Replenish and Renew Exercises at Good Shepherd, Augusta worth following
One of the Diocese of Georgia’s largest parishes is going through a time of self-assessment and renewal and the learning taking place there is helpful to congregations of all sizes.
Congregational Life Cycles
Life cycles are a natural part of the way the world works. Birth and growth followed by decline leading toward death. Yet as an Easter people, we know that renewal and rebirth are possible. Good Shepherd, Augusta’s Rector, The Rev. Robert Fain, writes at a blog devoted to the process, “Moving to the decline side is inevitable and unavoidable for congregations.” While this is the way life works, it does not make the full cycle inevitable.
Fain goes on to write, “The challenge for leaders of these organizations is to recognize when that has happened and to begin to take the necessary steps to renew and revitalize the congregation’s self-understanding and purpose.” Renewal should happen before decline starts or barring that as soon into the decline as possible.
When this process for Good Shepherd began in early 2009, the congregation was in a slow decline in a attendance, but giving was up slightly. While the numbers in attendance and the dollar amount in giving are higher at Good Shepherd, many churches in the Diocese of Georgia have experience a similar pattern of declining attendance together with increased giving on the part of those who remain. To get a more detailed look at the life cycles and Good Shepherd’s own assessment visit robertfain.blogspot.com
The Process of Renewal at Good Shepherd
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Applying this to your congregation
As Canon for Congregational Ministries, I can facilitate your parish or mission in looking at the data, including your average Sunday attendance and giving to assess where your congregation is in its life cycle. In this work, you may find it helpful to consult the free booklet available in PDF form at episcopalchurch.org: The Life Cycle in Congregations.
The key is to then use this insight to harness the deep change which occurs when a congregation develops a shared passion for the ministry or ministries God is calling the group to at a given time. Discovering that your congregation is in decline is one thing. But that insight may already be apparent and in and of itself naming the problem will simply move the process of decline along at a steadier pace. After all, who wants to gather to talk about how badly things are going. But if the reality of the congregation’s current point in it’s life cycle helps first a vestry and then the whole church to reassess its sense of mission and ministry, then the parish or mission can move from despair to hope and from depression to joy.
The way make this shift toward hope and joy is to forge a shared vision for the congregation’s mission and ministry. I am not talking about mission statements, but real, tangible mission. The process toward forging that vision will be the topic of next week’s edition of The Loose Canon.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue+
To come to your church, people need to first know that you exist.
The best way for people to learn of your congregation is by word of mouth as parishioners tell friends and co-workers about their church home. Yet you should not rely on word of mouth alone. Proper signage, a good website, and appropriate advertising can all be important in attracting newcomers to your congregation. In this effort, branding your congregation with a logo can be invaluable. It gives an identifiable look linking all your communications to one another and to the church itself.
Here are some examples of brands created by churches in the Diocese of Georgia
Louise Shipps, created this logo for Christ Church Episcopal, Savannah. The symbolism in the seal is found here: http://www.ccesavannah.org/main/about-christ-church/about-our-seal/ and you can see at the website how the lamb from the seal is adapted for use online.
The above logo for St. Patrick’s Albany also appears as a metal sign beside the church’s entrance.
The St. Paul’s Albany logo uses the distinctive outline of the cross on the altar of the church as it’s central image.
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The Rev. Bill Stewart had the logo above created for the summertime service on Lake Blackshear put on by the people of Christ Church, Cordele. This logo connects to the location of the service and identifies Christ Church as the one providing this outreach ministry.
Further Examples Online
The above are only a sampling. At the websites of Holy Comforter, Trinity in Statesboro, Our Savior at Honey Creek, and King of Peace you will find further examples of churches that have branded an image that clearly links every item produced from bulletins to signage to advertising to the website. By using these images on ads in the newspaper and the sign on the grounds, you will clearly connect the two in the minds of those who have passed by your church.
More in Reach Than You Might Think
Even if you don’t feel ready to take the leap to a logo made by the churches below, consider using a consistent type font in all communications, whether newsletter, advertising or website. An effective example of this is St. John’s, Savannah whose use of a font connects its website (www.stjohnssav.org), Parish Papers and other publications. Be creative in thinking about which font represents your church best. But don’t sell yourself short as a full logo is more in reach than you might think. Put the word out and you may find the skill not necessarily within the congregation, but through an acquaintance of someone in your church you may well find a professional willing to create a compelling design as a donation in kind or for a lower price for a non-profit. And you will want the design you choose to be of the best quality possible as it will go on to represent your church to the community. But any logo, used consistently will boost the effectiveness in linking your communications to your church.
