Congregational Life Centre
Our mission is to assist congregations to be more
effective in their ministry
Planting Seeds
A new start for your Board or Vestry
Fifty
years ago, most people worked alone or in small groups - tending the farm,
keeping house or minding a small family business. They had little money
to spare for travel or entertainment, so they made their own.
Clair grew up in a musical family. His parents had people over most Saturday nights, everyone bringing an instrument, playing quartets and duets and just having a great time. At ten o'clock his mother served bacon and cheese broiled buns and there was time for talk, which more often than not turned to religion.
When people were involved mostly in small neighbourhood gatherings, the role of the church was to organize larger groups that offered new insights and opportunities for leadership development.
Today most people work in offices or industries alongside hundreds of people. Sharing is, of necessity, guarded, because jobs come and go as industries down-size and struggle to make their bottom line. The need today is for small intimate groups where people can really get to know one another and develop a sense of trust and share their joys and sorrows.
The Board or Vestry can be a model of a group where people truly support one another. Most Boards are small enough that people can be there for each other. They can model what it means to be a place to share the joys and struggles of life.
What about the business of the church. Yes that has to happen. But what is the church about if it is not to model what it means to truly be community - and that modelling has to start at the centre of the congregation's life with its Board or Vestry.
Creating a Spiritual Connection
Young
people today want an experience of God. When Clair was growing up and came
back from church, his mother would ask, "What did the minister say?"
When he had sons of his own, they had a very different question: "What
happened, dad?"
Talk about God vs. an experience of God - a happening. It is a shift in our culture and it is a shift in people's expectations of the church.
The catch word today is spirituality. We who have a few gray hairs don't remember that word being used all the years we were growing up in the church. Today it appears in newspaper articles, on the cover of Macleans and Time magazines. People are hungry for a sense of the presence of God in their lives.
You may have noticed an article in your newspaper recently about research done two years ago in B.C. They reported that young children who believed in a higher power were happier than those who did not. On the other hand, the researchers could detect no difference in those who attend church and those who do not. It is spirituality that makes the difference.
We have come to recognize how little time Jesus spent talking about God, and how much more emphasis he gave to encouraging people to relate to one another in a way that strengthened their relationship with one another, and thus with God. He practiced the presence of God alone in his times of prayer, and when he was with others they sensed that God was present in a special way.
It is important for a Board or Vestry to put an emphasis on experiencing the presence of God in our lives. We know now that is the key to spiritual growth. A second hand faith based on what people say about God is still second hand. A first hand experience of God can be life-changing.
Vision
Every
consultant we read today has one overriding message. Get a vision! A clear
vision invites participation. It focuses energy. It releases excitement.
It creates a bond. It opens the door for real leadership to emerge, because
it defines where a congregation wants to go and invites everyone to participate
in making that journey possible.
Jesus gave us a vision of God's new community where the last were put first, where our equality before God was reflected in our respect for each other. That vision gave birth to the early church, a rich diversity of congregations meeting the many spiritual needs of its members.
Today there are many organizations and people working to make that vision a reality. No one congregation or group has to do it all. The challenge is for a congregation to become the leaven that is needed at this moment in the particular neighbourhood, town or area of the city where it is located.
The task of the Board or Vestry is to have a vision of what you want your congregation to be like - and then model that for the whole congregation to see.
A Fresh Start
The kind of Board you want starts with who you ask to join as members. It is not enough to have warm bodies that volunteer. It is critical that each member of a Vestry have a passion for the important role they play and a vision for the life and work of the congregation.
The best way to identify the right people is to listen as folks share their stories. Listen for what it is they are most excited or passionate about. If no one is excited about the congregation's ministry, that is a sign that it is time to make significant changes. When you hear someone with passion, invite them to join you.
Board and Vestry Leadership Event
Everything we read today says congregational health is about leadership, leadership, and more leadership. The Board or Vestry of a congregation plays a vital role in providing this leadership. Developing leadership is freeing, energizing, liberating, engaging, and opens the way for real growth in a congregation.
Seven Boards and two Vestries picked up on that challenge and joined us for an evening of exploration. There were three themes highlighting three key roles for a Board or Vestry: community, spirituality and mapping.
We talked about the importance of a Board or Vestry acting as models. What they do as far as becoming community and developing a spiritual sense of God's presence sets the tone and the expectations for the whole congregation.
We prefer to talk about mapping rather than planning. All too often plans offer only one way to get to the desired destination. A map, on the other than, provides for detours. If one path is blocked, just look at the map, and there are alternate routes around that keep you moving toward your goal.
This year we held the event in four locations: Edmonton, Olds, Camrose and Calgary. Our thanks to the congregations that were our hosts: Robertson-Wesley United in Edmonton, St. John's Anglican Church in Olds, Camrose United, and Parkdale United in Calgary.
Overall some 90 people participated. It was exciting to meet so many who are interested in deepening the life of their congregations. The positive feedback has encouraged us to offer this event again.
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Congregational Life Newsletter. April 2010. Volume 16 No. 4.