Pastoral Leadership Within A Parish

Teaching and Learning Component Summary by The Reverend William Carl Thomas, Rector, Saint Matthias Episcopal Church, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. November 8, 2001 (Revised July 7, 2002, November 11, 2003). Click here to download a copy of the article in PDF format

GOAL

• Give clergy the practical skills to lead missionary minded congregations
• Place practical information on the Deep Church website
• The points noted in the outline will be expanded with practical information and downloadable files

OVERVIEW

The framework for achieving this goal is found in the following words preached by The Rt. Rev. Furman C. Stough, VII Bishop of Alabama, during his September 24, 2000 visit to Saint Matthias Episcopal Church:

• Evangelism calls persons to commitment
• Worship celebrates that commitment
• Christian Education teaches the meaning of that commitment
• Stewardship is the practice of that commitment

Words that serve as an expression of living into that commitment are in the following prayer for mission written by The Rt. Rev. Charles Henry Brent, Bishop of the Philippines (1901-1918) and of Western New York (1918-1929):

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us with your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP page 101)

A missionary minded congregation incarnates, to use Bishop Brent’s words, the Great Commandment ("reaching forth our hands in love") and the Great Commission ("bring those who do not know you the knowledge and love of you"). Such a congregation is DEEP CHURCH: which I define as "a group of people who gather with a willing expectation to intimately share the love of God."

The following teaching outline offers a seminary trained parish priest the practical skills that allow a rector to exercise missionary minded leadership by using management and communication techniques without sacrificing vision and vitality to the demands of daily parish life. As the practical skills improve with use, the rector will realize that Bishop Stough’s four points are a process where one point feeds into the next in the same manner in which each quadrant feeds into the next in a Celtic Christian cross.

This outline assumes a commitment to share the love of God made known in Jesus Christ is implicit within a priest’s vocation. Inasmuch as stewardship is practiced through prudent management, we begin in the stewardship quadrant for some basic personal prerequisites. The outline concludes by returning to the stewardship quadrant for a parish level discussion.

Note: The parts in italics are additions based upon the learning from the Church Development Institute Leadership Conference (July 9-12, 2002) and the work of Edgar H. Schein, author of The Corporate Culture Survival Guide.

