Transcript May 22, 2015 Rev. 5 Further Thoughts on TEC Grand Strategy by Ted Mollegen Senior Deputy L-2, CT for GC2015 Nominee for Executive Council.

May 22, 2015
Rev. 5
Further Thoughts
on TEC
Grand Strategy
by
Ted Mollegen
Senior Deputy
L-2, CT for GC2015
Nominee for Executive Council
1
Introduction
The Episcopal Church (TEC) needs an effective Grand
Strategy because it has been in numerical decline since 1965.
This document outlines a practical way to reverse that decline.
Although this document is in slide format, it is expected to
read on a computer monitor, or on paper, rather than by being
projected on a big screen before an audience.
This document contains the opinions of the author, speaking
only for himself.
Please help refine this document by sending your comments
and suggestions to the author at [email protected]
2
Outline
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is a Grand Strategy?
A Draft TEC Grand Strategy for Today
TEC’s Status Today
TEC’s Context Today
TEC’s Present Trends
Appendices:
–
–
–
–
Primer on Church Planting
Improving Your Parish Website
The Job of the Designated Leader
Bibliography and References
3
What is a Grand Strategy?
• A strategy is a scheme for using cause-and-effect relationships to
obtain a desired outcome. For TEC, this is growth.
• A Grand Strategy is an overall approach for guiding/controlling
an organization’s future. It guides decision-making at lower
levels. It does not itself consist of detailed plans.
• An example: the US Civil War. The North’s desired outcome
had two parts: (a) preservation of the Union and (b) the ending of
slavery. The North’s Grand Strategy was to encircle the South so
as to cut-off foreign assistance that might counter the North’s
much greater industrial might, and then to divide the South into
pieces. The North carried out that strategy by blocking the
South’s ports and then fought their way down the OhioMississippi river system to the Gulf, cutting off any assistance to
the South from the West; then Gen. Sherman swept east from the
Mississippi Delta toward Atlanta while Gen. Grant drove south
through Virginia.
4
Characteristics of a Good Grand Strategy
• A good Grand Strategy can be expressed in very
few words.
• A good Grand Strategy is based not only on the
present, but also on the foreseeable future. (A
quarterback doesn’t throw the ball to where the
receiver is now, but to where the receiver will be
when the ball comes down.)
• Plans can be appropriately adjusted as the
situation develops.
5
TEC Strategic Objectives and
Draft Grand Strategy - Page 1 of 5
• Turn around TEC’s long-term persistent numerical decline.
This is absolutely critical. Use:
• effectiveness improvement in TEC’s congregations. (See slide 15 below)
• church planting
• generational targeting, particularly:
– campus ministries, and
.– singles under age 35 (who may or may not be parents of families
with children).
• Use outside money for church planting, for widespread campus
ministries, and for congregational turn-arounds; get outside
money via the TEC Development Office. Church growth and/or
redevelopment should be a high priority.
6
TEC Strategic Objectives and
Draft Grand Strategy - Page 2 of 5
• Improve congregational effectiveness
- See Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer and Carl Geiger, 2015
See slide 15 for more explanation.
- See How to Break Growth Barriers: Capturing Overlooked
Opportunities for Church Growth, by Carl F. George, 1993.
See slide 17.
- See Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood
Church is Transforming the Faith, by Dr. Diana Butler Bass
(2006). Contains lots of good examples for improving what’s
going on in congregations. See slide 23.
- See Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the
Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening, also by Dr. Bass
(February 2012). See slide 19.
7
TEC Strategic Objectives and
Draft Grand Strategy – Page 3 of 5
– Use service music which involve drums and other percussion
instruments to provide a broader appeal. See Ref 1.
– Find out more about what all generations today, especially the
under-35s, want and need, and experiment with ways of
addressing same.
– Attract, engage, and incorporate under-35s, especially via wellfunded campus ministry, by congregational attitude change,
and by use of social media for communication.
• Campus ministry is a good source of future clergy and can
also experientially help counter the intellectual forces of
atheism that frequent college campuses.
• TEC congregations are often-to-usually found to be
unfriendly by single under-35s (who constitute the majority
of under-35s).
8
TEC Strategic Objectives and
Draft Grand Strategy – Page 4 of 5
– Connect at all levels to steady outside sources of money
• Churchwide level gift solicitation (TEC Development Office)
• Diocesan gift solicitation (diocesan development staff)
• Congregational-level income producing activities, e.g.
