The Loose Canon

If your church was to close its doors today, never to open them again, who would miss it? Certainly those who attend sporadically might miss the church as much as those who worship there, well, religously. But who else would miss your church? What would they miss?

This question cuts to the core of one way of considering church life. I came to this question while serving as a seminarian at St. Philip’s in Baden, Maryland (pictured here). The historically black church had an Average Sunday attendance of 44 when I arrived. During the coming year, I only recall one visitor ever walking through the doors and she was welcomed and quickly became a part of the life of the church. So, while newcomer retention was 100%, no one concerned with church growth alone would have seen St. Philip’s as a model congregation.

Yet, when considered by other metrics, the church ran circles around most every other congregation in the Diocese of Washington. The rural church had the clothes closet and food pantry for the community. They also had received a grant that supported a transportation ministry to pick people up at their homes and take them to the doctor or to get food or other essential trips (pictured at left). Beyond this they had created an 8-bed assisted living facility so the elderly could stay close to home when they could no longer care for themselves. The church might have been small on attendance and practically flat on growth in attendance numbers, but if the doors of the church closed, the community would have a sizeable hole to fill.

The active generic viagra tab ingredients of the three drugs are different as well. All these etiological factors are also responsible for http://secretworldchronicle.com/tag/amphitrite/ generic viagra buy affecting your heart. cialis prices Trading with impotence zenegra with discount has been proposed. As a kamagra dropshipper order levitra secretworldchronicle.com ,drug store items merchant gives you solutions at convincible expense. I tell this example of St. Philip’s as attendance alone did not give the complete picture, but neither do outreach ministries tell the whole story. Small congregations that nourish their members so that they can go out and serve Christ through being teachers, bankers, real estate agents and so on also make an impact on their communities. Beyond this, there are many things which might connect a church deeply to the community around its property.

Please hear me clearly, I am not saying that outreach ministries alone are the answer. What I do want to do though is to elevate this question which has been fruitful for me to ask, “If this church closed, who would miss it?” Considering the question, praying about it and living in to what the answer means has been eye opening for me on more than one occasion and so I offer it to you with the challenge it brings and with no presumption about how it should be answered.

-The Rev. Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary

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As The Episcopal Church seeks to reclaim its original name of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, what does that mean in today’s context? Sure all the cool kids in the late 18th to late 19th century wanted to band together to form missionary societies, but you ask, “Didn’t that come with the baggage of culture attached to the Gospel?” Right you are! Blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus was trotted around the globe without a thought toward context. But before we throw the Gospel baby out with the colonial bathwater, we would do well to ponder why happening guys and gals like David Livingstone (who helped wipe out slavery in East Africa, yet still looks sad in the picture of him posted here) and Lillian Trasher (who founded an orphanage in Egypt) would work with the help of missionary societies.

It turns out that Christianity is inherently a team sport, as community is hard wired into “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” God does not give any single person, no matter how talented, all of the answers and everything she or he needs to succeed. We need one another. Missionary societies are formed when we need mutual support to accomplish our missionary goals. The missionary then has the support of other Christians and many churches. God routinely gives people a vision so big that they need other people to help them accomplish it. Hence the need for missionary societies to support the work.

As a church planter who went to Kingsland, Georgia to work with my wife and daughter, and others we met along the way, in founding a new Episcopal Church, I know that we could never have even begun that work without the support of the other churches of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. They were our missionary society supporting the work of sharing the love of God as found in Jesus Christ with the people of Camden County.

We were 21st century missionaries working close to home. But looking to local inspiration we had the words of the Rt. Rev. Frederick F. Reese who shepherded our Diocese from 1907 to 1936. In his 1929 address to this convention he said,

“Christianity is either a missionary religion or it is nothing,
and every Christian is a missionary
or he denies the faith in his life, if not in his words.”

And if we wanted someone to put it even more starkly, in 1956, Bishop Albert Rhett Stuart told our Diocese,

“It is high time the Episcopal Church rose from her dignified posture
of waiting to be discovered and appreciated and went out into the byways and hedges
seeking the souls for whom her Lord died.”

Discard all your frustrations about your sex life, the best person for you to talk to the physician before soft tabs viagra having the pill. Some generics can wholesale viagra cheap surpass original ones, if a manufacturer uses a better technology. Very rarely, it can cause backache, indigestion and a stuffy nose. cialis generico mastercard Doctors would canadian viagra immediately prescribe some prescription that can aid manage these symptoms. These inspiring words come from the context in which I work. You can fund similar examples from the past on which you can build which are unique to your plot in the much larger vineyard. Once we look at the world through Gospel eyes, we see that there are plenty of folks lost and hurting all around us. We may have come to take the Gospel for granted. Our neighbors may be convinced the healing and wholeness they need can be found anywhere but in Jesus’ judgmental and hypocritical fan club. Yet, the world still needs the Gospel and while the 21st century may need new ways of sharing the old, old story, whatever shape our efforts at sharing the Good News of God’s love, we’ll still need mutual support. This is where a missionary society comes in to play.

The only difference in a 21st century missionary society is that we need to let go of recent inventions like buildings dedicated to Christian worship called churches, or seats in those buildings called pews, or instruments in those buildings called pipe organs, and anything else that gets in the way of sharing the Good News. Those are the baggage that we have packaged with the Gospel for so long that we can forget that Jesus never needed any of these later inventions to share the love of God and challenge his followers to greater faithfulness. We might also need to jettison structures within the denomination itself—CCABs, I am looking at you  (if you don’t know what they are, don’t worry as they are not Gospel, but they can serve it at times).

We just have to remember what the goal is and begin with the end in mind—sharing God’s love—then consider what tools best get us there today. For to be a 21st century missionary society is to find ways that fit our varying contexts which are most effective at carrying out Jesus’ Great Commission to go to all the world and make disciples. In many contexts, the church of the 21st century will closely resemble the church of the 16th to 19th centuries and earlier. But as old ideas become new and house churches or dinner party liturgies serve us well, a 21st century missionary society will need to learn not to judge them as failures using old metrics like counting butts filling pews on Sunday, but use really old metrics of considering whether these new methods are transforming lives the way Jesus did in first century Palestine. To do this faithfully over the long haul will take more than individual Christians going alone. To do this faithfully will take missionary societies.

