A Call to Action -- Doing Church Today

In the above 11-minute video I talk about the realities of "doing church" today and what needs to be done if the so-called "mainstream" church (in which I am a leader) is to continue with what I believe is an important stream and practice of following Jesus.

Below is a copy of the talk:

A Call to Action Doing Church Today

 I have been a priest for nearly 20 years. I went to seminary late in life after leading a number of other organizations. Since my ordination, I have served as a priest-in-charge to two parishes and had interim ministries with five others. I have some ideas about what we need to do that may or may not be yours. That's okay. But please hear what I have to say and think about and ponder it.  

But let me say this and say it clear, if we do not do something radically different than what we are presently doing we will witness the last days of our denomination. 

1. GOOD NEWS. We Anglicans hold a holy, sacred, historic, and unique tradition. We are a thinking, accepting, loving, liturgical and sacramental practice that has within it the truth and beauty of Jesus' Gospel. It is worth preserving. 
2. BAD NEWS. Few among us seem able to explain to others who we are, why we walk the Anglican way with Jesus and why, perhaps, they should, too. We don't focus on being a disciple and making other disciples. It's too easy to just attend one of our lovely churches, sit down, receive the sacraments, and be on our way. I think Bonhoeffer called that "cheap grace" -- or in contemporary language, having little "skin" in our game. 
3. WHAT IS IT WE SHOULD BE DOING? How do we put more skin in the game?
1. CATECHISM. Our stated mission is restoration; to restore relationships among each other and with God through Jesus. We are to do this work by praying, worshipping, proclaiming the Gospel and promoting justice, peace and love.
2. MISSION. How are we praying? How are we worshipping? How are we proclaiming the Good News of God through Jesus? How are we promoting justice? Peace? Love? And (probably most important in a consumer society) how are we doing this better than, or at least as good as, anyone else in town?
3. THEOLOGY. Many of us don’t really know who we are and what is central to being an Episcopalian. How are we the same as Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, or Evangelicals? How are we different? What are the unique essential characteristics of Christian who identifies him or herself as an Episcopalian? As a denomination we tend to confuse non-essentials and essentials. The essentials being how to be "Jesus to the world" in this day and age. Non-essentials we all know. They cause us to bicker and fight among ourselves and even go so far as to break communion with an another and walk away.
4. EVANGELISM. How many people have we brought to church and we came alongside them, mentored them, and they stayed? Can we give a one minute, personal, passionate, and convincing answer to someone who asks us why we go to church, why we believe in Jesus? Why we follow him? Would we be willing to tell someone this even if they didn't ask? 
4. A NEW MODEL. The old model is not working: the full-time priest who is called to a parish that meets expenses. It's time we got this old model out of our heads and engage in some new and creative models for ministry. This model is not working because of a number of stark realities.
1. ECONOMICS. Generally speaking, in order to support a full-time priest today a congregation must have 300 or more active members to pay the bills.
2. CONTEMPORARY CULTURE. Church membership/attendance is no longer considered a social, business, or moral necessity by the majority of people today. About 30 percent of us indicate "none" when asked about our religion. And this number grows each year. In this culture, church attendance for both young and old competes with hundreds of other busy, time-consuming activities and often falls short.
5. CHANGING. If the church was a commercial venture (and to some extents it is), we would have to realize that if we don't gain new customers, and hold on to our present ones, we will eventually go out of business. (The bankruptcy of the Kodak corporation is a good example. There will no longer be “Kodak moments” as the new and hungry  giants of the digital age roared right past them while they rested on their past successes.) As a community, we are slow, wary, and often reluctant, to change, even when we know we should. 
6. FUNDING THE OLD MODEL. Even when a diocese tries to support new church plants or renewals (subsidizing clergy and/or buildings}, it does not assure parish growth or stability. The dollars our church has spent in the past trying to shore up the old model are difficult to defend. Yet, over the years, we have essentially continued to do the same thing over and over again hoping and praying the results will be different. That didn't happen and it won't happen in the near future either. 
7. OPTIONS. Let’s consider some different ways. One of more of the following may be in our future:
1. MERGERS. Closing failing parishes and consolidating them together in a larger, more revenue-producing or cost-effective locations.
2. BI-VOCATIONAL CLERGY. If we cannot afford full-time clergy, then we should think about what some bishops are doing. They are ordaining "Canon 9" priests who are bi-vocational (hold a paying job outside the church). Some parishes are already doing this as retired clergy serve as "permanent supply priests." Under this model, younger men and women called to ordained ministry will have to work at another paying job in addition to serving as clergy. 
3. CHURCH BUILDINGS. Use our buildings for specific ministries – some for worship, others to house a food pantry, another for a community hot meal program, another for a homeless shelter. Rather than spending diocesan dollars on clergy salaries and building expenses doing a “Matthew 25” ministry that stresses service above church attendance -- feeding, sheltering, clothing, healing, and visiting those in bondage. 
4. RETHINK. Engage in a complete and total re-thinking of the Christian mission, what a Christian is to do in today's secular, modernist culture; to finally realize that church is a community of believers and not a building. 
5. RE-BOOT. Going back to home churches (the beginning model of the Church in the New Testament) and then coming together, say, once a month at a central location to worship and share our oneness in Jesus. 
6. CHARISMATIC. Strengthen and focus our faith and worship practice to be more of a healing, spiritual-gifting, and evangelical ministry. 
7. MISSIONARY. Minister primarily to those who have need of restoration: those with broken marriages, those who are sick with terminal diseases, those addicted, those depressed, and others who are in need of spiritual help in order lives worth living. For our parishes to serve essentially as field hospitals on the edge of a great battlefield. 
8. A COLD, HARD FACT. Unless we change we will die. And maybe that's what we need to do. Our denomination is bleeding members. It is time for the Emergency Room. Look around the pews next Sunday, we are old, white, well-to-do and set in our ways. Our children and grandchildren have not followed us to church. One of us could be the last standing Episcopalian.