What a Logo Can’t Do
Will a logo do anything to grow your church? Certainly not. And if a logo is not part of a communications strategy, then don’t waste your time on creating a brand for your congregation. But a consistent image, used as part of a plan to make your community more aware of the healing, forgiveness and redemption found with your walls can be one way that the Holy Spirit gets the attention of someone in need of presence of God in their lives. And as everyone in your area shares that need, whether they know it or not, then formulating a communications strategy and creating a logo as part of that process is time and energy well spent.
Note: Change is the only constant other than our Triune God. This weekly email begun last week to go out every Monday, will next week be folded into the new email newsletter From the Field. This separate email will continue as one item in that new weekly email. These emails, together with other items of interest are archived at http://loosecanon.georgiaepiscopal.org/
Missionless Religion Is an Afront to God
“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.”
“The church that wants to partner with God on his redemptive mission in the world has a very different target: the community.”
“The deal is this: we have assumed that if people come to church often enough they will grow. We’ve got to be much more intentional than this.”
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“I can tell you within minutes of arriving on a church campus whether or not a guiding vision is operative, Does the landscaping look like it’s been left up to God to take care of? Does anyone greet me when I enter? Are staff members begging for volunteers? (I don’t mean recruiting—that goes on in organizations with vision. I mean begging, badgering, cajoling, guilting people into service.) Are lackluster or mediocre efforts expended on ushering, singing, custodial services, teaching, signage, and so on?”
“The key is the presence of mission. Missionless religion that calls itself Christianity is an affront to God, however it styles itself.”
The above quotations are each from Reggie McNeal in his book, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church.
Grow Your Church in Just Five Minutes!
Sound like a gimmick? Is it too much to expect to grow a congregation in five minutes? Sure it is. But there is an underlying principle here that can help any congregation be more welcoming to newcomers.
One key issue is that those of us involved in a church will feel that we are a warm, loving place to visit. But as we often only see people with whom we worship when we are at church, we spend our time chatting with them. Teaching the people in your congregation how to go about welcoming someone can give people the confidence to speak up to someone they don’t know.
This is not a minor issue. The New Testament teaches hospitality as a major mark of a Christian community. The Greek word for hospitality is philoxenos, which literally means “love of stranger.” Even if the person arrived at your church as an infant, each person in the pews was once a stranger in your congregation. You would not be the close-knit community you are without having welcomed strangers. But in time, it becomes easier and easier to trust that someone else will speak to the new person. This can lead to a congregation becoming a friendly church where regulars are concerned, but a tough nut to crack for the newcomer.
The best way to learn this lesson anew is to ask vestry, welcome committee or other long-term committed members to visit a church in town of another denomination. Just going and experiencing the welcome elsewhere is as instructive as anything you can teach. Have them come back and share with the vestry or welcome committee what they learned. You may also ask a friend to anonymously test-drive your congregation’s welcome by attending and reporting back what it was like to enter your church as a newcomer.
You may also want to run the brief article below in your church’s newsletter. Also include teaching on this five-minute rule in your new member classes. This is not a gimmick to grow you church. It is a way to teach a congregation anew how to live into the Gospel value of hospitality.
Note: This email is the first in a series of every Monday emails Bishop Benhase asked me to write to share insights into conregational development. The emails are archived online together with other related information at loosecanon.georgiaepiscopal.org. The title honors that a canon (among other church uses of the term) is an assistant to a Bishop, and our Bishop has turned me loose to do what I know how to do to form persons for ministry, discern the right fit between clergy and congregations and to assist in the growth (discipleship as well as numeric growth) of our Diocese.
Frank+
Canon for Congregational Ministries, Diocese of Georgia
Sample newsletter article:
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Some practical suggestions may help you better understand how you can assist [Name of Congregation] in welcoming newcomers. I suggest that persons who consider us their church practice the five-minute rule. Hang around the church for five minutes after the service, either in the sanctuary, narthex or coffee area.
If you see someone you don’t recognize go up and say something like, “Hi I’m _____, I don’t think we have met before.” This won’t offend neither a fellow church-goer you have yet to meet or a visitor. Then take the time to get to know the person.
If in those five minutes you don’t find someone new to greet, talk to those you already know or head on to whatever you have to do next. However, if you make a connection, stay and talk as long as it takes to get to know the person. If he or she has questions you can’t answer, introduce them to someone who can. In future weeks check to see if newcomers you have welcomed in the past are around, search them out and catch up on how they are doing.