-Frank Logue

Note: the Photos show Dr. David Livingstone and Basil’s Kitchen, a dinner party liturgy meeting at Christ Church Episcopal in Savannah.

This post is a participating post in the Acts8 BLOGFORCE on

“What does it mean to be a 21st century Missionary Society?”

Other BLOGFORCE member posts on this topic

The Acts8 Moment is a missionary society whose purpose is to proclaim resurrection in the Episcopal Church.

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 The Narrative Arc of Creation
A sermon for the Ordination of Michael Jackson Chaney, Jr.
Isaiah 6:1-8 and Ephesians 4:7,11-16 

Professor Chaney. Just one question. Didn’t you have enough to do already? At one level, I get it. Jesus has worked in the movies for a long time. From Pathé’s 1902 hand-colored Life and Passion of Jesus to Passolini’s gay, marxist interpretation in the Gospel According to Saint Matthew or from the agnostic Jesus Christ Superstar to the challenging Jesus of Montreal and the Last Temptation of Christ, the Gospels and film, any of us can understand, but Chaney, honestly, why priesthood? Is Chaney time—driven by breathlessly running to get to the next thing—not challenging enough for you? Do you really want to take the teetering jumble of sometimes conflicting demands of your life and add the sacramental role of priest to the mix?

My dear congregation, I have gotten ahead of myself. I have tried to jump to the end of the second act. What am I thinking? How can we possibly appreciate the rising action that has our hero dealing with one plot twist after another as obstacle after obstacle rises to prevent him from achieving his dramatic need? We have yet to dive into the first act? We haven’t had near enough exposition to set up the character arc. Let us begin again.

Michael Jackson Chaney, Jr. hit the jackpot in the lottery at birth by being born white, heterosexual and male in the Deep South. To complete the picture of social privilege, he was initiated into the Christian faith before he even knew what it was or what it could mean for him—baptized in the Episcopal church in a small Mississippi town. Michael grew up in the center of the known universe. His social location rested securely at the top of the heap.
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Like most all children, Michael saw readily the interconnectedness of all things. Through his eyes of innocence, he remained in “in constant amazement of nonstop encounters with new stimuli” as he connected, empathized and shared “in the wonder, love and tragedy” he encountered. The very first inklings of a calling as artist emerged as he drew on the back of church bulletins on Sunday mornings.

Once in Junior High, Michael attended youth retreats at the Episcopal camp and there he found “girls who were interested in creative and iconoclastic boys” like him. That was enough to galvanize his interest, but fortunately for our story, he also discovered what he would “later come to recognize as God’s grace” and “felt accepted for who [he] was becoming as a person and [he] felt encouraged to grow and foster his artistic talents as an expression of the spirit.”

This sermon continues here: The Narrative Arc of Creation

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The otherwise minor Jewish festival of lights known as Hanukkah finds itself once more out shown by another holiday. The not to be repeated for nearly 80,000 year calendar mash up of Thanksgiving and the first night of Hanukkah has given rise to the cultural phenomenon of Thanksgivukkah. Yet, in landing on the national holiday which has long offered a time of preparation for the shopping frenzy to follow, Hanukkah has found a more natural pairing than it appears on the surface. Thanksgiving and Hanukkah share a blood-soaked history and a hopeful ideal of God’s faithfulness.

The Jewish Festival of Lights
Hanukkah has always been misplaced in American culture. While the celebration’s proximity to the Christian celebration of Christmas has made Hanukkah a Jewish way to take part in the year-end holiday season, that connection was not as fruitful as this once in a lifetime event.

The story of Hanukkah comes from the time between that recorded in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. The story is found in the apocryphal text of the Maccabees. Hanukkah is the story of the rededication of the temple following a successful revolt against the Syrian-Greeks who had captured Jerusalem in 168 B.C.E. and dedicated the Jewish holiest place to the worship of the god Zeus. The Maccabees revolted and by force took back Israel. With the blood of successful revolution still fresh, they turned to God in prayer. With only a single day’s oil to light the candles for the eight days required for the Temple dedication, the priests lit the lights and trusted God. The lights remained miraculously lit until new oil was made.

The record of the Jewish teachers known as the Talmud says, “the Sages established these eight days of Hanukkah as permanent holidays with the recital of Hallel [psalms of praise] and Thanksgiving.” An emphasis on thanksgiving has always been part of Hanukkah. It is thanksgiving not for human triumph, for the Talmud celebrates the dedication of the Temple, not the revolutionaries military might. Instead, Hanukkah celebrates God’s ongoing faithfulness to respond with mercy to our prayers when we rededicate ourselves to God’s purposes.

The First Thanksgiving
This rededication following revolution is the perfect companion to Thanksgiving, which shares a similar history. President George Washington issued a proclamation naming November 26, 1789 as a national day for giving thanks and said the nation was to be devoted “to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.” This was the new nation’s first Thanksgiving. Washington had seen the dead scattered across the battlefields. He knew the high price of the newly found freedom and so called the nation to both repentance and thankfulness. That day was to “beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”

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The start of Thanksgiving as a national holiday also came through the blood of revolution. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for the national holiday inaugurating the holiday we still celebrate each November. That proclamation, written by Secretary of State William Seward and signed by Lincoln, called for prayers for forgiveness as well as thanks.

Seward cited the better-than-usual harvest of 1863 and the continued progress of mines and the expansion of cleared territory to the west all to be signs of God’s providence even in the midst of war. He asked that those gathered for the feast “do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation.”

The Mash Up of Thanksgivukkah
This once in a lifetime combination holds something unique. Thanksgiving began as our nation’s way to turn in thankfulness to God for faithfulness even in the midst of “national perverseness and disobedience.” The Talmud points to Hanukkah celebrating not military might, but God’s faithfulness to those who wish to dedicate themselves anew to worship, praise and thanksgiving.

