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Toxic Charity Is a Ministry-Changing Book
Giving to those in need what they could be gaining from their own initiative
may well be the kindest way to destroy people.
-Robert Lupton
In a well reasoned case based on more than 30 years of experience, Robert Lupton’s book Toxic Charity challenges the good done by charities, especially churches, to state boldly that we most often hurt those we wish to help. Lupton is an Atlanta-based author whose day job is in urban ministry whose has created housing for hundreds of families while initiating a wide range of human services for the community. He is an empassioned advocate for Asset Based Community Development that works with people in need to improve.
In his decades of work on the front lines of urban ministry Lupton has found “doing for rather than doing with those in need is the norm” and goes on to write, “Add to it the combination of patronizing pity and unintended superiority, and charity becomes toxic.”
Lupton does not simply write against such cherished ministries as short-term mission trips, soup kitchens and clothes closests, but goes on to make a compelling argument for the fundamental problems and how to overcome them. Using not only examples from his own work, but also from the development work of many others, he demonstrates how to break out of an endless flow of one-way giving.
Lupton works from the twin ideas of mercy and justice which he points out have equal emphasis in scripture. As he writes, “The addict needs both food and treatment. The young woman needs both a safe place to sleep and a way out of her entrapping lifestyle. Street kids need both friendship and jobs.”
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Most importantly, Lupton writes for the need for ongoing relationships saying, “To effectively impact a life, a relationship must be forged, trust built, accountability established. Amd this does not happen in long, impersonal lines of strangers.”
I will say that his writing has shown me why our Companion Diocese of the Dominican Republic has been effective in changing the lives of those around their churches as they do there the hard work of development rather than merely providing services with no road out of trouble for those in need.
The ideas he presents for change are very hope filled, but they are not easy. He mostly wants to tap into the unlocked potential within those in need and to find ways to build that capacity. The 191-page book from Harper One is a quick read, but in my experience, it is not a book that leaves readers unchanged. I encourage you to read and reflect on this book with others, whether in a book study at church or clergy in preparation for a clericus discussion. We need to be challenged to move beyond harming those we most wish to help and in this book there is a roadmap for a more better way.
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
Light shines in the darkness of theater massacre
Below is my commentary for the Episcopal News Service on the shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. It was originally posted here: ENS Commentary
[Episcopal News Service] In the midst of America’s worst mass shooting, there were glimmers of goodness taking place during an event of cold, calculating evil. As the body-armor clad killer methodically shot his way through the Century 16 theater in Aurora, Colorado, some showed the best of what humanity is capable of even amid the carnage.
Patricia Legarretta cried out “My kids!” As chaos swirled around, 19-year old Jarell Brooks saw the mother holding her two children between rows. Brooks helped her get to the aisle and pushed her ahead through an exit door. He walks on crutches now, recovering from a bullet wound in his leg.
Meanwhile, not one, but three men died each using their bodies to shield someone with whom they went to see Dark Knight Rising. Off duty security guard and Navy veteran Jon Blunk pushed Jansen Young down to the floor and under a seat and then covered her with his own 6-foot-2-inch frame. She didn’t know he had been injured until the shooting stopped and she realized Jon was dead, taking the bullets that would have otherwise killed her as well. Samantha Yowler came away with a gunshot wound to her knee, her boyfriend Matt McQuinn died protecting her, putting his body between her and the gunman. Amanda Lindgren likewise reported that her friend Alex Teves died from gunfire while using his body to shield her.
These are only the stories we know because the men died in the process. Beyond these civilians, there was the unparalleled professionalism of the calm voice of the police dispatcher giving the first responders the information they needed to stop the gunman and save lives. Then there were the numerous police, firefighters and paramedics who willingly rushed into the maelstrom of panic and fear for what could have been their final call.
Imagining a loving God in this tragedy, it would be easy to wish that the 24-year old shooter, James E. Holmes, would have been struck down by a lightning bolt out of a cloudless sky as he walked toward the theater with murderous intent. Why didn’t Jesus intervene with a blinding light and a commanding voice to set things right? That’s not how the world works.
