The Loose Canon

Christ Church, Savannah, gained in Average Sunday Attendance from 91 in 2009 to 108 in 2010. This increase of 19% makes the church one of the faster growing ones in the Diocese of Georgia. I like to ask the question of churches where we see growth, “What is happening here that another church might want to consider replicating?”

Obviously, the answer isn’t always helpful. We anticipate growth at St. Patrick’s, Pooler, and St. Luke’s, Rincon, not merely because they are great worshipping communities, but also because Gulfstream has added 1,200 new jobs, which is increasing the population on the northwest side of Savannah. That is great to know, but doesn’t help other churches as they consider how they might reach out to new people.

There are several things happening at Christ Church, Savannah, any one of which is easily replicated elsewhere:

1. Branding,
2. A Sense of humor, and
3. Internal self-promotion that is practically shameless.

Branding comes from the congregation having a clear image in a logo created by Louise Shipps used unfailingly with the blue and red colors of the Episcopal shield. I have written previously about this here: Branding Your Church. The seal of the church is now travelling around the world with parishioners who send photos of themselves with the familiar image taken in far flung places. These photos are shared on their Facebook page and in weekly emails.

The sense of humor comes in playful touches like the Feast of Saint Seersucker, covered in an earlier From the Field and members of the congregation wearing socks according to the colors of the liturgical calendar.

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Dear Communicants and Friends of Christ Church Episcopal,

Has the world turned upside down?! Tiger Woods missed the cut at the PGA championship with five (yes, five!) double bogeys; the Falcons lost to the Dolphins; a freshman will start at tailback for UGA (and his name is NOT Hershel Walker); Joseph rises to power in Egypt…and has his brothers arrested (read tomorrow’s lesson from Genesis); and Texas A&M wants to join the SEC! It’s enough to make one want to read our bulletin at http://www.ccesavannah.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/CCE-Bulletin-08-14-11-Pentecost-9A.pdf and cry out, “Have mercy on me Lord, Son of David!” (read tomorrow’s gospel lesson from Matthew).

Thankfully, tomorrow is another day (in the words of the South’s immortal sage Scarlet O’Hara), Dan Uggla’s hit streak for the Braves is alive at 32 games, and The Rev. J. Sierra Wilkinson will be our preacher!

As you can see, the tone of the publication is fun. Parishioners can count on receiving the email every Saturday and it leaves the reader both laughing at the content and looking forward to what’s happening next at Christ Church. Included are birthdays and anniversarys, bragging on church familys with some news, such as a son getting a scholarship, or daughter being accepted into a prestigious ballet program. The writing style is tricky and is not within everyone’s ability to pull off well. The initial email is prepared by Mills Fleming, who was until recently the Senior Warden. He then sends a draft around for a few more eyes to review the text before it is shot out into cyberspace.

Any of these ideas-branding, a sense of humor, and shameless self-promotion-can be exported to other churches. When borrowing these, or any other ideas from other churches, you will need to make the idea your own, so that the end result fits your congregation like a glove.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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The altar is shown set up for the Celtic Mass at St. Paul the Apostle, Savannah. For the evening service an altar is placed in front of the rood screen, closer to the congregation. The high altar is visible in the background.

The worship schedule at St. Paul the Apostle in Savannah makes for a very full Sunday. From the start of the Low Mass at 8 a.m. to the conclusion of the meal following the Celtic Mass, when the church doors close more than 12 hours later, 238 people worshipped on an average Sunday in 2010. This number in the Parochial Report is up from 182 the previous year for an increase of 30.77%. First, it should be noted that it now appears probable that the number for last year was improperly tabulated, so the rise in attendance is a multi-year rise. But with that noted, the growth at St. Paul’s is real and has been lasting. The change came primarily through two additional services being added. Strategically adding additional worship services can be an important tool in spurring church growth.

Adding a Liturgy with a Different Feel
The Misa en Espanol at 12:15 p.m. with more than a dozen on a typical week and the Celtic Mass at 6:30 p.m. with more than triple that number account for the increased attendance on a Sunday. Each of these services is significantly different in style from either the Low Mass at 8 a.m. or the Solemn High Mass at 10 a.m. This fits with some of the work of the Alban Institute which finds that unless a church is between 80 and 100% full on an average Sunday, a new service should be somewhat different in style to thereby attract a different group of worshippers. Consequently, churches that are 80% full on Sunday, should add an additional identical service to add capacity for those who want to join that worshipping community with its current style of worship.

At St. Paul the Apostle, its long-time Rector and the Dean of the Savannah Convocation, the Very Rev. William Willoughby III, led the process to work through adding the additional services, with support from those in the existing services. For example, Sunday morning worshippers coming back for the Celtic Mass made starting that new service viable. Now the evening group has developed more of a life of its own.
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The difficulty in adding additional services is that each service needs a dedicated group of lay leaders as well as those who attend for the roles of Lay Eucharist Minister and lay readers. For services with music, a musician or musicians who can take on an additional service in a different style is also vital. At St. Paul the Apostle, the mid-Sunday Spanish Eucharist also required celebrants and preachers who can lead worship in Spanish. The Celtic Eucharist was made possible both by The Rev. Liam Collins coming to Savannah with energy for the new service and a passion for Celtic Spirituality. That was married with a core team of lay leaders and musicians who could get the service off the ground and sustain it as interest grew. None of this is easy, but the effort is making a difference at St. Paul’s.