The unique mash up of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving offer the opportunity to look beyond Pilgrims dining with Native Americans to see the ubiquity of the human struggle against oppression. We routinely find ourselves fighting one another for freedom. But both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah place the emphasis in the struggle for freedom over oppression not on human might or military power, but on God’s mercy and faithfulness. That is something for which all of us can join hands in gratefulness this Thanksgivukkah.

-Frank Logue

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“We need to attract families with young children.” This statement is the top vote getter in survey after survey of church members asked to identify what their congregation needs. This is, of course, true, and yet the statement hides as much as it reveals about what we actually need in our churches.

Roots to endure the flames
Last week, Victoria and I spent hours in the long leaf pine forests like those that long covered the coastal plain from southeast Virginia to east Texas. I couldn’t help but noticing the similarity to a healthy long leaf pine forest and the Body of Christ. The trees put down deep tap roots which allow them to survive fires which cleanse the forest floor of undergrowth. Lightning strike fires commonly burned large swaths of land before fire suppression efforts changed that. As Christians, we each need to form deep tap roots where we can find nourishment in worship, prayer and reading scripture so that we too can not only endure but thrive in the chances and changes of this life.

Growth that spans generations
Long leaf pine forests also have a mix of ages as young trees grow in gaps created when older trees die. Trees of all ages grow alongside one another. Looking at the healthy forest made up of trees of varying ages and sizes, I was struck by how our children need to be surrounded by the giants of the faith who are the older members of our churches. I was struck by how a healthy congregation wouldn’t be filled with young families, but would also have a mix of ages and experience.

I know that when congregations say they want to attract young families, it is because the over 60 set is already present. But I highlight this realization born of viewing a healthy forest as it reminds me how much we need and should value all ages. Certainly, the financial pressures on young families make it difficult for them to support the church to the degree older members can, but beyond this financial need for older members there are other ways we need one another.

Inter-generational Programs
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Trees Whose Shade We’ll Never Know
Our guides, John and Phyllis Hiers of Christ Church, Valdosta, also took us to see a stand of the slow growing pines that John planted 13 years ago. The teenagers are well over head height, but they remain quite immature. That stand of trees was planted for their grandchildren and great grandchildren. That same foresight is needed in the stewardship of our churches. Most of us worship in buildings provided for us by previous generations. All of us need to support our churches so that they will still be building up the body of Christ when our great grandchildren are the elders in the congregation.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

PS: Thanks to Judy & Nate and John & Phyllis for making our ramble possible.

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“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
-Robert Frost

Though church life winds down in some ways each summer, the dog days are a common time for a family to go church shopping, especially someone newly moved to your community. At the Spring Clergy Conference, our presenter, the Rev. George Martin, talked about changing our language about greeting to replace words like visitor and newcomer with “guest.” This was significant for George as he knows we are welcoming guests into God’s house. As such, we should put our best foot forward and be at our most welcoming, not to grow the church, but to be the Body of Christ.

As I consider this further, I can think of the many stories I have heard as priest of people returning to church, or even of going to a church for the first time. There is a strong gravitation pull away from the church for many and crossing your threshold is not as easy as it would seem. Add to that that if a visitor shows up with children in tow all dressed for church that this was no easy feat.

But in coming to your church, the guests may be strangers to you, but they are well known to our Lord, who makes his home in your church home. These are guests you are welcoming in their own home, even if they do not know it yet. The guests come with wounds and baggage and we do not have to know what all that is in order to welcome them as we would welcome Christ. But it can help to just be reminded that we don’t know what battles others are facing and we don’t know what deep solace they may find in a gracious welcome at our churches.
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This was brought home for me through a video on empathy created by the Cleveland Clinic. This short video offers a wonderful glimpse at what others might be facing. Imagine the context as a hallway in your church:

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Click here for the June 9th 2013 sermon for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Douglas, Georgia
A Demonstration Garden for the Kingdom of God.

Click here for the June 2nd 2013 sermon for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Douglas, Georgia
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Click here for the May 26th 2013 sermon for St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Douglas, Georgia 
Math, The Trinity and Communion.

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Now that the preponderance of adults on Facebook is chasing away teens, while Twitter doubles with that demographic, perhaps we’ll see a shift in the social media landscape. Those in my age range (I turned 50 last week and so might be as qualified to write about leaving Facebook as the demographic ages as my colleague Rudy is able to write about 80s New Wave Music) will hang on much longer as we now have the CB radio of the new millineum at our disposal and this time you can share photos of the grandkids and cute cat videos. I’ve also been talking with priests about how we are seeing people sharing their faith on Facebook in a form of evangelism as natural as recommending a book or a restaurant.

Here is how it works. You post a status update, a photo, or video from a church event on Facebook. Then members of the congregation begin to  select “like” or they make a comment or even better they select “share” and add the photo to their own timeline. In the process, friends near and far who never knew that this member of your church is an Episcopalian see what is going on in your congregation. (at left, St. George’s Savannah shares a photo of their youngest lay reader)

I know this works because I follow with interest the life of (among others) a Primitive Baptist congregation whose elder I know, two Presbyterian churches where I know the pastors, and First Baptist in Statesboro as a friend and former co-worker takes pictures for them. I enjoy the glimpse into another way of being a follower of Jesus here in south Georgia and because of the “likes” and comments I get on my own photos, I know that friends of mine who may never attend an Episcopal Church also enjoy this peak at what goes on in our churches.

