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Tenacious Church: In defense of small congregations
A number of years ago I was invited to start teaching in our local formation school called the Kansas School for Ministry that would later become the Bishop Kemper School for Ministry or BKSM for short. This school has evolved over time and become one of the bright spots in the Episcopal Church in terms of innovation and support of cutting edge rural ministry. The work is primarily geared toward raising up lay and ordained leaders that will either be working for no compensation or part-time compensation in our rural and suburban congregations. The students currently come from four dioceses; Kansas, Nebraska and Western Missouri. My small part in this effort is to teach the parish administration/ congregational development class. Looking back I’ve taught about 40 people who are mostly now serving in congregations. They range in professions from retired police to professors to doctors, construction workers, farmers, teachers, and stay at home parents. One thing that I have noticed through the work they have given me in their papers is the TENACITY of our local congregations. A number of years ago there was a comic band called Tenacious D. I loved their music and spirit. The most famous of the duo was Jack Black who has gone on to some fame. Basically, the band is just two guys who love music. They both play guitar and sing with incredible intensity. They are a marvel to watch and absolutely hilarious. Part of what I love about this is the sharpness of their playing and a willingness to copy and modify other people’s music to make it their own! The history of their name is the tenacious spirit of wanting to be epic rock stars. Though they are small and low budget they can rock with the best of them. In my own experience our small congregations are just as tenacious and desiring of the ministry that is entrusted to them. Yes they have limited resources and people. However, they are doing some incredible work. Just last week I filled in at one of these congregations by presiding and preaching at a funeral for a long time member. I knew Ken from my time working with his church in Coffeyville as their stewardship consultant. During that time I helped their long time rector who was retiring and a newly ordained graduate of BKSM who was taking over. This church has had a great history and ministry, but as with many rural areas they find themselves in the midst of a declining demographic and economy. When I arrived for the funeral I was met with a myriad of people getting everything ready. The church would be packed with friends and neighbors. Even though they don’t have a priest currently; the bulletin was ready, the coffee hot, the church clean and they were ready to minister to their community. I had a full team of acolytes and altar servers and the congregation participated with gusto and energy. Looking around you could see their ministries that are still very active. The spirit was strong in that place. They desperately want clergy leadership and I’m sure with patience that will be coming (surely the Spirit will provide?). One of the exercises I have the students do in the class is to tell the story of their congregation through an administrative lens. They are to describe what is going on or not, who is in charge, how things are handled and what issues they see. The papers are insightful and tell and wide range of stories of our rural and smaller congregations. One thing is clear: they are thriving in their own way with gusto and tenacity. However, there is real frustration as they desire to be much more than they are. Some are resting on memories of when the church was able to more fully support itself. Some are still recovering from a lack of attention and resources from the diocese and other area churches. Some are trying to find new and innovated ways of being the church more fully in their local context. It is always inspiring to hear the stories and see the hard work that is happening. It reminds me of a revelation I had a number of years ago about what I imagined the early church to be. I’m not sure why, but I thought that the churches that Paul writes to where somehow large and foreboding mega churches. Well, maybe not that big. I was surprised when I uncovered in scholarship that the prevailing thought was they were communities of 25-50 people. Just like that church in Coffeyville and so many others around the nation. It is hard to imagine that the billions of Christians in the world today exists because of a small handful of faithful people tenaciously doing God’s work. So from the what I have learned from the students i’ve had the honor to teach and my own experience in the rural churches there are some things I would suggest need to be at the center.
St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church in Overland Park Kansas report on work of the Invite Welcome Connect initiative started in the fall of 2014. After about 6 months of discernment St. Thomas launched its IWC committee with the charge from the vestry and rector to rework our system of evangelism within the initial information that was gained from hosting an area wide Invite Welcome Connect workshop with Mary Parmer. The team meets approximately 4 times a year to review any goals, check on progress, and set new vision for this work. The team includes the IWC warden, usher coordinator, greeter coordinator, bread baker coordinator, rector, vestry member, parish administrator, assistant rector, children’s minister and two or three other lay members. Here are the various projects and goals sense that time that have been completed or on in process: Invite Started three “invitation weekends” per year with cards and other elements for members to invite their neighbors and friends to worship or an activity. We have had some small success with this. The weekends included added food for the reception time after services. We have made several videos for Facebook and Instagram along with advertisements for various “high” holidays. Efforts have included invitation cards for members to give to others in the weeks before as well. We have had a noticeable increase in attendance by as much as 15% on Ash Wednesday, Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday. Members are encouraged to “check-in” to St. Thomas for any and all activities they attend as a way advertising (no-cost to us!). As a part of this as well as the “welcome” component we have rework all internal and external signage with memorial money. This includes signs on all doors, information display on all rooms, large signs over entrances, and directional signs throughout the building. Welcome Appointed a welcome coordinator that looks over our welcome materials and process. Reworked our “red bags” that are for welcoming newcomers. Bags include freshly baked bread, information materials, custom pen (with light/ stylus), pencils, mint, and magnet for refrigerator with service times, address, phone, website address, etc. Trained and recruited new ushers and greeters. We now have 26 ushers and 32 greeters that are stationed throughout the building for each service, including special services.
Connect Over the last three years we have worked to look at all of our ministries in terms of how they connect with current members as well as new people joining St. Thomas. That work has included a ministry audit, some clarification of roles within the church, scheduling software (Ministry Scheduler Pro) and reworking of our website. Additional projects:
Here are the stats from the since the year before we started:  |
AuthorGar Demo is an Episcopal priest serving in the Diocese of Kansas at St. Thomas the Apostle in Overland Park, KS. Archives
May 2018
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