‘Hurting the Feeling of Muslins’

Protesters in Libya killed the US Ambassador and three embassy staff members as they fled the US consulate building in Benghazi which had been stormed and set on fire allegedly by al Qaeda-linked gunmen blaming America for a film that they claimed insulted the Prophet Mohammad. In Egypt protesters broke into the US embassy and burned the US flag.

The US State Department put out this press statement prior to the embassy attacks but it has been subjected to fierce criticism for continuing to convey a sense of moral equivalence first laid out in President Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo in what is widely now called his ‘apology tour’ for suggesting that there is a linkage between American values and policies and Muslim violence.

U.S. Embassy Condemns Religious Incitement

September 11, 2012

“The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others.”

We have our Priorities Wrong!

While we recognize the sensitivities that Muslims have about the depiction of the Prophet, that is no excuse for storming our embassies let alone killing the US ambassador and his staff.  The decision by the US State Department to blame this on Coptic Christians who are regularly persecuted by Muslims in Egypt and elsewhere is unbelievable.

Never mind the starker reality is that these incidents are not mere protesters out of control but the work of terrorist groups seeking to exploit the sensitivity to create the incident in hopes of provoking a crisis suited to their destabilization goals.  Never mind that this is standard modus operandi in the thousand year old tensions between Sunni and Shi’a and that the killing of Muslims by other Muslims is common place. Never mind that it is no coincidence that these attacks happened on September 11th, yet the State Department announcement completely ignores these realitities as it seeks to avoid hurting the feelings of Muslims.

The State Department statement and our Government’s policy and reaction to this incident is shameful.  Our blame of the Coptic Christians for also wanting to practice their religion is shameful.  Our government’s willingness to abandon our own principles to avoid hurting the feelings of Muslim terrorists is shameful.

We pray for Ambassador Stevens and his three staff members killed in the Benghazi attack.

Related articles

• Cairo US Embassy scaled…over a film…not shown yet! (bonniesbumps.wordpress.com)
• On 9-11… The Obama Administration Apologizes to Islamists and Attacks the Constitution (thegatewaypundit.com)
• Sound Familiar? Islamists Storm U.S. Embassy and America Apologizes (commentarymagazine.com)
• Good Grief… US Embassy in Egypt Condemns US Citizens After Islamists Storm Its Walls & Torch Flag (thegatewaypundit.com)
• Unreal: Mob storms U.S. Embassy in Cairo; Embassy tweets apologies for hurt Muslim feelings (twitchy.com)
• After attack, U.S. embassy in Cairo apologizes for unspecified film (politico.com)
• In Response to Muslim Rioters, U.S. Embassy Apologizes for Offensive Speech (patheos.com)
• Muslims Commemorate 9/11 by Killing American, US Apologizes to Muslims (frontpagemag.com)
• U.S. embassy in Cairo apologizes for “abuse of free speech” after protesters tear down American flag (hotair.com)
• White House condemns ‘Anti-Muslim’ Embassy remarks (bazaardaily.com)

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There is No Religious Test for President

Timothy Dolan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The day after evangelical pastor Rick Warren said that his followers would have trouble voting for Mitt Romney because Mormons do not believe in the Trinity, Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan said Sunday on Face the Nation that Republican front-runner Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith should not be an issue in the presidential campaign.

“There may be reasons not to vote for Mitt Romney as president of the United States. That he’s a Mormon cannot be one of them.“I don’t think Catholics would have any problem voting for a Mormon at all.”                      —Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York

Dolan has reminded his followers that it was not too many years ago that Catholics felt the sting of such discrimination in the election of 1960 that saw John F. Kennedy win the presidency.  During the Republican primary season dominated by conservatives, Romney’s religion has been a recurring subplot in the strategy of his opponents.

For Cardinal Dolan to called out the discrimination for what it is was admirable, but it was also subtle, delicious political payback for President Obama’s action to force the church to support health care practices in opposition to its teaching.  The Cardinal is reminding the White House that the church is not without its influence in these matters .

Dolan brought up religion us prejudice in a speech to the Jewish Anti-Defamation League when he was asked how the Jewish and Catholic communities could cooperate better. He got a standing ovation after he told them

“we Catholics and we Jews have felt the sting of the other side. And now, one of the ways we can cooperate is to see that religious prejudice, religious bigotry doesn’t enter the campaign.”