One Important Caveat
Adding a worship service is a useful growth strategy for any congregation. Do know that the additional service, particularly one in a different style from your other services, will take a lot of time and energy to begin and sustain. For example, members of the Society of Saint Aelred of Rievaulx are pictured here at the piano. That group helps both coordinate the Celtic Mass and provide music. This is vital as it is most important is to make sure you have a committed core group willing to stick with the new service over the long haul, including both lay leaders and a group willing to populate the service while the work is done to draw new people to that additional worship opportunity.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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In this Loose Canon column, I work with subjects of congregational development. Too often, this topic is considered in isolation and far too often the thinking is isolated to numeric church growth. But churches do not and should not simply grow in terms of more people sitting in pews on a Sunday. If we only go about being the church for the sake of better statistics, then God can not and should not bless that effort. We may be successful, but that success will not be from God’s blessing.

Rather, we are to be faithful to that which God has called us and we know that faithfulness bears fruit. Often that fruit is growth that can be charted with statistics. Yet, the growth always starts with the work of the Holy Spirit in human hearts and this slips through the cracks when we get solely data driven.

In her now out of print book Journey Inward, Journey Outward (Harper and Row, 1968), Elizabeth O’Conner shared the way The Church of Our Savior in Washington, DC went about being church. She noted that churches had become so concerned about numbers that concern for each individual soul with whom the church came in contact was being lost. She made the case that the renewal of of the church “cannot come to the church unless its people are on an inward journey” while holding “with equal emphasis that renewal cannot come to the church unless its people are on an outward journey.”

To simplify her text, on the journey inward, one comes to see onesself, God and others. This self-knowledge seen through relationship with God and lived into in community with others builds up a person into a disciple of Jesus Christ. In this engagement one’s God-given gifts are called forward. The disciple then continues on an outward journey in which one is truly present to others. There is not an either/or with discipleship and mission or ministry. Without gaining a deeper connection to God as revealed in Jesus Christ, we cannot know ourselves and so can not really see others and be present to them. The inward journey is required. Yet, if we only take the journey inward, we can become like the Dead Sea (pictured above), which is continually noursished, but has no outlet and so is rich in minerals and devoid of life.
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This simple concept of churches helping nourish and sustain people on their journeys inward and outward adds to the missional emphasis I have placed in my recent Loose Canon writings. A missional outlook is essential for the church as God did not come among us as Jesus to teach, heal, deliver, and then suffer, die and physically rise never to die again in order to start and institution. God came in Jesus to bring us into relationship, a life giving and life changing relationship. And this relationship needs both the journey inward and the journey outward to grow and flourish.

As we near the “program year” for your congregation, how do you see that balance in your church’s schedule of events? Is the inward journey of discipleship being supported and parishioners thereby challenged in helpful ways? Is the journey of service to God through ministry to others just as evident? How is your congregation doing at this balance of the journey inward, journey outward? Should you add more ways to engage in mission or discipleship? To grow disciples, you need to foster both journeys.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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I wrote the following essay for the Virginia Seminary Journal at the request of its editor for an issue themed “Under Construction.”

“Don’t try to make a difference,” the Jesuit monk told us. “Everyone is always trying to make a difference and it just wears them out and doesn’t help,” he added.

It was, for me, a challenging statement. My wife, Victoria, and I were hiking the entire Appalachian Trail in a single hike. We found ourselves on this spring evening at the Jesuit-run hostel in Hot Springs, North Carolina. The offer was that hikers could stay for free in exchange for doing some work on the grounds. The task before us was a briar patch that would have given Br’er Rabbit a kingdom unto himself. He had handed us gloves and loppers and asked that we spend an hour or so working on cutting and stacking to burn the
interlacing arches of photosynthesis-fueled razor wire.

The monk saw that gleam in my eye and recognized the particular version of the sin of pride at once. He knew in that glance what I felt deep in my bones—I would be the one to work so hard that I could make a noticeable dent in the mountain of thorny vines. “It couldn’t be more than a half-acre or so, an acre at the most,” I thought, “I can punch a noticeable hole in that.”

“Some work requires patience,” he told us. “There is no quick solution. Working steadily without looking for immediate change can accomplish so much more. Just keep at it,” he said, then added, “Just cut for a while, stack the dead branches in the burn pile and walk away. It’s not your job to finish it.”

This was a lesson we needed to hear. We had picked a lot bigger goal than knocking back a massive patch of weeds. Victoria and I were 270 miles into a 2,150-mile long hike along the backbone of the East Coast.

The Jesuit then launched into a story he knew I needed to hear. He said, “During World War II, a pilot with the Flying Tigers had engine problems and parachuted out just ahead of his P-40 splashing down hard in a forgotten stretch of a Burmese river.

“The Army Air Force eventually got a crew up the river to try to rest the fighter from its muddy grave, but using the little crane and what other equipment they could fit on the boat, the men could not begin to budge the plane. As they worked, the airmen were watched by the people of a nearby village. As the group was packing to leave, the village headman spoke through an interpreter asking if the village raised the machine, would the Americans buy it back from them. The translator relayed that a deal would definitely be struck. The Flying Tigers were so in need of planes, the ground crew was patching one together with spare parts to get another fighter flying.”