Here are few key things to know:

Create a Page or Group for your Church
 There is a difference to how pages and groups function on the social media site and each can work well. Facebook pages are always visible to all on the internet, while groups offer privacy options. As a group is created, the administrator sets where approval is requited to join, whether it is invitation only or whether the group is publicly available to all who wish to join. With either pages or groups, new posts on the page or by the group will be added to the news feeds of members. Most churches will want a page, while groups within the church, such as the choir or Daughter’s of the King, may be better served by forming a group. (Above, St. Paul’s Albany shares the news of Deacon Jim Purks being honored for his service to Phoebe Putney Hospital)

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Facebook permits anyone with administrator privileges (a task that can and should be shared among a trusted few) can post statuses and photos as the group. Then the administrator can select whether to comment, like or share as the church or as an individual. In general, as no one person should be allowed to speak for the church (that is something the rectors, wardens and vestry can do), commenting as yourself when serving as an administrator keeps things personal.

Practical Concerns
Vestries should select who will be the gatekeepers, posting on behalf of the church. Vestries should also set workable policies, such as not listing whole names for children and not tagging people in photos, but letting them elect to do this if desired. (at left, a butterfly release at Christ Church, Valdosta)

But don’t let fear of what could go wrong keep you from giving your members an easy way to bear witness to the faith that is in them and to share their love of your church. For if your congregation does not have and regularly update a Facebook page, you are missing out on this low impact way to bear witness to how God is manifest in the midst of your church’s common life.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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During last week’s Clergy Conference our presenter, the Rev. George H. Martin, taught a session on “The Church as Grammar.” He was working from theologian George Lindbeck’s framework in the book, The Nature of Doctrine. Now so far all of this must seem rather esoteric, but there was an important truth of which I needed reminding and I appreciated George sharing it.

The basic idea is that like a language or a culture, our faith is a framework that gives form and substance to our thoughts and experiences and so shapes our lives. As Lindbeck puts it in writing of religious poetry, music, art and rituals, “It is through these that the basic patterns of religion are interiorized, exhibited and transmitted.”

Teaching the language of Jesus
If our presenter and this theologian are on to something important, and I my own experience in working with newcomers to church suggests that they are, then our work in welcoming people to church must include helping them learn the language of Jesus. In assisting people to understand more of how the signs and symbols of our tradition speak to deep truths, we can enrich their vocabulary and broaden their experience of worship.

Therefore, in welcoming those with little or no church background (or perhaps no liturgical church experience) to an Episcopal Church means that we provide ways for people to learn about the rich symbols which surround them.

As a church planter, I created a number of printed materials which I could share with people curious about our practices (see King of Peace’s Resources page). These included an Annotated Eucharist which surrounded the text of a Rite II Eucharist with Eucharistic Prayer A with additional notes to add to their understanding of the rite. I also created materials on infant baptism, the seasons Advent and Lent, and more. To this I added notes in the bulletin and newsletter which opened up some portion of the liturgy and gave additional background. I even used a newsletter posted in the bathrooms to help newcomers learn more about this new cultural and linguistic framework of the Church (a sample issue is online here: The Toilet Paper: Epiphany)

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Yet we all know that nothing beats the more holistic approach of immersion in a culture to learn the language. No book or pamphlet on Christianity will teach us much as a living, breathing, flawed, but loving community of people putting their faith into practice.

The sad fact is that so many people have trouble discovering the grace, love, repentance, forgiveness and redemption which are at the compassionate heart of the language of Jesus, because they hear these words spoken by people who don’t seem to be saying it “not only with our lips, but in our lives.” There can be grace in this disappointment as well. For in Christian community we don’t find perfect people, but folks like us struggling to live into the love God has shown in Jesus. When the Gospel is authentically lived out by a group of people who are also working to teach something of this language and culture to newcomers, something wonderful happens–new followers come to speak that language of God’s love in word and deed. We need not be perfect for this transformation to occur, but we must seek to be faithful and then remain honest and open when we fall short (and we will).

How should we respond?
How might your congregation need to respond to this idea that newcomers don’t always share the language and culture of our faith and so need assistance to better understand? What tools might you need to help them learn the language and culture not simply of The Episcopal Church, but of the Kingdom of God?

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Last week, I began with Part I of a two-part look at the implications of the Episcopal Church State of the Clergy Report 2012. I noted how the we have been ordaining more priests and deacons than many dioceses and how we have also ordained younger clergy. This week, I need to turn to how the State of the Clergy Report does show a challenge we face here. That full report is online here: State of the Clergy 2012

Priest Compensation
While we have made significant progress in recent years, many priests in the Diocese of Georgia still  make less money than those in similar parishes in other dioceses, including our neighboring dioceses of Upper South Carolina and Alabama.

The challenge simply put is this: the Episcopal Church does not place priests in congregations and as priests have choice, we have to work to attract priests that congregations want to call to ministry in this Diocese. Part of this is the diocesan culture and priests decide whether they want to be in a Diocese. Part of this is the location of the church and whether this is a fit for the clergy spouse and family. And a large part of this is that our compensation has to be competitive with other options the priests have in other dioceses.

We have lost priests over the years for not have compensation that could keep them and not gained others for not having salaries that could attract them. This is not to say that priests are not interested in following where God leads them, but that answering a call begins with a search process where the compensation is known and advertised and so priests are not likely to even consider churches which will mean a cut in pay.
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Comparing to the Community
To make sure that we are taking the local community into account, we also look for the salary and benefits of a teacher’s with a master’s degree and similar years of service and, depending on the complexity of the church administration, we look to assistant principle and principle salaries. These are people in the same community with similar benefits.

The Future of Calling Clergy
As The Episcopal Church is ordaining far fewer people than are retiring, we will continue to face a situation where we are seeking to call priests who have other options open to them. The picture is not bleak. We have been good at raising up great priests and we are improving the compensation of clergy in the Diocese. We need not be pessimistic, but I write this in order to be realistic about the challenges we face.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Thanks to the work of the Church Pension Fund, we have a clearer picture of the impact of retiring more priests than we are ordaining. As we shall see in this two-part look at the report and its implications, there are some ways we have been immune to this in Georgia and some ways in which it makes the work of calling priests here more difficult. The full report is online here: State of the Clergy Report 2012

Changes in Ordination Patterns
Among the key findings of the report, is that ordinations overall have fallen by twenty-six percent in the past six years. At this point, priest retirements in The Episcopal Church are outpacing ordinations by forty-three percent. Beyond this we see that the age distribution of clergy has changed drastically over time, with fewer clergy being ordained at younger ages and more clergy with older ages at ordination. Another key change is the significant drop in positions for existing clergy, whether assistant rector, curate or some other position.