– Nursery and/or preschools
– Renting weekday use of the parking lot to nearby businesses
– Teach tithing:
. » Theologically
» By successive annual percentage increases
• On websites at all levels of TEC, add donation links to the descriptions of
dedicated projects and programs.
– Continue/grow TEC’s support for social service and social
justice programs at all organizational levels, but increase
evangelism and church growth efforts to equal the social efforts.
9
TEC Strategic Objectives and
Draft Grand Strategy - Page 5 of 5
• Address regional changes in the need for church
buildings. Some regions need more church buildings
and some need fewer. Both needs must be attended to.
• When creating new buildings, don’t build future emptyduring-the-week structures – keep the infrastructure
footprint light. Create flexible space, and/or use
someone else’s flexible space.
10
Supporting Ideas and Data
The subsequent pages provide support for the ideas in the Draft
TEC Grand Strategy
11
TEC’s Present Context
• In the Sunbelt, evangelicalism
• In the North, secularist individualism
• In the North, the word “tithe” is almost never heard, even in
churches.
• Throughout the US, materialistic individualism
• Economic stress throughout society (except for the top 1%)
• The younger a person is, the more likely they are to identify
with spirituality but not with organized religion.
• Religion itself is increasingly under attack in universities,
colleges, and the public media.
• TEC is accused by splinter-Anglicans of having deserted
biblical teachings (when it is actually they who have done so).
12
Some Aspects of TEC’s Context are Changing
• As the economy improves, migration to the Sunbelt
will pick up again, especially among the massive
Boomer generation
• This will cause:
– More growth in existing Sunbelt congregations
– Opportunities for more church plants
– A need for more new church buildings
– A greater need in the Northeast and upper
Midwest for physical infrastructure consolidation
and/or liquidation
13
Why TEC Needs This Grand Strategy
•
•
•
•
•
•
There is continuing long-term shrinkage, ignored except for necessary cost-cutting.
While the historical source of new Episcopalians has been that they were born to
existing Episcopalians, this is no longer true. Worse still, the average age of TEC
members is now well past the child-bearing years.
There is a serious dearth in TEC of under-35 adults (a majority of whom are single),
indicating that there will be continuing membership declines as older generations die
off.
Congregations are usually focused on attracting young families, but are usually
focused only on dual-parent nuclear families.
Congregations virtually ignore:
- Single under-35s (many of whom may be unmarried parents),
- Hispanics (the fastest-growing US population segment), and
- African- Americans.
According to the Episcopal Congregations Overview:
- 58% of TEC congregations have average attendance of fewer than 75 persons
- 73% of congregations say that more than half their members are over age 50
14
The Fastest Ways to Get TEC Growth
Page 1 of 4
A simple church is defined as a congregation designed
around a straightforward process that moves people
through the stages of spiritual growth. Simple
churches are far more likely to be growing than more
complicated churches.
Congregations should set up a simple process which
moves members through the following stages:
– Love God
– Love others
– Serve others
Most TEC churches are complicated, that is not
designed around or focused on such a process.
For further information, see:
Simple Church by Dr. Thom S. Rainer and Carl Geiger, 2015
15
The Fastest Ways to Get TEC Growth
Page 2 of 4
15 years ago, GC 2000 adopted a growth goal and
commissioned the 2020 Task Force to figure out
how to meet it. (GC2000-A034)
The 2020 Task Force concluded that by far the
fastest and most reliable way to get church growth
is by church planting.
Report of the 2020 Task Force, October 2001
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I was the Secretary of the 2020 Task Force. Its report may be found on my website at
www.mollegen.net/2020TF
16
The Fastest Ways to Get TEC Growth
Page 3 of 4
Head clergy in congregations should adopt the attitude
that their job is to arrange for others to deliver
ministry rather than directly delivering the ministry
themselves. In the church growth movement, this is
known as having the attitude of a rancher rather than
a shepherd.
This approach helps break down growth barriers at
200, 400, and 800 members.