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• Dolan Says Contraception Rule Intrusion (myfoxny.com)
• The 7 Best Moments from Sunday Talk (thedailybeast.com)
• Cardinal Timothy Dolan Says Faith Has a Place in Politics (wnyc.org)
• Rick Warren: Mormonism Denies Christian Doctrine (crooksandliars.com)
• How separate are church and state these days? Let’s ask a cardinal (shortformblog.com)
• Dolan reaches out to multi-faiths (myfoxny.com)
• Rick Warren’s Not Willing To Call Mitt Romney a Christian (crooksandliars.com)
• Bob Schieffer repeats Republican lies about birth control mandate on Face the Nation (dailykos.com)
• The Constitution says No Religious Test (texasjq2.wordpress.com)
• Cardinal Dolan Tries To Defend Church Intrusion Into Political Life (lezgetreal.com)

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“It is like you were sent by God”

“It is like you were sent by God”, that was the simple thank you message from freed Iranian fisherman Fazel ur Rehman after American sailors rescued him along with other distressed and adrift in the Persian Gulf after their vessel broke down and was taking on water.

It probably was not the headline the Mullahs wanted to see in the New York Times, but there is was for all the world to see. 

What are the odds that twice in one week Americans would rescue Iranians, feed them and send them home in a matter of hours with God speed wishes.

Now compare that to the Iranian decision to sentence to death an America in Iran to visit his elderly grandmother on charges that he is a spy for the Great Satan.  The ex-Marine Amir Hekmati had the permission of the Iranian interests section–the U.S.-based diplomatic representative for Iran in Washington D.C. to travel to Iran in August to visit his elderly grandmother. He was arrest on August 29 and Iranian officials initially urged the family to keep quiet in order to facilitate his release. But in December, Iranian media showed a video of Hekmati allegedly confessing to working for the CIA a charge his family denied.  Iran has used this same tactic to torment the US since the days our embassy staff was held hostage for 444 days.

Maybe there is a sign from God somewhere in these intertwined stories. As tensions rise between Iran and the US over nuclear weapons and other issues and it looks like it will get worse before it gets better suddenly something completely unexpected happens—not once but twice.  The Great Satan rescues Iranians in need, offers them food and hospitality and gets them safely home.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you—maybe the Iranian Mullahs should study their lessons!

Related articles

• “The Great Satan’s” military is not so bad at all….lol – US navy rescues Iranian sailors (allianceforanidiotfreeamerica.wordpress.com)
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• US Rescues Iranian Sailors, Again (abcnews.go.com)
• American ex-marine sentenced to death in Iran ” Hot Air (hotair.com)
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Nielsen Study of Optimism and Opportunity for Women

I have not written much about our 20/20 Vision process lately.

It has been dormant while St. Timothy’s searches for a new rector believing that whoever God calls to be the shepherd of our flock should be an active participant in framing our parish vision for the future.

But that should not stop us from research and examination of useful information when that 20/20 Vision process picks up again hopefully next year.

So here is a good news story to keep your attention focused on our 20/20 prize.

Nielsen is out with a very interesting new study of the attitudes of women.  What makes this study useful for our work in the Church Growth Program is the breakdown of the data from the survey results across ethnic and other demographic lines that make it a good resource for planning mission and ministry programs.

We’re learning from the 2010 Census data about the profound changes in demographics reshaping our country.  Those changes are not just ethnic they are also being reshaped by the changing role of women in the workplace and in our society.  Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group and their attitudes about optimism and opportunity will have major impacts on media, retail and manufacturers now and in the years ahead—and provide lessons about of message of hope and opportunity for an optimistic role for woman in the Episcopal Church.

The Nielsen study offers good news for our mission and ministry work in the vineyard over the next year working congregation by congregation to help each devise a church vitality and growth strategy that works for them.  Its focus on attitudes about optimism and opportunity are very important benchmarks for our church vitality and growth work ahead.

So what are the headlines from this Nielsen study?

• Optimism was highest among African American and Hispanic women, especially how they viewed the opportunities they have had compared with those of their mothers.
• Women of today are not only optimistic for themselves, they expect their daughters to have more opportunity than they do.
• American women are heavy users of technology – even if they aren’t early adopters. Women of all ethnicities use media in similar ways, with one key exception: smartphones. Just 33 percent of Caucasian women have a smartphone in their household, compared to penetration rates in the 60s for women of other ethnicities.

I recommend this Nielsen Report to you:  Women of Tomorrow: U.S. Multicultural Insights.

