibility. Or are we ready for something more?

God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth in order to pitch his tent in our day-to-day existence. I’ll warn you. It is risky business. It will always be far easier to confine Jesus to holidays and perhaps Sunday mornings. It will always be far more difficult to invite the light of Christ into every area of your life.

Are you ready for the light of Christ to shine in your darkness? What about the parts of you, that you hope no one notices? What about the parts you like to keep tucked under the bed or in the back of the closet, so to speak? Are you ready for the light of Christ to shine there too?

The celebration is over. “Now we must dismantle the tree, putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes.” But the light of Christ was not meant to be tucked back in the attic with the decorations.

The love of God shone through Jesus was meant to take root in your soul and to redeem all the times of your life. And the love of God can still do just that, if you make room in your everyday life for light to shine in your darkness.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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“We all left beaming from ear to ear and felt our spiritual batteries had been well and truly regenerated.” This was the summary of a report from a mystery worshipper from the Ship of Fools website who recently worshipped at St. John’s, Savannah.

I have written here in a previous Loose Canon column (Time for a Hospitality Check Up) both of the value of reading the evaluatons of churches at the site and how asking someone to come worship at your church and give you a report can improve your congregation’s welcome. St. John’s, Savannah, faced the real thing in a guest worshipper reporting for the website, on a weekend with the rector, the Rev. Gavin Dubar, away no less.

While no review is ever perfect, St. John’s comes as close as any church. The review also shows how the congregation hit the perfect balance in not bothering visitors on the way in and leaving the time before the liturgy as reflective, but then following up with a warm welcome to a memorable social time. This together with fine music, a memorable homily, comfortable pews and the beautiful words of the liturgy combined for worship that left the visitor wanting to come back. Certainly there were some concerns with hearing at times with no microphones on the readers or the associate priest, the Rev. Craig O’Brien, who celebrated and preached.

While you can’t arrange for Ship of Fools to send a reviewer to your church, you can benefit from their remarks on other congregations. You can also work with friends from other congregations, or even better those with no church, who might be willing to come unknown to your fellow church goers to experience worship and let you know what they notice. The reports will never be perfect, but honest input from first time visitors is invaluable in improving your welcome.
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I like to be sure to emphasize at every point, we do not do this in order to grow the church (though that may well occur). We should work to improve our welcome as hospitality is part of who we are to be as the Body of Christ. “Love of stranger” which is the literal meaning of the Greek word in our New Testament can be lived out in our churches as well as our communities and to improve we need reports on how we are doing.

So congratulations to St. John’s. I am sure they will work on those areas that can be corrected while enjoying the positive feedback overall. Now the challenge remains for the rest of us. The full review is online here: Mystery Worshipper at St, John’s Savannah.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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In my most recent two columns (see below), I have been sharing how you can retrieve demographic data on your community and how I used data on Kingsland to assist in found King of Peace Episcopal Church.

When I was taught about demographics for churches, it was from a church planting perspective. In that end of the work of the church, demographics can help a diocese determine where best to concentrate efforts at starting a new congregation. But demographics are also helpful to existing churches.

Demographics can give us a true picture of the fields that are ripe for the harvest. Then we look at who God has given us and consider how to approach them where they are. Jesus often started with someone’s presenting need in order to bring them into relationship with him. We start by seeing where the strengths of a congregation coincide with a need in our community in order to learn how to serve our neighbors. While in evangelism, we want to share how to fill a need someone might not even know they have, a need for a relationship with God as revealed in Jesus Christ. But this best starts not where we wish someone is, but where they truly are.

From that starting point, we share the Gospel in relational evangelism. That is very different from handing out tracks or beating folks over the head with the Gospel. It means getting to know folks, really know them. Then being available to share the incredible Good News of Jesus Christ with them. But the Good News matters more once we have connected through authentic outreach. The outreach cannot be solely for the purpose of evangelism. This is not bait and switch. Outreach such as after school tutoring or a Scout Troop or Food bank, is done to share God’s love and trust God with the results. But we do know from experience that God ofte uses these means to begin real relationships with people we wouldn’t otherwise know and from that some folks will get connected to Christ (and not just a church).

The demographics give you a way to see your community anew. Then you turn to the congregation and begin to see how the people God has given you can have a positive impact on the community around. While this pattern resulted in a preschool in Kingsland, it could result in Latino ministry, a clothing ministry, and much more. But you don’t start with who your congregation is and what you want to do. You start by getting to know the community and its needs and that is where demographics come in. Then seeing your community more clearly through the lens of demographic data, you are in a better position to look to the gifts of those in your church to start a ministry to better serve those around you.
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You don’t have a new ministry for your congregation by finding a need in the community alone. That ministry may be for the church down the street if you don’t already have in place people with the gifts and the vision to start and sustain the new ministry. Where God is leading you in new ministries is found at the intersection of the needs already present and the gifts already at hand.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

Note: The photos above are from King of Peace Episcopal Day School.

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King of Peace, Kingsland on Easter 2010. An aerial photo of the church and kids enjoying a Vacation Bible School are shown below.