The Problems and Promise of General Convention
I have run the gauntlet of my fourth General Convention of The Episcopal Church. For ten grueling days, many working 14 and even 16 hours, I served alongside more than 840 deputies from 111 dioceses. We considered 416 resolutions, amending and approving of a dizzying array of resolutions. It is difficult to convey the size and scope of the General Convention. Each deputy or even deputation can do little to make their mark on the work of the convention.
As we tried to demonstrate in the Deputation’s Journal, the real work of the General Convention takes place in two dozen committees that hold hearings on resolutions and have the time to work on crafting the text before it reaches the floor of the house of initial action, whether this is the House of Deputies or the House of Bishops. One can watch as thoughtful testimony in hearings does influence the final text of the resolutions. But with hearings going on concerning more than 400 resolutions, one must pick her or his battles and track some resolutions, while having no input on hundreds of others.
For better or worse, your Georgia Deputies worked to track the budget process, follow the work on restructuring the church; the resolution to add Deaconess Alexander to our calendar through Holy Women, Holy Men; and the two resolutions related to communion without Baptism. Also, as Bill Steinhauser of our deputation was on the subcommittee working on the proposed trial rite for blessing Same Sex Relationships, we also were involved in committee work on that resolution.
Despite the intentions of deputies to not pass meaningless resolutions (such as affirming that The Episcopal Church is opposed to sex trafficking) or resolutions that call on someone else to do something (such as the US congress to take action), with resolution after resolution going by on voice votes supported by a super majority of Deputies, calling out opposition gives one the good feeling of taking a personal stand, but does not slow the action of the body.
Remember the case of the radio show host who became addicted to pain pills, to the tune of 60 per http://icks.org/data/ijks/1482460671_add_file_5.pdf viagra prices in usa day? We live in a drug culture here in the U.S. But you really don’t need to levitra sales online worry about anything because your security is guaranteed. Thus, best online viagra their partner no longer remains attractive for these guys. Protective measures against Breast Cancer Causes Doctors and healthcare practitioners are of the view that apart from a few spices), icks.org cheap cialis professional is the perfect supplement for a top model. In a thought experiment, which is not a proposal, but a way of considering proposals, I wonder what the General Convention would have been like if we had agreed in advance to pass no more than 5 resolutions total, other than housekeeping work on the canons or courtesy resolutions of thanks (such as to the host Diocese which did so much work). Much more thought would have gone into what was the most worthy. We could have focused on changing ourselves, rather than saying what many could assume to be true (I hope no one thinks any Christian church is in favor of sex trafficking) or calling on others to change.
As a deputy, I was one among 841. And your deputation, even when united, was only one among 110. Most everything passed with a three quarters majority or more. Until The Episcopal Church as a whole decides to change how it goes about governing itself, there will be little any deputy or diocese can do. For this reason, I am optimistic about and committed to work to help reflecting the change we want to see in the church even as we advocate for change within the church to more emphasis on mission and much less on administration and governance. The video below is one I created to point toward this hope.
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
Nomination for President of the House of Deputies
I quickly made the video above after discerning that I should agree to nomination as President of the House of Deputies of The Episcopal Church. It is an important role in leading the senior house of the General Convention which assures the voices But, you should remember that the other companies do not have http://valsonindia.com/about-us/company-profile/?lang=af viagra generika the authority to produce the nitric acid. Causes of Priapism Although the exact cause are not known, some of them may include the following: * It is very effective yet less expensive.* It is manufactured through standard, state of the art and good manufacturing processes.* There are number of tadalafil 5mg online Kamagra medications and deliver the product at the patient’s doorstep. These yeast infections popularly known as thrust discount bulk viagra increases with increase in blood sugar concentration. You can buy Kamagra online through any of reliable vardenafil tablets pharmacy at reasonable prices. of lay persons as well as clergy and bishops are part of the councils of our church. It is also an important office between conventions. I ask for prayers for all the nominees and prayers for discernment for the deputies as we seek nothing less than God’s will.
I created these three videos for the General Convention of The Episcopal Chuch meeting in Indianapolis. The one above is my take and below are Tom Ferguson and the bottom video is Susan Snook speaking on this General Convention.
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Human suffering is ubiquitous. What makes Jesus’ death on the cross is not what humans did to Jesus, but that God responded with love to hate and with life to death. This Thirteenth Stations video goes with four previously posted videos as part of a series of 16 I am creating (the fourteen stations plus prologue and epilogue to frame them in a context)
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Video created by Frank Logue. Music is the hymn “Go to Dark Gethsemene” played on the dulcimer by Joshua Varner.