Related articles

• Church Growth and Vitality in East Contra Costa County (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• DioCal Convention Endorses Bishop Marc’s Call for Church Growth & Vitality (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• The Growth Potential from Social Networking the Church (churchgrowthprogram.com)

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Anglican Covenant Rejected at DioCal Convention

Image via Wikipedia

The 162nd Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of California rejected the Anglican Covenant by a wide margin October 23rd.  This was not a surprise since sentiment against the Covenant has run strong and deep since it was first unveiled.  But there was a holy and healthy peace about the decision and a sense of sadness that the debate had produced such acrimony across the Communion.

The Anglican Communion was formed as a freewill association of independent churches sharing the common faith foundation from the mother Anglican Church of England.  But America fought a revolution for its independence from England and has thrived for the past two centuries quite well on its own.  America democratized the church with the invention of the Standing Committee.

While the Episcopal Church of the US clearly wants to remain in communion with the other Anglican Communion members, we are not prepared to sacrifice our independence or subordinate ourselves to a Standing Committee other than our own.  Such a price is too high to pay—-and worse such a price is too high to even have the audacity to ask for.  So the logical answer is no thank you.

In a world full of intolerance, the message from the Diocese of California is clear and unmistakable: 

EVERYONE who loves God and seeks Christ is welcome at our table where we come together to find renewal, hope and unconditional love.

The resolution adopted will be forwarded to the Convention for the whole Episcopal Church of the US meeting in 2012.

Related articles

• TEC “unable to adopt Anglican Covenant” (kiwianglo.wordpress.com)
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• Michael Poon – An Eirenic Voice from the Global South? (kiwianglo.wordpress.com)
• Covenant clause ‘contrary to Anglican ecclesiology’ (kiwianglo.wordpress.com)
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Disciples in the Dougherty Valley

Notes from the October 15th Workshop on Collaborative Ministry at St. Clare’s Pleasanton.  If you were there please add your comments to this post.

No, we are not wandering in the wilderness!

It was a wonderfully sunny autumn day in Pleasanton, California as we pulled into the parking lot at St. Clare’s Episcopal Church for a workshop on Church Growth in the Dougherty Valley.  Rector Ron Culmer was decamped in a folding lawn chair at the cashier’s table for the parish rummage sale to raise money for youth ministry.  He had not slept much overnight while the “lock in” of kids took place in the church.   But he called our workshop crowd of 20 people from across the Diocese to prayer with his call to the Holy Spirit to fill us up and send us out to roll up our sleeves and get to work out in the vineyard.

It was altogether a wonderful day.

Bringing people together in community is our first step in sharing the Good News.  That was the message Shelton Ensley the project manager for the three congregations, St. Clare’s Pleasanton, St. Bartholomew’s Livermore and St. Timothy’s Danville, reported as he explained the task before them.

Bishop Marc has asked these three congregations to not only define the mission and ministry needs of this vast developing area at the edge of the Diocese of California but also to model collaboration ministry as a great ‘lab experiment’ for the vitality of our church future.

Collaboration is the current day term for what Jesus might call discipleship.  Ron Culmer reminded us that the common mistake today is to think of the church as being in the membership business and even our own church growth program talks about growing average Sunday attendance, membership and pledge units—-but instead we should see ourselves in the discipleship business and invite others to join us.

You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Questions

We laughed about that line as the project team described the rich multicultural nature of the Dougherty Valley area with a large Asian population from many nations, many languages, many faith traditions.  But that is the challenge the church faces in our future.  How do we reach out to many different cultures and communicate in ways that is welcoming and open, respectful yet transparent about our own faith journey testimony.

How do we ‘do church’ in a geography spread out in valleys and beyond the next hill where small Episcopal congregations live at the boundaries of old growth and new growth, old ways and new ways, and minister to such diverse needs as three generation households where the oldest generation may not speak English, may not drive, may not have a support system like they once had.  How do we minister to the needs of kids who often are the translator bridge between generations yet are growing up in an American culture vastly different that their grandparents could have imagined.  How do we reach out to working parents leading busy lives with competing demands for their time.

You have questions, we have questions

The Dougherty Valley project is designed to find ways to be in community with this new community.  To reach out and talk to people, to listen to their views and needs, to find ways to bring the message of Jesus to those who are open to hearing it without turning off those who are not yet ready.  The Dougherty Valley project is designed to get three congregations and the Diocese to work together outside their comfort zones to try new things, explore new ideas for doing church, and focus on building community beyond church that keeps the conversation going.