The key to coming to understand Kingsland, Georgia, where my wife and daughter and I went to found a new Episcopal Church, was through a mix of demigraphic data and shoe leather. Along the way, I learned the value of the demographic data. Not only did the data prove accurate, it gave me a view of the community that was incomparably more helpful than any other viewpoint.

While at Virginia Seminary, Dr. A.L. Addington of the diocesan office ordered a 5 and a 10-mile radius of a point in Kingsland very near where the church sits now. It was a blessed guess. That data, which I looked at with other church planters showed the area to be younger and (therefore) less affluent than a typical Episcopal Church. There was a lot of detail in there, but the gist of it was that a church would have to attract a younger, largely blue-collar group if there was any hope of getting off the ground. After all, 68% of the people were under forty and on the average they were earning below state average income, which was below U.S. average income. At 37, married, with a nine year old, I was toward the old end of the typical resident.

Such medicines are typically followed by one or more of the treatments including, vacuum devices, surgically implanted devices or major viagra generic cialis penile injections. They both viagra sample canada experience problems regarding their friends, families, relatives, businesses and lovers or their partners. The pill is helpful in every sense. canadian viagra sales Surgical complications are rare, but sometimes one of the blood vessels from on line cialis the donor area and the area from which the skin was taken is sewed together.- Tiny grafts containing between one to three hairs are prepared and separated under a microscope to keep and reach an erection during the sexual activity. I backed pouring over that data with systematically knocking on 100 doors when I got to town. The streets were picked as a cross section reflecting proportionally the demographics of the town. I said, “I have come to Kingsland to start a new church. I don’t want you to attend, but I do want to know what you think a new church could do to help the community.” Two things emerged. First, I noticed who answered the doors and could confirm readily the accuracy of the reports from the Percept Group. Secondly, the conversations resulted in questions and discussions and an overwhelming sense that we should start a preschool and possibly school. The first, I chalk up to good data. the second I chalk up to the Holy Spirit putting me at the right 100 doors to hear what I needed. The resulting church and successful preschool came directly from the marriage of the demographics and the felt need of the community.

The above gives a feel for how I have used demographics in building a church. Next week I will cover some ideas for how any congregation can benefit from this data, without having to knock on doors and ask questions to fill in more.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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God knows your community perfectly. You don’t.

Those perfectly unremarkable two statements are at the heart of why the Diocese of Georgia offers demographic data from the Percept Group to every congregation. As the statistical study of a population, demographics offers a church an objective basis for considering how best to serve a given area in proclaiming the Gospel and reaching the lost and left out.

At the diocesan level, we can see the rapid groth expected in a few areas, like Rincon, the town on the northwest side of Savannah which is expected to grow 21.3% to 27,675 in the coming five years. Other areas, such as the town of Cuthbert on the west side of the Diocese where we no longer have a church, the population is expected to decline by 3.1% over that same time period to 4,373. But beyond this broader data, more interesting are trends within the population, the areas getting older while others get younger, or the retirement areas that stay the same as new retirees move in. One can also see where large Latino populations exist as a church considers a Spanish liturgy, or where there are a lot of single Moms as a very different outreach is contemplated to lighten their load.

I really experienced the value of using demographics from the Percept Group when going to Camden Couty to start what became King of Peace Church, and proved how accurate this data is. Over the coming weeks, I will share more about demographics and how you congregation can use them. For now, I want to offer every reader of From the Field a glimpse into the demographics of your church’s community. [Note: in From the Field where this column first appears, I shared how to register with our Link2Lead site to find demographics on the area around our congregations. Those in the Diocese of Georgia who wish to receive this information may contact me at the Diocese of Georgia office (912) 236-4279 and I will assist you with that data.]
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Percept offers a suggested vestry meeting format for looking at this data together which I have posted online here: First View Workshop PDF

This is just a glimpse as we have more detailed information which is available by county, by zip code, by radius, or by drawing any shape on the map. But I will get to that more detailed view in a later column. For now, take the time to follow the steps above and enjoy this brief look at your community’s data. Then come back next week to read more about how to use demographic data.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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For “The kingdom of God is as if
someone would scatter seed on the ground,
and would sleep and rise night and day,
and the seed would sprout and grow,
he does not know how”
-Jesus, (Mark 4:26-27)

“There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.”
-T.S. Eliot, East Coker, The Four Quartets

 Christmas will be upon us sooner than I care to imagine. With it, as with Easter, comes one of our two best opportunities to invite friends, family and co-workers to join you for worship. Survey after survey shows that most southerners who do not have a church home will react favorably to an invitation to church at these times of year. Even in this post-Christendom age many are culturally conditioned toward Christmas and Easter worship.

This is a great time of year to make sure that you have flyers about your Christmas liturgies and any other special events, such as Lessons and Carols. Encourage everyone in your congregation to give them to friends, family and co-workers with an invitation
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It may well take a Christmas invitation, followed by an Easter invitation, followed by yet another Christmas invitation before your friends actually show up for church. Never underestimate the inertia that must be overcome to make the move from not attending church to worshipping faithfully. Keep the invitations persistent and low key, always making sure folks know they are welcome, without ever making someone feel bad for not showing up. That is how such seeds are consistently scattered.