Remember that you were once a visitor looking to meet others. Reach out to newcomers in love; welcoming them as you wished someone had welcomed you.
We want to neither ignore newcomers, nor mob them with attention. If someone else is already speaking to a new person or family, it is probably best not to jump in. We can also be unhospitable by overwhelming visitors.
Hospitality will fail if it is a gimmick to grow our church, with no genuine concern for others. We take time to welcome the stranger because offering hospitality is part of who we are to be as Christians. In the process we meet some interesting people.
Cartoon courtesy Dave Walker, The Cartoon Church.
Either a church is missional or it is not the church
The headline comes from a statement that Peter Steinke makes in an article about “mission drift” which is the problem of existing without a clear sense of purpose and direction. It is like the statement, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” But churches should know where they are going, why and how. Steinke writes in the article,
Considering all of the complexities and challenges facing churches, it is amazing that more of them are not on the brink of oblivion or in harm’s way. Many are not using a compass to navigate the hazy conditions created by cultural shift. When consulting with churches embroiled in conflict or paralyzed by passivity, I always ask the congregation, “Does this congregation have a clear sense of its mission?” Typical responses range from “poor sense of purpose” to “running in circles,” from “lack of vision” to “our mission is not to have a mission.” Questions like, Who are we? What is our primary focus? go begging for answers. Then when I ask individuals what they think the mission is, the answers are rote: “spread the word,” “support the church,” “love everyone,” and “preach the Bible.” No one has ever said, “Our mission is to turn the world upside-down,” or “to join God’s ongoing promise to recreate the world,” or “to let the world know that the resurrection means the world has not seen the last of Jesus Christ.” Some members believed their congregation had a sense of mission because they had a mission statement. Sad to say, few knew what it was.
Limping along without a focus is called mission drift. It is what happens when people come together to support an objective but forget what the objective is. People lose their reason for being, even though they go through the motions. Many things contribute to the sidetracking, such as compromising ideals in succumbing to a pressure group, searching for instant viability or solutions, grasping for saviors, fooling themselves that they are vital or viable simply because they endure, preoccupying themselves with nonessentials, exchanging their core beliefs for more marketable ideas, or failing to attend to what God is calling them to do in their little corner of the world.
Steinke says,
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Mission is the expression of the church’s deep, abiding beliefs. Mission provides the major standard against which all activities, services, and decisions are evaluated. Mission is the preserver of congregational integrity. It is about God’s love for the world, not about what I like or don’t like about my church. A major function of the congregation’s stewards is to be the creators and guardians of the mission. They defend the mission against resistant forces that would threaten or destroy it. They oversee the mission’s implementation. They keep the mission alive.
The full text of his article for the Alban Institute is here: Avoiding Mission Drift. It is adapted from his book A Door Set Open: Grounding Change in Mission and Hope.
While I have not read this newer book, I have benefitted a good deal from the insights he offers in Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times: Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What . A sample from that earlier book is online as Twenty Observations about Troubled Congregations which is a helpful treatment of the topic in brief.
What is a Loose Canon anyway?
Loose Cannon
“An unpredictable person or thing, liable to cause damage if not kept in check by others.” The term seems to date not to sailors as sea, but to a Victor Hugo novel Ninety Three (1874) in which cannons are described as being tossed about onboard following a violent incident onboard ship.
Canon
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Loose Canon
An assistant to the Bishop turned loose to do what he knows how to do to form persons for ministry, discern the right fit between clergy and congregations and to assist in the growth (discipleship as well as numeric growth) of the Diocese.
It’s Not About You: an ordination sermon
A Sermon on the Occasion of Four Diocesan Ordinations to the Priesthood
by the Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Numbers 11:16-17; 24-25; Ephesians 4:4-7; 11-16 and John 10:11-18
There will be one flock, one shepherd. This is Jesus’ promise for what the future holds—no scattered sheep, no hired hands trying to lure away the sheep of another shepherd—one flock, one shepherd.
An overview of the service during the sermon
The text could be a bit confusing this morning as we are about to ordain four priests for the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. Their roles will include that of pastor as Bishop Benhase will ask each of the four if he or she will be a faithful pastor to all he or she is called to serve. Pastor is Latin, literally for “feeder” or “one who feeds.” Pastor is the word for “shepherd.” So we are, in a sense creating four new pastors, or shepherds. It would seem that we only need one shepherd, yet here we are praying for God to make four new ones.