You have question, we have questions

We do know this—God has given us this wonderful opportunity to be disciples.  He has set before us a “project” that is not like anything and or anyplace we have tried before to serve.  He is challenging us to be open and transparent about our own personal testimony about why Jesus is important in our lives.

He is calling on us to be the Body of Christ and invite others to join us and do it in the ‘languages of the people’.

The Dougherty Valley project is our Pentecost—-how will we respond?

Here are some resources we learned about at Saturday’s Workshop:

• Grow My Church by Chris Yaw
• David Gortner at the Virginia Theological Seminary
• Unbinding the Gospel

Related articles

• Collaboration Ministry: The Dougherty Valley Project (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Visualize The Great Commission (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Growing the Church is about Community (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• Membership Growth Team Workshop – September 17th 9am-2pm (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Census 2010 clues for Growing the Church (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• CHURCH2GO: Connecting the Body of Christ in an Episcopal Social Network (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• Does Growth = Evangelism? (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Parable of the Wicked Tenants: What are there Lessons for the Church Growth Program? (churchgrowthprogram.com)

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The New is Here

The Rev. Joseph Andrew Lane, Vicar of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in San Rafael, completed a doctor of ministry in congregational development at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois in May 2011. His thesis is entitled:

Canaries in the Coalmine:
The Impact of Creative People on Congregational Development in the Episcopal Church

Here’s the abstract:

“The Episcopal Church is suspended between a very real desire to welcome new members and an equally real sense of anxiety over its decline in membership. Meanwhile, growing numbers of potential worshipers from what Richard Florida has named the Creative Class are standing just outside the door—scientists, engineers, architects, designers, writers, artists and musicians who use their creativity as a key factor in their work in business, education, health care, law and other professions. In terms of congregations, I would include as members of the Creative Class volunteers who employ creativity in their church work, that is, people whose work-a-day vocation is not necessarily creative but whose avocation or, one might say, vocation-in-faith is. This thesis takes a close look at people already in Episcopal churches who exercise their creative gifts in unusual ways—“canaries in the coalmine” who might signal to other members of the Creative Class the hospitality of the Episcopal Church—and it shares the advice they offer to church leaders devoted to congregational development.”

If you’d like to check out the whole thing, click here

What I liked about this paper was Father Lane’s attempt to connect the old church language with the real world language of business and professional people looking for their place in the church.  Yes doing that often involves dealing with buzz words and jargon but when you cut to the chase, the paper calls us back to the beginning of the church and the words Paul himself used to describe it:

2 Corinthians 5:17

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

So don’t be afraid to change a few things that are getting in the way of growing your own congregation.  If someone questions you—tell them to talk to Paul!

Related articles

• Visualize The Great Commission (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Writing About Church Growth & Decline (diocalparishgrowth.com)
• Growing the Church is about Community (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)

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Does Growth = Evangelism?

Evangelism is kind of a dirty word in the Episcopal Church.  We don’t use it much.  We don’t teach much about it and what it meant to Jesus and why it should mean something to us today. Evangelism is not politically correct.

But spreading the Good News is what Jesus set out to do and why He gathered around Him a group to multiply His efforts.

Matthew 28:16-20

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷ When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Growing the church again after years of steady decline in membership, attendance and pledge support is a challenge facing every mainline denomination. For the Episcopal Church in the United States the decline has averaged -3.3% per year in the key metrics. For the Diocese of California, the implications of this are profound.

At that current rate of decline, the Episcopal Diocese of Caifornia will have one-half the pledge units (<5000) in 2022 than it had in 2000. Similar decline in membership and average Sunday attendance means the Episcopal Church faces an existential threat to its relevance let alone vitality.

The reasons for decline are varied ranging from changing demographics, changes in family religious traditions as secularization pushes faith out of the public square, our schools and other places. And there are the self-inflicted wounds of churches who still believe they have a monopoly on people’s religious faith experiences. Then there are the endless conflicts of church politics, religious strife and other bad press that make church seem less inviting, less safe, less home.

The church has a big problem, but the Holy Spirit is calling us to trust Him with these burdens and follow our own Great Commission to go out there and make disciples of all the nations—starting with our neighbors. This is not a message we hear very much in the Episcopal Church because we have not had a theological tradition of being evangelists.

What is it about evangelism that turns us off?

Maybe evangelism threatens our sense of safety?  We like it in our congregational silos where we go through the motions and feel comforted by the sameness of the ritual.  Most congregations I have belonged to have the same blinders on seeing themselves as unique and the idea of collaboration with others is something we assign to outreach performed safely from a distance.  We’d rather send money than roll up our sleeves and work in the vineyard ourselves.

