Transcript Slide 1

Bishop Wayne N. Miller
Metropolitan Chicago Synod
ELCA
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Where were we then?
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Where are we now?
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How have we responded?
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Where are we going?
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What will it take to get there?
John 8: 32
1988
2011
Comparison
251
193
-25%
Avg Worship
40,166
28,531
Baptized
134,774
91,495
Congregations
Total Income to
Congregations
Regular Mission
Support
Percent Mission
Support
$49, 040,956
$3,677,489
7.5%
-29%
-33%
$74,927,513
+50%
$2,956,849
-20%
3.9%
-3.6%
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S trengths
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W eaknesses
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O pportunities
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T hreats
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Leadership, Wealth,
Networks, Artists, World
Engagement.
Shy about sharing, Prone
to attachment, Organized
Expensively
7.5 million people– 3
million unconnected; world
on our doorstep.
Aging; limited imagination;
lack of conviction.
New Mission Starts
Since 1988
Where Are They Now?
Alive
Growing
Mergers/Consolidations 6
4
1
SAWC’s
6
4
0
New Congregations
33
16
7
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Church Growth Strategies
 Very effective in some settings reaching new people
 The gap between expectation and commitment must be
financed with debt
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Turn Around Synod Initiative
 New resources, relationships and partnerships for
congregational mission planning
 Increased energy/Uncertain measurable outcomes
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Missions of Compassionate Service
 Congregation-based Social Ministry Organizations
 Hands at Work Partnership
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Community Organizing
 Excellent leadership Development
 Best single vehicle for the mission of Justice
 Is it faith or is it politics?
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Antiracism/ Cultural Competence
 Growth in awareness/ improved access to leadership
 Resistance and denial are stubborn/voluntary engagement
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Mission Trips
 Raises consciousness/Immediacy of experience
 Short term effect/Ad Hoc relationships
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NO BLAME-NO SHAME: we are all working hard
under difficult conditions trying to figure it out. We
have learned from each response!
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Significantly fewer people are giving significantly
more: high dedication and personal sacrifice.
CONGRATULATIONS!
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Mergers and consolidations will not fix this.
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Our tried and true models and strategies are
necessary but insufficient. We need a fresh
approach.
Matthew 13:52
Essential Mission Community
Proclamation!
Invitation (Evangelism)
Formation (Discipleship)
Action (Apostleship)
Service!
Generosity
Compassion
Justice!
Respect
Freedom
Vocation
Inside
Outside
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Missionary called to staff of “incubator”
congregation
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AMC meets weekly under guidance
from missionary
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Missionary may be lay or clergy and
may lead up to 3 AMC’s at once
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All AMC’s grow and multiply on the
Reproducing Leadership Model
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AMC’s are differentiated but always
connected in the Local Network
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Missionaries are guided by a local
accompaniment team and by
community with other missionaries
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At least 10% of all new AMC’s focus on
Christian Community Among People in
Poverty or on the margins
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Initial funding for Missionary comes
substantially from the synod mission
fund
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Continued funding depends upon AMC
growth metrics
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Video story telling will invite
congregational partners into the
venture
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Outreach to those who will NEVER
affiliate with a conventional congregation
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Small spiritual community for those
seeking belonging and relational faith
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Integration of thinking, feeling, and doing
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Rapid proliferation of new communities:
LITTLE BETS!
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New calls for new pastors/ leadership
development may PRECEDE seminary
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Financial load structure for a new community
– approximately 20% of the cost of a new
conventional congregation
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Incubator congregations continue to grow
with proportionate increase in cost
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If 20 incubator congregations create 3
communities each, in 6 years we could be back
to the 1988 number of communities and
GROWING!
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We could be more effective in our engagement
with the poor than we have ever been!
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We will be more focused on saving lives than on
saving buildings!
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Become an incubator congregation
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Connect with an incubator network
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Support another local network of AMC’s
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Participate in a TSI strategy to build strength for
a new future
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Release your present form to invest in
Resurrection
“It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to
heaven for us, and get it for us…’ Neither is it beyond the
sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross to the other side of
the sea for us and get it for us…’”
Deuteronomy 30:11-14
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PRAYER, THOUGHT, AND ADAPTATION…
we need to open this conversation in a
hundred ways with one another and KEEP
LEARNING.
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Every congregation needs to find its place in
the vision.
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A new level of commitment and investment
through stewardship.
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We must build back very quickly to a MINIMUM
commitment threshold of 5% of total congregational
income as undesignated mission support.
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After this minimum has been met, we work toward
the tithe through dedicated gifts to new mission…
including participation in the ELCA anniversary fund.
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A combined return to the 7.5% level will yield 1.5
million new dollars every year dedicated to mission
growth.
Resources
Relationships