Given that I knew well the august body before whom I would be preaching, I did a good bit more research than usual. It was a given that I couldn’t dazzle you with flashes of homiletical brilliance, but I thought I could flex my exegetical muscles a bit and perhaps have something to show for it. I decided to dig down far into the biblical text itself to discover deeper meanings. I hoped that in the Hebrew of the Book of Numbers and the Greek of the Gospel of John, there must be some hidden key to connect the scripture to this occasion. So into the Hebrew and Greek texts I went and what I found there was, in fact, astounding. Well, it is not so much what I found as what I didn’t find.
Not finding something is difficult. It takes much longer to prove conclusively that something doesn’t exist. And so when I found this lack in scripture, I checked various English translations, the several ancient versions including the Syriac and reconstructions of the likely Aramaic expressions represented by the Greek. I checked the key Hebrew words of the Numbers text against more recent findings in Ugaritic. The work was exhaustive and exhausting.
The end result is this. In no single place ever recorded in scripture, either in these passages or any other for that matter could I find the four things I sought the most. I was looking for occurrences of the names Lynn, or Justin, or Bill, or Jim. But they simply do not exist. Not one of you is ever referred to in scripture as The Good Shepherd or anything else.
I can now say conclusively that the scripture readings for this morning are not about the four ordinands. I’m sorry, but it is simply true. These texts are not about you. And the more I have studied on it, the more I have become convinced that this entire ordination service is not about you either—any of you—not the ordinands, not the Bishop, neither me nor the rest of the priests and deacons gathered here, not the congregation either. The scripture we read today, the words of the liturgy, the act of ordination, none of any of this is about any one of us in this place.
I want to show you what I did find. First, we heard the reading from what we call the Book of Numbers. That’s not a very promising title. The Hebrew name for the book is B’Midvar, or In the Wilderness as the text tells of the wandering Children of Israel during part of that 40-year period between crossing the Red Sea out of Egypt and entering the Promised Land. During this time, God was forming a people. As their head, was Moses who spoke to God and mediated for the people. Moses also served as judge over them. Moses has been bearing the burden of the people alone and God calls him through this passage to share the load.
Moses had already been warned of the problem and sought to deal with it. In the account of this found in Exodus Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, saw how Moses went about the task of leadership as a one-man show. Moses was at this stage a father-knows-best kind of leader. Jethro told his son-in-law, “The thing you are doing is not right.” He went on to tell Moses, “You will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you and you cannot do it alone.”
Jethro counseled Moses to set up leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens to resolve minor issues and to only present him with the major disputes of the people. This was for the good of the people as well as for Moses’ own health.
Now in Numbers, God has Moses pray to put some of the spirit that is on him on to seventy elders of the people. Elders. The word in Greek is Presbyteros, from which we get Presbyter. This should resonate with this morning’s liturgy as we are ordaining four presbyters. Moses is told that more elders are needed as his I-can-do-it-all-by-myself approach will not only burn out Moses, but it will also wear out the people.
In the Numbers reading then we get Moses praying for a group of elders who then have the Spirit fall on them, giving them the gift of prophecy which previously was a gift God had only given to Moses. Today, Bishop Benhase and the gathered college of presbyters of the Diocese of Georgia will lay hands on the four ordinands, praying for God to once again give the Spirit to these elders. We will pray for Lynn, Bill, Jim and Justin to each receive that charisms, the gifts, they need to become priests. In this way, Bishop Benhase will share the load he carries as the chief pastor of the Diocese. It would not be good for him to carry the burden of the people alone and so four more presbyters are added to our number in the Diocese.
In the reading from Ephesians, we also find clearly this idea of God giving the Spirit to those who serve, various gifts for ministry. And so some are called to be pastors and teachers and these are given those gifts.
In the Gospel of John however, we find The Good Shepherd. This is the one shepherd with the one flock. The Good Shepherd is no mere hired hand looking out for his own interests. The Good Shepherd is the one who will lay down his life for the sheep.
This is where I find it instructive that none of the names Jim, Justin, Bill or Lynn appear in the text. You are not called to offer up yourselves as a living sacrifice for the people in your care. Jesus already did that. Jesus is The Good Shepherd. There are no job vacancies in that role.
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Yes, of course in the words of the Eucharistic Prayer in Rite One, we are to offer and present unto Almighty God “our selves, our souls and bodies.” But this is what we offer to God. God will then use you for the sake of the Body of Christ, but that is not the same thing as continually sacrificing yourself for the people you serve. You are not their savior. Christ is. Your ministry is sacrificial, but it is Christ who is the sacrifice offered once, for all.