For further information, see:
How to Break Growth Barriers: Capturing Overlooked Opportunities for
Church Growth by Carl F. George 1993
17
The Fastest Ways to Get TEC Growth
Page 2 of 4
Congregations should initiate services (late Saturday
afternoon and/or Sunday morning) that are tailored
for under-35s:
– Music that under-35s find appealing (see slide 8, above)
– Sermon styles that they find appealing
• Use of silences to permit reflection
• Use of short testimonies from lay members
Saturday and/or Sunday afternoon services typically
increase attendance of families whose kids have
Sunday morning athletic activities.
In areas of high population density, different
congregations may be started which use different
locations or approaches to appeal to the under-35s.
18
TEC’s Present Trends
Part 1 of 3
According to author Diana Butler Bass in her February 2012 book Christianity
after Religion (meaning after institutionalized religion), the world and all its
religions are in the midst of a massive transformation from the institutional
hierarchical religious institutions of the last several hundred years to a new morepersonalized and spiritualistic religious pattern. The shift is from
believing  behaving  belonging
to a new pattern of
belonging  behaving  believing
where the  symbol means “leads to.” If her view is even partially correct – and
I think it is correct – then shouldn’t our new Grand Strategy respond to the
change that is going on?
Note that one’s sense of belonging is strongly influenced by whether one is
moved by the style of music used in the worship services.
19
TEC’s Present Trends
Part 2 of 3
• Religious educational institutions are under severe economic
pressures. Two Episcopal seminaries (ETS and GTS) recently
had to sell part of their campuses in order to survive.
• Under-35s are largely absent from TEC’s mind. They are
unsought-after, and are mostly single, a big change from two
generations ago.
• Most congregations don’t know how to make singles feel
comfortable and typically don’t even think about making singles
feel comfortable. Singles, who make up over half the
population, are just about invisible to TEC.
• Likewise, some congregations continue to struggle with other
biases: interracial and same-sex couples, for example. Dioceses
must identify and remediate these as best they can.
20
TEC’s Present Trends
Part 3 of 3
TEC has demonstrated that we have an effective Development Office.
In December 2013, the Presiding Bishop announced that the
Development Office had obtained a signed pledge of $5-million to
benefit the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti.
Approval of the Development Office was controversial at GC2012,
because an earlier effort to establish an effective Office failed. However,
under its present manager, Ms. Elizabeth Lowell, the Office has quite
visibly succeeded. Ms. Lowell has long career experience in this type of
work.
I hope that raising major funds for (a) church planting and (b) parish
turn-arounds will become a high priority for the Development Office in
the near future. Without such funds, I doubt that a turn-around in
TEC’s numerical decline can be accomplished in the next decade.
21
Church Turn-Arounds/Re-Starts –
Part 1 of 2
• “Church revitalization” is the polite term for church turnarounds. Another term is “re-starts.”
• Re-starts are a lot harder to accomplish than new starts.
– About half as many priests are qualified to lead turn-arounds as to
lead new church plants. The reason is that whatever is causing the
present decline probably lies in deep-seated unrecognized motivations
of the present opinion leaders in the sick congregation, and that
sickness must be cured (or the sick people dispersed) before a healthy
congregation can be built.
– If you can’t find a turn-around leader who is truly qualified, then shut
the failing operation down. An alternative to this is to arrange a
merger with another weak congregation, but only if the merger effort
is led by a truly transformative leader.
• Obviously it’s better to do re-starts than closures, so let’s
look more closely at how to do re-starts.
22
Church Turn-Arounds/Re-Starts –
Part 2 of 2
In her 2006 book Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church
is Transforming the Faith, Dr. Diana Butler Bass describes her three-year study
of healthy growing US Protestant congregations; some but not all of which are
Episcopal. The middle section of the book,“10 Signposts for Renewal”
describes the important traits of healthy, growing congregations. They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Hospitality
Discernment
Healing
Contemplation
Testimony
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Diversity
Justice
Worship
Reflection
Beauty
This book could be required pre-retreat reading for a vestry retreat, with each
vestry person to come to the retreat with at least one idea for improving parish
performance in at least five of the above 10 areas of activity. Alternately, the
whole congregation could be polled, using either a paper survey or
surveymonkey.com. The whole congregation could be polled only if the
majority have read at least a summary of the book. (You don’t ask a group of
horse-and carriage drivers what makes a good racing car – or even a good
23
family car.)
Strategically Important Observations
The restructuring proposals planned for GC2015
won’t turn around TEC’s negative growth trend –
because they basically consists of treating only the
results of decline, not the root causes.