The Jesuit paused for effect, he was a natural preacher and a congregation of two was just fine with him. As the sun lowered somewhere beyond the mountains and the shadows deepened in the briar patch, he forged ahead, “The Americans and the mechanical muscle gone, the plan was simple. The people of the village, were directed by their chief that every time they swam in the river, those who could do so should dive down to the plane and work a short length of bamboo up into the fuselage. Every day, a little more bamboo was worked into the cockpit. Once that area was packed with bamboo, they used vines to get bamboo under any part exposed above the mud. Slowly the plane lifted and more bamboo was added. In time, the P-40 was off the bottom and word was sent downriver that the Americans could fetch their fighter.”

He did not force the point home. The lesson was ended. He simply repeated, “Don’t try to make a difference. Just cut for a while. Put the vines in the burn pile and walk away.”

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That evening’s work in Hot Springs became important to our thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail. We could never plan out the hike all the way to Katahdin in the Maine wilderness. We could only look to what came next. There was no real way to hike all the way from Georgia to Maine, at least not at the practical day-by-day level. We could merely hike the next miles in front of us, as far as we could on any given day.

For the tortoise to beat the hare, he could inch along toward the finish line. He just had to stay steady. For us to hike the whole Appalachian Trail in a single hike, we only needed to go farther up the Trail each day. Some days it might be barely more than 10 miles. Some others we would easily pass 20 miles. Occasionally we had to stop completely to wash clothes, buy food and regroup. But what mattered most was to stay at it, concerning ourselves with the part of the journey beneath our feet and all around us, rather than with the goal of climbing Katahdin and completing the trek. Yes, that end goal of hiking the whole Trail mattered. It kept us focused, gave us a reason to take the five million or so steps that would carry us along the spine of the Appalachian Mountain chain. But the day by day effort was what mattered most.

When my wife and our then nine-year-old daughter, Griffin, and I drove away from Virginia Theological Seminary following graduation in May of 2000, we had a clear goal before us, we would plant a new Episcopal church in Kingsland, Georgia. The vision simply put was twofold: 1) We wanted to start a church that was so vital to its community that if it folded ten years later, people who never attended the church would miss it, and 2) We wanted to do something so big for God that if God wasn’t part of it, we would fall flat on our faces and look like idiots. That was the vision. One part of which could only be judged with the hindsight of a decade. Neither could be accomplished quickly.

Others have remarked of the growth of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, saying that the move from three of us to a thriving parish was a quick one. A successful preschool, an active Scout program and more seemed to sprout up on their own. Yet, it only happened fast in the way that someone else’s pregnancy seems quick, or someone else’s son is noticeably taller every time you see him. In the work of church planting, as with all church work, there are some times when one can see a real difference, but mostly being the church involves steady work with little sign week by week that change is occurring. Even relatively quick gains in attendance come one person, one couple or family at a time, with each taking months or years to go from casually attending newcomers to committed members who are taking their own part in the church’s reaching out in love to its community.

But on leaving in our tenth year, we could see times when if God had not been part of it, we would have fallen flat on our faces. The day we opened the preschool with a good solid business plan, and so little financial cushion that it was foolhardy, is but one example. But as the Gospel involves risk, there was no path to success that did not significantly risk failure. Within six years, the church had become such an integral part of the community—through the preschool, the Scout program, the Narcotics Anonymous and more—that many people who did not attend King of Peace had come to rely on the church.

This was not the work of just me and my wife and daughter. No, a church cannot be grown from the pulpit alone or from the work of even a handful of individuals. It was the steady work of many people that built a church upon which the community could depend.

Now I work as Canon to the Ordinary, I find myself routinely facing more work than I can dent. Each day, I do what I can, and I go home having made no noticeable change in assisting our congregations to be more vital. Yet, as I look up after a year, I do see a few signs of hope, glimmers of light that reveal the work this new team I am on is not working in vain. It will take many more years of steady work to know if we have built on the rock as we intend. And in the meantime, there will be hundreds of days of making no difference at all.

I have taught this principle to every person I introduce to spiritual disciplines. Praying the daily offices and reading through the scripture on that pattern will make no discernable difference on any one of the hundreds of days in a year. A spiritual path requires a slow and steady pace even more than a physical trail. The changes the Holy Spirit nudges in our hearts and minds are more like those made by water running over rock. The Holy Trinity is intent on spending eternity with you and from that perspective, there is no rush. Don’t look for an individual sermon or Eucharist to change your life, just keep returning to the altar. The daily and weekly rhythms of worship and service are not for naught, even if we see no change after daily prayer and reading, for a week, a month, or a year.

Victoria has gotten us exercising again. My wife and I have been at it for a little more than a month. We have cut back on the food we eat—eating less, but better. We are exercising at least six days a week. And yet, weeks into the process, I see no real change. The pounds have not melted away. I am not ready to kick sand in the face of the bully at the beach. The goal is to feel better next year than we do this year. After letting ourselves fall out of shape over a period of years, we will need time to get fit.

So as I look to the fitness of my body and the health of the Diocese and my own spiritual journey, I think back to night falling on a mountain of briars seemingly untouched by our efforts and to a fighter jet slowly being filled with short, fat sections of bamboo. The task for today is not to make a difference in my health, or to change the Diocese of Georgia for the better. Before the day is out, I should expect no spiritual epiphany. Today, I just need to be faithful to the portion of the path beneath my feet and the sights and sounds of the journey.