1. STEWARDSHIP QUADRANT (Personal)
   • Using the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" by Steven Covey
     
     • Includes "Putting First Things First"
     • Applied to preparing for a leadership role in a parish
     • Effective time management and goal setting
     • How to emphasize your "compass" and not the clock
   • Personal Money Management
     • Where did you first learn about money?
     • What is "enough"? (personal goal setting and budget)
     • Abundance and Scarcity
     • The tithe as a personal minimum standard (proportional giving)
   • Your spiritual foundation
     • Recognizing "head" and "heart"
     • A discipline of personal Sabbath time
     • Learning from the MBTI and Ennegram
     • The importance of spiritual direction
   • Your leadership style
     • How to more effectively share the strength of your inner conviction
     • Types of leadership styles including case studies
       1. Importance of attitude and identity
       2. Servant Leadership
     • When to motivate and when to observe
     • Decision making guided by cultural assessment - Placing the teaching of Edgar H. Schein in a church context, Learning from your personal culture
   • Your management style
     • Balance between family and parish
     • How many hours will you work
       • Determining blocks of time
     • Personal management
       • The importance of exercise
       • The importance of continuing education
2. EVANGELISM QUADRANT
   • Understanding the Shape of the Parish (ref: Church Development Institute)
     • Robert A. Gallagher/Mary Anne Mann model
     • Apostolic Faith (fully formed and committed Christians)
     • Sacramental Faith (moderately supportive and often at Sunday worship)
     • Christmas & Easter Faith (church members in name only)
     • Vicarious Faith (non-members - connected by family, friends, events)
     • Setting priorities for interacting with each group
       • Healthy, strong congregations evangelize and serve when fully formed and committed (Apostolic Faith)
       • Modeling a behavior that keeps relationships open with the other groups is the responsibility of a missionary minded priest
     • Communication skills
       • The reality of how hard it is to listen in the busyness of a parish
       • Writing in the active voice from the heart
       • Getting to the point quickly but with love
     • Effective use of a computer
       • Note writing made easy and personal though word processing and a color printer
       • Publishing on paper (newsletter) and the internet (website)
       • In-house short-run printing of calling cards and refrigerator magnets
       • Recording and publishing sermons on CD
         1. Recording techniques
         2. Labels (the power of color)
         3. CD burners - an inexpensive and fast way to share copies
         4. Posting sermons on the internet (MP3 compression made easy)
     • Database management
       • Knowing who your people are
         • skills, how they participate
       • "Off-the-shelf" vs. "home-grown" database management programs
     • Community visibility
       • The pros and cons of service club membership
         • Example: Kiwanis, Rotary
       • The special role the tenured Episcopal Rector can have and use in a community
         • Reaching out to the Vicarious Faith group
       • The pros and cons of clergy associations
         • Denominational, ecumenical, inter-faith
       • The priest as "first contact"
         • The power of first impressions
         • How to share the work of continued contact with the congregation
       • Raising ordained leadership for the Church
         1. Prayerful observation that leads to:
            1. An Active Approach
            2. Being prayerfully passive
         2. Guiding a person’s sense of call
            1. Discernment basics
               1. Get it in writing
            2. Demystifying the "Ordination Process"
               1. Parish level
               2. Diocesan level
3. WORSHIP QUADRANT
   • Leadership while accepting that liturgy is the work of the people
     • Listening and planning
     • Learning to balance Sunday inter-personal demands with role as worship leader
   • Sermon preparation while caring for an active congregation
     • Maintaining the preparation process amid the interruptions of parish life
     • Useful and readable sermon preparation publications
     • Sorting through the resources on the world wide web
   • Worship as the expression of parish culture
     • The act of gathering and how prayer is conducted reveals much about what it takes to be comfortable as a member
     • How the artifact of corporate worship might reveal espoused values and basic underlying assumptions (adapting Schein’s culture study techniques)
   • Liturgical planning and liturgical customaries
     • Techniques and templates for planning and training
       1. Christmas
       2. Lent
       3. Holy Week
     • The Pastoral Acts
       1. Preparation (also a Christian Education component)
          1. Settings (church, hospital, home, etc)
       2. Printed Resources
          1. Rivertree Publishing, Pittsburgh
          2. Kairos Publishing, Minneapolis
          3. Channing-Bete
       3. Naming the Pastoral Acts
          1. Birth of a Child
          2. Baptism
          3. Reconciliation
          4. Communion
          5. Healing
          6. Marriage
          7. Commissionings
          8. Blessings
             1. Home
             2. Business
             3. Animals
             4. Other
          9. Burial
             1. Church based
             2. Funeral home based
4. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION QUADRANT
   • Understanding that Christian Formation is the foundation of Christian Education
     • Christian Formation is "Cradle to Grave"
     • Christian Formation is what Episcopalians do best
     • The congregation can only grow spiritually if the priest is willing to also grow
     • Determining "how much" Christian Education a parish can handle
   • Managing parish based Christian Formation programs without paid staff
     • The pros and cons of working with volunteers
     • Using the computer to manage and promote attendance (postcards and email)
     • The importance of a written plan (with timetable, goals, and objectives)
   • Reviewing "off-the-shelf" resources, and curriculums (some examples below)
     • Introductory for Adults
       • Alpha, Living Our Baptismal Covenant (LOBC)
     • Advanced
       • EFM, DOCC, Companions in Christ
     • Bible Study
       • Serendipity, Synthesis CE
     • Children
       • Godly Play, ECC, WoRM, C.Y.C.L.E., First Intentional Communion
     • Youth
       • Rite 13, J2A
   • Preparing a parish for the impact lay mountaintop experiences
   • Cursillo is a leadership development program
   • Planning for and managing the enthusiasm of returnees
   • Technology in teaching
     1. Interacting with video
        • Teaching tools and ideas to be in more than one place at once
     2. Powerpoint slideshows
        • Preparing and conveying images and ideas made easy
5. STEWARDSHIP QUADRANT (parish level)
   • Pledge drive or year round stewardship
     • Teach and preach the tithe as the personal minimum standard of giving
     • Planning to reach the tithe through proportional giving
     • Review asking plans
       • EMC, Personal Note, Cottage Meeting, Festive Meal, etc
     • The importance of fiscal planning
       • Skills for working with a vestry
       • The virtue of prudence in a balanced budget
       • Getting the vestry to accept responsibility for raising and expending the funds necessary to do the ministry to which God calls the parish
     • The necessity of vision
       • The pros and cons of consultants for parish and vestry retreats
       • Developing a short-term and long-term plan
     • Management demands
       • Dealing with diocesan demands for reports
         • Audit, parochial, convention delegates
       • Sexual conduct training
         • Parish employees and lay volunteers
         • Outside groups that use the parish
       • Using a computer and PDA (example: palm)
         • Managing information about people and goals
       • Working with a part-time staff
         • Hiring and managing a parish secretary
         • Hiring and managing an organist/choirmaster
         • Hiring and managing a youth minister
         • Hiring and managing a Christian Formation director
       • Maintaining the physical plant
         • Working with volunteers such as the Junior Warden