TEC needs to search out and counter the root causes
of decline, while concurrently taking action to get
positive growth going again.
Relocating the Episcopal Church Center out of NYC
would involve major moving costs, with minimal – if
any – long term benefits. Advocates of such a change
should cite what benefits (if any) would be gained. 24
Evangelism and Church Growth – Not the
Same Thing, but Hand-in-Hand Partners
A good approach is to use church growth principles to get people
into the congregation and then teach them an appreciation for
true Anglicanism.
• This is much more than teaching people who theologically
are still Baptists how to use Prayer Books. You haven’t
completed the job until you’ve taught them what the bible
really is, and how to react to it with intellectual integrity.
Teach them about the bible, not just what’s in it. Otherwise
they are likely to interpret the bible as though it were a
present-day history book and/or God’s behavior manual.
• The relationship between church growth and evangelism is
that church growth can be an excellent first step in
evangelism.
25
Church Leader and Member Happiness
People are happiest when:
• They know what they are supposed to be doing
• They know how to do it well
• They are supported in doing their work
• They believe that what they are doing is important to:
-
God
The people who benefit from their work
Their family, their friends, and their community
The higher-ups in the organization
• They feel appreciated
• They are growing in capability and effectiveness
• Their organization is growing
Following this document’s Grand Strategy will lead to happier
26
church leaders and members.
Better Balance Needed
• Because of TEC’s continuing numerical decline, we must strike a better
balance between our emphasis on
- improving social justice and social services
- propagating the faith
• No matter how one does the analysis, TEC at the churchwide level is putting
far more effort, time, and money into social justice and social service than in
responding to the Great Commission. Analysis of the January 2015 draft
budget comparing totals for each of the Five Anglican Marks of mission
shows that there is nowhere near a balance between the categories cited
above.
• Those members who are most interested in supporting social service and
social justice work should keep in mind that if TEC keeps getting smaller
and smaller, then TEC will be able to do less and less such work. Much
better propagation of the faith is thus a necessary foundation for
continuing and/or expanding our work in social service/social justice.
27
The Episcopal Church Offers a Better Way
of Being Catholic
IMO, one of the objectives of TEC should be to establish and implement a plan for
marketing TEC to disaffected Roman Catholics.
TEC is both catholic -- small "c" -- and protestant: we have many institutional features
and all the sacraments of the church of the early and middle centuries, but we have
avoided such present-day abnormalities as: Mariolatry; misogyny; clerical celibacy;
widespread, persistent, and covertly-protected clergy ephebophilia; rejection of the
most effective and convenient forms of birth control; church leadership which both
excludes and insultingly devalues lay leadership and women, and is determinedly and
unconscionably hostile to sexual minorities. One of the worst abnormalities is socalled Papal Infallibility -- a hubris-encrusted doctrine which has led to required belief
in such non-biblically-based doctrines as the Immaculate Conception and the Bodily
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. By today's standards of belief, today's Roman
Catholic Church would have to excommunicate the church of the early centuries.
In my opinion, we should intentionally offer clear-sighted disaffected Roman Catholics
a spiritual home that is more rational, more historically-catholic, much more loving,
and less hubris-encrusted, and which values all orders of ministry in all people.
28
Designing/Redesigning Future Church
Buildings
• Let’s not be in the business of constructing soon-to-be-out-of-date church
buildings.
• Plan to share space with organizations that don’t need buildings during the
same hours that your church does. Examples might include:
–
–
–
–
private or public schools (including pre-schools)
movie theaters
sports arenas
synagogues
• Build for flexibility. In the Middle Ages, cathedrals didn’t have fixed pews.
The chapel at the Diocese of Texas’s Camp Allen doesn’t have fixed pews
either. Its seating can be set up for large or relatively small groups to worship
in, or for secular groups to have business meetings, such as corporate
shareholders’ meetings and corporate management retreats. It has projectors
that are unobtrusive and screens that can be dropped into place only when
needed.
• Use the building design advice and assistance of the Episcopal Church
Building Fund (ECBF). That’s what they do and they’re good at it.
29
Dealing with Empty, Crumbling and/or
Near-Empty Church Buildings – Part 1 of 2
• Completely empty church buildings are a cash-flow sink and an investment sink
because the buildings are not only depreciating but also are continuing to have
ownership costs such as insurance and minimal-but-still-present energy costs.
