|
|
| For CURRENT month's Connectings..., Click HERE
February, 2011
Regionalization, Imagination and Willpower
What do these three words have in common? Richard Longworth - a writer for the Chicago Tribune and a fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in his book Caught in the Middle suggests that they are the necessary ingredients for restoring life to a failing Midwest America.
Longworth describes how the Midwest, once the very heart and value consciousness of America is dying at the expense globalization. Globalization being the driving force of a dramatic change affecting all of our lives. As Midwestern values are grounded in a sense of permanence, we aren’t handling this transformation well. Longworth describes how our once prosperous small town farming communities are becoming the “slums” of a new world order as we displace our youthful idealism and our jobs to the global big city centers of technology in America, China and India.
But it’s not downhill in all of our Midwest’s small towns. Growth is occurring in many bedroom communities and in communities where a corn based agriculture is benefiting from biotech and methane manufacturing, and by manufacturing based on a Hispanic Immigrant work force. These growth anomalies unfortunately are exceptions and not the rule. Longworth says we small town Midwesterners need an “attitude transplant.” He suggests we need to stop being the self-sufficient loners portrayed in the iconic image of the Midwesterner in the “American Gothic” painting by Grant Wood. We have to change. We need to start to work together in new ways (regionalization). Instead of fighting the flow, we need to go with it and imagine/create our own regional centers that can compete in a global market. We need regionalization, imagination and willpower.
So what does all of this have to do with us Episcopalians in the Midwestern Diocese of Eau Claire? Clearly we too have and are experiencing a diminishing sustainability. Are regionalization, imagination and willpower avenues for us to consider on the road that leads to a more prosperous future? I think so.
Regionalization: Five of our northernmost congregations have begun to meet together (three clergy and five laity) to begin to imagine how they might support one another, share resources and together offer a ministry that would not be possible if done individually. The two Lutheran (ELCA) bishops that overlap our diocesan territory have indicated to me a strong desire to share resources and work together in mission to create a more significant ministry to the growing needs of our small town communities. These past two weeks and during this present month of February (in my “free time”) I am connecting with the clergy, leadership and grassroots of the Diocese of Fond du Lac to explore what we might begin to do together to further the health and vigor of our Episcopal mission to northern Wisconsin. As you know, one of the outcomes of our new vision as a diocese is to “junction” with Fond du Lac.
Imagination: Imagination is deeply linked to education, hope and risking. These past three months have begun to give way to a new hope in our future based on a new confidence in our present identity. Our new identity slogan claims that we are a YES people ready to engage (risk) a new future. From what I am experiencing I believe our growing edge is in education and formation. I have asked our clergy to offer new “inquirers” classes this Epiphany and Lenten seasons for any and all who want to deepen their understanding and commitment of what it means to be a life giving Episcopal Christian at this challenging time of history. I hope that when I come to our three regional confirmation gatherings in May that many of you will present yourselves for the Sacrament of Reaffirmation.
Willpower: A transformed diocese will not happen by itself. It will require many decisive acts of courageous commitment. I have long thought and taught the most needed and most potent leadership characteristic for an emerging new Christendom is perseverance. I am not speaking of stubbornness. I mean the ability to hang in there against all odds. Years ago Karl Menninger wrote that the greatest sin of our age was “acedia” or giving up. How often do we cry out, “I give up,” “what’s the use,” or “who cares?” One of our “old fashioned” Midwesterner values was willpower. I believe it’s still there. Our children need to see us modeling this kind of heroic behavior.
Truly, this is a great time to be alive. I am so blessed to be your bishop. We are blessed to have before us the possibility of creating a new diocese. It won’t be easy. We will need all of the willpower, imagination and connecting that we can muster. May God bless our endeavors.
+Ed
January, 2010 Seeing: The Gift of Epiphany
Years ago while my granddaughters were visiting, we spent time together writing and producing a homemade DVD movie which the girls named, “The Adventures of Furby and I-Dog.” As I entered the creatively rich world of a ten and eight year old, I was deeply impressed and energized by their ability to see and to imagine. Would that we could keep those gifts of perception as we “grow up” in what we adults call the “real world.”
In the Service of Baptism we pray that the newly baptized will exercise the “gift of joy and wonder in all God’s works.”
The season of epiphany is about seeing; really seeing; seeing deeply; seeing beyond the common place. The shepherds saw the glory of the heavenly hosts. Moses saw a flaming bush. What are you seeing these days?
Too often we get so locked into the concerns and challenges of the day that we miss seeing the incredible future that God is offering to enfold all around us.
It’s not easy to get from seeing things in an old way to a new and deeper way. For example:
Ken Olsen, founder and of Digital Equipment Corp. said in 1977: “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Decca Recording Co. rejected the Beatles in 1962 saying: “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers said in 1927: “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk.”
One hundred years ago, Einstein saw a vision of waves that gave birth to the truth that time is not an absolute and that matter and energy are interchangeable. Seventy five years ago Max Born envisioned a universe that has the potential of existing in multiple forms. Relativity, Quantum, Chaos, Complexity and String theories are new windows to see through to experience the wonderful and mysterious strangeness of God’s creation. Almost all of the great intuitive jumps towards new and deeper truth are made by open-eyed scientists who were also either artists or musicians.
Playfulness, art, drama, stories, dreams, music are all vehicles that help unblock and transform old ways of seeing that no longer fit a newer awareness of reality.
We are hearing more and more about paradigm shifts these days. How able and flexible are you in seeing God’s world in a new and deeper way? The following list may test your awareness and adaptability.
Old Paradigm | New paradigm | Life happens to me. | I happen to life. | I am the product of circumstances. | I can intentionally recreate circumstances. | We are passive observers of a static and basically changeless reality. | We are interactive participants in an unfolding and dynamic reality. | We can observe something without changing it. | We cannot observe anything without changing it. | The Universe is mechanistic, simple and predictable. | The Universe is organic, complex and unpredictable. | There is an ultimate explanation (model, formula, doctrine) for all things. | Ultimately, Life is Mystery - forever unfolding and unpredictable. | I can never be like the historical Jesus. | We have been baptized into the Body of Christ. We are an evolving work in progress. We will do even greater works then Jesus has done. (John 14:6-14) |
For more about the “new” paradigm which is grounded firmly in Scripture, read Brian McLaren’s, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith. This would make an excellent study book for Lent.
+Ed
| |
| | December, 2010 Birthing our Future Story
Have you seen the movie Australia? It takes place in the outback of Australia’s Northern Territory with spectacular scenes from Darwin in the early 1940’s as the war with Japan is just beginning. The movie has special significance to me as I was the acting Dean of the Cathedral in Darwin in 1981-2. Darwin has long been colorfully described as a place for “misfits, missionaries and malcontents."
In the film – at a time when things were not going well - a young Aboriginal boy explains to the hero’s Aussie drover and the heroine’s English aristocrat that “their stories are their only real and ultimately meaningful possessions.” Dream time (past and future) for the Aboriginal was, and still is, the heart and focus of their reality. In order to be fully human you had to know the stories of your ancestors. Just as important was the discovery of your own unique destiny in the future. As we immerse ourselves in the Jesus stories of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, one can’t help but notice how important the stories of Israel’s past and the Son of Man’s visions of the future were to Jesus. Jesus joined the Hebrew people where they were and spoke of his life as fulfilling prophesies of their ancient traditions. Jesus knew who he was. He located himself in Israel’s story. He also had a vision of what life at its best should look like (see Matthew 5 - Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount). Jesus not only had a vision of what it was to be fully human, he lived it. He taught us not to trust in or hold onto our physical possessions, but to let go of our stuff and to risk giving our lives away for something greater then ourselves. In the end Jesus died with nothing – nothing material. He did however die possessing many relationships and followers, and he died with a Story. Jesus’ Story in a nutshell is the Story of his Crucifixion (a story where He says “yes” to giving his life away) and of his Resurrection (God’s amazing power to transform). As Christians, we struggle to find our story in Jesus’ Story. Jesus’ Story lives on as we live Jesus’ Story in the circumstances of our own lives. Jesus’ Story is a story of transformation. All great stories (from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Harry Potter) are stories of transformation. As we begin another new year it is helpful to reflect on where we’ve been and on where we are going. How is your story shaping up? How is your congregation’s story evolving? What is the future of our Diocesan story? Bringing consciousness to our stories (our journeys) is what healthy spirituality is all about. One of my jobs as your Bishop Provisional is to help you bring consciousness to our Diocese’s evolving story. When there is confusion about who we are and where we are going, there is often a consequential lack of energy, confidence and purpose in our lives. This is certainly true in our individual lives. So it is true in our Diocesan life as well. I have asked all congregations in our Diocese to begin to think about five questions during this coming Advent, Christmas and Epiphany seasons. The questions are intended to help us re-envision our story, so that our story continues to evolve into one that mirrors more and more the story of Jesus. God continues to invite us into new opportunities of rebirth. What will we look like two years from now? Now is the time for us to put “flesh” onto our dreams and to begin to make them real. May God bless us as we journey forward this coming year into a new time and into a new reality. +Ed
November, 2010
Getting from Maintenance to Mission: Once I was a maintenance-minded Christian, and then one day I became a mission-minded Christian. Once I was a disciple (follower) of Jesus, and then one day I became an apostle (leader) for Jesus. Saul became Paul, Jacob became Israel, Abram became Abraham. Jesus became known to us as the Christ.
Of course there’s always a little of the old self in the new self, and that’s a necessary and good thing. There’s a part of us that always remains the “seed’ or the gift that God has given to us. But the “seed” has to grow in order for it to bear fruit.
So, how do we get from here to there? How does an old, worn out, maintenance-minded Church become a fresh, alive mission-minded Church?
The author of Luke’s Gospel didn’t stop telling the story after completing the Gospel of Luke. Luke went on to tell about the ACTS of the Apostles. The Gospel of Luke talks about hungry and thirsty people becoming disciples of Jesus. The Gospel of Luke is about formation. The Acts of the Apostles continues the story and tells how the disciples of Jesus became Apostles (i.e., sent out agents of Jesus’ Love and Power). Luke is about knowing. The Acts of the Apostles is about doing.
Too often our life and our witness ends with just knowing the story. We do have to know the story before we can live and become the story. But, the challenge - the real challenge - is to live out the story. Our hands are meant to become the healing Hands of Jesus. Our hearts are meant to become the compassionate Heart of Jesus.
It’s one thing to have a Vision (that’s a knowing thing). It’s big extra thing to take that vision and turn it into Mission – into life-giving and life-transforming activity. We were meant to happen to life, not for life to just happen to us. Life happens to rocks and to inanimate objects. Apostles happen to stuck and broken society.
We came to know Jesus as “the Christ” after Jesus decided to give his life away for us. The simple truth is that we get from here to there by leaving a comfortable “home” or an old identity. God made us to give our lives away for the sake of others and for the sake of the Gospel.