Quit Thinking of the Church as Family
“Whoever does the will of my Father
in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
~Jesus (Matthew 12:50)
If you are like me, that headline brought you up short. I didn’t write it, but encountered it on the Internet along with a thoughtful essay by United Church of Christ Minister Tony Robinson. He takes issue with the analogy of thinking of a “church family.”
As someone who has routinely written about a “church family” and even a “diocesan family,” I am quite comfortable with the image. Yet, I have to admit that all analogies fail in some ways and he points to the flaws in this one. He cites the results of a national firm’s ministry audit for a church he was assisting that said the church needed to end the internal conflict and to quit thinking like a family. They went on to say, “The purpose of the church is to transform both society and individuals to be more Christ-like. This concept goes way beyond family.”
Robinson cautions that churches that think of themselves as a family are more likely to opt for comfort and satisfaction and focus on keeping people happy. He also writes, “Families sometimes keep secrets that shouldn’t be kept in order to keep from bringing shame on the family name. And families aren’t typically that easy to join.” I have to admit he has a point and to that degree he’s right, we are falling far short of the mark set by God. Our purpose is something more than making one another happy or having a club where everyone knows your name.
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Robinson helpfully adds, “If we must use ‘family,’ we should be aware of the way that Jesus, while using ‘family,’ also subverts conventional understandings of family and challenges their usual boundaries with a thoroughly new vision of ‘family.'”
His full essay is online here: Quit thinking of the church as a family. How does the image of a church as family help or hinder? Does it get in the way of the work of the Gospel or help it along?
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
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What expectations do we have of ourselves and others as Christians? How do Christians act? What do Christians do? Or, put another way: What, concretely, are the practices of a Christian life?
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These are the sorts of questions we as the church can easily avoid in our week and and week out liturgies, Sunday School and Bible study. But it is precisely in getting specific about the practices of a Christian life that the Church of the Good Shepherd in Augusta has crossed the line from preaching into meddling in order to challenge the People of God in that congregation to refect their faith and beliefs in their daily life.
The specifics are spelled out in a newly released 20-page booklet called “Following Jesus” which puts meat on the bones of nine practices: Sabbath Keeping, Household Economics, A Life of Christian Discernment, Practicing Hospitality, Honoring the Body, A Life of Prayer and Study, Testimony, Service, and A Holy Death.
In a move I find quite interesting and helpful each of these nine areas is presented from a traditional Christian context and then from the perspective of the emerging cultural context of today. One example of this is that the booklet acknowledges that one’s work may make keeping Sabbath on Sunday prohibitive and challenges readers to consider how to plan and be intentional to make another day of the week the Sabbath if it can’t be Sunday.
In the words of the booklet, “The intent is not to become rigidly proscriptive, but to establish common and shared understanding of just what a particular practice means at Good Shepherd.”
The effect of this thoughtful and thought-provoking text is to move the congregation of Good Shepherd from being spectators to active participants in the faith we proclaim as Jesus’ followers. I am personally challenged by this booklet and hope that it will be widely read and discussed well beyond Good Shepherd. I recommend this booklet for groups in your church to read and discuss.
All of us need to be proded to not simply assent to the ideas of Christian doctrine, but to also put our faith into practice in our daily lives. “Following Jesus” is a useful step in that direction which guides us not just through timeless Christian practices, but through the realities of living into these practices in a culture increasingly divorced from its Christian roots. The PDF ofthe booklet is online here: Following Jesus
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
Steady Growth at St. Patrick’s, Albany
In the past two years, the congregation of St. Patrick’s has experienced a 38% increase in its Sunday attendance going from 73 in 2009 to 90 in 2010 and 101 in 2011. This growth has come by attending to the basics of being the Body of Christ in worship, in welcome, in pastoral care and in Christian education. Rather than some one “silver bullet” approach, the congregation, under the ordained leadership of its rector, the Rev. Jay Weldon who was hired in 2009, it has been a matter of tending to the basics.