Insurance costs go up rapidly for deserted buildings, especially because sprinkler
systems don’t work when the building’s interior temperatures are below freezing.
Empty buildings are more subject to break-ins, which speed-up depreciation.
Either use the buildings or sell them and invest the proceeds in a new church start
elsewhere in the diocese.
• Or in the case of congregations that attempted to secede, lease-to-sell the buildings
back to the people who used to occupy them. A good model agreement was
entered into in Northern Virginia, where the diocese and the secessionist
congregation agreed for that congregation to take over the use of the buildings and
to pay operating costs (insurance, energy, etc.). The congregation agreed not to
affiliate with another denomination for five years, and both the congregation and
TEC agreed not to publicly criticize each other.
30
Dealing with Empty, Crumbling and/or
Near-Empty Church Buildings – Part 2 of 2
• Consider the situation where there is a very large building and a very small
congregation which can’t afford to take proper care of the building. Sooner or
later, there’s going to be a serious problem with the building and the diocese is
suddenly going to have to intercede, likely at substantial expense to the diocese.
Wouldn’t it be better to intercede before the inevitable major problem occurs?
• One way would be for the diocesan canons to specify that when a
congregation’s Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) falls below a certain level,
the congregation is placed in an Intervention-Needed status.
• Such congregations
will develop plans for getting well. Each such plan will
.
have milestones, which if not met will cause the congregation to come under
closer diocesan control.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: in the business community, pouring money into continuously substandard
operations is known as backing your losers. In the church, it’s known as being
caring, but it’s very poor mission strategy, not to mention poor stewardship.
31
Laying the Foundations for Future Reunion
with Departed Groups
Part 1 of 2
Reunion with the recently departed ex-Episcopalians won’t happen overnight, but we can begin laying
the foundations now.
Think separately of the schism-leaders (mostly clergy) and the schism-followers (some clergy, but
mostly laity).
The schism-leaders had to work themselves up into an emotional tizzy to justify to themselves breaking
their ordination vows. Reversing their schism decision will not come easy for them. An organized
return to TEC may need to wait until the leaders of schismatic organizational units (dioceses and/or
congregations) are replaced by their successors. This is already beginning to happen.
However, the followers of the schism-leaders may individually much sooner be ready to return when:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
“Their” church building is returned to TEC
The broad society (including themselves) concludes that gay marriages in fact have not harmed traditional
marriages
Members of their own expanding number of descendents include some who are GLBT
When it is more broadly recognized that the main effect of the effort to replace TEC as the US member of
the Anglican Communion has been to contribute to dividing the Anglican Communion
TEC is broadly recognized as a leader in inter-communion agreements
TEC recognizes that lease-to-buy agreements with some secessionist congregations can be a win-win
solution
TEC recognizes that the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral should apply to relationships with :
• CANA
• The Reformed Episcopal Church
• Other breakaway groups
32
Laying the Foundations for Future Reunion
with Departed Groups - Part 2 of 2
Steps to take include:
• GC2015 should authorize a blue-ribbon Task Force to design and
test approaches to departed Episcopalians and report back to
Executive Council which then should make appropriate
implementing recommendations to GC2018
• These approaches should include providing explicit paths for
reunion with:
• Departed dioceses
• Departed congregations (including their deserted property)
• Departed priests/deacons
• Departed parishioners
33
A Call to Rectors
• With your Bishop’s permission, prepare your congregation for the
experiment of saying “trust in” rather than “believe in” in the creeds for a
season. The authority for this translation is explained in Chapter 4,
“Believing,” in Dr. Diana Butler Bass’s 2012 book.
• In parallel with the preceding, engage your congregation’s lay leaders in
studying Dr. Bass’s 2006 book, repeatedly asking the question, “How
does this idea apply to our parish as we live out our role in carrying out
God’s Mission?” (See slide 23.)
• Share your experiences with your bishops and clergy colleagues; encourage
each other.
• Look for the signs of Dr. Bass’s “new Great Awakening”* and respond
accordingly.
• Pray for God’s guidance in this venture.
=======================================================
* Described in Dr. Bass’s 2012 book.
34
Appendices
The following pages address:
- A Primer on Church Planting
- Improving Your Parish Website
- The Job of the Designated Leader
- Bibliography and References
35
A Primer on Church Planting
Part 1 of 3
Church Planting is not broadly well-understood in TEC (see below). Church Planting requires lots
of money.