The season of Advent begins this month. Advent is the season of new beginnings and of hopeful expectations. I challenge each of you and each of your congregations to make this Advent a time when we as individuals, congregations and as a diocese begin an adventure of exploration into becoming the very best that we can be; into becoming the Presence of Christ to our local communities that are yearning and waiting for. The time is right! Perhaps never before in the 82 year history of our diocese has the time been as ripe as it is now to dream and live out a fresh – God inspired – Vision.
At Convention earlier this month our Living into the Future Together task force introduced a new diocesan identity statement that freshly, honestly and poignantly proclaimed the best of what we are today. This Advent it will be our privilege to discern the best that we can become in the years ahead.
Yes we can do this! Here is what I propose you do in your congregation during the time I am away from the diocese: - At your vestry meeting, coffee hour, church women’s meeting, etc. – discuss and answer the five appreciative visioning questions that are attached to this article. Mail your responses to 510 S. Farwell St., Eau Claire, WI 54701.
- With the assistance of your priest-in-charge, and/or with the assistance of a Living into the Future Together task force member, begin to rediscover “the Best of what your Congregation is today,” and begin to discern “the Best of what your Congregation can become” in the years ahead. The names and phone numbers of the Living into the Future task force are also attached.
Together in Christ, +Ed Leidel Affirmative Questions to discuss and answer for Visioning the Best of What the Diocese of Eau Claire can Become 1. Describe the attributes of what a small, sustainable and healthy Diocese of Eau Claire could look like.
2. Describe in what ways having a part time Bishop of Eau Claire could contribute to making our Diocese healthy and life-giving?
3. Describe in what ways having our Diocese join with the Diocese of Fond du Lac would create a healthy and life-giving Diocese in northern Wisconsin.
4. Describe how the life of our Diocese could contribute and deepen the interdependence that we have with one another.
5. Describe how our congregation can contribute to our common life as a Diocese.
October, 2010 Re-Focusing our Attention In New Harmony, Indiana there is a famous “Roofless Church” dedicated to the memory of theologian Paul Tillich in 1960. In the center of the garden-like church is a bronze sculpture called “the Descent of the Holy Spirit” by Jacques Lipchitz. It portrays a blind Virgin Mary with a transparent womb which shows Jesus sitting and looking into the world with huge eyes. Mary learns to see the world with the eyes of Jesus. It is a gift to be able to see the deep good in creation, especially when that good is shrouded in a shape that is not fully formed or in an environment that is distorted or wounded or tortured or hungry or tired, etc., etc. New life, transformation and congregational renewal can only happen when we have the eyes to see the potential that God has planted. Fundamental to the the task of re-visioning your diocesan is the practice of seeing appreciatively. St. Paul talks about hope as an attitude of envisioning a transformed future that is yet not seen. This ability to see into the future with God-like eyes has a contemporary name. It is called “appreciative inquiry” or “AI.” It is both a spirituality and a process; both a way of being in the world, and a way a living in the world. A basic tenant of AI is "what you focus on becomes your reality." If we focus only on what's wrong, we tend to get stuck and have no energy to move ahead. When begin to intentionaly focus on what's right and what's working, the convesation begins to change; transformation begins to take place. St. Paul teaches this wisdom in Phillipians 4 where he says, "beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."
The Appreciative Way Jesus demonstrated the Appreciate Way on his way to the cross. He knew that there was “good” in the Friday sacrifice that he made on Calvary. Jesus saw the good in the woman that was about to be stoned for her adulterous life style. In parable after parable and healing after healing, Jesus precipitated transformation by his ability see and appreciatively into the future. In the same way, diocesan and congregational transformation and renewal begins with seeing the best of what is in the present moment, and then using the energy of that present good as a basis for working towards a greater good for tomorrow. The Appreciative Process Your new diocesan Living into the Future Together Team is getting equipped to work with diocesan groups in an extended process that will end with a concrete action plan moving into a more viable and fruitful and sustainable future. The following diagram summarized the four stages of this pragmatic and down to earth process.
For more information about this process, go to: http://dioec.com/MovingtoFutureTogether.aspx +Ed
September, 2010
Being Transformed, One Step at a Time “In Christ there is a new creation… everything has become new.” – 1 Cor. 5:17
Life is a constant journey of transformations. We hold on, then we let go; breath in, then breath out; take one step, and then another; we experience “crucifixions” and “resurrections;” doors close, doors open.
Scripture is full of stories of holy men and women who go through amazing trials and come out transformed and often re-named. Abram becomes Abraham; Jacob becomes Israel; Saul becomes Paul; and Jesus becomes the Christ. To be alive is to be in the process of continuous transformation.
My own story brings to mind many transformations, culminating in new names. I came into this world in Baltimore, Maryland, baptized as Edwin (Jr.) but called Bunky who at the time was a famous infant comic strip character. I’m still Bunky to close family members who find the name endearing. Alas, I have moved on. As an adolescent I was unpredictable and bold so my “friends” (still haven’t forgiven them) called me Congo Ed. At UW Madison I bussed at a girls’ dorm dining hall and managed to drop a tray of dishes my first day out, and was there after called Crash. Fortunately things got better. Soon my wife to be (Ira – pronounced ear-a) called me Honey. Many other names followed: Father Ed, Dad, Doctor, Bishop, and Coach. Now I’m Bishop Provisional – with the unfortunate “BP” abbreviation.
To be spiritually alive is to be aware of the many potential transitions that are constantly challenging/inviting us to new and deeper life. There is an old story that metaphorically illustrates the importance of not getting stuck in our continuing journeys of transformation. The Sea of Galilee is a body of water seething with aquatic life. It is fed by the Jordan River and exits water into the Dead Sea. It takes in and it gives out. In contrast the Dead Sea has no outlet; it just takes in and water exits only by evaporation. The sea is literally without life – a dead sea.
Years ago psychologist and theologian Paul Tournier wrote a book called The Meaning of Persons. In it he contrasts the difference between being a Person and being a Personage. The Personage is the temporary name (or hat) we wear for a brief time on our life’s journey. The Person is the evolving Self that is always in the process of becoming; it’s what God intends us to be. Tournier talks about the experience of peeling an onion. As we peel away layer upon layer (personages) we eventually experience onion-ness: the person, or the onion’s essential self.
Underneath all of my nicknames and titles the real me is evolving and the name of that “me” is my baptismal name, ED – the mystery that God has in mind for me to become. I really hope and believe that God isn’t finished with me yet.
The Diocese of Eau Claire, like me, is in an evolutionary process of becoming what God ultimately intends it to be. All spiritual journeys, of necessity, pass through deserts. Israel spent 40 years in the desert; Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. Deserts are challenging, yet essential experiences that enable us to become all that God wants us to be. My task as your “BP” is to join with you, and to help you to become the best diocese that you can be. It feels like we are in the midst of a desert – and we are. But deserts are predecessors to birthing new life and new identity.
Getting out of deserts into new life necessitates letting go of things that have grown old and are no longer working.
What is it that we, the diocese of Eau Claire, must let go of in order to embrace the new life God is calling us to be? How can we travel lighter? Do we need to let go of all of the trappings of a large diocese and find a new way to be a viable, sustainable new kind of small diocese? Or, do need to let go of being an unsustainable small diocese, and rearrange our borders to become a larger diocese? I do not have the answer to that question. However, I do firmly believe that as we begin to face the realities and potentialities that make up our common life; and as we listen to, trust, and respect one another in holy conversation, God will lead us out of our desert into a new “promised land.”
So, what’s next?
I have begun my ten week blitz of congregational visitations (three a week!). This will be a time for us to listen to one another respectfully and a time to be open to unforeseen and previously unimagined realities and possibilities. It is my expectation that at the end of this these 10 weeks I will know you and you will know me much better, and that we will have gained a confidence about our present and future life.
At our November 5-6, 2010 Diocesan Convention the Standing Committee and I will present a process for the next year that will eventuate with a decision at our 2011 November Convention about the future shape and identity of our diocese. Please pray for me and our future life, as I will be praying for you.
Together in Christ’s New Creation, +Ed
August, 2010
Are we about Satisfying Consumers or Challenging Disciples?
In the Spring issue of Congregations, James Wind writes a discerning piece about how our insidious desire to satisfy the consumer has eroded our sense of what it means to a healthy and transformational Church today.
Giving in to cultural promises of endless prosperity we have aspired to become kiosks of comfort, relief, entertainment and inspiration that commodify our numbers of baptisms, members, weddings and dimensions of our buildings. Not exactly synonymous with the New Testament images of a pilgrim Church called to give itself away for the sake of others.
Wind shares his experience of a culturally successful megachurch whose pastor awakened to the fact that his community was losing its soul.
“In 2002, The Community Church of Joy in Glendale, Arizona had all the accoutrements of success. Its 187 acre campus and membership roster of 12,000 made it a poster congregation for the megachurch movement. On a visit there about that time, I saw firsthand its Disney designed campus, incredible parking lot system, elaborate food court, and throngs of happy worshippers. What I did not know when I visited in 2002, was that the senior pastor of the Church of Joy, Walter Kallestad, could not sleep at night. Members of his congregation seemed “oblivious” to the social problems of the greater Phoenix area—crime, addiction, unwanted pregnancy, broken homes, etc. Pastor Kallestad wondered if the larger community would miss his congregation or even notice if it disappeared. He assessed his congregation and concluded: “They didn’t really want to engage with God. They wanted relief and inspiration.” Twenty years into his ministry, Kallestad went before his congregation and with tears repented that The Church of Joy had become a “dispenser of religious goods and services.” Then he purged many of the frills that made his congregation stand out—talented professional musicians, square dancing classes, groups dedicated to visiting restaurants, card-playing evenings. One third of his members and almost half of his staff left the church. Six years later the congregation had recovered less than a quarter of its lost members. But it had gained a sense that there was more to being a Christian congregation than being entertained spectators and satisfied consumers. As Kallestad put it, ‘it’s time you grow up.’”
My first challenge in walking along side congregational leadership seeking transformation is to debunk their vision-wish to become a culturally prosperous congregation. Bigger is never better; it is different but not better, and never easier. The challenges to leadership in larger congregations do not diminish; they increase almost exponentially.
So if we are to “grow up” and get over the cultural call to consumer prosperity, what images of future should we be aspiring to?
In my last three years of doing and teaching congregational coaching I have discovered certain vision images (or aspirations) that are life-giving and actually bear fruit. Here are a few of them.