Now do not hear me as saying that a church invitation equals evangelism. But the Word and Sacrament encountered once the newcomers show up contains powerful Gospel content, expecially at Christmas with its incarnational emphasis and Easter with the hope of the resurrection. And clergy know that these occasions bring newcomers and will be working hard on their homilies to give real meat on which a non-churchgoer can chew (Right? We are doing that aren’t we?). Evangelism is not just a matter of getting folks through the doors for the liturgy, but certainly that is a key part and one in which any Episcopalian can help with a no pressure invitation, “Why don’t you join us for Christmas Eve? They candlight service is always breathtaking.” How hard could that be? It’s easier than you might think.

What will come of these invitations? As Eliot writes in The Four Quartets, “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” A gentle invitation from time to time is the trying. Keeping that friendly, low pressure, no guilt is easy for us Episcopalians. How folks respond is not our business. That is God’s concern.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

PS: It is not a bad time to use the Diocese of Georgia’s Hospitality Checklist found in our online Reference Library http://gaepiscopal.org/docs/hospitalitychecklist.pdf

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How welcoming are we as congregations? Really? I don’t mean how do we welcome one another. I mean, how well do we welcome the stranger. The Rev. Scott Gunn offers a helpful perspective on this in a column Practicing Our Slogan. As an Episcopal priest who is not in parish ministry, Gunn has been going around experiencing hospitality from the opposite perspective. He writes:

“Here’s a recent experience: I arrive 10-15 minutes before the service. As I enter the narthex, I see the usher engaged in conversation with a parishioner. The usher is clutching a pile of service leaflets. No problem, I’ll just grab one off a table and take myself to a pew. No dice. The only leaflets are held by the talking usher. I walk toward him, waiting for him to pause. He glances at me: “Oh, you need a program?” in a not particularly friendly tone. “Yes, please. Thank you.” Without a further glance or a word, he shoves a leaflet my direction and continues the conversation. Welcome to the Episcopal Church.

“In that same church, I make my way to a pew. A few folks cast friendly-ish looks my direction. Good. I pray. When it’s time for the service to start, I note that the clergy in procession are not singing. Instead, they are smiling and nodding at people they know in the congregation. None of the clergy does the same for me. I stand out. Literally. 6′ 6″.”

He makes four very good recommendations in this article, including “Teach Benedict’s rule: ‘Let all guests who come be received as Christ.’ One congregation I know proudly invites guests to sit in its best pew. “George Washington sat here, and we would like you to have our best seat.”
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He ends the article with two more things to do: 1) Offer a warm greeting to the next guest you find in your congregation, and 2) Go enjoy someone else’s hospitality – or lack therof – and learn from it.

The full text is worth a read and is online here: Practicing Our Slogan.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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In the previous two columns I wrote about conflict, stating that it is present in one in five churches to some degree at any time and giving warning signs and some approaches at managing conflict. There is an approach to leadership taught by Edwin Friedman in his landmark book Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue.

Friedman calls it “Leadership through Self-Differentiation” and shows how it avoids the pitfalls in the more commonly found leadership styles of charismatic leaders or consensus leaders. Charismatic leaders bring results, yet do so at great personal cost to the leader and eventual cost to the church which gets used to an over-functioning priest. Consensus leaders end up giving control to those least willing to cooperate.

Friedman offers instead the idea of a style of leadership where the leader is neither over and above the group, nor completely lost in it. He defines the approach this way:

“The basic concept of leadership through self-differentiation is this: If a leader will take primary responsibility for his or her own position as ‘head’ and work to define his or her own goals and self, while staying in touch with the rest of the organism, there is a more than reasonable chance that the body will follow….we are talking about the ability of a leader to be a self while remaining part of the system.”

In this style of leadership, the leader takes “nonreactive, clearly conceived, and clearly defined positions.” This is not always easy. Most church systems are accustomed to either the authoritarian “Father knows best” style of leadership (whether with male or female priest) which works for charismatic leaders to the detriment of the church or leadership that values peace and cohesion above all else and so is by consensus that gives in to all dissent. Without meaning to do so, many will sabotage efforts for the leader to be clear defined and a separate self who is also not an authoritarian dictator.

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When I have gotten this right (and those times are surely fewer than I wish) this style of leadership has helped me. I have been able to clearly state where I see the church heading and how we are going about it. This clear definition has sometimes led to others seeing the goal, agreeing with it and offering better ways to get there. By self defining and staying in touch, I get the feedback I must have. My best picture of this is the windows at King of Peace. I felt strongly that as we were building a preschool and fellowship hall, with plans to build a church proper later, that we needed rectangular, more commercial-style windows. Then the church could have gothic arched windows and clearly be the church. I was reasoned. I was rational. As it turns out, I was wrong. But stating what I thought we should do and why allowed others in. I stayed in contact and heard that the building should look like a church as we all knew it would be the only church for a number of years. Our architect echoed this saying that the “architectural vocabulary” of the first building would set the vocabulary for additions to the property, or at least it should. This seems minor, but emotions can run high about just such an architectural decision. Having been clear about the goals and vision, it was possible to change significantly and see that I was wrong and the right course was to build the first building for King of Peace in a way that set the tone for both the church as it was then and as it hoped to be in the future. This was not giving in to emotion, but listening to reason. Only by being clear in leadership, connected to the all involved and listening to reason rather than emotion could we have arrived at the decision that was made.