At the time of the 2020 Task Force (2000-2001), the fastest growing TEC dioceses were Texas,
Virginia, and Tennessee. All three had steady streams of new church plants and all three were
paying for the new church plants from non-budgetary funds donated by big givers with whom
the respective bishops had developed dependable funding relationships.
For each new start, decide at the beginning what the target size is. The Episcopal Church
Building Fund (ECBF) can help you do this. For a family size church, have one church planter.
For program size, from the beginning, have one clergy church planter plus one lay or clergy
program leader (usually musician/choirmaster or Christian education leader.)
One of the best places to locate new church plants is in areas where farmland regularly is being
converted into housing developments. Buy the land before ground is broken for the first new
house, and put up a big sign that says a new Episcopal Church will be built here. However, don’t
start construction until the new congregation has grown to about the size you have chosen,
presumably program or corporate/resource size. 10 acres is a good lot size to pick because it will
support buildings for a program-sized congregation, including parking. If the new start doesn’t
work, the diocese can sell the unused land, usually at a profit, and then use the money to buy land
for another new start somewhere else.
36
A Primer on Church Planting
Part 2 of 3
Church planters, who have a tough job, do better when they have a qualified
coach with whom they are in regular contact. Texas and Virginia each had a
dedicated coach on diocesan staff. Tennessee was too small to have an expert
coach on the bishop’s staff, so they sequenced things so that the planter who
started a church last year would be both leading his own plant, plus also
coaching the planter who was starting a new plant in the present. In the
professional field of organizational training, this is called the daisy-chain
approach, and it is frowned upon because if one of the planters introduces a bad
idea, it gets passed on. The daisy chain approach can be used if there is some
way of insuring that bad ideas don’t enter the system and/or get passed on. This
needed quality control can be established by sharing one coach among several
dioceses, and/or by having a Church Center staff member serve as a coach for
several new starts scattered among several dioceses, using a lot of video
conferences with the planters in each given year group, supplemented by oneon-one teleconferences and quarterly group face-to-face meetings.
37
A Primer on Church Planting
Part 3 of 3
In some dioceses where church-planting is an on-going process, to help get
a new start going, “borrowing” of lay-leader families from adjacent larger
congregations is intentionally arranged. The intended length of the “loan”
is 3 to 5 years. At the end of the intended loan period, some such families
return to their prior congregation, some stay in the new one, and some go
on to another new start. Such “borrowing” may also be applicable in
church turn-arounds.
For further information on church planting, contact the Rev. Tom Brackett
at the Episcopal Church Center, 646-203-6266 or
tbrackett@episcopalchurch org, and/or see the 2020 Task Force Report
at www.mollegen.net/2020TF
38
Improving Your Parish Website – Part 1 of 3
•
•
•
•
•
•
The parish home page should convey the sense of a warm caring community for both
families and singles. A photo of a Baptism is a great choice for the home page. The
photo of the church building may make present church members feel warm and fuzzy,
but to people who have just moved into the area, it may convey “we’re a century or so
out of date” or “our old building is a money-pit.”
Say: “Our kids love to come because we have a great Sunday School and youth
group.”
Convey that worshippers here usually feel that they have experienced deeply
meaningful and joyful contact with the Divine. (PS: The services and the individuals’
. conversations must convey that also, not just the website.)
coffee-hour
Convey that providing the visitor with the experience of God is of utmost importance
to us. We don’t ask people to subscribe to a list of theological propositions -- this
isn’t the 16th Century.
Convey that there is continuing education for all ages.
The photo of the church building belongs in the “directions to our church” section, and
the directions should end by describing where the entrance to the parking lot is, and
which door you should use to get into the building.
39
Improving Your Parish Website – Part 2 of 3
•
•
•
•
Convey that “families” here includes: single-parent families, nuclear families,
unmarried couples (with or without children), and singles. Don’t make singles
activities sound like “find-a-mate” sessions; you don’t want to covey that there’s
something wrong with being single.
Have a “comparisons” section: TEC compared to others. We represent the historical
church brought up to the 21st century. Also see earlier slide 28– “a better way of
being catholic.”