New Images for the Future Emerging Church: 1. We aspire to become a faith community that seeks to know and serve the community in which we live. We exist to serve rather than to be served. We really want to become the Heart and Hands of Jesus for others. 2. We aspire to become a faith community that organizes our worship more around the needs of our geographical community then around our own personal needs and desires. 3. We aspire to be a faith community that focuses on strengths and possibilities, not on weaknesses and problems. 4. We aspire to become a faith community that seeks to experience the Grace and Love of God through intentional spiritual practices. We aspire to hold each other accountable and to support one another on our journey into God’s Kingdom. We seek to grow together in Christ. 5. We aspire to become a faith community that regularly re-discovers the good of our present identity, re-discerns our future identity, and actively plans how we will re-emerge into the new vision to which we are being called. 6. We aspire to become a faith community that connects and partners with all other communities of faith seeking to do God’s will. We are not here to compete, but to work together for the greater good. We value differences and grow by learning from one another. 7. We are a faith community that regards the Bible and our Doctrines as essential guideposts for our journey; but we use these essentials rationally and do not substitute them for the actual experience and mystery of God.
Together in the Amazing Grace of Jesus, +Ed
May, 2010
An Inconvenient Love
Al Gore has written about “An Inconvenient Truth”; Jesus preached about and lived “An Inconvenient Love.”
After twenty-five years of marriage, Tevya asks his wife Goldie if she loves him. Actually he asks her seven times in the musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Joined 25 years ago in an arranged Jewish marriage, Tevya is looking for evidence of romantic love. Goldie gets that, but she has moved deeper into a doing, willful, inconvenient kind of loving. Finally in desperation, Goldie says, “For twenty-five years, I've lived with him, Fought with him, starved with him. For twenty-five years, my bed is his. If that's not love, what is? “ Tevye replys: “Then you love me?”
Golde finally gives in and says: ”I suppose I do.”
Jesus and Peter have a similar kind of negotiating - back and forth - conversation in the third resurrection appearance described in John’s Gospel. Three times, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” In the Greek and Aramaic languages there are multiple words for love, each having a different meaning. Jesus (like Golde) is using the willful, inconvenient meaning of Love (agape in Greek). This is the love word that Jesus uses when he proposes that we “love our enemies; turn our cheek and walk an extra mile.” This is not a hale and hearty brotherly love or an emotional romantic love. It’s the kind of love that usually comes with a cross. Peter doesn’t get it. All three times of questioning, he responds “Yes, I love (philia in the Greek) you.” Philia is the same root used in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. This is not the inconvenient, willful love that ultimately will get Peter crucified; but the instinctive, fraternal, feeling love that comes from being a part of supportive community. This episode ends with Jesus giving in and simply asking Peter if he philias him; and Peter says “Yes, I philia you” - once again. Jesus knows that in time, Peter will get it and learn to love inconveniently.
So, what’s my point? My experience over the last 46 years of ordained ministry in North America and Australia is that we have gotten pretty comfortable majoring in a convenient kind of love - like that of Tevya and Peter before their conversions. That worked for a while. It’s not working any more. If we have any hope of moving from "surviving to thriving," we will need to begin experimenting with and practicing Jesus’ kind of inconvenient, agape love.
Your Huron coaching team – these past three years – has been teaching, preaching and practicing a process called VIVA. It a process that helps a congregation to (1) rediscover the BEST of who they are now, (2) the BEST of what they could be in two years, and (3) how to get there. The driving force in this transformation dynamic is inconvenient love. The process moves from could to should to will.
Jesus continues to ask the hard question, “Do you love me – inconveniently?” It is a great joy to me to hear so many Anglicans say a resounding “YES.”
May this continue to our prayer: Disturb us Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves; when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little; when we arrived safely because we have sailed too close to shore. Disturb us Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life. Stir us Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. Amen.
In the Amazing Agape of Jesus, +Ed
April Turning Things Around (Metanoia) How does a bad day get to be a good day? How can an injustice become an occasion for justice; a failure transformed into a victory; a cynical mood turned into a hopeful outlook? How can you get from being stuck to being unstuck? How can a fifteen year history of congregational decline be turned into a hope filled, faithful and confident church? A few years ago the American Association of Retired People (AARP) invited youth from 18 to 30 to create a You Tube video that described what they envisioned their lives to be like when they turned 50. Their “U@50” challenge drew 50 inspired responses. “The aim of this contest was to create a dialogue between the generations and to gain an understanding of what concerns our future members,” said AARP Director of Academic Affairs Harry R. Moody. The second place response created by Jonathan Reed of Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia has gained a 5 star - 12,579,302+ view response. Jonathan’s point is clear: No matter how bleak our future looks, we can change it by approaching it from a different perspective. Jonathan’s video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA&feature=player_embedded . The video transforms a perception that “my generation will be apathetic and lethargic” to a conviction that “It is foolish to presume that my generation is apathetic and lethargic.” And all of this happens “because we will choose to reverse it.” Years ago President JF Kennedy incarnated a statement made by theologian Paul Tillich, when he repeatedly stated that “Not to decide IS to decide!” A transformed future always begins with an act of the will couched in a hope-filled perspective. When JFK said “in ten years we will walk on the moon,” we believed it – and as we all willed it together it came to pass. One of the attractions of Avatar (the most watched film in history) has been its depiction of a culture that willfully joins together with one another and with nature to overcome a deceptive, malicious and self serving opponent. CS Lewis’ book on The Four Loves proposes that Christian love (agape) is the queen of loves – trumping familial, parental and sexual love because it goes beyond instinct into the realm of will. When Jesus commands us to “agape” (love) our enemies he is challenging us to rise above our feelings and engage that most human dimension of our humanity – our ability to willfully decide in face of the most challenging of obstacles. Moral theologian Stanley Hauerwas has stated that today’s most needed leadership virtue is perseverance. Years ago I compiled a list of ten leadership characteristics necessary for forging tomorrow’s Church. At the top of the list was perseverance. I defined it as “constancy; steadfastness to call, to self and to one's task; persistence; capacity to grow; stamina, staying power amid dissonance and resistance; underlying is an assumption of committing oneself to an ongoing covenant relationship for a specific time period; discipline; ability to live with ambiguity; ability to be forgiving and forgiven; faithfulness.” So, how do we turn things around? The possibility of transforming tomorrow into a better day simply begins with a decision. Talk to anyone who has overcome an addiction about how they turned their life around and they will almost always talk about that bottoming out moment where they made a decision to change their life. A better tomorrow begins with a decisive decision today. Jesus teaches that we can move mountains and do even greater things then he has done. It’ about: believing, envisioning, deciding and risking. It’s the difference between saying tomorrow can be a better day, and saying tomorrow will be a better day. +Ed
March, 2010 Don’t Worry Be Happy? Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry Be Happy is a classic. You can find his tune and lyrics replicated on U-Tube by “artists” as far ranging as Bob Morley to Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Darth Vader. The music is lyrical and brings a smile. One might ask, are the words “don’t worry be happy” meant to be taken seriously, or are they ironically sighting our human tendency to avoid responsibility? When McFerrin was asked if “don’t worry be happy” was his way of approaching life, he laughed in denial and sighted Proverbs 3:5-6 as his guiding light: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. 6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Our Western culture has latched on to the idea of happiness big time. The United States was founded on the principle of happiness as an unalienable right: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (The U.S. Constitution).
It is interesting to note that that the word “happiness” appears nowhere in the New Testament. And “happy” occurs only once in reference to a man’s personal contentedness. Instead of focusing on happiness, Jesus, St. Paul and other New Testament writers focus on the virtues of “Joy” and “peace,” which stand as rather different experiences. Joy and peace do not exclude the realities of pain and suffering; and they are never experienced in isolation from others. There are of course various ways of understanding what we mean today by happiness. But (as in “don’t worry be happy”), happiness tends to be a personal (non-relational) experience that is often self-serving. Now there is nothing wrong with some occasional self-serving. The problem arises when happiness becomes an unalienable right that ignores our relationship to others and to the Source of our being. In our Christian/Hebrew/Abrahamic faith we are called to love (remain willfully in relationship) with God, our neighbor and our self – not just our self.
C. S. Lewis gets at some of this in his books, The Problem of Pain and A Grief Observed. Lewis suggests that happiness, per say, is an illusion as it is impossible to escape our own pain and suffering and the pain and suffering of others. He submits that as humans we are called to walk through the experiences of pain and suffering in faith; and as we do so we ultimately experience joy and peace.
Last week I received a video email from my sister entitled Take Me Back to the Sixties. It held the 60’s up as an idealistic – Age of Aquarius – time. It suggested that we all watched the same TV shows, same news broadcasts, same music and had the same heroes and heroines. It submitted that we didn’t talk much about hardships and sacrifices when we were growing up, we didn’t dare. Our parents had exclusive rights on that. They had lived through the depression. They just wanted a better life for their children; they had paid the price for it. Then in the late 60’s, anomalies occurred: Viet Nam and the assassination of two Kennedys. The video ended by saying that “some people believe that the 60’s may have been the beginning of the end – the last innocent generation.”
Perhaps the difference between happiness and joy is the way we experience a loss of innocence. If happiness is an unalienable right and we lose it, we get angry, we start to blame and demonize, and we get stuck in a polarized culture. Sound familiar? On the other hand, joy is never a possession or an unalienable right. Joy is rather the consequence of shedding a false innocence, facing up to the hard realities of pain and suffering and accepting the sheer mystery of God’s amazing Grace in the midst of adversity.
Our present decade is a tough one. Being the Church today is no piece of cake. The economics and politics of our world are in disarray. So how do we respond? Defensively and negatively as a people who have lost what we believed was inalienably ours? Or, like those in past generations (as a people of faith) that will walk through our “shadows of death,” knowing that God is with us and that in the end “all will be well?” Perhaps we need a new song like, Don’t Fret Be Surprised by Joy and Carry On. +Ed
January, 2010 “I Am because We Are” – Maximizing Connections
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Shori caused a stir this summer when in her opening address to the Episcopal Church’s triennial convention, she said that there is a great Western heresy which has brought us to a time of crisis. And that heresy is “that we can be saved as individuals; that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God…. That individualist focus is a form of idolatry.”
Bishop Shori was simply paraphrasing Nobel Peace prize winner, Desmond Tutu’s reference to the Zulu concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu, freely translated means, “I am because we are, and I can only become a whole person in relationship with others.” Episcopal priest and author Michael Battle has just written a book entitled, Ubuntu in which he writes: “Ubuntu is an African concept of personhood in which the identity of the self is understood to be formed interdependently through community. This is a difficult concept for Westerners who tend to understand self as over against other – or as in competition with others…. Ubuntu… is about cooperative relationships – not the parasitic and destructive relationships of co-dependence, nor the draining and alienating relationships of competition…. unless we begin to see a cooperative self-identity, our planet remains in deep jeopardy as technologies emerge that allow individuals to wreak havoc and mass destruction.”
The idea of Ubuntu is hardly original. John Donne’s 16th century poem, No Man is an Island echoes Ubuntu wisdom: "No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed
away by nthe sea, Europe is the less. Each man's death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind."