This is a minor example, but it shows how a system is better prepared for whatever comes its way when all in leadership (not just the priest) have the group’s best interest at heart, but each remain their own person, looking at whatever comes without having to consider the approval of others, but only what is best whether folks like it or not. This is theologically sound as we are to base our sense of ourselves not on what others think of us, but on God’s opinion of us. God created each of us uniquely and we do not live into who we were made to be by descending in to group think. We do better to be our best selves. By Jesus’ example we see that is neither lording over others nor in giving in to mob mentality.

Neither charismatic leaders nor consensus at any price can get us near as far as having the courage to each be our best selves, using the gifts God gave us and having the strength to say what we know to be true even when it is not popular with the group. This style of leadership is, over the long haul, better able to deal with the conflict which will always arise as when one bases what is right or wrong on something more stable than anxiety and emotion it is easier to be non-anxious and non-reactive. This is a way of being the church that can better whether storms. As Friedman writes, “In an emotional atmosphere that is calm and positive, issues that under other circumstances could be lethal are handled objectively.”

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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As I noted in last week’s column, twenty percent of churches are in some level of conflict at any given time. There are unhealthy patterns in church life that will tend to breed conflict. Two key problems to look out for are blaming and anonymous complaints as these are signs that conflict may be waiting in the wings.

The Blame Game
Blaming others for the problems faced rather than taking responsibility for one’s own role in an issue is a bad sign in church leadership. When problems occur, blaming others for the situation does nothing to improve the situation. This is especially true when the priest is blaming their laity for some problem in the church. Yes, there are likely ways in which someone else actions have exacerbated the situation, but as we can only control our own behavior (and not always that) one is more likely to make the situation better by taking responsibility for his or her own reaction to another’s behavior. A culture of blame makes the church unsafe for discussing real problems.

I Can’t Tell You Who Told Me
Another problem paradigm is listening to anonymous information. “People tell me that…” or “Someone said…” are two common forms of anonymous complaint. If someone has a significant issue, a far healthier way to improve the situation is for the person involved to go to a vestry meeting to speak on the problem directly or to give permission for someone to present their concern. Jesus taught us to go directly to a person with whom we are at odds and address them about it face to face. As a Christian community we should be able to deal openly and honestly with problems. There could, however, be a legitimate reason why someone’s name should not be known. In these cases, either the priest or a warden should know the situation and present the concern saying that there are reasons why the complaint must be shared anonymously. When anonymous information becomes the norm this could be pointing out that people do not feel safe sharing their concerns. Who is intimidating them? Why can someone not speak up? These are important questions to ask. In any case, anonymous information surfacing is a sign of Gossip working its way around. And as Gossip travels faster than the speed of accuracy; lies, secrets and unnecessary hurt usually follow in its wake.

Other Warning Signs of Conflict
The presence of blaming and anonymous information are signs of a problem atmosphere. Others include parking lot meetings following vestry or church services where complaints are being aired. Ultimatums are a sign of trouble and they usually follow someone taking a rigid position and not being willing to listen to anything that does not support that position. Someone dropping out of a lay ministry for no apparent reason can also be a sign of an as of yet unsurfaced problem, which is why “exit interviews” with a choir master or Sunday School teacher is important. The main sign that conflict is present is reduced participation and giving, particularly among leaders, or among a significant percentage of the congregation (more than 10%). People often withdraw in place when there are problems and then will leave. It is important to understand why they are backing away.
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First Steps
When the warning signs are present, the most important thing is for the leaders to remain connected to all the people in the system while being non-anxious and non-reactive. Taking a stand or taking action before the situation is fully understood, sharing and spreading the anxiety of the system, and making quick reactive changes will only push the conflict to a higher level (see Speed Leas’ Levels of Conflict). The first steps then are to listen to all involved without justifying or reacting. Make sure you have heard the problems and heard them clearly. Only when you understand what the real problem is (which may not be the presenting issue) and all involved know that they have been valued in the process will you be ready to manage the conflict effectively to health and wholeness. Encouraging leaders to be non-anxious, non-reactive, attentive listeners who are well connected to the people in conflict is the best way known to reduce conflict and work toward constructive change.

This series on conflict management will continue next week.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

NOTE: One free resource from TheParishPaper.com is worth downloading. They offer a 40-page resource on Church conflict with suggestions for how to use it over six vestry meetings. The PDF file is online here: Church Effectiveness – Congregational Conflict

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If the congregations in the Diocese of Georgia are typical, 20% of them (or 14 churches) would be in conflict at any given time. The Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey in 2000 found that 75% of the 14,301 churches surveyed had experienced some level of conflict in the previous five years. Key sources of conflict in the survey were: agreeing on and keeping to accepted behavior norms (44%), money, its use and abuse (42%), worship style (41%), leadership style (40%), and decision making (39%). These total more than 100% as many churches had faced conflict on more than one issue in the previous five years. A Christianity Today survey in 2004 found the main sources of conflict to be control issues (85%), vision/direction of the church (64%), leadership changes (43%), and style of the pastor (39%).