In the early 2000s, St. Patrick’s committed to a process of redevelopment as a congregation that had endured some rough years. Then in the mid 2000s, St. Patrick’s sold its property which was off the beaten track in Albany, worshiped in a Methodist Church at an earlier time, and built in their current location. Two years later, Weldon was called to St. Patrick’s to build up the parish.
While continuing to emphasize the worship life of the church including celebrating the feasts of the church year, the church began by expanding opporunities for children and youth. After these were underway a Bible study for young adults was created which brought them in, together with their young children. Communications were also boosted through both weekly emails and a frequently-updated website. With Weldon’s leadership, the parish began a relationship with two congregations in Azua, in the Dominican Republic making several trips to our Companion Diocese in recent months. But it has been sustained attention to the basics of being the church while being a welcoming community of faith that have resulted in growth.
Bobby Smith says that when he first attended the church, he and his wife Laura were complete strangers, but that soon changed. He said that three things immediately stood out, “The members of the church were so warm and friendly that we immediately felt very at ease as if we had been attending for years. Second, when we left the church service, we felt we had been to a worship service rather than a performance. Third, we loved the formality of the service: the readings from the Bible, the bowing to the cross and altar, the kneeling, and celebrating the Eucharist at each service.”
Prior to that first visit, he said that he and his wife had been wanting to grow spiritually and had visited several churches without finding a church home. Then after one visit to St. Patrick’s, he said, “Our impression was that we were worshipping God by humbling ourselves before a holy God and giving him all honor and praising his holy name.”
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In 2011, St. Patrick’s celebrated its 50th anniversary, which called on the long time strengths of the parish and built anew on its history including inviting older members back.
Barbara Durham remembers that she and her husband Jim had been active for many years at St. Patrick’s Albany and were happy until as she puts it, 
“Family illnesses and other responsibilities became convenient excuses for us to forget about church.” As she saw members of the church, they would invite them back. On returning to their church home she says, “We were welcomed back with warm smiles, handshakes, and hugs on our returning Sunday. As we walked into the sanctuary we felt God’s spirit surround us with love. By the end of the service we knew we had come home. But more importantly, Jim and I knew God lives in this place.”
The Rector, the Rev. Jay Weldon, said, “From the first time that Alison and I walked into the church, we recognized St. Patrick’s as a warm, caring and loving place with unrealized potential.” He went on to say, “This is the basic resource on which we have built and my part in the growth of the parish has been easy.” He credits the labor of love of the many people of the parish with its sustained growth.
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
Olivia de Havilland on Reading in Church
As Anglicans, we stongly believe in the power of scripture and the importance of reading scripture in our worship. Our worship has a dual emphasis of both Word and Sacrament and a significant amount of sacred scripture is read each time we gather to worship. Having the scripture read so that all hear and understand is then very important to liturgy done well. (Mimi Jones is pictured reading the Epistle at Christ Church Episcopal, Savannah)
I remember being struck by how well the readings in worship were done when I first visited Virginia Theological Seminary. There was a reading from a complicated argument being put forward by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans which I heard so clearly that it was compelling in a way I had not previously encountered. I was struck then by the power of scripture itself to strike a chord before anyone comments on it. The sermon that day was not on the reading from Romans, yet I left the chapel still ruminating on the reading as well as on the Gospel on which the sermon did focus.
Oscar winner Olivia de Havilland (pictured here and below) has been for many years a lay reader at our Cathedral of Holy Trinity in Paris. Recently, the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whelon, Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, wrote an essay for Anglicans Online on his interview with her on how she prepares to read in church. She says in part that “reading the Scriptures in church has to be an authentic proclamation of the reader’s faith. Preparation is essential – there are far too many last-minute readings in our churches.”
She points out what a difference it makes for the reader to pray through the text and wrestle with its meaning before proclaiming the text in worship. The full article is well worth reading. It is online here Reading the Bible as a Statement of Faith. The award winning actress does not recommend a dramatic reading, but reading must flow out of the faith of the reader. Yet she does come around to an actor’s understanding. She told Bishop Whelon “I once asked Jimmy Cagney, ‘just what is acting?’ He said at first, ‘I dunno…’ But then he said, ‘All I know is that you have to mean what you say.'”
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In Romans 10:14 Paul writes, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” But lay readers should also know that in their public proclamation of God’s Word that a congregation can also hear and so come to believe.
