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Bishop McKelvey Visits the Good
Shepherd in Webster -
’Marks of An Effective Congregation’
by Betty Van Volkenburg
The congregation at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in
Webster was recently honored by a visit from Bishop Jack McKelvey,
Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Rochester NY.
It was a busy morning for the Bishop. He not only officiated at the
confirmation of 14 adults and children, and the baptisms of an
adorable baby girl and baby boy, but he delivered a Lesson in our
Christian Education series, then a homily at the regular 10:15 AM
Worship services.
The Bishop prefaced his lesson with remarks about his visit to
Hobart College’s Football game and how he would like to take credit
for their seven straight wins but as he’s in charge of weather he
could only point to the fact that they’ve only had 1 cancellation due
to weather. His warmth and lightheartedness is a good fit for the Good
Shepherd congregation where everyone is accustomed to the weekly humor
of Father Lance Robbins, though some might say ‘his attempt at humor’
if they happened to be the target of his good natured ribbing
J . That’s why I love these
Episcopalians so much – they’re not only intellectual, they’ve got a
great sense of humor!
The Bishop’s humour may be a little more subtle at times. In joking
about ‘consultants’ that churches could hire to help them build their
programs, he defined a consultant as someone who comes in, tells you
what to do, and walks out with a piece of mistletoe hanging from his
back pocket. (Not everyone got that right away)
While he can joke with the best, he had some serious, and very
worthwhile advice for our clergy and congregation on how to be an
effective congregation.
These are the 14 points he shared with us on ‘Marks Of An Effective
Congregation’ with my comments.
An effective congregation:
- has a clear statement of its ministry, and understands what its
ministries are.
‘Out with Outreach’ - Bishop McKelvey feels a good statement of
our Mission is a better term for our objectives than an Outreach
Program and he would like to do a campaign of ‘Out with Outreach’.
And what IS our mission? Our mission is God’s Mission. Episcopalians have a lot to
offer with the Book of Common Prayer – anyone, not just
Episcopalians, can identify with what is contained there.
- provides worship that is lively, well thought out and sensitive
Congregations are made up of traditionalists and
non-traditionalists, having grown up in various denominations, and
they need worship that will involve them and be exciting – not the
same old thing week in and week out. (Editor’s note – as the
founder of singles organizations I can certainly support that
objective – to have more inclusive services and language for
single people).
- has a connection to the immediate neighborhood.
You need to reach out to the immediate neighborhood, as well as
the long distance community in other countries. Effective
congregations find ways to connect and have high visibility with
their local community.
- has a good percentage of parishioners from the immediate
neighborhood.
Sometimes people live in apartments to be anonymous on purpose,
but being anonymous doesn’t mean they don’t want people to care
about them.
- has a leadership training and management system which does not
lose elected people after their time of service.
Sometimes we let people serve so long in one service so we have
the ‘same old, same old’ and when they are ready to walk away, we
let them. Instead, we should be staying in touch with past
volunteers who have ‘been there, done that’ and have useful
information to pass on to us.
- rotates the congregational leadership in a timely fashion.
A continual renewal of leadership needs to take place, with
volunteers moving through different areas and sharing and learning
new or different ideas.
- knows how it would be missed if its doors were closed tomorrow.
Because of its ties in the community, and the services and
support given to members and the general public, the church of an
effective congregation is aware of how much the church would be
missed if it were to close tomorrow.
- espouses stewardship as being responsible for all we have all
the time.
In other words, ‘we came into this world with nothing, we go
out with nothing, and everything in between is on loan to us –
from God’ so we need to manage what we have carefully and share
with others who may have less. Clutching everything selfishly
close to ourselves is not being responsible with what God has
given us, after all it isn’t just ours anyway.
- speaks about tithing and proportional giving in a positive way.
An effective congregation knows there is no issue with giving,
just what % to give. To determine what we are currently giving,
calculate what our total income, expenses, and donations are and
determine the donation % and the expense % of our total income.
Note how the donation % compares to our expenses % and what some
of those individual expenses were. Each one should ask ‘Are we
comfortable with our existing % or do we want to grow?’ If you
want to grow, you don’t have to reach your % goal all at once, you
can increase the % gradually until you have grown your gift to the
% you want to reach. The price of a new car didn’t triple
overnight either.
- has many lay people involved in its worship
Worship services is more than the Rector’s homily. Having lay
people involved with with choirs, lessons, alter guild, acolyting
and various other activities gives people a feeling of ownership
and fellowship, making it OUR church instead of just THE church.
- understands that young people are NOT the church of tomorrow –
they are the church of TODAY.
We need to talk to young people and find out how they would
like to be involved; and find ways to involve them.
- has plans for major areas of responsibility – Pastoral care,
Administrative, Outreach, Education, Liturgy.
One area is Christian education classes, others are - community
involvement such as volunteering at a Meal & More, youth group,
Education for the Ministry, developing a Singles Ministry.
Pastoral care is more than what the Rector does. It’s important to
develop a Pastoral system for people to go to when they need
someone to talk to and it can be any volunteer from the
congregation.
- sees conflict and differences of opinion as a resource to
clarify mission and to solidify energy towards its purposes.
An effective congregation has a grown up view of conflict.
Grownups realize that conflict is an inevitable part of life. It
may not feel good, but it’s not a bad thing and can lead to
positive change.
Do you know IF it would make a difference to the community and the
congregation if your church doors closed tomorrow? What are you
willing to do to keep your church doors open?
As I was listening to the Bishop’s address I was reminded of an
English course I took at RIT Evening College where we spent an entire
semester defining Effective Communications. The final definition that
we arrived at was:
Effective Communications is the transmittal
of a meaningful message
from a sender to a receiver
who responds
in context’
If any part of that definition is missing, you may have
communications, but you won’t have Effective Communications. If you
ask someone for the time and they respond that ‘It’s raining outside’,
you are communicating with each other, but it sure isn’t effective.
The goal is to inspire the action that you want from someone, so you
need – a meaningful message, an appropriate receiver, who not only
hears but takes the action you’re seeking - that is - it is ‘in
context’.
In developing our Ministries, we need to keep Bishop McKelvey’s
comments in mind, especially the first one – to have a clear statement
of our ministries (message) that the clergy and congregation
understand, else how can we transmit it to anyone else and hope to
have the appropriate response.
His remarks were most appropriate in Good Shepherd at this time as
we launch our new Singles Ministry. From my own past experience in
founding a singles non-profit organization, I know the value of a well
defined Mission statement to refer back to as you struggle with
start-up challenges.
Good Shepherd’s Singles, nicknamed SAM’s Lambs (Singe Adult
Ministry), is a response to the article in our national Episcopal Life
publication entitled ‘Is There Seating For One in Church’ Our SAM’s
Lambs Mission is ‘To provide opportunities for worship, spiritual
growth, and Christian fellowship in a loving, inclusive
environment, for all like minded single adults.’
The first informational meeting was held at Good Shepherd church on
October 22, 2002 and there are now over 100 singles on
the mailing list, from a variety of Christian denominations across
Monroe and Wayne county.
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