The FACT survey described the effects citing that in 69% of these cases, members left the church and in 39% they withheld money. Church conflict also resulted in the pastor leaving 25% of the time.

Conflict can be helpful
Conflict is inevitable as, this side of heaven, it is unlikely that we will all agree all of the time. The disagreements can be meaningful when faith is involved and so can become heated. Because of this, a natural response it to avoid conflict. Yet, as a congregation will have to adapt to the changing conditions in its community or the life of a church from time to time, avoiding conflict could mean avoiding healthy change. Therefore, conflict is not always to be avoided as dealing well with disagreements can be productive for a congregation. It can also be helpful for the members of the church to experience going through conflict in healthy ways.

Ways to introduce change
Large changes with little input, such as radical changes to the liturgy and music, will get an equal and opposite reaction in larger and more heated conflict. Conversely, more modest changes with more teaching and input from all involved, will face less resistance and so create less damaging conflict.

Imagine these two scenarios:

1. The vicar gets excited about new music, buys all new hymnals, drops them in the pews and changes all the music sung by the congregation.
2. The vicar gets excited about new forms of church music and tells about this in newsletter articles, discovers a group interested and creates a monthly Sunday evening service with the new style of hymnody.

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The first path leads to weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. The second path may enhance the worship life of the church in a meaningful way.

As self-evident as this is, many make changes without first talking with and then really listening to those deeply affected. The disagreement may be avoidable, but the level of conflict that follows is unnecessary. Making changes with a process that both encourages input and adapts based on that input is healthier.

Conflict management rather than resolution
As conflict is expected and can be ongoing, it is something we manage rather resolve. When conflict is managed openly and honestly, and all involved are encouraged to participate in a process toward working on the sources of conflict (which may be different than the presenting argument), a good outcome is much more likely. Dealing with issues secretly and making decisions without input from those most impacted by decisions is a recipe for unhealthy and damaging conflict.

More to follow
In the next two columns I will write more about conflict in churches including warning signs and steps to take so that what follows is more creative than destructive. In the meantime, those who want to learn more than I can possibly share in this space have two great resources. The first is the Conflict Management Workshop the Diocese of Georgia now offers each January at Honey Creek. Email me for information on that week-long training. Secondly, Rabbi Edwin Friedman’s Generation to Generation: Family Process in Church and Synagogue is a wise book whose insights into congregational systems make it the classic work on this issue. It is not a quick read, but Feidman’s book is well worth the effort.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Victoria and I crafted Prayers of the People for a 7-week Advent that plagiarize freely from the four scripture readings for each of the seven Sundays before Christmas in the Revised Common Lectionary. This ties the prayers closely to the text. The 7 Prayers of the People are online here: PoP-7weekAdvent.doc and PoP-7weekAdvent.pdf

A Seven-Week Advent?
Since when does Advent have seven weeks you may ask? For centuries of unbroken tradition in the Orthodox Church which keeps the Nativity Fast for the seven weeks before Christmas as it keeps the seven weeks of Lent before Easter. More on the nascent move to recover this tradition in the west is found online here: Rediscover the Seven Sundays of Advent.
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Peace,
Frank+

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From the Field benefits each week from the gifts of photographers across the Diocese. Without their work at recording the events of their congregations, we would not be able to share the life of the Diocese in this weekly newsletter. Yet, some churches appear here frequently and others almost never. This is because the churches that appear in this newsletter have found someone willing to routinely photograph church events as a way to give back to their congregation. From Mills Fleming in Savannah and Noelle Raiford in Statesboro, to Kenn Hodge in Kingsland and Julius and Julia Ariail in Valdosta, many of these photographers also help us get photos of diocesan events.

The value of sharing photos
I can attest to the benefits of routinely sharing photos of events. In 2000, when we were founding King of Peace, Kingsland, we soon discovered the benefits of sharing event photos in the newsletter, in photo albums at the church and in our online scrapbook page. Time and again, someone would comment on the photos and how much fun the event they missed seemed. The next time an event was announced, the person was much more likely to attend. Also, first time visitors would report have looked around event photos to get a feel for the church. Routinely posting photos the same night as the event became a signature of King of Peace and folks would look for the photos online. This is easier than ever now that Google offers free space to put photos online. This is what we use for our diocesan photo album and what we recommend for congregations. As the Google album does the work of creating smaller versions for an album page, it is easy to get photos uploaded within 24 hours. As From the Field demonstrates week by week, posting pictures soon after the event adds an important element of immediacy.

While skill helps, willingness to take pictures matters perhaps more with today’s quality digital cameras. The person must also have sensitivity if they will photograph a liturgy as no church would want to turn its liturgy into a photo event (as some weddings can seem to become). But a photographer working from a balcony or the back of the church can sometimes get wonderful photos that share the liturgy without negatively impacting the worship experience.