Growing the church is about growing community—and being in communities that thrive on faith, and love and the joy of being the Body of Christ means doing His work in the vineyard we are given to tend. It is Jesus calling us to live into our own Great Commission as disciples inviting others to join us. To do God’s work we have to put aside some of the old ways of the church that divide us, separate us from our mission in the vineyard and remember that we are sisters and brothers of the body of Christ.

Matthew 10:40-42:

“Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

‘Whoever welcomes you welcomes me’ probably was not designed to mean shaking hands at the church door each Sunday and calling it quits for the week.  Could it be that the church is no longer growing because we are no longer growing as the true Body of Christ?  Are we guilty of just going through the motions?

Evangelism is not electrifying our sanctuary adding movie screens and professional bands like the Evangelicals have tried.  Oh it brought in a crowd alright, but they only stayed as long as you kept on entertaining them.  The current research suggests that the half-life of that approach to church growth may be short as the growth rate of the megachurches on average is now flat after years of big increases. Why?  Probably for a lot of the same reasons mainline churches has declined—we lost sight of the real reason we showed up in the first place.

1 Corinthians 14:26

“So here is what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.”

Get the message?

Related articles

• Visualize The Great Commission (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Growing the Church is about Community (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• Parable of the Wicked Tenants: What are there Lessons for the Church Growth Program? (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Officials of The Episcopal Church take new action to punish free speech (liturgical.wordpress.com)
• CHURCH2GO: Connecting the Body of Christ in an Episcopal Social Network (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)
• Episcopal Realities: Getting Back to Growth (discernablefutures.wordpress.com)

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A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000 – 2010

Despite ‘bursts of innovation and pockets of vitality’, the last decade has produced a slow, overall erosion of the strength of America’s congregations, according to the Faith Communities Today series of national surveys of American congregations prepared by David Roozen.

A Decade of Change in American Congregations 2000-2010, tells us that in 2010, one in four congregations had less than 50 people in the pews. While the number of megachurches doubled in the last decade, the growth of the Evangelical church seems has leveled off and some congregations beginning to shrink.

Roozen said the two big trends in the survey results are the ageing of mainline congregations and the ‘halted growth of the Evangelical church’.

“What’s interesting is how old the Oldine really is,” he said. “Half of the congregations could lose one-third of their members in 15 years.” Over half (53 percent) of Oldine Protestant congregations consists of seniors 65 years old or older, and 75 percent of these churches said that 18-34 year olds make up less than 10 percent of their membership. 

The church is losing older members to disabilities or death and there are no young adults to take their place. Young adults aren’t really abundant in the Evangelical churches either. “The Evangelical growth movement has basically halted and begun to retreat,” he said. Additionally, the study found a steep drop in financial health and continuing high levels of conflict that is turning people off.

The FACT Surveys were conducted in 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2010 and the decade brought the following changes:

• Increase in innovative, adaptive worship
• Surprisingly rapid adoption of electronic technologies
• Dramatic increase in racial/ethnic congregations, many for immigrant groups
• Increase in the breadth of both member-oriented and mission-oriented programs
• Increase in connection across faith traditions

One  indicator of church health and vitality Roozen found was that more churches are turning to contemporary worship. In 2010 electric guitars and drums were found in one in four congregations, a 14 percent increase from 2000. Evangelical churches were the early adaptors of contemporary worship, but it has now gained a strong foothold in mainline churches as well. Roozen said the research shows contemporary worship is a catalyst of spiritual vitality, especially when it was combined with other innovative worship practices.

The bottom line according to the FACT surveys is fewer persons in the pews and decreasing spiritual vitality, but we should not give up hope since mainline churches are beginning to face the reality of church decline and make changes to arrest it.

Related articles

• Decade of decline for U.S. churches (crawlnet.wordpress.com)
• Exhortation: Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (apologus.wordpress.com)
• One legacy of 9/11: More interfaith services (geneveith.com)
• You Lost Me (churchgrowthprogram.com)
• Quotes from George C. Hunter on Evangelism and Church Growth (missionmusings.wordpress.com)
• Spreading The Gospel Through Contemporary Worship Music (prhayz.wordpress.com)

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Visualize The Great Commission

Growing the church again after years of steady decline in membership, attendance and pledge support is a challenge facing every mainline denomination.  For the Episcopal Church in the United States the decline has averaged -3.3% per year in the key metrics.  For the Diocese of California, the implications of this are profound.