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“There has been a healthy increase in recent years
of the recognition that in everything the Church does
its basic responsibility to evangelize must be involved….
Church schools, conference centers, parish houses,
coffee receptions, vestry meetings, altar guilds, covered dish suppers,
diocesan conventions demand to be evaluated on this basis
just as much as teaching missions and street-corner preaching.
The question is “Have we in this way enabled people
to discover or rediscover the wonder of God’s love?”
-Bishop Albert Rhett Stuart
Bishop’s Address of 1960

At the heart of the quotation above from our own Bishop Stuart is a key question to use in looking at everything your congregation does. As he challenged this diocese, can we really use all we do from coffee hour and altar guild to diocesan conventions to enable people to discover and rediscover the wonder of God’s love?

A Case Study – Church of the Atonement
One recent example from my travels around the Diocese of Georgia may illustrate the larger point of how to make the most of the events we hold. I met recently with the vestry and some other members of the Church of the Atonement on Tobacco Road, which is on the growing south side of Augusta. The church has long had a vital signature ministry as it is an important food source for those in need in the community. Its well-run pantry shares the love of God in a very concrete way to those in need. The signature event the church puts on is a BBQ sale in the fall.
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In working with the group, we discovered together two ways to maximize that contact with the community. First, I learned that while they use the proceeds of that sale to fund Christmas presents for needy kids in their community, this has not been advertised as part of the event. Making plain that the funds raised are not for the church, but to provide Christmas for more than 60 kids in a typical year will garner both more support for the already popular sale and may result in donations beyond the food purchase. This also lets the community know how Atonement is reaching out in love to kids in their community.

I further learned that the sale does not give anyone a chance to visit the church. I recommended that as the sale does not involve the church building, that they use signage and personal invitation to let folks know they may tour the church while they are there to purchase the dinners. Having some appropriate music playing a someone on hand to show the church and talk about it to visitors allows for important contact. The reason to do this is that the Holy Spirit could well use their coming to the property to interest someone in worshipping at Atonement. A tour will offer the opportunity for those who come to the sale to have a no pressure way to cross the threshold of the church, making it easier for them to return for Sunday worship.

None of this is particularly groundbreaking. These are just a couple of simple and free ways to make more out of what the Church of the Atonement is already doing for folks along Tobacco Road.

How does this apply to your church?
The same principal Bishop Stuart addressed to the convention in 1960 can help you find ways to turn mundane meeting and events to opportunities to discover and rediscover God’s love. The ways to make these events more missional abound. You can start meeting by reading a discussing the scripture for the upcoming Sunday, offer opportunities for prayer requests and thanksgivings followed by prayer so that those meeting may share one anothers’ joys and bear one anothers’ burdens. Try it for yourself. Think of one fairly mundane event in your church calendar, from a committee meeting or fundraiser to coffee after worship. Have the vestry or appropriate committee or other group, pray for God’s guidance, then brainstorm ways to use that time to discover or rediscover God’s love. The change may be small and need not be daunting, but the effect of doing this all across your church’s calendar is more than a subtle shift, it is recapturing a sense that everything we do flows from our love of God and is a response to that love.

Let me know how it goes for you and your congregation.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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“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.”
-Bishop Frederick Focke Reese,
Diocese of Georgia Bishop’s Address 1929

“Quit evangelizing; start blessing.”
-Reggie McNeal

This question-How can I be a blessing to others?-has been fundamental to the move in the some Diocese of Georgia churches to a more mission focused way of being the church. The question comes from Reggie McNeal, an author and speaker I referenced in recent Loose Canon articles.

It’s not about the church
At St. Anne’s, Tifton, The Rev. Lonnie Lacy says the congregation hasn’t necessarily taken on any major programs for growth or new strategies from the outside, but among the changes to that church is the vestry’s longterm consideration of this question of how the people of St. Anne’s can be a blessing to others beyond their walls. This has been significant. The discussions in the vestry have been formative, and with subtle emphasis on this question in the congregation via the parish leadership, the attitude is taking hold. If you attend St. Anne’s, you may never have heard this question asked, but you have probably seen the results of being a part of a church seeking to be “in the business of blessing.” The question, at its purest, is not about that congregation at all. If someone who attends St. Anne’s is being a blessing to others at work, home, or in the community, then in and of itself, that act is transformative. This changes the person who is a blessing and changes those who experience being blessed. (St. Anne’s van is shown above delivery supplies to tornado-torn Alabama.)

Anyone can be a blessing to others
At Holy Comforter, Martinez, the congregation was challenged to be a blessing to others in some real andtangible way. Then on a subsequent Sunday the sermon time was given over to those in attendance telling their stories of what happened when they tried to act on that challenge. The response was enthusiastic with stories flowing for more than 40 minutes. The Rev. Joe Bowden said, “The people shared some of the most moving blessing and praying stories I have ever heard. It was one of the most joyful and moving moments in my life!”

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You don’t even need the question
Filling in Sundays at St. Patrick’s, Pooler, I have seen that congregation being a blessing to others without anyone bothering to ask the question. On Christmas Eve, a large group went to the Waffle House following the candlelit liturgy in order that a young woman who couldn’t be with family would not be alone. They ordered a lot and left a big tip too. More recently, the same congregation was reaching out to a stressed out mom watching her young kids. These are just two ways I have seen the small congregation be a blessing.

It is about the Gospel
Living in to answering this question is a simple way to get at what Bishop Reese hoped for in 1929 when he called on every Christian to become a missionary. When as individuals and as churches we become a blessing to the people around us, we are about the mission of the church. This is not to in any way divorce those actions of blessings from the content of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are not the Jaycees or the Junior Service League. But if we live is if our only goal as churches was to get the numbers up, then why would anyone want to be among those counted in the pews or whose dollars are counted in the plate? On the otherhand, if we actually live out the love of neighbor as revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus, then we will need no other advertising and the real work of relational evangelism will naturally follow. Yes, we want people to be most fully blessed by becoming a disciple of Jesus, and that may well start with our being a blessing to them in other ways. (Above, The Rev. Joe Bowden blesses and is blessed by a dog.)