          All this reminds me of Jesus' story of the wineskins. We are to pour new wine into new wineskins, not old ones. When new wine is poured into old wineskins they burst and break because the skins are brittle and inflexible. They don’t work. What kind of containers are we? Perhaps we should think about another of his teachings: that unless we die to ourselves, we will never rise to new life and growth. Do we really believe this? Believe it enough to act on it? 

Brothers and sisters, when we do the new and not the old, when we die in order to live, we do what Jesus asks of us; that is, to work to restore our brokenness and that of those around us. When we do this, we bring the reign of God closer. We can do this.

Let us pray:  Holy God, Holy and Mighty, you have called us to be your people and to follow your Son. You have promised us your Spirit to give us knowledge, strength and power to heal and restore your people and your creation. Pour out your creative Spirit upon us to do just that. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflections On a Church Summit

Last week I attended a summit meeting of churches in the area of the church that I serve. My parish is small (20-25 is our Sunday average). But we keep a balanced budget. Help others. Do repairs. Share administrative tasks. And provide me with a weekly stipend to come and lead their worship, write a newsletter column, and do some teaching and pastoral work.

Members from seven of the nine churches showed up and shared what they were doing. It was interesting but I began to get a funny feeling. Have I not heard all this before? In spite of the candor, what we all heard were familiar themes: we need to grow, our numbers are diminishing, our children don’t attend our church, we have no youth, our buildings are old and need constant repair, and we can’t afford full-time clergy. Yes, I have been hearing this for each of the 20 years I have been serving the church. 

So what’s new? Very few of us today can afford full-time clergy and never will. So we need to get over it. We need to start thinking outside the church box and think creatively! This may mean clergy who agree to serve less than full-time, perhaps one-quarter time, even receiving a small weekly stipend and travel expenses. And, lo and behold, maybe even becoming a “tentmaker;” clergy who work outside the church for their primary support.

This will mean there will be tasks that parish members will have to assume; duties such as administration, visitation, evangelism, communications, and teaching. This will require new and bold and transformative thinking and acting on our part because I am suggesting that we consider a major re-structuring of the role of a clergy and congregation.

At the same time, this must be done with a clear understanding of the mission of the church in mind.

What is that mission? In my denomination, the mission of the Church is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” The Church does this “as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace, and love.”

There is nothing here about numbers. Instead, it is about restoration and it does this restoration through prayer, worship, proclaiming the Gospel and promoting justice, peace and love. If this was a “check list” for the activity of the church how would we rate?

Because if we seriously get on with the task of mission, we would most likely look and act in a much different way. If we did this, what kind of a church would we be?

We need to do some creative (and, if necessary, brutal) self-examination. We need to ask who and what are we today? Where are we going? And most of all, who’s going with us?

This will not be easy. The resurrection life Jesus shows us never is. Because in order for those of us who call ourselves disciples, we and our churches will have to die in order to be born again.

I am convinced that the Christian life is a life of continuous birthing and dying until the final day. As much as you and I would like to avoid this it is simply the way it is. It’s what we signed on for when we renew our baptismal vows each year. We know deep down this will lead us to , to new better lives for ourselves and for our churches.