At that current rate of decline, DioCal will have one-half the pledge units (<5000) in 2022 than it had  in 2000.  Similar decline in membership and average Sunday attendance means the Episcopal Church faces an existential threat to its relevance let alone vitality.

The reasons for decline are varied ranging from changing demographics, changes in family religious traditions as secularization pushes faith out of the public square, our schools and other places.  And there are the self-inflicted wounds of churches who still believe they have a monopoly on people’s religious faith experiences.  Then there are the endless conflicts of church politics, religious strife and other bad press that make church seem less inviting, less safe, less home.

A message of renewal not despair

The church has a big problem, but the Holy Spirit is calling us to put aside these burdens and follow our own Great Commission to go out there and make disciples of all the nations—starting with our neighbors. This is not a message we hear very much in the Episcopal Church because we have not had a theological tradition of being evangelists.  Instead our congregations are often silos that shelter us from an outside world we fear rather than unite us with a wider community we should embrace. The fact of church decline is testimony that this strategy is not working.  We now recognize church decline as the #1 problem facing the church today.

Over the past several months, we have been working in the vineyard trying to assess this problem of church decline right here in the Diocese of California and listening for God call about what we can do to fix this problem.

This is what we are hearing in the Church Growth Program:

1. Help me discover Jesus in my life and support me on my personal faith journey.
2. Help me give my kids a good faith foundation that will guide their lives.
3. Give me options to pray, worship and serve others on my terms, in my time available.
4. Help me be in community with others who share my faith and welcome me as I am.
5. Spare me from church politics and the hassles that get in the way of my faith journey.

These simple yet powerful messages are the hope of the church.  They symbolize the deep spiritual faith of people who love God and seek Christ but often see church practices as out of touch and in the way of true community.

The Good News is still good news and people still want to hear it. The graphic above is a new way of visualizing church the way we are—-in community with each other.  This is a simple —and far from complete representation of two growth opportunities for the Diocese of California waiting for us to discover ways to meet them.  In East Contra Costa and Southern Alameda amazing changes are taking place.  The rapid growth of new communities in the last boom market followed by the rapid halt to that growth in the current recession and slow recovery is transforming the Diocese of California demographically, geographically, and economically.  Yet the Episcopal Church has a fragmented and weak presence in these new centers for Diocesan growth.

How will we respond?

That is the big question and the big answer to our church growth problem.  God has laid before us a canvas rich in multicultural and ethnic diversity.  The current economic hardships see people hungry for a community of faith where they can find hope, renewal, support and love when they need it most.  The question for the church is—are we going to sit in our congregational silos and wait for all these people to find us—or are we going to reach out and invite them to be part of our communities of faith?

Growing the church is about growing community—and being in communities that thrive on faith.  It is Jesus calling us to live into our own Great Commission as disciples invites others to join us.  To do God’s work we have to put aside some of the old ways of the church that divide us, separate us from our mission in the vineyard and remember that we are sisters and brothers of the body of Christ.

Membership Growth Team Workshops

DOUGHERTY VALLEY COLLABORATION MINISTRY PROJECT.  On October 15^th at St. Clare’s Episcopal Church in Pleasanton, the membership growth team workshop will focus on the Dougherty Valley growth opportunities for church growth brainstorming with St. Clare’s, St. Bartholomew’s and St. Timothy’s members about new ways to ‘do church’ and build community to be the Body of Christ in truth as well as in name.  Join us 9am to noon.

EAST CONTRA COSTA COUNTY GROWTH INITIATIVE. On November 12th at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church Brentwood, the membership growth team workshop will focus on the growth and community issues and opportunities in East Contra Costa County we hope that we will also have members perspectives from St. George’s Antioch, St John’s Clayton, and St. Michael and All Angels that bound this growing area and others interested in serving its needs. We will also have a presentation from Rev. Aris Rivera, Vicar of St. Alban’s on his work using the Shaping the Parish program.   Join us 9am to noon.

CHURCH2GO: NEW TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHURCH. On December 10th at Holy Innocents, San Francisco the Membership Growth Team workshop will focus on social networking, communications and other new technologies that can be used to bring the community of faith together in new ways.  From adaptive uses of customer relationship software such as St. Mary the Virgin’s use of salesforce.com to facilitate stewardship, we plan to have a church geek experience to whet appetites and send you home with new ideas for doing church in interesting and exciting new virtual ways. Join us from 9am to noon.

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