I know that nothing is more formational than encountering the Word of God and so nothing can be more foundational to our liturgies than scripture read well. I commend this essay to all who read scripture in our congregations.
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
What do a water slide or an ice cream social have to do with such weighty topics as liturgy and mission? At the currently fastest growing congregation in the Diocese, amping up the energy at parish events that emphasize fun has connected folks more deeply to one another and so made real the community of love, grace, and forgiveness we all want our church to be.
The congregation of St. Anne’s, Tifton has over the past four years been coming back from a decline. After longtime rector the Rev. Jacoba Hurst retired, St. Anne’s dwindled to a third of its previous size. By 2008, the Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) was down to 98. The next year, the Rev. Lonnie Lacy was called as rector, and in the years since, the attendance and overall energy level of the church have gone up. Some of that has been, of course, the natural bump one expects when a new priest is called after an interim period. This certainly helps explain attendance in 2009 of 124. But the following year the ASA was 141 and last year it was 151. There is sustained growth of more than 50% from 2008 to present.
In considering numeric growth for The Loose Canon articles, I try to find something in growing congregations that might be useful to other churches. Obviously, there are many factors in growth, including the demographics of the area, which are not repeatable outside a given context. At St. Anne’s, however, one principle in effect that should be considered by others is the sense of “play” at work in our Episcopal Church in Tifton. The idea of congregational recreation certainly predates Lacy’s arrival at St. Anne’s. Some point to the hearty fellowship that emerged during the Rev. Arnold Bush’s rectorship in the 70’s and 80’s, which has continued through the years with fellowship events at the homes of several longtime lay leaders such as Roy Rankin.
On becoming rector, Lacy began by looking at the liturgical calendar for opportunities to connect the great feasts of the Church to events that express this other side of the parish’s life-a love of having fun together. At Pentecost, they borrow the name of the “Holy Ghost Weenie Roast” from a Trinity, Statesboro event and place it at the end of Eastertide. 
Pentecost Sunday is celebrated with high mass at the church. That afternoon a party is held alongside a lake. Some folks fish, play horseshoes, or volleyball, while others grill and share a pot luck feast. There is a bounce house and a large water slide enjoyed by both kids and adults. The Senior Warden might be seen sliding together with the youngest acolyte. This a time when young and old alike have fun together. The congregation celebrates its Rally Sunday on the first Sunday of the school year with a festive Sunday service and fun including serving a whole hog (and a priest has to kiss the hog as shown below with the Rev. David Rose doing the honors).
To the All Saint’s liturgy, they added greater emphasis to their Eve of the Feast celebrations with a carnival and Trunk or Treat. The adults fully take part with the kids and enjoy dressing up, decorating their cars, and giving out candy. Hay rides, carnival games, a bonfire, and a cookout round out the intergenerational fun. For Christmas, the congregation takes part in the Tifton Christmas Parade to have fun while spreading their name in Tift County as a vibrant and happy place. In addition to these, there are numerous other times for sharing food and fun. During the summer, one pot luck designated “Garden Fresh Day” to enjoy food from the gardens of the parish. A homemade ice cream social on the feast day of St. Anne gets deadly serious in its fun with judges rating the best ice cream.
St. Anne’s parishioner Leeann Culbreath says, “It helps that we now have two young rectors and an influx of young families in our parish. But that is not necessary for adding in more play to community life, and it doesn’t have to involve bouncy houses or water slides. Play can be had in activities like art, gardening, cooking, games, dancing, talent shows, or a good-natured competition for a worthy cause.”
Another parishioner puts it, “We know to expect the unexpected at St. Anne’s, and that keeps us coming back.”
The Church Father Tertullian wrote in his Apologetics that others would look at the early Christians and say, “See how they love one another.” So seldom is that said of us today. But structuring times for playing together can make a congregation’s life all the more meaningful, including its life of worship.
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Lacy says, “If we didn’t play when and how we do at St. Anne’s, our worship would feel very different. Because we know, love, and enjoy one another outside of worship, the bonds expressed and experienced in worship are made even stronger. We come to God’s altar pre-gifted with a deep love for each other, and we want to invite others into that love.”