The Good News in Georgia
 Having ordained seventeen priests and deacons in the three years covered by the report, Georgia is in the top ten ordaining dioceses and among the smaller dioceses in that group. Not only that, but while the average age of priests in The Episcopal Church has been climbing, we’ve watched that number drop here in our Diocese. The reason is simple-Diocese of Georgia Youth Programs. For decades, our youth programs have raised up leaders. Among the seventeen noted in the report, a handful include priests in their twenties whose first leadership role in the church came at Honey Creek. Added to that are the clergy who came through campus ministry at the University of Georgia and Georgia Southern and you see that vocations in the church are nourished through dynamic programs which give youth an opportunity to be leaders. While we have attracted priests, including young priests, from other dioceses, most of our growth has come throw raising up priests from our own congregations and our own diocesan programs. And, of course, our youth programs have also led to many of our youth living into their Christian faith at teachers, policemen, attorneys and more.

Furthermore, we have budgeted to support congregations in hiring an assistant priest and have seen this create at least two positive changes: 1) Newly graduated seminarians start out in healthy churches with good mentorship, and 2) Congregations that need a second priest, but couldn’t quite yet afford to make the hire gain an additional priest on the staff. This has helped sustain numeric growth in our fastest growing churches while providing an important training ground for newly ordained priests.
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Additionally, as we saw recently when King of Peace, Kingsland, called the Rev. Al Crumpton as Rector, they gained a priest with good experience and support provided by his time as an assistant at St. Mark’s, Brunswick. While not all clergy will move on to another post like this, we still see how providing positions for assisting priests creates a pool of proven priests for consideration in Vicar and Rector searches. We have done this while also raising up some older clergy, especially bi-vocational priests and so have been better at going against the tide than many other dioceses, especially those out of the southeast.

Defying Gravity
None of us defies gravity for long and there are ways in which the changes around the church are having a significant impact on clergy searches in the Diocese of Georgia. Next week, I will share that challenge in Part II of this look at the State of the Clergy Report.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Last week I asserted that, given the visual nature of our culture today and the ease of sharing photographs, I find an essential connection between church growth an sharing pictures church events in a timely manner. While not a determinative factor in itself, photgraphy is helpful in sharing the life of you congregation in a way that is engaging and inviting to others. Here are a five basic tips for photographers:

1) Know the key moments
and be ready for them
From laying on hands in the ordination liturgy and saying vows in a wedding to the priest going under water in a dunk tank at the Fall Festival, each event has some predictable moments when the photographer needs to be in position and ready. Communication between the priest about photographing liturgies (or the chair of any other event) and the photograher can make sure the photographer is in the right place at the right time. In the case of a liturgy, planning means taking into account beng positioned so as not to interfere with the sacredness of the worship.

2) Take establishing shots and details too
Most of the photos we receive for From the Field are in the middle range, with no wide shot to show the overall event and no detail to fill in the picture. Get a few pictures that take in the whole event from a few angles and then look for the details which will add depth and texture to the final photo album.

Note that in the photos above from our diocesan convention, Julius and Julia Ariail have an establishing shot of the overall church full for Evening Prayer and a close up of the processional cross with the choir and pipes of the pipe organ behind them that went with the other medium range pictures of the liturgy.

3) Mind the background
This one tip can not be emphasized enough. Always pay attention to the entire frame. While keeping the background simple helps most photos, this is not aays true with event pictures whe you want to share a sense of how it felt to be there. One common issue we see is a small group in the action, with a empty background at what is reported to be a large event. Seeing more people and action behind what you are photographing adds depth. This must be balanced with  paying attention to what is behind the subject of the photo so that a yawning acolyte doesn’t take away from an otherwise perfect picture.

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4) Take a mix of vertical and horizonal pictures
Many times, a great vertical image is trapped in the middle of a horizontal photo. While cropping in a photo program such as Photoshop can fix this, it is best to consider how to frame the photos as you take them. When in doubt, take the photo both as a horizontal picture and as a vertical one and decide whn you edit. While a horizontal photo could have shown the scene, the vertical picture of a grandfather and granddaughter at an Easter Egg Hunt pulls us in on their connection in a way that is inviting.

5) Edit thoughfully
An unedited album with hundreds of photos is almost as problematic as no pictures (but not quite). Cut out all but the best of a given picture unless it is a series. Look for a mix of overall, medium distance and close-up pictures. A tightly edited group of pictures where each photo is worth sharing will leave folks wanting to come back to see more then next time you post an album.

6) Post Promptly
I prefer not to go to sleep before the pictures are posted, but this will not surprise those who know me. For the less obsessive photographer, please get the photos online within 24 hours. We have all become accustomed to a 24-hour news cycle and interest wains quickly as time passes after the event.

Much more can be said, but these tips will get any photographer headed in the right direction. Using Facebook, a Google’s Picasa, or a Flickr album, your congregation can share photos quickly and at no cost. Why not share the joy of being a part of your church?

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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The fastest growing congregations in the Diocese of Georgia are also those with a system in place to post photos of their events online. I am aware that there is no direct cause and effect relationship between photography and church attendance and yet there is something more here than a mere coincidence.

My Professional Bias
First, I must admit my professional bias. I worked professionally as a newspaper photographer in my first years out of college first for the Warner Robins Daily Sun and then for the Rome News-Tribune and during that time served as an Associated Press photographer for those areas of the state (my photo of a firefighter entering a house fire is at left).

But I think my seeing this connection between photography and church growth comes more from serving as a church planter than from my work as a photojournalist. I found that posting photos the night of an event did more to build excitement than any other thing I did for the little time and energy needed to make that happen. Now with the ease of Facebook and Google’s Picasaweb albums, no special skill in website programming is needed.