Where might it start?
In Tifton, the question about how to be a blessing has been almost exclusively a vestry question so far. In Martinez, the whole congregation considered it. What is your church’s blessing strategy? Where might this movement start in your congregation? As you’re the one who read this article to the end, perhaps it should start with you being a blessing to someone between now and Sunday and then sharing the experience with others as you share coffee and conversation after church this week.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

Note: To hear Reggie McNeal speaking about these topics, you can go to: http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/reggie-mcneal-videos/ for two videos of presentations.

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“The North American church is suffering from severe missionary amnesia.
It has forgotten why it exists.
The church was created to be the people of God
to join him in his redemptive mission in the world.
The church was never intended to exist for itself.”
-Reggie McNeal
in The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church.

It began with the smallest spark. The Rev. Robert Fain recalls that Good Shepherd, Augusta, was using an annotated Eucharist booklet. The side column of text noted at the peace:

“In the early centuries of the Christian Church, unbelievers could not stay for the rest of the service. Visitors would be asked to leave at this point as only baptized persons who took part in it could see the Eucharist. After the visitors left, the Christian would greet each other with the kiss of peace.”

The rector began to wonder at how far the church had gone from being so exclusive about who may even be in the room during the Eucharist to some churches inviting the unbaptized to receive communion. What happened? Answering that question led Fain to explore the changes in culture as we have moved from Christendom-when we could assume most people we come in contact with to be baptized Christians-to our 21st Century reality in which many of those we see every day may have only nominal information about the Gospel we hold dear.

This journey led Fain to gather some other clergy in the Diocese of Georgia who wanted to share in the discussion. The group read and studied Reggie McNeal’s book The Present Future (quoted above) and reflected on what it means to be the church today. In short, this has led to an emphasis on mission, sometimes referred to as being a missional church. For as McNeal writes,

“The key is the presence of mission. Missionless religion that calls itself Christianity is an affront to God, however it styles itself.”

This emphasis on mission means we need to be much more intentional about two things: 1) teaching those in the church, 2) taking the church out into the world.

Teaching Those in the Church
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Each month they also post online weekly reflections on the Sunday lessons. These Emmaus Bible Studies created by the church staff are found online here: Emmaus Study The Emmaus studies this fall will shift to the Old Testament lessons. All of this is aimed at laying the ground work for better understanding and sharing the Gospel.

Taking the Church Out into the World
Nurtured by more intentional discipleship, churches should then institinctively want to be more involved in reaching out to their communities in love. But once again, this should not be left to chance. We should actively seek ways to find where the gifts of our congregation intersect with the needs of our community. McNeal writes, “The church that wants to partner with God on his redemptive mission in the world has a very different target: the community.”

This will involve not just things like an after school program or a short term mission trip. We also need to be involved in sharing the Gospel. Fain says, “We have been doing evangelism implicitly, but we are going to need to start doing evangelism explicitly.” In support of this, Bishop Benhase created a one-day session on sharing faith, which is working its way around the Diocese. The goal is to discover the ways God has been present in your life and to find ways you feel comfortable sharing those stories when the spirit leads you to do so.

All of the Above
When all of this comes together, we are supporting those in the church, serving those in the community and sharing the Gospel. Robert Fain created a visual of this for Good Shepherd: COGS Mission

However you picture it, imagine your congregation both growing in discipleship and serving its community while sharing the Gospel. Have a story of this taking place? Let me know. I will be sharing more from around the diocese in the coming weeks.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

Note: All of the photos above are taken from the Church of the Good Shepherd website.

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“Christ summons the Church to continual reformation
as she sojourns here on earth.
The Church is always in need of this,
in so far as she is an institution of men here on earth.”
-Vatican II

“Ecclesia Reformata, Semper. Reformanda.”
translates: “Church reformed, ever reforming.”
-Martin Luther

Every human institution drifts from fulfilling its initial purpose—the reason the group was founded—to fulfilling the purpose of supporting the institution. In this, the church is not the only culprit, but neither is the church immune. As revealed in the story I shared last week of the life-saving station which became a club (see article below from June 21), we can turn from the mission before us to maintaining the buildings and their traditions.

The Catechism in the Prayer Book states the mission of the Church “is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” This is, at its heart, a very evanglical idea. Evangelical in the sense of “Good news.” We have the good news to share that God loves us and wants a relationship with us and through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ we can find forgiveness of sins and a more life-giving and joy-filled way to live. This mission is not our mission, but God’s mission. Sharing this good news with a lost and hurting world is why churches exist.
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This goal is the ministry to which we are called, but the temptation comes to focus on the building and the community already present in your worship. The furnishing, the care, and the upkeep of a building takes money, time, and energy and that’s okay. However, when you make decisions for the sake of the building, then you are getting off course. Sound preposterous? Well, I have heard many a complaint around the Diocese about the mess the Scout group leaves or the problems with Narcotics Anonymous and so on. While we do need to teach the groups meeting in the space to respect our churches, we do not want to decide what happens based on preserving the building. We do not want to encourage away groups of people simply because they are not “church broke” yet.

