Three Bonus Advantages to Partnerships...
CRITICAL MASS
We feel called to mission: to make a
difference in our communities, and to worship, growing in our connection to
God. But many of us are experiencing the
greying of our churches: Bob, who used
to lead Buildings and Grounds, is unsteady on a ladder; Mary, once the whirlwind of a Thrift Shop
which benefitted a neighborhood, walks with a cane. Our middle-aged members are juggling
full-time jobs, commutes and time for families.
Even as we redesign our parish life, we feel short of the people we feel
we need. We don’t have enough youth for
a youth group, enough singers for a choir, enough children for a robust Sunday
School. If we partnered with other
congregations, we might return to critical mass.
BETTER STEWARDSHIP OF
OUR RESOURCES
Our parish, which once had a Sunday
attendance near 100, struggles to reach an average Sunday attendance of
40. We have gone to part-time clergy. But following on the June Diocesan
Convention, churches with part-time clergy pay the full cost of housing and
health insurance. If we partnered with
other churches, we would pay a only a share of these costs.
For the truly brave-hearted, this
question: What could we be doing in mission and ministry if we didn’t have to
carry a building that is over twice the size we need?
The strain of the struggle shows
across our diocese:
·
Over forty of our
congregations have clergy who are less than full-time.
·
Over forty of our
congregations drew more than 5% from their invested funds and/or ran a deficit
greater than 15% of their invested funds in 2011.
·
The June Convention
showed the level of financial anxiety in the Diocese, with clergy and church
treasurers sounding their concerns.
·
What we have been doing
isn’t working.
There isn’t anywhere in the Baptismal
Covenant that we promise to wither and worry and finally fail. We need to think of other ways to be church
together so that we preserve what we most treasure and move from mission rather
than anxiety.
Excitement
and synergy
What if it weren’t such a
struggle? What if we felt the energy of
the Holy Spirit moving among us much more often than we worried about what
Bishop Mark calls “the killer B’s” (budgets, buildings and boilers. Some
congregations have rearranged Vestry agendas so that budgets and B&G
reports come late in the meetings rather than dominating them.) According to Jim and Steve Kelsey, dreamers of
mission and ministry by teams of the baptized, “The Holy Spirit gives the gifts
needed to do the ministry we are called to do.”
Notice that the synergy includes lay leaders and trainers.
HOW, in other words, can we
reconfigure our lives together so that we can focus on what matters? How do we find zest and God and ministry
again? One of the advantages of
Partnerships is that we have partners in mission with us, so we don’t have
to do it all alone, and so that, together,
we can find joy again. Lay and clergy
can be learners together, as we re-tool for missional life in this century.
And we can, generally, move into this
gradually, testing the waters with small collaborations, trying things together
for a defined period of time, learning from what works and what doesn’t.
FINE-PRINT DISCLAIMER
Change is scary; change feels weird; some times we have to act
and let our feelings catch up with our new reality. New ways and new partnerships require effort,
more time spent in listening and figuring out how to work together. They also require us to give up some power
and “the way we’ve always done
it.”
But they give us a chance of new life – even new life abundant… resurrection life.
________________________________________________________________
This week:
Sunday, November 11th: Eucharist, Children's Chapel, Nursery Care: 10 AM
Tuesday, November 13th: Women's Group, 1 PM, Library
Vestry, 7:45 PM, Library
Wednesday, November 14th: Missional Church Study, 7 PM, Library
Taize Service, 7:30 PM, Sanctuary
Saturday, November 17th: Mid-Central Churches in Conversation, 9AM
at St. Luke's, Montclair
START Holiday Fundraiser, 11 AM - 4 PM, Hall
But they give us a chance of new life – even new life abundant… resurrection life.
________________________________________________________________
This week:
Sunday, November 11th: Eucharist, Children's Chapel, Nursery Care: 10 AM
Tuesday, November 13th: Women's Group, 1 PM, Library
Vestry, 7:45 PM, Library
Wednesday, November 14th: Missional Church Study, 7 PM, Library
Taize Service, 7:30 PM, Sanctuary
Saturday, November 17th: Mid-Central Churches in Conversation, 9AM
at St. Luke's, Montclair
START Holiday Fundraiser, 11 AM - 4 PM, Hall