This Holy Week just passed shows how play and worship come together. St. Anne’s enjoys a full Holy Week with daily liturgies. These are very solemn worship services. The Easter Vigil already has some unexpected elements, such as lighting a large fire in the nave of the church, which fits a sense of play. St. Anne’s also used resources for the Old Testament readings to make the telling of the stories of the faith more interactive and lively. Then when the congregation processed outside for an outdoor baptism with a child immersed three times in the water of baptism, the smiles of the gathered congregation express the deep joy that comes from bearing one another’s burdens and sharing one another’s joys. This was solemn worship, centered on dying with Christ in baptism and so being raised with him, yet it was also fun, joyful, and grace-filled.
Culbreath says, “Good play is usually at least a little messy. So we get to be real and messy and imperfect together. That is a real gift in a society that pushes the perfect image.”
Lacy added, “The relationships in the people of St. Anne’s cause our worship to be what it is. Because we have laughed together, we’re more able and ready to heal, grow, love and forgive together, too.”
Our churches are to be places of love, grace, and forgiveness, which are more readily found among people who have learned to let their guard down around each other and, in that vulnerability, have found it’s a safe place to be oneself. This is how a water slide can connect to liturgy and mission. How might your congregation consider the work of the people to include playful fun as well as solemn worship?
The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
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Stations of the Cross Videos — one, four, eight and fourteen
Human suffering is ubiquitous. What makes Jesus’ death on the cross 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.
Video created by me with music from the hymn “Go to Dark Gethsemene” played on the dulcimer by Joshua Varner. These are the first four of an intended set of 16 videos giving the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross together with a prologue and epilogue. These were created on Good Friday 2012.
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Tracking Mission & Sharing the Data
Following my recent three columns on the dashboard of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church, I received an enewsletter from the Church of the Holy Comforter in Martinez reporting to the congregation the amount of mission being done by those who attend the church. The newsletter listed
“169 hours every week. Wow. This is the total man hours collectively spent each week by the Prayer Shawl Ministry, who create a variety of knitted articles given away to remind people of the love of Jesus. And this is a low estimate as we only heard from 17 knitters; many more men and women are associated with this ministry. Thank you for this act of love and devotion.
Lakeside Mentors: Each week 16 volunteers spend a total of 33 man hours mentoring 33 students.
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What mission-focused data might you share with your congregation to celebrate how your congregation is serving its community?
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
Tracking Trends in Your Congregation
With the most recent two Loose Canon columns, I have told about the Dashboard initiative within the Methodist Church which started in their North Alabama Conference. Then last week, I pointed out some problems with the downside to watching the numbers week by week. To counter this problem, while using various indicators to keep an eye on the fruit being born by the ministry of your church, I recommend tracking trends over time.
Quarterly and Semi-Annual
In specific, I recommend that you pay no attention to any given week. No church is fully itself on any Sunday and so you shouldn’t get excited about a week of atypically high attendance or offerings, or even two of these in a row. Similarly, you should not concern yourself with one or two low weeks in giving, or attendanc, or whatever else you are tracking. Instead use the trendline option in your spreadseet program (you do keep up with all your key data in Excel or other similar program, right?) to track quarterly and semi-annual trends. These flatten out given Sundays, but still provide an ongoing look at how the ministry is doing in some objective ways. To do this, select trendline, then creating a rolling average across 12 weeks and 26 weeks. When these trends show rising or falling, there is more significance to the data. The trends will still rise with Easter and fall in the summer, but quite gently and the picture they create over time is all the more telling.
Tracking More Trends
Now that you are tracking trends, don’t stop with Average Sunday Attendance and weekly offering, but add the indicators significant to showing the difference your congregation is making. For a church with a feeding program, you can track both meals served and hours of service by volunteers. You can track mid-week participation in all of the church’s activities. The possibilities go on and on and I don’t want to get you so lost in a sea of numbers that you fail to share the love of God with those both in your chuchand those who will likely never darken its doors. Numbers alone will never show vitality. However, numbers do matter as we find that typically when we are faithful, that shows in some ways.