TEC is jointly governed by four orders of ministry, providing a check and balance
system among the four orders:
– Bishops in the Historic Succession
– Priests and Deacons ordained by bishops in the Historic Succession
– Lay people in Mutual Ministry (lay people participating in leadership)
Until the ELCA received the historic succession from TEC in a recent agreement,
TEC was the only major US Church with these characteristics.
Convey that we wear our name tags to all church events. This is single most
important thing that a congregation can do to make newcomers and visitors feel that
you truly want to include them. (Don’t say it unless you do it.) But do it.
40
Improving Your Parish Website – Part 3 of 3
–
–
–
–
–
Make sure that the words ‘spirit’ and “spiritual” appear somewhere on the
homepage (so that a seeker’s search engine can find your website.)
Remember that the basic question in the back of the mind of a seeker or a
website visitor is likely to be: “What things that are meaningful to me are
going on in this church?”
On the whole, we need better answers than we usually give to that question.
Good answers may depend on whether the seeker is a boomer, millennial,
silent-generation person, Anglo, Latino/Hispanic, etc.
We also
. need to counter mistaken impressions that people may have:
–
–
–
–
–
Christianity is NOT anti-gay
Christianity is NOT anti-evolution
Our Churches DO NOT care more about their clergy than they do about their children
Our Churches DO NOT deny their faults rather than fixing them
Henry VIII DID NOT establish the C of E because he wanted a divorce . [Being a good
Roman Catholic, Henry sought an annulment. His request was denied because the Pope was
under the control of King Philip of Spain, a political enemy of Henry.]
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The Job of the Designated Leader
Part 1 of 2
•
•
•
•
Get a good set of Goals and Grand Strategy created and promulgated. The
leader doesn’t have to create these items him- or herself, but the leader has to
make sure that a good set of them is created by someone. Then keep
communicating them -- it will take a while for people to realize that you’re
serious about it.*
Set the organization in motion toward the goals and keep it in motion.
Having a good grand strategy will make budgeting a lot easier.
Keep an eye on:
.
- Progress toward the goals
- The environment -- it will change
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* For more info, see Leading Change by Prof. John Kotter, Harvard Business School Press
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The Job of the Designated Leader
Part 2 of 2
-
Make sure that best practices are continuously sought out, adopted, and
continuously improved.
- Occasionally look back over your shoulder. If there’s nobody following, then
you’re not leading, you’re just somebody out for a walk.
- Understand and promulgate your organization’s Critical Success Factors
(CSFs). These are the factors which are both necessary and sufficient for the
- don’t know what the CSFs are for your
organization to reach its goals. If you
organization, have a retreat for you and your top-level leaders/managers to
.
define the CSFs.
- If you have a list of more than eight or nine CSFs, you have too many, and
need to do some consolidating. (For instance, just list ”regulatory
compliance” rather than listing all the regulations.)
- This really works. In addition to being part of the Grand Strategy, it tells your
people what’s important.
- Evangelism is an often-overlooked Critical Success Factor for the Episcopal
Church.
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Author’s Qualifications
• CEO of two fast-growth companies. One grew from 56 to
over 1500 employees under my leadership, the other from
zero to over 100.
• Active in TEC at congregational, diocesan, and
churchwide levels:
–
–
–
–
–
TEC Executive Council 2003-2009
GC Deputy 1991-2015; Alternate 1982-1988
CT Stewardship Chairman 6 years
CT Executive Council 15 years
Member General Convention Legislative Committees on three
different subjects
– Member 1997-2003 Joint Nominating Committee for the Election
of the Presiding Bishop
– Nominee for TEC Executive Council in 2015
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For more info, see www.mollegen.net
Bibliography and References
1. Simple Church by Dr. Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger
2015 B&H Publishing Group
2. How to Break Growth Barriers: Capturing Overlooked
Opportunities for Church Growth by Carl F. George
1993
3. “New Facts on Episcopal Church Growth and Decline”
an article by Dr. C. Kirk Hadaway, The Episcopal
Church Center, March 2015
4. Christianity after Religion (meaning after institutional
religion) by Dr. Diana Butler Bass (February 2012)
5. Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood
Church is Transforming the Faith, by Dr. Diana Butler
Bass (2006)
In Closing
Please post comments and suggestions about this document on
the HoBD list. That way others can comment on your
thoughts, and the more thinking we get applied to these issues,
the better off TEC will be.
If you want to write me privately, my email address is
[email protected].
Thanks for reading this.
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