Remember first and foremost what are God’s purposes for your church buildings. Your church is to be a house of prayer for all people. Your church is to be a place where God’s healing touch is offered to those who need God most. Set those purposes before you. Make them the target for which you aim. Then decisions about who can use the building, when and for what will not be made for the sake of this building. And also can’t rely on the building itself to do the work of spreading the Good News in your community. Find new and innovative ways to invite the people in who need God most. Don’t wait for them to be attracted to your lovely building. Look for creative approaches to ministry that will encourage spiritual seekers to enter your church. You can’t simply wait for people to decide to come there on their own.

The move from mission to maintenance is one that always occurs. This is natural. Yet, the church is ever in need of reformation. We who have already received the Good News need to ever remember our churches exist not merely for us, but for those who are still lost and hurting. There is no one in easy driving radius of your church who needs to become an Episcopalian. Not a single one. But no matter how many churches there are in your area, there are more people in range of your church who need the Gospel than have yet heard it in a way that is compelling. And there are people in every town in south Georgia who will never be able to have the relationship with Jesus Christ that they need until they find their way into an Episcopal Church. It is for these people still in need of forgiveness, healing and a relationship with God that your church exists, as much as for those who now attend.

In the coming weeks, I will continue to share how this move from maintenance to mission looks not just in theory, but in congregations across the Diocese.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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I want to share with you a modern parable of congregational life. It was written in 1953 by the Rev. Dr. Theodore O. Wedel, a canon of the National Cathedral and one-time President of the House of Deputies of The Episcopal Church. Like all good parables, though fictional, it is entirely truthfilled:

“On a dangerous sea coast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and gave of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little life-saving station grew.

“Some of the members of the life-saving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.

“Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where the club’s initiations were held. About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.

“At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s life-saving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station. So they did.
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“As the years went by, the new station experienced the same
changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself, and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.”

In the coming weeks, I will be exploring the move from a a club mentality and its near cousin, a maintenance mindset. In the meantime, ask sincerely, “Where do I see my church acting like a life-saving station?” and “Where do I see my church acting like a club?” We will also look to examples in the Diocese of Georgia where we see a mission mindset in action. If you have examples to share with me as I write this series, please contact me at the diocesan office.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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A sabbatical is not a vacation but a time of renewal. While the Diocese wants all congregations to set aside money for a sabbatical, there are grants that can assist as well. There are three grants I want to highly encourage priests in our diocese to consider:

Sabbatical
This program of the Louisville Institute provides pastoral leaders with “sustained periods of time for rest, renewal, and reflective engagement with their life and work and issues related to contemporary religious leadership.” This program awards grants of either $10,000 for an 8-week sabbatical or $15,000 for a 12-week sabbatical. For more information visit the web page: Sabbatical Grants The deadline for this year is September 1.

Pastoral Study Projects Grants
This is a second program of the Louisville Institute. These grants offer “pastoral leaders opportunity to conduct serious investigation of issues related to Christian life, faith, and ministry.” The program annually awards grants of up to $15,000 to support study projects by making possible full or part-time leave from pastoral responsibilities during the time of study. Examples of successful grants are found at their 2010 Grant Awardees page. The website for this program is online here: Pastoral Study Project Grants. The grant application deadline for this year is August 15.

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Clergy Renewal Grant
This program of the Lilly Foundation is the one which sent the Amuzie Family home to Nigeria for a visit when The Rev. Charles Amuzie was the Rector of St. Athanasius’ Church, Brunswick. It is also paying for The Rev. Cynthia Taylor’s sabbatical described in this week’s top story. The website is online here: Clergy Renewal Grant. The deadline for this year passed on May 12. But advanced thought and planning can help a grant be successful and so it is not too soon to begin dreaming of a plan for next year’s grant cycle.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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Each October, many Episcopal Churches carry out a Blessing of the Animals service. These liturgies offer a unique opportunity for someone in your community to make contact with your congregation. A little work this summer will have your congregation ready this fall to maximize the potential for this event to make a diifference for your church.

Good Practice
Prepare a short, simple, liturgy which is theologically appropriate and will create the biblical framework for the blessings. An example is online here: Pet Blessing Liturgy. Advertise the service in advance through the religion section of the newspaper’s announcements and fliers at the offices of local veterinarians and the Humane Society. Invite the newspaper to take pictures and, if they do not come to the service, submit photos of the pet blessing to them afterward. Have pet and human treats on hand to give out.

Better Practice
Do all of the above, but ask the Humane Society if the service can be held at their facility. This makes the liturgy more of a community event, lowering the bar for those who would want to attend, but don’t yet feel coming to your church for the pet blessing. Bless St. Francis medals purchased through a church supply house and give them to every pet owner as a free take-away from the blessing.

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Do all of the above, but host the pet blessing together with the Humane Society and hold it at a fall festival in your community. Most of our towns have festivals in the fall. By getting the pet blessing on the official schedule, your church will be extend the festival activities with a meaningful moment for pet owners and the Humane Society will benefit from the exposure. Put your church’s worship times, location and website on the bulletins handed out for the pet blessing. Always be sure to make a specific invitation: “If you don’t have a church home, we invite you to join us for worship tomorrow at 10 a.m. For a multi-church event, announce all of the churches and their worship times with an invitation to worship at one of the churches.