Who’s Stalking Your Website
“I’ve been stalking your website for weeks.” This comment was made to the Rev. Joshua Varner, Vicar of St. Patrick’s, Pooler, by a first-time visitor on the Sunday after Easter. Whether they say it or not, nearly every single first time visitor will have looked for a website for your congregation before crossing the threshold of your church. Photos of events are the easiest way to help someone get a feel for what it will be like to worship with you. See what that visitor saw first by going to www.stpatrickspooler.org

Recently, the Rev. Rick Buechner preached at Christ Church Savannah (pictured at left). That liturgy was the first time he had ever been photographed preaching in his thirty years of ministry. In those three decades, we have become an increasingly visual culture. At the same time, technology advanced so that good quality photos can be taken without a flash. Make no mistake, worship is about worship and photography should never dominate any liturgy whether is be a wedding or a baptism. But as each week’s From the Field demonstrates, great photos can be taken without taking away from the sacredness of worship.
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Timeliness
The main thing is to get good, clear photos and to share them as soon as possible after the event. We see the statistics here with From the Field and interest drops significantly a week later. Many of you will go see the Holy Week Album on Tuesday in Easter Week, but when offered a week later, only those with pictures in the album follow the link. Timeliness is key.

Photo Evangelism
What I am advocating is sharing photographs of your church’s worship and events online in order to make it easier for someone to decide to visit your church. The Holy Spirit can use the photos when speaking to someone’s heart about attending church once more. This is no small thing and beyond the power of the photos in themselves, but they do help. Every photo or album that members of your congregation “like” and “share” will be seen by others in their Facebook timeline and so may reach the eyes of friends and neighbors looking to get connected to God through a church home. Don’t miss out on benefitting from this important tool.

But there are a few more things you can do to get more out of your photography. Next week, I will continue with some specific advice on getting betting photos of your congregational life without making any event be about taking pictures.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Last week, I shared a few opening thoughts on how every Christian is to respond to those he or she knows who are suffering rather from sickness, grief or some other cause. I shared how one might offer some direct action, such as taking care of the children of a mother who is sick or cutting the grass for a family in grief. Beyond these offers of direct assistance, there is the question of how to respond in words as well as deeds. What do you say and how do you say it?

How to Write
When writing, opt for a hand-written note. It is generally best not to try to explain the tragedy or make it better. Words like “well at least you have other children” or “he had a long, full life” may be true, but they sometimes wound rather than heal.

Instead of trying to make it all better, you can just be honest with something more like, “I don’t know how you feel or what you are going through, but I wanted you to know I care.” This line of writing opens the connection to the person in physical or emotional pain without trying to jump to solving the problem. With that said, I don’t want to discourage you from writing a note. Even a note that gets off track and says the wrong thing will still convey that you care. Erring on the side of being in communication is most helpful.

What to Say
Even better than writing is to go in person. When you show up and are able to listen, you have offered the greatest gift of all. What a person going through medical treatment, dealing with grief, or otherwise making sense of tragedy needs most is a safe place to be able to process what he or she is thinking. Listening without judgment, and without trying to make it all better (which will take much more time than a single conversation) is the best you can offer.

Whenever you go in person or call on the phone, begin with “Is this a good time?” If the answer is no, then respect that answer. Let the person know that you are available to listen and then check in the next day or the next week. When the time is right, try to listen much more than you speak and allow for longer than comfortable pauses to make room for the other person to think. When it feels right, a hug or touch of the hand may be the most healing thing you can offer.

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Call the Priest
Remember to call the priest. Make sure that your priest and the priest or pastor of the people most directly affected by the tragedy knows what is happening. Do not assume that he or she already knows. I didn’t list this until last, not because one shouldn’t call right away, but to emphasize other steps as calling a priest does not mean that your job is completed. For while clergy can and will want to help, it is the close friends and family who will be able to stay in touch day by day and week by week for the year or years ahead. Be open to being the person who takes on that role and you will find that God will bless you as you show love to your neighbor.

It is not always easy or convenient to step beyond “I am sorry for your loss. Let me know if I can help.” But putting your concern into both words and actions that help bring healing is not for the seminary trained alone. Often, what you do or say matters so much less than that you show up and care and this is something each of us who follows Jesus can and should do.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

PS: A great book with lots of great advice based on both years of experience and surveys with those who have been comforted by others in times of sickness and grief is Don’t Sing Songs to a Heavy Heart by Kenneth Haugk. Written with lay persons in mind, it is a great resource for clergy as well.

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When asked to pray in public, I am tempted to add after the prayer, “I am a professional. Do not try this at home.” After all, aren’t all Christians to pray? But the area where this is most noticeable can be in reaching out to those who are sick, dying or grieving. This is usually left to the priest and perhaps also to one or two persons in a congregation who seem to have the gift for what is sometimes called “pastoral care”, but that is really the duty of all Christians to live out loving our neighbors.

To assist in lowering the bar a bit, I will share a two-part Loose Canon which is my version of a guide for anyone who feels that he or she doesn’t know how to respond when tragedy strikes a friend or family member. As Christians, we are to share God’s love with those in need, but how can we make a difference in the lives of those who are hurting? While you won’t be able to take all the pain and suffering and make it go away, you can have a positive effect on those suffering emotional or physical pain.

In his Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus shows that God does not start with me as the person who wants to provide aid and answer with limits on who I have to help. God begins with the person in need and asks, “Who do I have in the area who can help?” Looked at in this way, you will sometimes be the person God has in the area who can respond in a time of tragedy.

How you respond will depend on the gifts God has given you. As the Apostle Paul taught in writing about the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 12), we each have differing abilities given to us by God. The key is to discover your gifts and then use them to help others in time of need.