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Beyond Means of Quantifying
The ways most significant to a pastor’s heart will never find a box in a spreadsheet, for their is no real way to numerically track lives changed for the better by the Gospel. The hospital visits that went well and led not to the hoped-for physical healing, but did lead to a person at peace with his or her death and a family gathered lovingly around for that time, will completely elude this tracking of trends. But don’t let these gloriously significant moments which delight the heart of God prevent you from keeping watch over the trends of the congregation where you serve as vestry, vicar or rector.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
No congregation is fully itself on any given Sunday. In some ways each week is exceptional. We see this most fully (and somewhat painfully) when visitors come and the organist is out sick and half the choir must have stayed up late watching a football game or when visitors decide to come on Trinity Sunday, when the seminarian the Rector arranged to preach decides to actually explain the divine nature of the Godhead clearly and distinctly, and so, somewhate hertically.
Last week, I shared the experiment in accountability taking place in the United Methodist Church’s North Alabama Conference. There, Bishop Will Willimon has each congregation reported key statistics every week and sharing them on the conference website.
Most clergy already have enough trouble with judging too much of their effectiveness in ministry by how the previous Snday went. The priest is full of self-confidence after a particularly good attendance Sunday where the sermon seemed to reasonate with the gathered flock only to drop the next week after a low attendance on a week when everything seemed to come together, but fewer than usual were there to join in worship. This focus on the church’s numbers on a week by week basis is something to discourage in clergy and we certainly wouldn’t want that particular virus to spread to laity. After all, we are about the work of being the Body of Christ and that is something that slips through the cracks of a system that focuses on numbers as if these are the only measure of faithfulness to the Gospel.
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This middle path is to track trends over time and to do so using both the metrics of The Episcopal Church’s Parochial Report and some indicators that never appear on any denomination’s annual accounting. I will take this up in next week’s Loose Canon.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia was hosted once again by St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church on MLK Drive and their Rector, the Rev. Cheryl Parris. The event included a youth lock in with some significant teaching on the Civil Rights Movement. Then a much larger group joined the youth to walk and sing. Herbal levitra price in india ingredients: As mentioned earlier, Sfoorti capsule is made out of completely natural ingredients. It helps to supplementprofessors.com viagra sample free ejaculate old semen and make room for new semen. Keep all medicines away from children and pets. viagra canada pharmacy contain Tadalafil is indicated with the treatment of men with male impotence (ED). That is the reason; the cost of viagra generico uk the advertisement also adds a lot of dollars to the market retail price of the drug. Thanks to A.L. Addington who chaired the event and the churches who took part. The video tries to capture both the parade and the youth seeing videos of Dr. King and others.
If you were a Methodist Church in North Alabama, those words would have already brought a strong reaction, pro or con. For it is there in the North Alabama Conference that Methodist Bishop and noted preacher Will Willimon Pictured below) has created an accountability experiment of unprecedented scope. Every church in his conference reports on key statistics every week. Then those statistics are reported every week for the whole world to see and ponder.
The dashboard is online here North Alabama UMC Dashboard with its count of membership, attendance, baptisms, professions of faith, people serving, people served, apportionments paid, and a ratio of attendance to membership. Then you see charts of churches with the biggest membership gain, the most baptisms, professions of faith and so on.
This experiment started in 2009. Since then, every congregaton in the conference logs on every Monday to fill in a report which goes live with the latest data. Within the Methodist Church their General Council on Finance and Administration has created a program VitalSigns which generates dashboards and they are working to get every conference to take that approach.
At the Church Leadership Conference I helped lead this past weekend at Kanuga, keynote speaker Reggie McNeal emphasized that what we count and celebrate matters. In The Episcopal Church it is Parochial Report time and we make the most out of numbers in worship (Average Sunday Attendance), numbers of baptisms, and the income and expenses of the budget. But we never ask how many people served others and how many the congregation served. While we ask about baptisms and adult baptisms, we do not refer to professions of faith. But if we are all about changing lives for the better and going out to love and serve the Lord, then perhaps we should find better metrics than mere the number of noses in the nave or dollars in the plate.
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The dashboard model put forward in North Alabama is controversial. Many say that the focus on numbers takes the focus off people and ministry. This article at the UM Portal helps capture sentiment in that denomination: http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=7913
I do see problems with this approach, but benefits as well if there are some tweaks made to it. First, I am not advocating this as a diocesan wide program, but do think vestries need to watch the numbers. Over the next two weeks, I will share what I think are the flaws in this system and how a congregation can benefit from the pros of watching numbers while avoiding most or all of the pitfalls.
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary
