How a small percentage of the budget built capacity to start new Episcopal ministries
Leveraging a very small percentage of the Episcopal Church’s budget since 2012 has moved the denomination into a new era of evangelism as we have created a network of new ministries reaching out in ways both traditional and innovative. These range from The Abbey, a coffee shop and church in Birmingham, Alabama, and Grace Yukon, the bold restart of a church in Oklahoma, to Hope Sandwiches, a cutting edge idea that uses a food truck to create jobs, feed hungry persons, while funding a church. Here is a quick recap of the movement taking shape in the past five years:
Matching Grants – 2013-2015
In 2012, the General Convention invested $1.8 million of the Episcopal Church’s $111.5 million budget for 2013-2015 in matching grants to fund new ministries. This included 13 church plants and 25 Mission Enterprise Zones, which are “mission and evangelism that engages under-represented groups, including youth and young adults, people of color, poor and working-class people, people with a high-school diploma or less, and/or people with little or no church background or involvement.” Of those, 85% of the new church starts continue today. This compares to the best data on new church starts in a study by LifeWay (The State of Church Planting in the United States) which found across forty denominations that just 68% of new churches are still going as of the fourth year.
But that same LifeWay study from 2009 showed how the number of churches staying sustainable went up markedly when the church planter was assessed for gifts, trained, and coached. While other denominations–including the Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians–had the infrastructure to support that work, the Episcopal Church did not. That has, thankfully, changed in the past two years.
Creating a network of support – 2016-2018
Funding from the 2015 General Convention of the Episcopal Church earmarked $5.8 million for evangelism out of its $125 million 2016-2018 budget. This figure included $3 million in new ministry grants, and an additional $2.8 million for Latino-Hispanic ministry initiatives, new ministry infrastructure, and other evangelism initiatives. Those funds have allowed the Episcopal Church to require an assessment of the new ministry developers for any grant applicants. Those selected to get a grant also receive training, with three events held in 2017 and another coming in early 2018 and more to follow. Then the new ministry developer receives a trained coach to provide an additional level of support and self-accountability. Adding the assessment, training, and coaching are the most significant changes in the Episcopal Churches support of new ministry in recent decades. Not only does this network of support increase the odds of new ministries receiving grants reaching a point of self-sustainability, but the network benefits new ministries not receiving grant funds. In this way, we have leveraged a very small percentage of the overall budget to increase the Episcopal Church’s capacity for new ministry development.
Reaping the benefits of a support infrastructure
Having trained coaches and a pattern for assessment and training will permit the Episcopal Church to offer more support to new ministry developers than in previous years without an ever increasing budget for this area. While the matching grants program is exciting, the assessment, training, and coaching also benefit new ministries that don’t need denomination funds to get started. There are dioceses with capacity to start new churches, but these too will benefit from the infrastructure for supporting new ministries. Then the grant funds can concentrate on the places where new ministries will not start without some monies from the churchwide budget. The confirmation class of Christ’s Beloved Community in Winston-Salem, NC is shown here. Episcopal Bishop Anne Hodges-Copple and Lutheran Bishop Timothy Marcus Smith confirmed them on November 6, 2017.
If we want to reverse the decline in the Episcopal Church, then we should invest in starting new churches. I don’t, however, get excited about reversing decline in the church. This work energizes me because through these new ministries people who are not otherwise being reached are discovering the Good News of Jesus Christ.
What a difference from 20 years ago!
Two decades ago, I was working with a new church start while in seminary. The Diocese of Virginia let me take part in their church planter’s network, which was quite rare at that time. The Dioceses of Texas and Virginia accounted for much of the new church planting taking place in 1997. From 2000-2010, I planted King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland, Georgia. During my last couple of years as a planter, I got to work with Tom Brackett, who has overseen Church Planting and Redevelopment for the Episcopal Church for the past eight years. For much of this time, he simply did not have the budget needed to create this network. Now we see the benefits of the assessment, coaching, and the trainings that gather new ministry developers. Far from social gatherings of like minded people, the communities of practice are networks of support and learning that I know would have benefitted me had they existed when I was planting a church. New Ministry Developers are shown gathered for a training in May at a Franciscan Retreat Center in Arizona.
Today, we see creative new ministries taking root all across the church. Continuing to build and sustain the network of support while offering some matching grants will keep this movement going. I look forward to seeing 20 years from now how the Holy Spirit has enabled this work to reach many more lives with the life-giving Gospel of Jesus.
peace,
Frank
The Rev. Frank Logue, Canon to the Ordinary | The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
Click this image to see a map with all the grant recipients including those in Europe, Central, and South America.
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