Beyond “Let me know how I can help”
The most commonly heard statement in the wake of some personal tragedy is “Let me know how I can help.” It is generally sincere and almost universally unhelpful. This statement gets the response all wrong as it puts the burden on the one in need.
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Try something more specific based on your abilities. For a cancer patient with young children, if you have the time and talent, offer free childcare. To the caregiver of a dying spouse, offer to mow the grass. Or to the family in grief offer meals, or to handle phone calls coming into the house, or to keep up with the help coming in to organize thank you notes. When the offer is more specific, the answer will more frequently be “Yes.”

This is where I find we men, who often find we have nothing to offer in the midst of tears and suffering, are well equipped to offer direct assistance. Find the way that you can best help others and then be open to making the offer as needed. You might come to be a grass cutting, or medicine picking up specialist in no time.

Next week, I will cover what not to say and then move on to how to write and speak to those in the midst of suffering.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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You hand one to every member and visitor alike. The bulletin is more than this, but it is at least in part a guide to the liturgy, and in part weekly newsletter and in part calling card for your congregation. As we head toward the day your church is likely to receive the highest number of first-time visitors all year, take a look at your bulletin and decide if it’s time to be reworked.

Who is your bulletin for?
Is your bulletin for newcomers or regulars? The answer is, of course, both. So in assessing your bulletin, consider how well it serves these groups. Everyone needs to know the hymns for the day and will enjoy seeing the propers. Visitors will also need some simple directions to help them to know when to sit or stand and who may receive the Eucharist and how.

Your members may want to have an updated prayer list as well as birthdays and anniversaries in the congregation. This will aid their personal prayers and keep them connected to others. Newcomers will need to know contact information for the church and any key leaders. So saying the Soup Kitchen serves this Thursday at 11-1 will help, but a newcomer might take part if the name and email of the person overseeing the ministry is added. Visitors should also see either a listing of the regular activities of the church or some notice about where to find this information.

Are there unintended messages?
Is your bulletin saying anything you don’t mean to say about your church. For example:

• A generic cover from a church bulletin company, no matter how attractive, does not speak to your congregation’s life. A simple, easy to read and follow bulletin will beat clip art options every day. Your church is not generic and so your bulletin shouldn’t be either.
• If the bulletin lists only the clergy, or only the staff (both lay and ordained), this could suggest you don’t value the laity.
• Printing that the ECW and EYC are meeting is great, but what about the visitor who doesn’t know the code. The same with the St. Marys Guild and other in terms. Using terms that only insiders will understand subtly suggests that those who need to know already do and others aren’t really invited.  

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Use the bulletin to connect further
As you should have more information available in other formats, say so in the bulletin. Let people know how to subscribe to the newsletter (whether it is in print or email) and give your web address or your Facebook page address. Make sure those who want to be better connected know how to do so.

What is the next step?
Start collecting bulletins from other Episcopal Churches as well as from other denominations. This can beas easy as asking friends or co-workers for a copy of their church’s bulletin. Consider how these bulletins serve both the members and the newcomers. Look at your bulletin with new eyes and try a redesign. Create several options and ask both members and friends who don’t attend an Episcopal Church to look it over and give some tips. Your bulletin is an important tool both to assist worshippers in taking part in the liturgy and in connecting with members and newcomers alike. It is worth routine assessment to determine whether it is serving your congregation well.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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“No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket.
Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand,
where it gives light to everyone in the house.”
-Jesus (Matthew 5:15)

As a subscriber to From the Field, you know how effective an email newsletter can be in sharing church news. A number of the 70 congregations of the Diocese of Georgia are making the move to email for their primary parish communications. While not right for every church, email services are worth considering to decide if now is the time to make the move.

Two Services to Consider
Two email services to consider are Constant Contact and MailChimp. With more than 2,200+ subscribers and the need to offer event registration as well as email newsletters, industry-leading Constant Contact was a good fit for the Diocese of Georgia. At just $15 a month for up to 500 subscribers receiving an unlimited number of emails, the service could also be right for your church. For an eye-catching, highly readable example of a church newsletter using Constant Contact see the archives of St. Anne Tifton’s The Open Door.

For most congregations, the free service offered by MailChimp is sufficient. This service is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. The free service does have some limitations and you’ll want to check out the fine print, but these are minor considerations as the only ad in the email is for MailChimp. To see an excellent example of a newsletter using MailChimp visit the archives of St. Patrick’s Happenings from our mission in Pooler.

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Not everyone routinely (or ever) uses email. The percentage of this group varies from congregation to congregation. In making the move to an email newsletter, you will need to offer to print copies for those who will not use email. The per copy cost is much higher than for traditional print newsletters, though as the number is far fewer, this is still a cost savings for most congregations. The vestry will need to do some research to decide what is right in your context.

The Benefits
Users can subscribe and unsubscribe themselves and using this feature can change their email addresses which saves staff or volunteer time from this time-consuming shore. It is also far easier for a team to create the newsletter with each person logging in to add their items to the newsletter before you hit send. This is how the diocesan staff works together each week to create From the Field with no one responsible for the whole newsletter.

The Guiding Principle
Jesus told us not to hide our light under a bushel basket. This includes sharing what is going on in your church. You need to consistently communicate your congregation’s news and events. This is not up for debate. The question is which means is right for your parishioners. An email newsletter will not be right for every church, but it is easy and can be free and so this option is worth the time to consider.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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I want to depart from my usual Loose Canon topics to share a personal project I have worked on for the past two years. My wife, Victoria, and I created a Stations of the Cross liturgy when I was serving at King of Peace Kingsland (available online here: Logue Stations Booklet) which I thought would translate well to video using images of more contemporary human suffering together with images appropriate for the 14 traditional Stations of the Cross.

The thesis behind this project is that what makes Jesus’ death on the cross unique is not what humans did to Jesus, but that God responded with love to hate and with life to death. These video Stations of the Cross use film of more recent examples of needless suffering alongside images of Christ’s passion to challenge viewers to see how Jesus’ death and resurrection can redeem all of the many times and ways the innocent have endured pain even to death.