Start Planning Now
A key volunteer making a few phone calls can be all it takes to set up a service that will bless not only the pets but also their owners and can offer a side door for someone looking for a church home to discover the joy found in your congregation.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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The congregation of Christ Church, Dublin, has gotten intentional about asking its members to invite their friends, family and co-workers to church. To make the invitation easier, vestry member Ken Schrader created business cards which were then printed by a church member who owns a printing business.

The plan is to offer the cards on the altar in prayer, asking God’s blessing on the invitations. Then members will be encouraged to take a card or two and keep it with them. When the time seems right, the person can then not only invite someone to worship at Christ Church Dublin, but they will have this card giving something tangible the person invited can hang on to with location, service times, the web address and more. There is even a place to fill out and drop into the offering plate or the mail if follow up is requested.

The idea is a new one for the church and we don’t yet know what fruit it will bear, but it is a creative way they have put forward to encourage personal invitations to worship, which have proven to be the most effective way of encouraging people to visit.
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If your church is doing something other congregations should know about, send me an email and I will share it with the Diocese in this space.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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“The commandment we have from him is this:
those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”
~I John 4:21

Last week, I wrote about the importance of having a signature event for which your congregation is known by those who do not attend the church (see below for previous colum). These are the event circled on the calendar of some folk who never attend your church. This week, I want to move to the second signature for which your church is known-a signature ministry.

Signature Ministry
There should be ministries with which your congregation is involved that are not a ministry of the church itself. For a number of our congregations, this includes Habitat for Humanity. Our churches have sponsored whole houses, or sponsored a house with other churches. This also is typically through a community-wide effort. For St. Patrick’s, Pooler, this comes with active participation in the Loaves and Fishes program in their town, which is a multi-church effort to assist those in need. But beyond these, there should be a ministry that is something for which your church is known in its community.

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Big or Small, but Always Significant
While I wanted King of Peace (which I served as church planter and founding rector) to be known for gripping sermons which change the lives of hearers for the better, the truth was we first came on the radar for many who were not part of the church through our preschool and our scouting program, both Girl and Boy Scouts (Boy Scout Court of Honor opening pictured at right). Good Shepherd, Augusta, is also well known for Episcopal Day School, an example of a large ministry touching the lives of many families. But nearby, Christ Church, Augusta, also touches many lives with its food ministry. The ministry need not be large. Some churches are known for providing free car seats to those who are heading home with a new baby that look shocked and then panicked when the nurse lets them know a car seat will be required for the family to go home.

Love Made Real
Jesus taught us to love our neighbors as ourselves. There should be at least one signature way in which you church does this for its community. What is the ministry through which your neighbors know your congregation? What signature ministry could you add or lift up?

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries

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I wrote an essay for Episcopal Life on the controversy over Greg Morteson’s book Three Cups of Tea:

With the first cup of tea, you are a stranger. With the second cup of tea, you are an honored guest. With the third cup of tea, you become family. This Balti proverb lends Greg Mortenson’s book, Three Cups of Tea, its name. But with a class action lawsuit filed against him in early May following investigations by writer John Krakauer and 60 Minutes, what is needed now is three cups of compassion.

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That essay continues online here: Three Cups of Compassion.

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What do people in your community know about your congregation? I’m not asking about those who have attended the church or know someone who is a member. What about your neighbors who go to another church? Or the neighbors who do not attend any church? We want to be known for Word and Sacrament-our meaningful liturgy and thought-provoking preaching. But those who do not attend will know us in other ways. This includes those members that they know personally whose lives can be the greatest attractor (or detractor) for those who know them. Yet, there are two other ways you can become known. The first is through signature events, which I will write about this week. Then I will follow up with the second, and probably most important signature next week.

Signature Events
There should be community events in which your church take part that are not your event. For Trinity, Statesboro, amd other congregations in the Diocese of Georgia, this includes taking part in Relay for Life. The church’s participation is visible, but this is a Cancer Society event. Taking part is a great idea, but this is not what I mean. For Trinity, the concerts offered in the church are more significant. They are announced on Georgia Public Radio frequently and so keep the congregation’s name on the public ear (lapsed Methodists who listen to NPR are known easy targets for an Episcopal Church).

Big and Small, Fundraiser or Free
The event can be a large-scale project that raises funds, such as St. Peter’s, Savannah, hosting an Antique Sale (check presentation from this event at left) and Christ Church, Frederica, arranging a Tour of Homes. These are examples of the most successful fundraisers, whose proceeds go not to the church, but to other ministries in the community. It is easier to get broad community participation when all understand that the money will benefit the whole community and not just the church. A fundraiser need not be large for a church to get known for it. Many people in Swainsboro and around the Diocese look forward to the apple sale put on by Good Shepherd, Swainsboro. And the event need not be a fundraiser. The free Trunk or Treat at King of Peace, Kingsland, brings in hundreds with free pony rides and a free train ride. The total cost is quite low and is covered by King of Peace Episcopal Day School from its advertising budget and no cost to the church.

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 I refer to the event as a signature event for those who do not attend your church will know that it is yours. This is something your church does with or for your community. This will be how many with no church home will first learn of your congregation. Attending an event other than the Sunday liturgy can make it easier for a newcomer to come back later for worship. It lowers the threshold to have already been in the space. This is important because church thresholds are unintentionally high. It is difficult for newcomers to decide to cross them without some good reason, whether that be familiarity with the denomination (rarer in South Georgia) or by knowing someone who attends the church and speaks well of it (always the best method).

What event does your congregation put on each year that is circled on the calendar of those who do not attend your church? What one event could you add that would help your church make it mark on your town? Next week, I will consider one wore  signature, which is probably the more important of the two.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries

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Easter has come and gone and with it attendance numbers any congregation wishes they could meet or exceed every week of the year. Yet, sustaining numbers in attendance means that the congregation will, to some degree, need to meet the needs of those who attend. Yes, we want to give them needs (to love and serve the Lord) they may not already have, but we must begin by meeting their expectations.

What is it that a visitor can reasonably expect from any church? Is your congregation meeting that expectation. For example, parents expect any child care to be safe and loving. A location (a toddler area without child safe outlets) or a caregiver (two middle school girls left alone with the children) can readily fail this test, leaving first time visitors to continue their quest the next Sunday with another congregation.

It is also reasonable to expect that you can arrive at a church to find a combination of people (greeters) and singage that will help you find your way to worship as well as to anything else you need, such as a bathroom and the nursery. Yet, many churches assume that there buildings are self explanatory, or provide signs from the parking lot, but not the street. My wife and I have also on more than one occasion found ourselves waiting longer than expected for a liturgy to start as both the street signs and the website named one time, but the churches had moved the Sunday service to a later time. One visitor will go with the flow, another will head to Shoney’s never to return when they learn that they have an extra hour to wait.

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What do you think? What should every visitor be able to expect of any church? Send your thoughts to me by email at flogue[at]gaepiscopal[dot]org or give me a call at the diocesan office 912-236-4279. First, we need to determine what visitors should expect, then we need to see how to increasingly meet those reasonable expectations and exceed them.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries

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You have just experienced a Holy Lent leading to a meaningful Holy Week and a gloriously joyous Easter. With a nice long nap behind you, why not think again about taking on a seven-week Advent this year?

Historically, the season of Advent was the seven Sundays leading up to Christmas, with the days in between. Currently, and in an unbroken tradition that is centuries old, those in Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate seven Sundays of Advent. The readings in the RCL do not have to be changed to observe this longer season of preparation for both the first coming in Bethlehem or Christ’s second coming at the end of time. In fact, the readings in these last three Sundays of the church year are designed for a longer Advent. One goal of this move is to reclaim the time for preaching and teaching about the second coming as was traditionally part of the season and remains so in truncated form now.

Together with six other congregations in the US and Canada, King of Peace Kingsland too part in an experiment while I was there to expand Advent to its historic length. We used Rite II Prayer B Penitential Eucharist. The prayers of the people are changed weekly, adapted from those in Liturgy Training Publication’s Intercessions for the People. We used a seasonal blessing for Advent from the Book of Occasional Services. We also used liturgist Bill Petersen’s seven Advent collects written for this project (which I can send to interested persons).

In previous years, we had an Advent wreath on the way into worship and replaced that with a seven candle stand to show the same season is lengthened. Music was a huge challenge, but we made it work. This needs improving over time. Some hymns from the Lutheran Book of Worship helped us expand available music. We sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel in the spot of a hymn of praising with verses 1 and 2 in week one, verses 1 and 3 in week two and so on. The preaching reflected seasonal themes found in the texts each week.

Making Advent a Little Lent Once More
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In earlier years, King of Peace offered materials I created on Celebrating Advent in the Home (see www.kingofpeace.org/advent/ ). My wife, Vitcoria, and I revised the booklet last year to take in a seven-week Advent. It is online here: Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord. Victoria and I also feel that an Adventen discipline is in order, hopefully different from Lent. This would take thought and preparation, but could be important. I think suggesting that families take on an Advent discipline specifically designed to counter the rampant concumerism of the season is the direction to go.

Why not make Advent even more counter-cultural at a time of year when the message of the culture (Buy More Stuff to Be Happy) most needs to be overturned? I raised this idea last fall, and offer this reminder to consider how a longer Advent might be a helpful antidote to the season. This is particularly true when Advent starts before the post-Thanksgiving rush. Is this the year for your congregation to return to the historic pattern of a seven week Advent?

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries

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Within the past decade, a church website has gone from a nice add on to an essential way to let those in your community know about your congregation. Where church shoppers once turned to the Yellow Pages, finding a church starts frequently with a Google search. Your church should reflect your church well enough so that a visitor to your website knows some of what is distinctive, what sets you apart from other churches.

Free Websites for all churches in the Diocese
Your church already has access to a free website through the Diocese of Georgia. We are offering a fully-functioning website as large as you need. A wonderful example of this is the website for St. Luke’s, Hawkinsville at http://stlukeshawkinsville.georgiaepiscopal.org

These websites use WordPress as their “engine” which means that the webmaster does not need any special software. With the login and password, the website can be updated from any computer with internet access and a web browser, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome.

Free training for websites
To help get more congregations with a website that works for their needs, I am offering to online training sessions. During the 1.5-hour class, participants will learn how to design and update websites using the free site available through the Diocese. Some may wish to use this same system for creaing a website at their own web domain (such as the site www.trinitystatesboro.org ).
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The first of the classes will meet during the day, on a weekday, the second on a Saturday morning. These classes will be offered online using WebEx, software that will permit those attending the class to watch as I work through updating a webpage. Then as those in the class work on their own sites in the class, they may share their screen as we work through problems together.

This class is for any webmaster authorized by their church vestry. Contact me at the diocesan office or by emailing me at flogue[at]gaepiscopal[dot]org

Once I learn of who is interested, will will find the dates that work for the largest size class.

The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon for Congregational Ministries

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