Indeed the foundational Summary of the Law of our Abrahamic faith exhorts us to Love (i.e., to stay connected to) God, our neighbor and our self. And it is from this understanding that Jesus commanded us to “love our enemies.” Bishop Tutu’s amazingly successful Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa acknowledged that both perpetrator and victim needed each other in order to reestablish wholeness.
If “no man is an island,” then certainly no congregation can be an island. We forever live in the context of neighborhood, deanery, diocese, nation and world. There is no escape. We absolutely need each other. Parochialism and isolation suck life and well being out of us.
Recent brain research tells us that the size of our brains in NOT related to intelligence and fruitful living. What breeds intelligence and well being is the number of connections between the various functional nodes within the brain.
Making, sustaining and nurturing connections is what we have been created to do. Making connections is life giving and life receiving. That’s why Jesus said if you only hold on to your life, you will lose it. We are destined to connect our lives; in fact to give our lives away for the sake of God’s Kingdom.
November’s Week2Serve is an opportunity for you and your congregation to make new connections with your neighborhood, your deanery, your diocese, the world. We are fundamentally about Mission. I look forward to hearing the stories that will eventually come out of our Week2Serve connectings. May these connectings continue to breed heath and well being to our diocese and to the neighborhoods in which we live and minister.
+Ed
May, 2009 The Great Emergence
Whoever would have thought that Chrysler and GM would ever be filing for bankruptcy? History has a lesson to teach. What may appear as solid rock in one age can become the ruins on which a new age’s structure is built.
Our Christian faith story teaches that crucifixions can lead to resurrections; old doors that close can allow new doors to open. Our breathing out affords the opportunity of breathing in fresh air.
Anglican author and teacher Phyllis Tickle in her recent book, The Great Emergence, calls attention to the fact that every 500 years a new age is born with a revised way of looking at the nature of the world and our relationship to it. As each 500 year era nears its end and finds that it can no longer deal with the challenges of its day, a new spirit of creativity and innovation is birthed and a new, deeper perception of reality emerges. Beginning in 1000 BC with the Davidic Dynasty, the 500 year increment shifts Tickle names are: The Babylonian Captivity (500BC), the birth of Christ (4AD), the fall of Rome (481AD), the Great East/West Schism (1051AD), the Reformation (1517AD). See the YouTube download: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY83MF2HZcU
What is of special note is that preceding each new age of discovery is some great devastation. The late 1300’s and 1400’s were very challenging times. The Black Death took the lives of 30% of Europe. The Church had become corrupt and stagnant. A limited world view perceived the world as flat and the thought our Earth was the center of God’s creation. Superstition was rampant. The world was stuck and dying and badly misinformed. Out of that ferment Galileo, Copernicus, Columbus and Luther and countless others gave us new ways to perceive reality. The invention of the telescope and the microscope expanded our vision into the realms of the micro and macro.
So, here we are at the inauguration of a new age. In the midst of our experience of failing structures is the excitement and adventure of discovering new realities, dreaming new dreams and risking new ways of being viable for the next 500 years.
Out of necessity, this is the time to experiment with being tomorrow’s church today. Tickle speaks of new emerging church practices: rediscovering the radical nature of Jesus, living in new communal structures of interdependence, organizing our being together on the net, jettisoning denominational differences, and incorporating new media communication technologies into our liturgies.
Other contemporary reformers, in which I include myself, are devising methodologies to help congregations rediscover a more radical understanding of what it means to be the Church, and how to live out that radical identity in a way that gives new life to the communities in which we find ourselves.
VIVA is such a methodology. It has evolved here in Huron over the last year and a half. Your twelve diocesan coaches and I stand ready to work with you. Two of your coaches, Jawn Kolohon and Marilyn Malton are now sharing with me the title of Coach Coordinator. Each Coordinator has the responsibility for receiving requests for doing VIVA in their designated diocesan area. I am delighted to announce that VIVA will be used by your Diocesan Ministry Team (Bishops Bob and Terry, Sue Tite, Willie Kammerer, Paul Rathbone, Eleanor Caruana, Sue Malpus and I) at Huron House to discern our vision and direction for the next two years.
If you are in the Saugeens, Huron or Lambton deaneries direct your VIVA inquiries to Jawn Kolohon. If you are in the Perth, Waterloo, Oxford or Brant/Norfolk deaneries direct you inquiries to Marilyn Malton. If you are in the Medway, Brough, Wellington, Delaware, Kent or Essex deaneries direct your inquiries to me. For more information on VIVA, see http://smallchurchcoach.com/weblog.aspx .
Hope and Joy in God’s Amazing Grace, +Ed
April, 2009
Existing for Others What is it that brings us the greatest joys in life? That’s an old question in need of resurrection in today’s weary world.
Almost all religious expressions and philosophical reflections answer that the accumulations of stuff, or power, or fame, or a total withdrawal from the world and its responsibilities do not bring lasting joy. In fact most of these accumulations or withdrawals tend to ultimately breed personal discontent or social upheaval.
Jesus dealt with these provocative temptations in his 40 days of pre-ministry desert time. Perhaps you dealt with them again this past Lent.
Think back over the years. What were you doing when you experienced deep and lasting joy?
The answers that usually come have to do with being there for others. Deep joy almost always comes in the context of relationship; in the context of existing for others. The golden rule (“do unto others…”) is an ancient pragmatic recipe for experiencing joy. One of Jesus’ most poignant teachings is that we have been created to give our lives away for the sake something outside of ourselves (Matthew 10.39, 16.25). I can say without hesitation that my happiest and most joyful moments occur when I come home completely used up after a day spent in listening, sharing, giving, empowering and teaching others. Aren’t those the nights that we sleep the soundest?
Let’s push the envelope. Where do you experience significant communal (vs. personal) joy in your life? Is it with your family; at work; in your congregation? In my experience most claim their family community as the most important source of communal joy. Also, in my experience, when congregants are asked where it is that they experience joy in their congregations, the focus is usually on relationships inside the congregation, not outside of it.
“In the end what our congregations do for others is more important then what they do for themselves.” |
Every healthy and sustainable congregation has ministries that focus on both its membership as well as on those outside of its membership. But (and this is a very important “but”), our internal ministries primarily exist so that we can become healthy ministers to those who live beyond the nurturing influence of our pews. Congregations that focus their ministries primarily on those outside their membership ranks almost always are today’s healthiest and most vital places. In the end what our congregations do for others is more important then what they do for themselves.
+Ed
February 2009
The Power of Serving as ONE
On the week preceding the inauguration of President Obama, I and thirteen million other Obama supporters received an email from Michelle Obama. It began with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King…
“If you want to be important – wonderful. If you want to be recognized – wonderful. If you want to be great – wonderful. But, recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That’s a new definition of Greatness.”
With that thought in mind Mrs. Obama invited all Americans to participate in a day of service on the day before the president’s inauguration – a day which also just happened to be the birthday of Dr. King. Mrs. Obama went on to say, “Whatever service activity you organize or take part in – cleaning up a park, giving blood, volunteering at a homeless shelter, or mentoring an at-risk youth – you can help start this important journey. But this is about more than just a single day of service; it’s the beginning of ongoing commitment to your community. Barack and I will be volunteering in Washington D.C., our new home. I hope you will you’ll join us by taking part in this national call to service in your community.”
The response to this invitation to serve was astounding. The internet was flooded with invitations of service to be done. Newspapers and television news clips abounded with heart rendering pictures and videos of Americans working together with their sleeves rolled up believing that we indeed are now living in a time when real change can happen and endure.
This outpouring of devoted service reminded me of the spectacular and joyous results of the “Amazing Grace Sunday” Canadian Anglicans participated in recently.
There is something awesomely powerful about doing song or service together as ONE huge fellowship of committed and faithful servants. Synergy happens. We become aware that, as Jesus suggested, we can “move mountains.” There is also a great joy in working together for a common cause that is beyond the grasp of any of us working alone.
All of the above gave me pause to wonder what would it be like if a congregation, or better yet, if the entire diocese of Huron were to be invited into a week of service during a time that had special significance to Canadians or Ontarians – like the birth date of MLK has to Americans?
In my ministry of congregational development here in Huron, I have noticed that one of the best ways to jump start new life in a congregation is to engage in either liturgical renewal or in new creative adventures of outreach in the congregation’s local community. Grassroots mission serves both the local community and the heart of the congregation daring to give its gifts and talents away for the sake of others.
Some years ago Archbishop William Temple said, “The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” – And so it is that Jesus came to serve and to give his life for the sake of the world. At the very heart of our Christian calling is the call to be servants.
Many of our congregations are engaged in significant “hands-on” outreach ministries in their neighborhoods. As the economic downturn continues to grow in North America, the need for such selfless outreach is going to significantly increase.
I wonder, I just wonder what kind of contagious power “A Call to Service Week” might have in your congregation or in the diocese. I know; and I think you know of one way to find out.
+Ed
January, 2009 The Joy and the Challenge of “New” There is something uncommonly good about buying a new car or moving into a new house. It’s like starting clean with no more engine breakdowns or leaky roofs. It’s about starting fresh and wiser. The New Year is a bit like that. I suppose that’s why we talk about new resolutions, possibilities, and hopes. The beginning of a journey fills us with anticipation; and usually the anticipation brings with it a sense of adventure and possibly even a sense of awe and wonder. This is especially so when we are young of age or young of heart. As I survey the horizon for visions of what the future holds for the Church today, I am very much aware that that there are two very different kinds of spectacles that I might look through. One sees a creative spirit at work building upon old foundations to expand our awareness of possibility and diversity. As we grow in God’s Love we become more and more filled with Christ’s humanity. The other pair of spectacles, which I wear about as often as the first pair, sees and worries about the darkness; it worries about the destructive forces of fear, distrust, disrespect, separation and bigotry. Barbara Brown Taylor, in The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion, also notes the struggle that we often have about living into a new awareness. “One reason I am so drawn to the new science is its openness to the wonder of discovery. In my experience, organized religion is not always so open. Perhaps because its main job is to conserve and transmit a two-thousand-year-old tradition, the church seems more interested in protecting truth than in discovering it. New scholarship, new theology, new liturgy and new imagery are typically greeted with condescension if not outright hostility, as if God were more invested in what has already happened than in what happens next - If you doubt this, then simply refer to the Holy Spirit as "she" the next time you are in church and see what kind of reaction you get. When I am feeling positively stifled by religions fear of the future and suspicion of change, a little dose of the new science does me a world of good.” As we grow into the New Year; and as we as Anglicans in the Diocese of Huron approach the joys and challenges of this coming year: the election of a coadjutor bishop, a revealing demographic report, discerning a revised diocesan vision, a national economic downturn, the blessing of same sex unions, and more - the following parable may be helpful. One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a debate that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." What we focus on becomes our reality. +Ed
November, 2008
Authenticity and Effective Advertising
I don’t know about you, but I am relieved that the season of political campaigning has finally come to an end.