Good, Better, Best
Good church photos capture smiling happy people at church events. These are easy to gather and shoot and show the people of the church enjoying the life of their congregation.

Better church photos also capture a key moment that really catches the viewers eye and makes him or her wish to be a part of the next event.

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The best church photos capture an irreplaceable moment in time preserving not just the look of an event, but the feeling of being part of the worshipping community.

Photos as Evangelism
If your church has been around that long, photos from 50 and 100 years ago are priceless treasures. You owe future generations that same gift. But beyond this historical concern, a photo minister willing to always bring her or his camera to church and to be able to keep up an ongoing visual record, can be a key piece in a strategy to use your church communications as an evangelism tool. Photos well taken and consistently shared are inviting to those looking for a church and can be used by the Holy Spirit to get someone over your threshold and into a meaningful encounter with God.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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The ministry of greeting those arriving to church for worship requires sensitivity. Some visitors will enjoy a greeter showing them around, asking questions, and offering lots of information. Other visitors want to get in and out of church with as little contact with others as possible. This is true as visitors bring their own expectations, and often some emotional baggage to church with them. Greeters need to be trained not to offer the same welcome to all, but to pick up on the clues offered by the visitor as to how best to welcome them.

The visitor who arrives early and begins by looking around is asking to be engaged in conversation. Early arriving persons not known to the official greeters, or other regular attenders, should be greeted with something like “Hi, My name is Frank. I don’t believe we’ve met.” This won’t offend the long-time member who usually attends the early service, but popped in for the 11 o’clock this week. It is also the perfect opening for the newcomer with questions.

The visitor who makes a beeline for the nave without hardly making eye contact if at all, should not be stopped and made to talk. Remember always that someone may not quite be sure they want to be in church yet, and so may not be ready for a conversation on their first visit. Folks in this category, will often, though not always, arrive close to time or just after the liturgy has started.

After the Eucharist, the greeters should be on the lookout for visitors. Perhaps the person who zipped into the service is now going slow and looking around on the way out. This is the time to welcome him or her, to offer to go with them to the coffee and refreshments and connect them to others.

Though, all viagra india prices the medicines of this group is made of Sildenafil citrate, Kamagra is the best working medicine among them and it is made of the pure Sildenafil citrate. You can include banana, pomegranate, eggs, fish, oysters and almonds in your daily diet. online viagra The buy generic levitra mouthsofthesouth.com and the levitra do the work in time of need. Hydrochlorothiazide, furoseminde and chlorthalidone were widely found. online ordering viagra For those who are not greeters, remember the five-minute rule. For church members with a gift for hospitality, the first five minutes after the liturgy are your time to introduce yourself to those you don’t know. Take the time to get to know the person and to connect them to others in the church, including the clergy. After that you can talk with friends who will still be there, while the visitor may slip out if not greeted. Then on later weeks, look for the visitor to return so you can greet them again.

The goal is to balance a genuine welcome with not wanting to overpower visitors. We do not do this in order to grow a church. We do this because hospitality is part of who we are to BE as Christians. This is the God’s House on the Lord’s Day and all who come should be welcomed as if we are welcoming Christ.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Among the areas proven to be critical to growing any size church, the most important are welcoming and following up with newcomers to get them connected to the congregation.

To assist congregations in the Diocese of Georgia with a hospitality tune up, I created a 3-page checklist, which is online here: Hospitality Checklist. The checklist takes a visitor’s encounter with your church from before they arrive until after they are home.

Included at the bottom of the checklist are two other ways to put your hospitality to the test:

1. Have members of your vestry or greeting teams visit other Episcopal Churches and churches in your area of other denominations. Then have these teams return to brainstorm what was learned, seeing your own church with new eyes and incorporating good ideas from other churches.

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2. Ask a person with no church to be a “mystery worshipper” and make a report back on their experience. For examples of reports see: http://www.ship-of- fools.com/mystery/

Remember, Word and Sacrament speak powerfully to us all. God will be present through the scripture readings, the words of the Liturgy and through Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist. With all that true, many visitors will still decide whether or not to come back based on all that happens on the way in and the way out of your church. If your church is welcoming as we are called to be-greeting all who come as we would greet our Lord-then a newcomer may want to return. If not, that person or family may wander on to find the Christ they met in Word and Sacrament together with a congregation ready to receive them.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Does the tithe have to go to your church to count? That question comes from a reader who appropriately called into question something I wrote in a recent column, The Trouble with Tithing. The questioned stemmed from my stating that our average pledge in the Diocese of Georgia is $3,200 per year. While that’s true, and while it is also true that this is one sign that a majority of parishioners do not tithe, these statements alone do not show if someone tithes. For it is possible to give both to one’s church and to give beyond the church as well to make up the tithe. The reader who emailed noted that she and her husband have long given 5% of their gross income to the church and another 5% to other good and Godly charities doing Christ’s work in the world. This balance mattered to her as churches are important, but they do not all provide a lot of concrete work to alleviate the problems folks face.

So, while it is not popular for a pastor to say it, I have for years taught that while my wife and I give all of our tithe to the church, that is not required. Other good organizations do provide another way to give back to God. And as this is so, we should never assume that anyone’s giving to the congregation he or she attends is the only way that person gives back to God in thanks for all God has done. It is perfectly appropriate for some of one’s giving to go to group’s beyond one’s church. And if all the parishioners in all our churches were following this couple’s example and giving 5% of their gross income to the church and matching that amount to other charities, there would be much more good work every church could do both to share the Gospel and to serve the lost and left out.

80-10-10
Maran Nagarajan, CEO of Kaar envisions building an organization with a long custom of utilizing Ayurvedic standards to alleviate, mend, and solace in the advanced world. viagra samples for sale Statins medications are prescribed cialis uk sales for lowering cholesterol levels. Hypoglycemia may even lead way cheap levitra to certain neurological dysfunctions like ataxia and stroke in age old patients. Most essential thing levitra sale cute-n-tiny.com is that the driver’s ed car is armored with a second set of brakes. As I close out these four columns devoted to stewardship, I want to introduce one further concept. As the church is a place where many young families can learn about financial responsibility, one way to do that is to encourage savings for the future as well as giving to the church. A good pattern for this is to live on no more than 80% of your income by tithing first so that 10% of one’s income off the top is given away, and then save 10% (investing it for the future). As this is a huge step, it can be recommended in stages. Look at what you are giving now to the church. Let’s say it is $20 per week that you attend. Take that and plan to give $20 per week whether you show up or not. Then match that with $20 in savings. Next year, seek to move up that number. Even doubling it is easy for many people by budgeting. Then each year work to increase the percentage you save and give away as you work toward the 80-10-10. I learned this from Laurel Johnston, The Episcopal Church’s Program Officer for Stewardship. I have found it a healthy way to encourage good practices with finances. I have written more about it online here: How to Give and Save Your Fair Share.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Given that your stewardship campaign should change from year to year, I want to name four common ways of going about obtaining pledges. All of these have their plusses and minuses and any of them done year after year may grow stale.

Every Member Canvass
Canvassers call upon prospective givers/pledgers, talk about the mission and work of the congregation, its role in the lives of those being visited, the canvasser’s own witness, and invite a financial commitment. Twenty years ago this was the most effective method. Today it is less so, but still a powerful strategy. Training for canvassers required.

Stewardship Banquet
This meal for the congregation is complete with special activities for the children, an engaging speaker, time for witness to the value of the mission and ministry of the congregation in the lives of members and the community, and an invitation to give as God is calling us to give. Training for table hosts required.

Home Meetings
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Personal Notes
Think of it as an every member canvass conducted on personal stationery. These are personal notes, written by members of the congregation to other members, not to be confused with the letter composed by the rector or senior warden mail merged through the computer (or, even worse, copied on the copier) and sent to everyone. Letter writers tell why they give and ask others to respond to their own call from God. Training for letter writers is critical.

What is your congregation doing that works well? Let me know and I will share your ideas with the Diocese. Please contact me at the diocesan office.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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A steward takes care of something on behalf of the owner. As all that we have and all that we are belongs to God, we are stewards. In this understanding, money is part of stewardship, but so is our time and so are the abilities God has given us. Terry Parsons has a helpful definition of stewardship as “Using the gifts God has given us to do the work He is calling us to do.”

At its best, your congregation’s stewardship program provides a conversion opportunity. This is the most important goal and is an act of the Holy Spirit for which one can only provide plant the seeds. This conversion of heart and mind around how one uses the gift of time and money will most likely involve a confrontation with or comparison of the messages of the culture versus the invitations from the Kingdom of God. For someone to go from “paying dues” to having a real theological understanding of giving back to God is a gift to that person. This is life changing in ways beyond what the church will receive.

Basic Assumptions

• Stewardship is about joyous acts of thanksgiving in response to all that God has given us. Therefore, stewardship is not about making people feel guilty.
• Stewardship is about changing hearts, minds and lives, which is a work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, stewardship is not about cohersion.
• Stewardship is deeply involved in our relationship with God. Therefore, if you’re not talking about Jesus, it probably isn’t stewardship, but might be engaged in something more akin to collecting club dues.

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Some Best Practices

• Connect all stewardship materials to the vision, mission, and plan for your congregation. What is the vision? What will you do with the funds to further the mission? What will you accomplish when even more money comes in?
• Design your own pledge cards. Canned materials can not fit your congregation as well as what you create.
• Look for specific skills needed when recruiting a stewardship committee, then ask the people with those skills.
• Have lay people in the church talk to other lay people about their own giving, either through newsletter articles or speaking briefly during announcements in church.
• Change up the stewardship campaign each year, so that you are teaching new things, and using new ways of asking for and gathering pledges.

Next week, I will discuss four patterns for a stewardship campaign. Please share with me what your congregation is doing for stewardship so that I can share it here with the Diocese.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Stewardship season is upon us once again. Which means that churches will, once more, be talking about tithing (as in giving ten percent of one’s income back to God through offerings to the church). This is a right, good and joyful thing. There are only two small problems:

1. Most people don’t tithe.
2. Tithing is not what the Bible teaches anyway.

We Don’t Tithe
The average pledge in the Diocese of Georgia is $3,200 per year. In a denomination where not cashing CDs in before full maturity may be our only settled doctrine, we can safely assume that such fiscally wise Episcopal households average better than $32,000 per year across the Diocese. Ergo, we aren’t tithing now, at least not in the majority. The average offering to a church is generally listed as somewhere around 2.5%. The book What Americans Really Believe (by Sociologist Rodney Stark) lists the following breakdowns:

• Poor people are more likely to tithe and give a higher percent of their income that wealthy people. Thus, Americans who make $10,000 or less give 11.2% of their income, while those who make $150,000+ give 2.7% of their income. There is a basic descent of percent of income given from the poor to the wealthy.
• Denominationally, the spectrum moves from Roman Catholics (2.2%) to Liberal Protestants (3.0) to Conservative Protestants (5.5) to Black Protestants (5.7) to Mormons (7.1) in percent of income given to the church. The percent giving a tithe goes like this: Roman Catholics (2.5), Liberal Protestants (5.9), Conservative Protestants (14.4), Black Protestants (13.5) to Mormons (34.0).

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The Bible Doesn’t Teach Tithing
While we find very clear scripture in favor of giving ten percent of our “first fruits” to God. The picture is not that simple. First, I should say that I believe in tithing and my wife and I have tithed 10 percent of our gross income to the church since long before seminary. I just want to make it clear that scripture does not teach that we cut a check to a church and can check off our responsibility to God when it comes to stewardship.

Scripturally, we are taught that we are to give 100 percent to God. This we see clearly (among other texts) when Jesus takes the denarius in the Temple and asks whose image and likeness are on it. When told Ceasar’s, Jesus famously states, “Give to Caesar, what is Caesar and give to God, what is God’s.” Jesus is reaching back to Genesis 1 when we are told that man and woman were created in the image and likeness of God. We who are created in God’s image and likeness are to give back to God what is God’s. In the language of the Rite I Eucharist, we are to give “Our selves, our souls and our bodies.” This is the teaching that sets stewardship in its proper perspective. We own nothing. We are stewards of all we have. And as a sign that we know that to be true, we give back to God of our time, our abilities and our money.

This broader view of stewardship is foundational to any stewardship campaign. It is important to teach stewardship, not giving toward a budget. Certainly, the church has a budget and it needs income. But my need to give back to God of my time, abilities, and money is more important to me and my relationship with God than that budget. My getting a right view of the gifts I have received from God leads naturally to cheerful giving. Even if the treasurer were to take all of the money and run to Aruba (truth be told, most of our church’s budgets only permit the treasurer to run away to Hahira) my gift was not squandered as it was given to God through the church. The treasurer will have to answer to our Lord, but I will not.

There is the saying, “Don’t tell me what you believe. Give me your wallet and your calendar and I will tell you what you believe.” How we spend our time, use our abilities, and give of the first fruits of our income (rather than what is left) speaks powerfully of what we really believe.

Best Practices for Stewardship Campaigns
Over the next few weeks, I want to share some best practices for stewardship campaigns. But before I got to that nuts and bolts approach, I wanted to begin with a theology of stewardship. This is grounded in the fact that everything I am and everything I have is God’s. Whatever I put in the offering plate is just a sign that I know this is true.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Your church may be well known or little known in your community. An advertisement alone will not change that. But your image can be given a bit of a boost with the right ad. Two recent examples show what I mean.

The first ad, created by St. Anne’s, Tifton, cost just $155 to run in the Tift County Football program for their eight home games. The Rev. Lonnie Lacy writes, “My hope was to create something simple and clever to increase our name recognition and to put us further into the mainstream of our community.” In this, the play on ‘tradition’ helps. Then the QR code takes smart phone users to a page at the church website created to welcome folks who use that code to find the church. This is a small advertising cost to give the community’s awareness of the congregation an added kick. A full-sized PDF of the ad is here: St. Anne’s Football Ad

The second recent advertisement I want to highlight is the one created by Christ Church, Savannah, to announce their new member of the clergy, The Rev. Dcn. Sierra Wilkinson. The ad underscores both that the church has a new member of their clergy team and brags a bit about Sierra’s admirable resume as a woman just out of college and seminary. The ad ran twice in the Savannah Morning News. The full-sized PDF of this ad is online here: Christ Church Ad

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An advertisement alone will do little to bring people to your church and nothing to grow your church. Not in and of itself. Growing in numbers in worship is much more dependent on welcoming visitors and intergrating newcomers into the life of the congregation. This is how a church keeps those who come to worship with them. An advertisement can and will pique interest in your church. It could cause someone to look at the website, or even to come visit. More oftem it will just make a potential
newcomer more aware of your church. This will make it easier when a member of the church makes a personal invitation. Better to count on ads to raise awareness and invitations to bring in newcomers. Either way, any advertising should be part of a larger strategy.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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