Your role is not to be The Good Shepherd, but to continually point others to The Good Shepherd. This will get confusing for them at times. Whenever you point others to Christ, they will be tempted to see you, rather than looking through you or beyond you, to Christ. That’s OK. Just keep leading them to The Good Shepherd. Just remain transparent. Because this ministry you have is not about you.
Notice the words of the liturgy the Bishop will soon address to the ordinands:
As priests, it will be your task to proclaim by word and deed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to fashion your lives in accordance with its precepts. You are to love and serve the people among whom you work, caring alike for young and old, strong and weak, rich and poor. You are to preach, to declare God’s forgiveness to penitent sinners, to pronounce God’s blessing, to share in the administration of Holy Baptism and in the celebration of the mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and to perform the other ministrations entrusted to you.
This is that which God has called you to this day, to receive the Spirit of God to empower you to love, serve, preach, pronounce blessing share Baptism and the mysteries of Christ’s body and blood and so on. At this point, it would be all to easy to see the priesthood then as about what a priest does. Priesthood as function. But we are not asking God to gift the ordinands to do the work of the priest, but to be priests. This is a 24 hours a day, seven days a week way of being whether one is in a courtroom, a hospital or a church. But even being a priest is not about these four to be ordained.
All of these tasks and this way of being, are done in order to equip the saints for their ministry. For in the words of our liturgy,
All baptized people are called to make Christ known as Savior and Lord, and to share in the renewing of his world.
The common work of all the Christians around the world and through time is to make Christ known as Savior and Lord and so share in renewing all creation. In this work, your role of equipping the saints for their own ministry in the Body of Christ is vital.
This is where proper perspective matters. The perspective I hope to bring by pointing out that these texts of scripture are not about you and neither is our liturgy today. The call experienced by our four ordinands which has been affirmed by their diocesan family is not where the journey to this day began. We have come to this time and place to ordain these four persons to the priesthood because of the needs of a lost and hurting world. We are here first and foremost because there are all around each of us, people who need the forgiveness, redemption and peace found in Christ alone.
It’s true that the lost and hurting people may not know that the healing and peace they seek is available in our churches or in any church. In fact, they may have been so wounded or disillusioned by Christians or experience in other churches that they are convinced that what they need can be found anywhere but here. Yet it is the need of these folks who never darken our church doors that make what happens here today not only necessary, but vitally important. The Good Shepherd knows those lost sheep each by name. The one shepherd is always seeking to expand the one flock and in this you have been called to a particular ministry, one that requires you to be a priest.
Bishop Scott A. Benhase at center with (from left) the Revs. Jim Elliott, Bill Dolen, Lynn Prather, and Justin Yawn.
The four of you are to work through the ministry of Word and Sacrament to build up the Body of Christ in such a way that the baptized persons who are also the ministers of the church, can be about their ministry. This day is not about the ordinands or about any other person here. But this day is about us and the need we feel to be the Body of Christ so that the lost and the lonely find the healing, wholeness and community they need.
The ordinands will now stand to be charged: Justin, Jim, Bill and Lynn, you have been brought to this day by your diocesan family who has seen the light of Christ shining through your lives. We have also seen that God has given you the gifts you need for the ministry of the priesthood.
I charge each of you to ever recall that this light and these gifts are not personal treasures. The light of Christ is not a pocket warmer for your own edification. The light of Christ shining in you is to be a lighthouse guiding others away from the rocky shore and toward the deep waters. The gifts God has given you to enable your ministry are never to point to you and how talented you are, but to the God who gave you those gifts.
Lynn, Bill, Jim, and Justin, you are not here for yourselves. You have come to this time in this place to receive the Spirit in a mighty way, so as to equip you to equip the saints. This is not about you. This is not even exactly about the people in the churches you will serve. This is first and foremost about people who are living in darkness even on this bright Saturday morning. Use the gifts God has given you so as to build the people you are called to serve more fully into the Body of Christ so that fewer and fewer people have to live without the healing and redemption found in Christ alone.
I would like all baptized Christians here today to stand to be charged, for if this sermon is about how ministry is something we all share:
I charge you, the baptized Christians gathered this day to bear witness to Christ where ever you may go, allowing the light of Christ to shine so brightly through your life that those who are lost in darkness may see Christ in you and come to believe in God, who alone can bring healing, forgiveness and redemption.
Amen.