Proficient and expert medial support viagra side online that pharmacy shop staff can do it well. An acquisition de viagra unica-web.com elevated PSA level in the bloodstream does not necessarily mean chronic high blood pressure though. cheap cialis in canada Firm muscles and joints can bring about unbelievable agony. You should discuss all your previous health conditions specially your eye problems, blood system cancers, penis conditions, anemia, high or low blood pressure or viagra cialis generic any type of allergies with your doctor. I benefited in creating these Stations of the Cross from Joshua Varner’s collaboration on the soundtrack and the insights of visual artist Louise Shipps who provided a second, objective ‘eye’ to help me evaluate this work as it has progressed. I am also grateful for the support and early strong encouragement of my wife, Victoria, without which this dark project would never have seen the light of day.

The resulting sixteen videos take less than a half hour to watch and the site is set up so that one does not have to watch all of the videos in a single sitting. These are not easy to see. Even after two years of working with the footage, I find myself deeply challenged by these videos. They will not be for everyone, but I do find for me that they are a powerful reminder of the power of the cross and I offer them for your Lent (and Holy Week) devotions:

http://georgiaepiscopal.org/stationsofthecross/

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Easter is coming and with it the best opportunity of the year for parishioners in our churches to invite their family, friends and co-workers to worship. Now is the time to encourage your members to make an invitation.

Good
Minimally, you will want to place a notice in the bulletin and newsletter and make an announcement in church reminding folks how easy it is to invite someone to celebrate Easter. This is south Georgia and even those who want nothing to do with church will not be offended if asked to attend. A reminder will help get your parishioners thinking about making that invitation.

Better
A better way to make the invitation is to print an attractive schedule that your members can take to friends and family. This way you can share Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter schedules and your web address while making it an easier invite for members to make. Then you are only asking that they pass the schedule on.

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Encourage members to begin praying about who God would have them to invite to church. Then take the schedules, place them on the altar for the Eucharist and say a prayer over them just before the blessing and dismissal. Make them avalailable following the liturgy. The best possible invitation will begin with prayer-the prayer of the person making the invitation and the prayers of the whole gathered body for those who will be invited to join you for worship.

The cost and effort are minimal to make this invitation. It’s easy for people to do and so easy to ask them to prayerfully consider it. In all of our communities there are people who want to find a place to worship and they might be encouraged to take that step across your church’s threshold if someone will ask.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Above is a chart of the past ten years of membership, attendance and giving for the Diocese of Georgia. It looks relatively flat and honestly it looks better than data from many parts of The Episcopal Church. But when we zoom in on the data, we see that we lost nearly 1,500 worshipers on a typical Sunday across the decade. We dropped from an Average Sunday Attendance of 7,577 to 6,109, from 67 adult baptisms to 44, and from 461 to 260 confirmations.

But don’t lose hope. There is another story and we all need to hear it. Episcopal churches still grow in south Georgia. Our congregations grow in our cities and in our small towns and they grow when they lean a bit liberal and when they lean conservative. Though everything I just said is true, we have examples in our midst of healthy congregations growing in a variety of ways in diverse places. In fact, growth is more common than decline in our churches at present. For the two years in which we have the most recent data, more than half of our churches remained steady or grew. And nine of our congregations posted growth of more than 20% in attendance as they posted two years in a row of increasing attendance from 2009 to 2010 and on into 2011. These churches all grew more than 20% across those 24 months: All Saints Tybee Island (pictured above), Christ Church St. Marys, Christ Church, Savannah, St. Andrews Douglas, St. Anne’s Tifton, St. Elizabeths Richmond Hill, St. Luke’s Rincon, St. Patrick’s Albany, and St. Thomas, Thomasville.

A prime example is Christ Church Savannah which has grown in attendance by 162% from 2007 to 2012 with average Sunday attendance climbing from 75 to 199. Now, of course, their story is unique, but don’t dismiss their growth too quickly as they gained momentum while worshiping on Sunday evenings in another church and so had no signs by the road or ongoing space. And yes, they have grown forty percent while back in their historic home on Johnson Square, but lots of downtown churches would find that growth something to envy and it simply can not be explained by the building alone. It can better be explained by the joy found in the community that gathers there. Joy that built when their future was uncertain and has been sustained in a new setting.

A second key example is our host congregation of St. Anne’s here in Tifton is also a place of great energy and joy and they grew fifty-five percent as attendance went from 98 to 151 from 2008 to 2011.
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Do not hear me saying that Sunday attendance is the only sign of health or that if your church is not gaining members that you are not being faithful. But I do hope that you will see plainly that Episcopal Churches can and do grow in our diocese right now from Tybee to Thomasville and Augusta to St. Marys. Our churches grow in the discipleship of their members and they grow numerically in attendance and in financial giving and most importantly in sharing the faith with people who didn’t know that Christianity really does live up to its promise and potential when we live out our faith in community.

Your diocesan staff travels a lot. Bishop Benhase is not the only one out in the byways. I have been in most of your churches and Canon Willoughby and I have been in every region talking with leaders. We do see the problems. We know how clergy compensation is a challenge and how benefits are even more difficult as insurance prices rise. Thanks to Mary’s hard work, we’ve actually seen our insurance prices drop, but they are still a challenge. We know the anxiety of a congregation with less than 25 people of Sunday that is one uninsured major building issue away from going under and the congregations under 50 people on Sunday working to figure out how to arrange a priest so they can have the sacraments reliably when there is no way to pay a full-time priest. Then there are the congregations under 120 on Sunday who are in varying ways struggling with keeping a full time priest, a part-time organist and secretary and a barely functioning copier. As our churches get larger there are problems in providing the programs people expect without the staffing that the Baptist and Methodist churches nearby can afford and then the issues with connecting with people meaningfully so that they don’t wander out the back door of the church without anyone noticing. There are issues with pledge drives and fewer people willing to commit to the pledge and fewer still who give like their parents and grandparents did.

This Loose Canon is a portion of the Opening Presentation I made to the 192nd Convention, the full text is online here: Convention 2013 Opening Presentation in which I name some of what we are doing to help congregations to be more vital.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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