What ever has happened to truth in advertising? It would seem that in today’s world, “truth” can simply be “spun,” or “packaged.” “Reality” is what ever gets attention in the media – no matter how outrageous or untrue it may be. Just say it loud enough, often enough and with conviction and you’re on the front page or on TV. The more outrageous the better; because outrageousness “sells” and brings bigger numbers to the media producers for whom the bottom line often seems to be high ratings and making money. In all fairness to the media networks (some of which are clearly better then others), the media’s job is to respond to the proclamations of political advocates – even when they are clearly outrageous or simply silly.
What drives this unhealthy phenomenon? In addition to profit and competition, our culture seems to have bought into the idea that in order to be successful, one has to give to the public whatever it wants; with no concern for virtue, truth and the common good.
To our detriment, there is this belief that one has to copy the advertising strategies of “successful” mega-churches in order to attract new members. You know the line: be all things to all people; be a consumer driven organization. This mindset too often tempts us to advertise ourselves as something that we’re not. In fact this kind of strategy never works. It only contributes to the growing public impression that the church is a phony and irrelevant place.
The reality is that churches that know their own particular and unique and singular goodness end up being the healthiest of churches. A church that is able to self differentiate it self has the clear advantage of being able to advertise its assets exactly as they are without any false pretense of being something else. And what a relief that is.
An old story tells of a little girl who for years has walked by a church with many stain glass windows – seeing at dusk when the lights inside the church were on, figures of saints revealed dimly in the windows. Finally one bright Easter morning she attends her first worship service and is impressed at how the saintly figures come even more to life as the sun shines through the stained glass. Enthralled by this sight, she thinks to herself, “Now I know what a saint is. Saints are transparent souls whose insides match their outsides.
How does your church see and understand itself? How does your church’s worship match its mission?
Have you discovered the life giving core gift that enables your congregation to represent Christ to your neighbor and to the world? Your congregation does have such a gift, even if you don’t know it yet.
Here are a few examples of identity statements on church signs, bulletins or license plates that have been carefully discerned:
The Parish of the Transfiguration is a Hope-filled, Energetic, and Caring Community. in other words, we are a “HEC” of a community - Parish of the Transfiguration Identity Statement A Rural Home with Gifts to Care - Oxford Center Parish An Accepting, Serving and Questing Sanctuary of Faith - St. James, Stratford
A Community of Miraculous Expectation for Grassroots Ministry - Dioccese of Eastern Michigan Ancient Worship, Open Minds, Come Inside, make a Difference - St. James, Wichita, Kansas We Serve the Community as the Embrace of Christ - All Saints by the Sea, Santa Barbara, CA
Your diocesan coaching ministry offers a number of ways of discovering your congregation’s unique gifts and personality. One way is to do a Parish Personality Profile (PPP) with its members. Another is to do a Values and Identity workshop. Still another is to do a Gift discernment workshop with the members of the congregation or with the leadership. +Ed
October 2008
On Sustainability and Vitality It has been a joy and a challenge this past year to visit so many diverse and committed gatherings of congregational leaders.
In my experience there are one or more of the following three reasons for getting invited into congregations: (1) congregational leaders are tired and looking for stimulus to get back on track and reenergized, (2) they are wanting to get to a new place of congregational life but feel stuck about how to get there, and (3) they are beginning to get alarmed about declining numbers.
Initially I hear about an understandable desire to re-fill the pews in the hope that growth in numbers will enable the congregation to pay the bills and survive for another season. “What can we do to grow?” “Tell us how to do that!” There is often an underlying assumption that by doing things that “bigger” and “successful” churches do (like being all things to all people), then things might get turned around. The truth - that is hard to hear - is that you cannot and should not try to be like something you are not. The genius of smaller congregations is that they are all so unique and each has a particular gift that makes them special. Smaller congregations get healthier when they discover their “one-thing” and then just do their “one-thing” really well.
Hope begins to surface when the conversation shifts from “Growth for Survival” to “Vitality and Sustainability.” Gregory of Nyssa, many years ago, offered the image of a water fountain that desperately wanted to project a mighty gush of water majestically skyward, but was frustrated by having too many little holes in its jet apparatus that kept draining off all of its water power. Magically, when all of the fountain’s little holes were repaired, the fountain regained its ability to singularly put all of its energy into ONE glorious surge of inspiration to its onlookers.
It’s interesting to note that conflict and tiredness begin to suddenly disappear in congregational life when everyone gets on the same page, and when everyone is working for a common cause.
Discovering your congregation’s singular and unique giftedness is the beginning of the road towards new vitality. The next step is to begin telling the stories of your specialness. Vitality begins to ooze out as we fall in love with our lives and the source of our life’s giftedness. Remember the first time you felt really loved, and the first time you were able to really love? Didn’t the sky get bluer, the grass greener, and didn’t life suddenly become more livable? When Jesus was baptized, he heard a voice that told him that he “was a beloved Son”, and that his life was “pleasing to his Father.” That love message kicked off his amazing three years of ministry that continues to transform the world. When we know we’re loved and when we love, we get energized and revitalized.
As we get revitalized, we begin to discover and live into new ways of becoming sustainable and regenerative. Jesus first steps involved calling together the Church’s first Parish Council of 12 disciples. Jesus knew that his mission needed to be reproducible and sustainable, so he had to have partners in ministry – he couldn’t do it alone. And that, my friends, is the secret to sustainability. Sustainability is about becoming good stewards of our gifts and resources. Good leaders are never lone rangers. St. Paul talks about our calling to be One Body made up of many diverse members with varying gifts (see Ephesians 4). Becoming a local and viable “Body of Christ” is about becoming a Ministry Team, where all the body’s members are respected, connected and put to work. We get tired when we’re pulled in too many directions (lack of common vision), and when we are not good stewards and not utilizing all of our congregation’s collective gifts.
There are no easy, definitive and cookie-cutter answers to getting sustainable and revitalized. And yet the route to a healthier and transformed congregation does have foundational ingredients or principles. In the end it’s all about (1) rediscovering our unique gifts and identity, (2) getting back in touch with how we’re loved, and how to love again, and (3) becoming a ministry team where we become good stewards of our diverse gifts.
The challenge is in taking that first step. The good news is that once we dare to try again, the journey gets easier and easier and ultimately becomes a downright joy.
+Ed
September 2008 Bridging the Generation Gap
Do you see yourself as younger then your years say you are? Most people do. We tend to see ourselves as we were “x” years ago. Therein lies a perception dilemma.
Most of us see ourselves providing excellent leadership in our congregations; but unfortunately, more often then not, that leadership is for a world that existed 40 years ago.
Gil Rendle in his book, The Multigenerational Congregation: Meeting the Leadership Challenge, shares surprising data about the age makeup of congregations today. The age distribution is an upside down bell curve, giving evidence of a younger generation on the left and a heavily populated older generation on the right. There is a big, absent hole in the middle. The “younger” generation tends to leave the organized main line churches, and some times may return as they approach their later years.
What’s interesting about this is that the “younger’ and “older” generations have two very different value systems.
The presidential campaign in the US is a classic example of these two contrasting value systems. The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain has more to do with the generation that they embody, rather then the politics they preach. Obama excites the younger half America, while McCain breeds confidence to the other older half of America. Both have good value systems, but each tends to scare and not understand the other.
Rendle, drawing on many sources, differentiates these two polar generations as follows:
The younger generation having grown up in rapidly changing “Unsettled Times” | The older generation having grown up in post WWII “Settled Times” | The Individualistic & “Shopper Generation” | The “GI” (general issue) Generation | Values: diversity, change, challenge, participation | Values: commonality, permanence, duty, belonging | Lives a Spirituality of Journey and Seeking | Lives a Spirituality of Place and Dwelling | Seeks instant gratification | Lives with delayed gratification | Portable | Fixed | Tends to see the world as complex and mysterious | Tends to see the world in terms of absolutes |
Each generation has something of value for the Church today. But, guess which of these generations makes up most of our parish councils and the primary leadership in our congregations. We are terribly out of balance and often that out-of-balance-ness gets us stuck in our ways. It also tends to make us terribly insensitive and unattractive to the goodness and value of the “younger” generation. When a younger generation family or individual talks about participating regularly in a United or Baptist program we tend to be think that the family/individual is being disloyal. In truth, the family/individual still feels Anglican, but they value ecumenical participation as a greater value then party loyalty.
So where do we as clergy and congregational leaders find ourselves in this generation gap? Rendle suggests that we are the minority middle, “bridge people.” We are expected to know each of the generations and speak both of their languages. A challenge often encountered by bridge leaders is the perception that they are “siding with” the newer members who represent different values.
If we are serious about wanting younger folk in our congregations we are going to have to get a lot more intentional about understanding and respecting their values. To be healthy and whole we need one another, i.e. both value systems.
How can we do this? Visit congregations or groups that are successful at welcoming younger people. Read Rendle’s book (mentioned above). Ask your kids and other younger generation types what’s important to them. Really listen. Talk about this Connecting… article with your leadership. Imagine what it would be like to live in a truly integrated intergenerational community. +Ed
July/August, 2008
Deep Change takes Time and Courage
When Moses led his people out of bondage in Egypt, he sustained a holy conversation with his people for 40 years as they meandered in desert territories finding their way to the Promised Land.
If God could spread the waters of the Red Sea, I suppose God could also have created a superhighway through the wilderness directly to Promised Land – thereby reducing the time of the Exodus to a mere 6 months. But God did not do that; and for good reason. The trials, tribulations, and turmoil’s in the desert, allowed Abraham’s ancestors to be formed into a “People of God.” They got an identity and purpose. They discovered who they were and what they were all about. It was precisely the conflict, uncertainties and hardships that gave them time to learn to trust God and one another. In a sense they learned to get comfortable with their uncomfortableness; and that allowed them to be formed into a new, strong and resilient people.
Deep change takes time. Quick fixes to immediate problems only allow us to survive for just another season. They seldom get at the kind of transformations that we need to become a new kind of sustainable and holy people. Of course, we do need to pay attention to immediate needs in order to survive. We need “manna” fixes in our contemporary wilderness journeys. But without a desire and persistence for deep change in the long haul, we will probably never get to that better place that God wants us to be. Shifting the chairs on the deck of a ship going in the wrong direction does not get you to your desired destination.
The Church today needs strong lay and ordained leaders that can help sustain holy conversations in the desert times in which we live. Leaders (like Moses) ask “Are we doing the right thing?” That’s an irksome question, as it implies that a change may be necessary. The Israelites constantly complained about Moses leadership. Many wanted to return to the “good old days” of slavery, rather then face an unknown and dangerous future. Gil Rendle, a past senior consultant with the Alban Institute, recently spoke at a conference on congregational change and planning at Conrad Grebel College where he said,
“Congregations really want managers not leaders. That’s because the manager’s role is to keep things going as they are. They ask, ‘Are we doing things right?’ rather than ‘Are we doing right things?’ Communities tend to reward managers while they crucify leaders.”
Management is what is needed when things are going well. When times change and the old ways no longer work, we need leaders who are able to persistently lead the way through the wilderness. Such leaders grow their people, not by giving them answers (which in fact they do not have), but by asking questions. “Imagine the difference in behavior,” writes Ron Heifetz, author of Leadership without Easy Answers, “when people operate with the idea that ‘leadership means influencing the community to follow the leader’s vision’ versus ‘leadership means influencing the community to face its problems.’”
There is an old rabbinic story about the moment that Moses and his people arrived at the Red sea with the powerful Egyptian Army at their heels. God says, “Go forth” but the waters do not part. God says again, “Go forth” and there is dead silence and fear. Finally, Nashon, son of Amminadab, begins to walk into the water. He walks up to waist and turns back to look at Moses – still the waters do not part. Again, he walks in further up to his nose and again turns to look at Moses as the waters still have not parted. Finally, in an act of great courage he goes forth and allows the waters to pass over him. Precisely at that moment God instructs Moses to raise his rod and the waters part. It takes courage to enter the wilderness without an exit strategy or any guarantee of success.
Beyond the limited task of managing the concerns of our churches, we live in a time when leadership depends upon shaping the hopes and fears of people. People overwhelmed by their stuckness need to be set free. In a memorable prayer from his time as pastor at Riverside Church in New York, William Sloan Coffin thanked God for…
“…our failures, which teach us so much more than success; our lack of money, which points to the only truly renewable resources – the resources of the spirit; our lack of health, yea, even the knowledge of death, for until we learn that life is limitation, we are surely as formless and as shallow as a stream without banks.”
The courage of faithful leadership in this time of change is to stand in the midst of perceived limits and scarcity and fears and help people to discover new identities and new purposes; it is a time to ask deep questions and to allow people to discover their own deep answers as they lean on God and experience God’s Amazing Grace. This is a time for lay and clergy leaders to speak of hope and to help people face their fears to claim that hope. This is a time for persisting in a Holy Conversation.
May you be blessed as you plunge into the deep waters that are beginning to form tomorrow’s Emerging Church.
+Ed
June, 2008
It’s All About Perspective!
As you no doubt have already heard, there are two characters in the Chinese word for Crisis: Danger + Opportunity. Likewise, we are coming to learn that the word Chaos has a positive side. In the book of Genesis we read that in the beginning there was Chaos, and God breathed over the Chaos to create order. In order to re-order what has become stuck, we need embrace chaos and allow God to re-order our lives and our awareness of our identity and purpose.
So what is your perception of what is going on in the Church today? What’s your perception of your congregation? Is the glass half full or is it half empty? Well it’s both; BUT what are you focusing on?
There’s a great truth here, and that is “What you focus on becomes your reality.”
Are you bogged down by anxiety and worry, or are you lifted up by hope and a sense of new opportunity? It really is (as Bp. Howe said in his charge at Synod – It really is “a matter of choice.”
Case in point… data was shared at Synod on what has happened in the Diocese of Huron over the LAST 10 years:
• Our average Sunday attendance has dropped 21%
• The number of identifiable givers has decreased by 28%
• The total number of Baptisms has declined by 42%, and
• Our number of Sunday School pupils has gone down by a whopping 48%.
What do you see most here? Danger or Opportunity? Yes I know they’re both there, BUT what do you decide to focus on?
To add insult to injury, congregational watchers like Lyle Schaler, George Barna and Bill Easum foretell that in the NEXT 10 years, half of the Christian congregations in North America will close. The Good News in this is that the 50% that remain open will have become exciting and vital outposts of ministry and mission drawing countless new Christians into their life-giving ministries of transformation.
So, when you hear this, what do you see? How do you see yourself and your congregation in the next 10 year period?
George Barna suggests that we often act like the frog in the kettle of warm water sitting on top of a stove with the heat turned up. Frogs like the warm water – it feels good. But frogs tend not to notice that the water is approaching the boiling point, and b/4 they know it they die – never having known what hit them.
When Jesus was confronted with feeding the 5000 hungry folk and learned that there were only 5 small loaves and two fish, he showed no sign of being overwhelmed. Amazingly, he did not send every one home. Rather, he invited everyone into God’s generous hospitality and said “sit down and eat.” You know the rest of the story.
Every community in the history of the human race that has experienced new life and transformation ALWAYS experienced some kind of decline and despair before their creative juices and visions of hope began to evolve.
It is said that that communities do not risk re-imagining themselves until at least 70% of its constituency believes that the need to transform is URGENT.
My friends, the time of urgency is at hand. We are at a time for risking new possibilities.
Let me offer another perspective regarding the data we just heard regarding the last ten and next ten years:
In the past 45 years of my ordained life as an ordained leader in the Anglican Communion I have ministered in 6 dioceses, four of which were in the US. I believe that there is no diocese in North America with as bright a future as the Diocese of Huron. I have worked with congregations whose membership ranged from 15 to well over a thousand. I have served the Church in the outback of Australia as well as in three of the most populous cities in the US. In all of those rich and varied experiences, I have never experienced a diocese as healthy and as welcoming as the Diocese of Huron.
The response to the diocese’s new coaching ministry has been absolutely amazing! Even though I am only working 3 out of every 6 weeks, I have already been invited in to work along side over 40 congregations. By the end of this year that number will have grown to over 60 congregations.
You are an amazing diocese, and I am so proud now to be a part of it. This is a diocese where struggle is embraced faithfully, and where the Church is lived out as a mystery to be embraced, rather then a problem to be solved.
At our Synod in May, Bishop Bruce challenged us to begin a process to Name a new vision or purpose for the diocese that was both unique to our identity and meaningful to the time in which we live. He called for a concise and memorable purpose statement that would be provocative and compelling.
There is great power in naming. When Isaac became Israel, and Saul became Paul, and Jesus the son of Joseph became Jesus the Christ: history changed and lives became transformed; new birthings began.
Much of what I am doing now as I am invited to walk alongside congregations is to help them Name the best of what they are right now, and then to project that into the future and Name the provocative and unique purpose that God is calling them to be. We call this VIP – a “Very Important Process” - VIP: It’s about Values, Identity and Purpose.
Do you remember the first time you figured out what you were going to do with your life? When I finally figured out that I was being called to be a parish priest, my life suddenly began to sing. And so it is for the congregation that truly experiences a unique sense of call.
Vocation or purpose is that place where a congregation’s greatest joy meets the world’s greatest needs.
So this is what congregational coaches do: They invite congregations to Name the Best of what they are now (call this “A”), and then they invite the congregation to Name how they can use the best of what they are to fulfill what it is that God is calling them to be in the future (call this “B”). Once a congregation has its own unique A and B then the real work of coaching begins, and that is to help resource the congregation to get from A to B. And almost always the most important resource is the people within the congregation.
It’s all about perspective. It’s about seeing things in a new way, and then simply accepting permission to Be and Do. As one congregation said to me, “It’s about movin’ from Survivin’ to Thrivin’.”
+Ed
__________________________________________________________________________________________
May, 2008
Getting from HERE to THERE
We spend a lot of time trying to “get from here to there.” We do it with maps on vacations, with strategic plans in board rooms, with instruction manuals for things we buy, with budgets in our annual planning, etc.
I probably enjoy the planning and fantasizing for the “here-to-there” of my holidays as much as I do the actual living out of the holiday. I assume that I have a reasonable amount of control over holiday planning. I have maps and calendars and web sites I can visit. On the other hand, when I think about planning my life, I get stuck somewhere in the process – it’s just such a much bigger and complex picture to bring into focus. I ponder: How well do I know my own gifts? Others have expectations for me that often seem to differ from my own. The world has so many needs. There’s so much that needs to be done. Etc, etc…. Consequently, there is a tendency to just let life happen to me, rather then having me happen to life. If only there was a magic gyroscope (like they use for satellites and space ships) to guide us in the here-to-there’s of our lives.
Getting from here to there, implies that we know where HERE is and where we hope THERE might be. That may be one of the reasons most of us don’t seem to do much here-to-there strategizing in our personal lives, or for that matter at our parish council meetings.
Congregational coaches are about helping parishes to get from here-to-there; where here is the best of who the parish is at the present, and there is where the parish will be when it uses the best of what it is, to live into the purpose for which God and the world’s needs intends it.
Jesus spent a fair amount of time getting his followers to deal with getting from here-to-there. As Jesus begins his public ministry he draws crowds of followers who are generally referred to as disciples. The word disciple means “follower” or “learner” – someone who listens to a teacher. From his followers, Jesus first appoints the twelve disciples to become his special team of close associates to assist in his ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God. Then, a bit later as the ministry expands, he appoints seventy more disciples to assist in the ministry. What’s interesting is that Jesus reserves the title apostle to just some of the disciples, as that title infers an authority and ministry that goes beyond being a disciple. Apostle literally means, “One who is sent out.” Throughout the scriptures there is this, from here-to-there phenomenon, as disciples are transformed from mere followers and learners to those who go out and do the ministry of preaching, healing and transformation. The story line goes from here-to-there; from being disciples to becoming apostles.
How easy it is to become stuck in our discipleship – to become a kind of “pew-potato.” The Church is not just a place where “disciples make disciples.” If the Church is ever to be relevant again to our confused and polarized times, it must be a place from which disciples are sent out and return as apostles.
The world is in desperate need to have its here’s that are stuck, move on to healthy and life giving there’s. Jesus and the Holy Spirit gave us the gift of the Church to model for others how to get from here-to-there.
It is a joy to me to see so many congregations in the Diocese of Huron seriously discerning their here’s (the best of what they are now) and their there’s (what God intends them to be, and what the world needs them to be in the future).
Once our parishes’ here and there are clearly and uniquely identified we still need to get on with the hard work of getting from here-to-there. That’s where strategic planning comes in. What resources will we need? Who will do what? What kind of time-line are we looking at? This becomes an exciting activity only when the congregational purpose or it's there visions are exciting. Our there statements of purpose need to be BHAGs – that is they need to be “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.” Strategic planning is not a magic gyroscope, but it is an essential process that integrates important dimensions and tools of our Christian and organizational worlds.
I pray you God’s Joy and Hope in all of the here-to-there’s that you do. +Ed
Congregational coach _____________________________________________________ April, 2008
On Pigeons, Urgency, and Continuing Education
Martha was the last of her kind. At one time her species had been endlessly abundant. They seemed indestructible. Martha died in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens in 1914. And that was the end of her kind.
Martha was a Passenger Pigeon. Martha’s relatives were most abundant in Michigan. Hence the names of many of Michigan’s towns: Pigeon River, Pigeon, Pigeon Lake, etc.
Passenger Pigeons were done in because they could not adapt to change. Strangely, Passenger Pigeons were also done in because they were friendly and family oriented. Whenever a Passenger Pigeon spotted another, they flew down to have fellowship. They would nest by the hundreds in trees; sometimes adding so much weight that the tree would fall over.
Besides being friendly, they were also good to eat. Hence the term: “Stool Pigeon.” Hunters would take a lone pigeon, tie a string on his leg, put him on a stool and wait for other pigeons to congregate as they pooled the sting causing the stool pigeon to dance. Hundreds could gather. All the hunter had to do at that point was to join the friendship circle, club his victims to death and go off to market with their catch.
Thomas Bandy, in his book, Moving Off the Map: A Field Guide to Changing the Congregation, suggests that small friendly Churches are like communities of Passenger Pigeons. “All churches pride themselves on being friendly, and they are! This is precisely the source of their danger. Everybody loves the roost. Everybody knows everybody by name. Therefore, no second worship service can begin, no new congregation can spin off from the parenting nest, and no entrepreneurship can pioneer new territory – because everyone values friendliness, fellowship, unity, and harmony too much.”
Church “crystal ball gazers” like Lyle Shaller, Bill Easum and George Barna all suggest that in the next ten years almost half of today’s Churches in North America are going to go out of business. They will go out of business because they will not adapt to the new needs of our ailing culture, and to the opportunities that God is giving to us to renew the way we do mission. On the other hand, the other half of today’s churches who will make it through the next ten years are those who will adapt.
Alan Klaas, in his excellent book In Search of the Unchurched, notes that all church bulletins and newsletters refer to ministries and activities that can be divided into three groupings:
(a) activities for parishioners,
(b) maintenance activities, and
(c) activities and ministries for the unchurched.
He notes that today’s healthier churches are those who spend at least half of their time on (c) activities for the unchurched.
How do leaders motivate others to change an organization when change is really needed?
John Kotter, author of Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail suggests that for most institutions today maintaining the status quo is more dangerous than launching into transformational change. He further suggests that 50% of attempts to transform an institution fail because there isn’t a great enough sense of urgency for change from within the structure. Kotter asks, “When is the urgency rate high enough?” He answers, when “about 75% of a company’s management is honestly convinced that business-as-usual is totally unacceptable. Anything less can produce very serious problems later on in the process.”
So, how urgent is your sense of need for change for your congregation?
Today, “status quo” means death. John Cotter has suggestions for transforming organizations:
(1) Create a purpose that is truly needed and that is uniquely connected to your organization’s DNA,
(2) Communicate the purpose over and over again, and
(3) Empower your organization to act on your purpose.
Some futurists suggest that another way to ride the winds of change is to be constantly engaged in continuing education. Last month the Alban Institute (an American think tank for church transformation) began a blog on offerings for lay and clergy leaders. I highly recommend it to you: http://albanlearning.org/2008/02/07/welcome/
Times of urgency can become opportunities for hope and change for transformational leaders.
+Ed
_____________________________________________________ March, 2008
Getting Unstuck
I loved all the Indiana Jones movies. I can’t wait to see the new one that’s coming out in a month or so. “Indy” is my hero because in the midst of the most horrendous, nightmarish, stuck situations he always manages to get miraculously unstuck. There he is in a pit of poisonous snakes with a 5,000 pound bolder about to come down on him; he’s outnumbered 1,000 to one without anyone to help; and then - swish, wham, bam, zappo - he’s suddenly liberated to win the day!
I guess these miraculous scenarios appeal to me because more often then not, I feel stuck in living out the life I believe I am supposed to be living. Many of the clergy and lay leaders that call me for coaching share that they are experiencing “stuckness” in their congregations.
It’s instructive to note that Jesus continuously finds himself in stuck situations: situations where folks are stuck in illness, in fear, in conflict, in ignorance, or in their attitudes and distorted perceptions. Jesus counters these situations with his ministries of healing, teaching and prophetic challenging of the status-quo. Jesus breaths, lives and even dies to proclaim “unstuckness.” Nailed to a cross, he still proclaims love and forgiveness. Sealed in a tomb, he bursts out (just like Indy) to proclaim that Life is bigger then death, Light is greater then darkness, and that a Liberating (unstuck) Life is meant always to conquer any and all of our experiences of stuckness.
Imprisoned in our stuckness, we are sometimes liberated by unexpected surprises, which give us flash insights into the presence of God’s Kingdom bursting into our awareness.
One of my favorite things to do on Easter during the sermon time (beware!) is to blow up a balloon – explaining that God’s invisible Spirit filled our humanity in Jesus’ flesh, making God’s presence visible to us. But then after 33 years of contending with the forces of stuckness, the forces of darkness attempt to destroy and encapsulate Jesus in a tomb (I hold up the balloon – now a symbol of Jesus' grave) and without warning I prick the balloon making a shocking Bang to recreate the experience of Resurrection.
Sometimes getting unstuck is just that easy. It’s a matter of pricking the perception bubble that keeps us captive and helpless. A prophetic word, a healing touch, an experience of undeserved love, a new a way of seeing something: any of these can prick our hellish bubbles of self-imposed imprisonment.
Believing leads to seeing. Miraculous expectations lead to realized transformations. Easter, Resurrection and getting unstuck is about no longer seeing our congregations as “problems to be solved,” but as “miraculous mysteries to be embraced.”
Alleluia, Christ is risen; Alleluia, so are we!
+Ed __________________________________________________________________________________
February, 2008 “Create and Make in us New Hearts”
In the Collect for Ash Wednesday we will be asking God to “create and make in us new and contrite hearts.” The collect teaches us that the new will only come as we “lament our sins and acknowledge our wretchedness.” New doors open after we close old ones.
Anglican priest and theologian Kenneth Leach suggests that “promiscuousness” is the root cause of the sin that get us off the track of being true to our Christian vocations today. He’s talking about a promiscuousness that comes from the neck-up, not from the neck-down. We become promiscuous when we are unfocused and without vision. We get bored and promiscuous when we’re not guided by a significant purpose in our lives.
Claude Payne, one time bishop of the Diocese of Texas has suggested that we need BHAGs in our lives and in the Church to get us back on track. BHAG is a Texan colloquialism that stands for: “Big, Hairy, and Audacious Goal.” Across the border in Michigan we can quickly identify with the BHAG that Henry Ford put forth in the early years of the 20th century when he suggested that it was possible to “put one automobile in every home.” Years later President Kennedy shared his vision of “a man on the moon in ten years.” Big and bold visions pull out the best that is in us. Without out a target to shoot at, we will never hit the bull’s eye that God puts before us.
As we begin Lent we will hear again of Jesus' retreat to the desert after his baptism which named him as God’s “beloved Son.” This was Jesus’ calling and he needed time to focus on what God was specifically calling him to. His wrestling with Satan helped him to empty himself of all false pretense and purpose. As he emptied himself, the Holy Spirit filled Him and “drove” him forth into life to live out the new vision that God had given to Him. Jesus had a BHAG that led him to the cross and resurrection and to our redemption.
Could this Lent perhaps be an opportunity for your congregation to spend time in its “desert” wrestling with its purpose-diverting “promiscuities?” Could there be an Easter BHAG waiting for you on the other side of our 40 days in the desert?
A few year’s back, the TV program, Touched by an Angel, captured the hungry hearts of many North Americans. All of us are yearning to be touched by God. People want to experience the Divine and know that they are loved and their lives have BHAGs. All of us want to expect the miraculous to come bursting forth in our lives. The truth is that God’s miraculous activity is already and always will be at work in our lives. We simply need (as Jesus said) to open our eyes and to see and our ears to hear the good things that are already present in our lives. What we focus on becomes our perceived reality. When we focus on what’s working instead of on our problems, we are focusing on God’s Spirit moving in our midst.
Where is God presently acting in your congregation?
If you haven’t already decided on your Lenten reading here is a suggestion to help set your sites on a BEHAG:
From Survival to Celebration by Howard Hanchey. Hanchey suggests that when we start celebrating God’s active presence in the world instead of focusing primarily on the “work of the church,” then the church will recover a gospel that is “good news” and not “work news” and thus find itself moving from survival to celebration.
Note:
Check out the Readings link on the SmallChurchCoach.com web site. There are some new additions there on how to a congregation unstuck.
+Ed
January, 2008 Hospitality: The Key to Celtic Style Evangelism
In the fifth through tenth centuries Ireland did not have parish churches. Yet, in that 500 year period a totally pagan country became a totally Christian country. How did that incredibly unique act of evangelism occur without a single drop of martyr’s blood being spilt? The answer is based in Celtic Ireland’s practice of hospitality.
Deep down in our Anglican heritage there are roots of Celtic Christianity, which if rekindled, could bless our efforts to become spiritually alive and evangelically astute.
George Hunter has written a book (The Celtic Way of Evangelism), that contrasts our current (what he calls “Roman”) way of evangelism with what he calls the “Celtic” way of evangelism. We are all too familiar with the Roman model. Chronologically, it goes this way:
(1) Present the Christian message
(2) Invite outsiders to believe in Christ and become Christians
(3) If the outsiders decide to embrace the message, welcome them to church and its fellowship
This “Roman” model seems very logical to us because most American evangelists are scripted by it. We explain the gospel, they accept Christ, we welcome them into church. Presentation, Decision, Assimilation. What could be more logical?
The Celtic model of reaching people stands in stark contrast to this. In ancient Ireland, Christianity was based in “monastic” communities of men and women (often married) which were safe places for anyone to come. These communities were anywhere from 12 to 200 souls, where learning was advanced. The community was always more then willing to share its resources with all who wanted or needed them. In the Celtic way of evangelism:
(1) You first establish community with people, or bring them into the fellowship of your faith community. That is: you practice hospitality.
(2) Then, within the fellowship, you engage in conversation, ministry, prayer and worship.
(3) In time, as the welcomed discover that they now believe, you invite them to commit.
The Celtic model reflects the adage that, “Christianity is more caught than taught.” Belonging comes before believing. Celtic (Anglican) evangelism is about helping people to belong so that they can believe. It all begins with the practice of hospitality. And hospitality is a ministry that almost all of us can do; and it’s a ministry that most of us really enjoy.
So, building houses for Habitat for Humanity, or having a dinner honoring a community organization’s work (i.e. your firemen, police, school teachers, etc.) are acts of hospitality that are doorways into sharing and listening to one another’s stories. What are some other ways that you can think of to begin a Celtic process of evangelism, beginning with an act of hospitality?
+Ed
_____________________________________________________ December, 2007
Getting Healthy with “Need-Oriented” Evangelism
How can soft spoken, well mannered Anglicans do evangelism? Anglicans know that manipulative, in-your-face, fear-based tactics are offensive, and they seldom produce sustainable results, or results that express a loving and sacrificial face of God.
Healthy evangelism connects hungry and seeking souls to a loving Presence that is generative, healing and enlightening. Healthy, “need-oriented” evangelism is an expression of God’s endless Grace in both word and deed.
Let me tell you a story of a small congregation that has been doing “need-oriented” evangelism for the last ten years. Twelve years ago the folk at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Mio, Michigan were facing extinction. Sunday attendance was hovering around ten in this small, mid-Michigan rural community.
I have never understood where the inspiration came from, but somehow a core group in the congregation decided to stop fussing about its struggle to survive and instead give energy to DOING something for the good of the community.
Now the people of St. Bart’s knew they had the gift of hospitality. Their Church suppers were always worth more than twice the price of admission; and they truly enjoyed having a party. Someone asked, “Why don’t we give a banquet for all the school teachers who so faithfully serve our communities children?” Let’s give them a big thank you, and in the process let’s share some stories about how some of our lives were changed by their faithful caring ministries.
Plans began to be made. They decided to make this an annual event – calling it the Good Samaritan Dinner, and inviting a different service organization as guests every year.
Invitations went out, and the quests filled the hall. After dinner, the story of the Good Samaritan was read, and stories were told, a surprise check of $500 was given to a needy fund in one of the schools, and the promise was made that the teachers would be prayed for every Sunday at St. Bart’s throughout the coming year. And then to top things off, the teachers were urged to call any member of the congregation at any time if there was something they could do to help the schools. The evening was filled with generous amounts of applause, laughter and tears.
For the past ten years, St. Bart’s has held their Samaritan banquet for a host of different community servants: the firefighters, the boy-scout and girl-scout leaders, the police force, the garbage collectors and municipal workers, the social workers and county court workers, etc. The banquets got so large that the congregation had to enlarge their parish hall and upgrade their kitchen. In fact the congregation has done three building projects the past ten years to facilitate their growing ministries.
Ten years ago the people of Mio hardly knew that St. Bart’s existed. Today their presence is well known throughout the county. Average Sunday attendance now wavers around 30 to 40 in the summertime – that a whopping 400% increase from ten years ago!
Folks are curious to see what drives these generous, community minded people – so some show up on Sunday morning to hear their name prayed for. One mother showed up and asked if they had a Sunday School. The mother was promptly told, “We do now.”
The Diocese has given St. Bart’s a nickname – they are fondly now called, “the Little Cathedral of the North.” They have become a healthy small church that understands the meaning of “need-oriented” evangelism. What would “need-oriented” evangelism look like in your congregation?
+Ed
________________________________________________________________________________ November, 2007
Quality Trumps Quantity
Last month we talked about how “bigger is not necessarily better.” There is an important corollary to that truth, and it is “Quality always trumps quantity.”
Remember the “Build it and they will come!” slogan that evolved out of the Field of Dreams movie years ago? I have some colleagues who used that slogan in building campaign projects, and it didn’t work. It worked in Field of Dreams because – well, first of all, it was a movie – but second of all, a field of quality with quality players was built; and that’s why they came.
These days we talk a lot about the need for GROWTH. The need is usually expressed out of the experience of dwindling finances and worn out workers. So, numerical growth seems to be the magic target that will cure all problems.
But the reality is that numerical growth is not a cure-all. I have served in very large (1000+ average Sunday attendance) congregations and in small (25-50) congregations. More people usually means more challenges. The money and “worn-out” issues live on.
Trying to grow numerically just for the sake of growing numerically hardly ever works. One of the reasons for that is that we are still focusing on the perceived problem (i.e., we’re small) and not on Gospel values – like mission outreach and justice, or passionate spirituality, or sharing the Good News of God’s amazing Grace in our own lives. What we focus on becomes our reality. When we focus on our “problems” (being worn out and lacking funds) the “problems” just seem to get bigger. Who would want to join a community that is always groveling in their problems? We desperately need to change our focus. We need to change the conversation.
There are other ways to grow, other then in numbers.
For the last 15 years of my congregational ministry I have tried to change the conversation away from numbers to health. I, and many others, have discovered eight other areas for growth, none of which require numerical growth. They are:
• Empowering Leadership
• Functional Structures
• Gift-Oriented Ministry
• Holistic Small Groups
• Inspiring Worship
• Loving Relationships
• Need-Oriented Evangelism
• Passionate Spirituality
An amazing thing happens when you begin to focus on Gospel values rather than on human frustrations. When you begin to change the conversation to Gospel values, all of things that you were frustrated about begin to magically disappear; and miracle of miracles, numerical growth – out of nowhere – begins to happen.
One of the most important things that Jesus said was (I’m paraphrasing) “If you stop worrying about yourself and all the things you cannot change, and begin rather to focus on our Creator’s Love and God’s Kingdom, then instead of living a loosing life, you will begin to live a winner’s life, and that life of Grace, you will have to live forever.”
In the next few months, I am going to focus on some of these gospel values that build healthy congregations. With the utmost of confidence, I can tell you that if you begin now to focus on these things persistently, you will experience transformation, health, and yes - even numerical growth.
May God bless your gifts and bring you joy and fruitfulness in your ministry,
+Ed ____________________________________________________________ October, 2007 Bigger is not Always Better
Why is it that we are always apologetic whenever we talk about anything small? “I’m only 4 foot, 8;” “I graduated from a very small school;” “Our congregation has only xx members, and we struggle along on a very small budget.” Who ever heard of a kid saying, “My dad’s smaller than your dad?”
I googled “bigger NOT better” and found carloads of references from energy consumption, human body parts, housing, urban sprawl, and warehousing, to hog farms, etc. But, alas, no references to congregational size.
One Google reference from a science teacher noted that the hugeness of dinosaurs may have had something to do with their extinction. She also noted that dragon flies and chambered nautiluses (to name just a few animal species), once huge, have evolved to much smaller sizes.
Then I hit pay dirt. The last few pages of Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs was pure wisdom to my ears (http://http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/whos_there.pdf). Hear are a few of his remarks:
Big used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny” do you?) People, usually guys, often ex-Marines, wanted to be CEO of a big company. The Fortune 500 is where people went to make… a fortune. There was a good reason for this. Value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value came from a huge sales force.
Of course, it’s not just big organizations that added value. Big planes were better than small ones, because they were faster and more efficient. Big buildings were better than small ones because they facilitated communications and used downtown land quite efficiently. Bigger computers could handle more simultaneous users, as well. Get Big Fast was the motto for startups, because big companies can go public and get more access to capital and use that capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer, because big law firms were a one-stop shop.
And then small happened. Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing so fast you can hear it. American Airlines (big) is getting creamed by Jet Blue (think small). BoingBoing (four people) has a readership growing a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people). Big computers are silly. They use lots of power and are not nearly as efficient as properly networked Dell boxes (at least that’s the way it works at Yahoo and Google). Big boom boxes are replaced by tiny ipod shuffles. (Yeah, I know bigscreen tvs are the big thing. Can’t be right all the time).
Today, little companies often make more money than big companies. Little churches grow faster than worldwide ones. Little jets are way faster (door to door) than big ones. Today, Craigslist (18 employees) is the fourth most visited site according to some measures. They are partly owned by eBay (more than 4,000 employees) which hopes to stay in the same league, traffic-wise. They’re certainly not growing nearly as fast.
Small means the founder makes a far greater percentage of the customer interactions. Small means the founder is close to the decisions that matter and can make them, quickly.
Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs. Small means that you can answer email from your customers. Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.
A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them. A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
A small church has a minister with the time to visit you in the hospital when you’re sick.
Is it better to be the head of Craigslist or the head of UPS? Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big. Don’t wait. Get small. Think big.
Hey, I lived most of my life in large congregations – and loved it. There are things large congregations can do that small ones can’t in terms of programming, variety in worship, impact on social justice issues, etc. BUT, the thing is, we have short changed the small church, treating it as a necessary (and quickly forgotten) step towards becoming big. Small is great in its own right.
Have you read Arlin Rothauge’s classic material on church size? He pays tribute to the small church by valuing all sizes of congregations equally. Each size, he says, has its own pluses and minuses. The four classic sizes are:
The Family Church (average Sunday attendance up to 50)
The Pastoral Church (average Sunday attendance between 50 and 150)
The Program Church (average Sunday attendance between 150 and 350)
The Corporation Church (average Sunday attendance above 350)
You can download (free) Rothauge’s Sizing Up a Congregation at:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/growth_23206_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=61609
Also available at the same site are other helpful materials, such as:
• The Life Cycle in Congregations (Every congregation is always in transition)
• Parallel Development (A both/and strategy to replace an either/or approach)
• All Doors Open (Good evangelism is cognizant of “open doors”)
Small messages are usually better then long ones; so here’s wishing you joy and peace in God’s Love until next time.
+Ed
______________________________________________________________ September, 2007 So What’s this "Congregational Coach" Title all About? "Congregational coaching is a way of discovering God’s synergy in your community"
Coaches are relationally different from managers or authority figures who operate from a position of superior power. In the Acts of the Apostles, Barnabas exemplifies what a coach is. The early Christian community gave Joseph the name Barnabas or "son of encouragement" because of his coaching style of collegial ministry (Acts 4:36). Barnabas enabled the ministry of others. He saw the potential of Paul before the Apostles positioned him for ministry (Acts 9:27). He stayed with Paul in good times (Acts 13:2) and in bad times (Acts 13:50). He raised others for positions higher than himself (Acts 11:26 and 13:50). Coaching has its origins in our theological understanding of the how the Holy Spirits operates in us as our intercessor, comforter, source of inspiration, strengthener, and advocate. The Holy Spirit works through all of us as we listen to and care for one another. The Holy Spirit never forces itself upon us. The Holy Spirit is a gentle presence that only empowers us when we ask for its guidance and are open to receiving its loving collegiality.
A Diocesan Coach helps a congregation get from A to B, where A is the best of where you are, and B is the best of where you want to be.
Coaching requires that a congregation wants to change, taking the best of it past into its future. Coaching implies that a congregation is ready and willing to imagine a new place that God is calling them to be.
Coaches differ from Advisors in the following ways: Congregational Coach | Congregational Advisor | Collegial | Hierarchical | Relational | Directional | Behind-the-scenes | Up-front focus of attention | Initiative is with the congregation | Initiative is with the advisor | | Hands-on helping process | Distant micro-managing | Discovers gifts | Critques failures | Encourages | Directs | Suggests and Trains | Tells | Synergetic | "Shifts the chairs" | Transformational | Transitional | Utilizes Congregational leaders' innate gifts and resources | Dependent on gifts and resources of the advisor | Encourages interdependence | Creates cycles of dependence and isolating independence | | Generates Hope | Generates need for supervision |
| | |
|
| |
 | |
|