"Bringing New Life to Your Congregation
Many congregations are struggling to keep existing members and attract new ones. Today's faith communities are reexamining everything in an effort to more fully engage existing members and draw in potential new members.
The understanding is growing that congregational leaders need to focus more on engaging the gifts and passions of their members in the ministries and mission of the church. In fact, this must be a main focus of all leadership in church work - namely, to equip the people of God for ministry. We, as congregational leaders, affect how ministry gets accomplished by the way we invite volunteers into ministry, by the way we encourage, support, supervise, thank, and celebrate volunteer ministers.
Viewing our leadership positions from this perspective means that everything we do, every decision we make, is geared to answering the questions: "How can I grow the ministry of this church?" "How can I assist the people of this congregation to better carry out their baptismal call to spread the reign of God in the world?" " How can I say 'yes' to the ministry, dreams, passions and gifts of many different people, while at the same time following best practices in leading the ministry work I am responsible for?"
This has to be a grounding principle that all staff and lay leadership embrace in order for ministry to flourish.
Judy Urban: Bringing New Life to Your Congregation
Many congregations are struggling to keep existing members and attract new ones. Today’s faith communities are reexamining everything in an effort to more fully engage existing members and draw in potential new members.The understanding is growing that congregational leaders need to focus more on engaging the gifts and passions of their members in the ministries and mission of the church. In fact, this must be a main focus of all leadership in church work — namely, to equip the people of God for ministry. We, as congregational leaders, affect how ministry gets accomplished by the way we invite volunteers into ministry, by the way we encourage, support, supervise, thank, and celebrate volunteer ministers.
Viewing our leadership positions from this perspective means that everything we do, every decision we make, is geared to answering the questions: “How can I grow the ministry of this church?” “How can I assist the people of this congregation to better carry out their baptismal call to spread the reign of God in the world?” “ How can I say ‘yes’ to the ministry, dreams, passions and gifts of many different people, while at the same time following best practices in leading the ministry work I am responsible for?” This has to be a grounding principle that all staff and lay leadership embrace in order for ministry to flourish.
Discernment and Development of Gifts and Talents
The healthiest, most alive, most successful churches are based on this understanding. They incorporate the gifts of all the people into well-designed ministry opportunities. This focus will be a big challenge for the paid staff and pastors. Staff members no longer can be seen to be the only “doers” of ministry. An equally important role for them is to be equippers of the people for effective ministry.
This starts by creating ways to assist people in identifying their gifts for ministry. Not everyone knows or believes that they are gifted. Not everyone can identify their gifts. A theology of gifts must be woven into the fabric of the parish, into its very culture, to instill in all the members an awareness of the fact that they have been gifted by God, and, through baptism, all of us have been called to use our gifts to bring about the reign of God in the world. Even those who have a good understanding of their own gifts may have difficulty figuring out what are appropriate matches for their gifts with the ministry opportunities available. Processes for assisting people to identify and match their gifts need be put in place. These include such things as:
- gift discovery classes;
- gift inventories and gifts data banks;
- personal interviews with trained staff and volunteer ministers that assist individuals to identify their gifts, and then match them with available ministry opportunities;
- excellent position descriptions for all ministry opportunities available;
- ongoing communication efforts to inform about and highlight the gifts helpful for particular ministries; and
- examples (story telling, bulletin boards, videos, witness talks, weekly email newsletters) of ministers – lay and ordained — using their gifts to make a difference in the people’s lives, in the life of the church, and in the broader community.
Assisting people to identify their gifts is important and one of many components of a comprehensive system designed to support the ministry of the people. Other components include planning, designing ministry opportunities, recruiting into ministry, interviewing, matching, training, supervising, supporting, evaluating, managing data, and managing risk. Building on a theological foundation, I call this system Shared Ministry. It is ministry because it is service performed under the auspices of a faith-based community. It is shared because all members of that community are called to contribute their unique set of gifts and available time to the work of furthering the reign of God. Each person has a part to play. According to their respective roles and gifts, pastors, paid staff members, and unpaid volunteer ministers collaborate in this important work.
Building such a system is about changing the culture of a faith body. It requires commitment, continual attention, and patience. Early in the process, the community needs to realize that they require a person whose focus will provide that commitment and attention. Changes this broad and deep do not happen by accident. The community must plan for and commit resources to bringing it about.
The rewards are many. The community comes alive with many more people engaging in the ministries of the church. Because people are serving out of their gifts and interests, they experience joy, in addition to interesting challenges. Excellent training and support contribute to a successful experience. People feel that their gifts are appreciated and meaningful. The more people feel an integral part of their faith community, the more likely that their financial contributions will increase as well. Most importantly, participating in ministry gives people the opportunity to grow in their relationship with God and with the faith community.
Here are some questions to ask in determining if a shared ministry system would be valuable to your congregation:
- Are only a very small number of people working as volunteers in the ministries of your congregation?
- Are you losing members and having difficulty getting new people to join?
- Are there few, if any, position descriptions for each of the volunteer ministries in your church?
- Are the pastor, paid staff members and lay leaders willing to share power and support a more collaborative model of leadership?
- Is there a lack of uniform screening processes for all those involved in ministry to children and vulnerable adults?
- Are volunteer ministries operating in silos, each as entities unto themselves, with no understanding of being part of a larger whole?
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IDEAS THAT IMPACT: CULTIVATING LAY MINISTRY
"The Encouraging Leader"
The ministry of encouragement is the primary way a pastor and lay leaders help a congregation discover and fulfill its call from Christ to make disciples. One of the advantages of evaluating ministry through the lens of encouragement is that any congregation, regardless of size, location, or level of self-understanding, can benefit. Encouragement allows the congregation to shape its ministry around its strengths rather than to base its work on some model derived from another congregation's story or another pastor's experience.The Encouraging Leader
The ministry of encouragement is the primary way a pastor and lay leaders help a congregation discover and fulfill its call from Christ to make disciples. One of the advantages of evaluating ministry through the lens of encouragement is that any congregation, regardless of size, location, or level of self-understanding, can benefit. Encouragement allows the congregation to shape its ministry around its strengths rather than to base its work on some model derived from another congregation’s story or another pastor’s experience.IDEAS THAT IMPACT: CULTIVATING LAY MINISTRY
"The Encouraging Leader"
The ministry of encouragement is the primary way a pastor and lay leaders help a congregation discover and fulfill its call from Christ to make disciples. One of the advantages of evaluating ministry through the lens of encouragement is that any congregation, regardless of size, location, or level of self-understanding, can benefit. Encouragement allows the congregation to shape its ministry around its strengths rather than to base its work on some model derived from another congregation's story or another pastor's experience.The Encouraging Leader
Encouragement is not mere cheerleading, however, nor does it release us from the need to speak truthfully. In fact, the ministry of encouragement will invariably lead to confrontation and difficulty. The ministry of encouragement leads to growth, not to preservation of the status quo. As the effects of encouragement alter a congregation’s ministry, some will resist the change we face in all areas of life. Encouragement seeks to broaden the church’s base of leadership and to include those whose gifts and ideas have been left on the sidelines. But the ministry of encouragement requires more than sharing leadership to be effective. The following are four qualities of the encouraging leader.
Humility
Encouragement demands that we lead out of a true sense of humility, the knowledge of both our gifts and our limitations. Humility is not a false modesty that pretends we do not know our own gifts or that those gifts are not valuable. Neither is humility a method for avoiding responsibility by insisting that someone else would be better equipped to lead or a more appropriate choice for leadership when such is not the case. On the other hand, humility keeps us from overvaluing our gifts, from being “puffed up.” It helps us avoid the traps of conceit and arrogance. In contrast to false modesty and arrogance, humility requires that we accept our gifts and develop them as fully as we can, given our limitations. Humility calls us to make the best use of what has God has given us. An important value of humility for the ministry of encouragement is that it gives us empathy for the struggle others have in discerning the gifts and calling God has given them; humility makes our encouragement authentic.
The Ability to Deal with Conflict
Encouragement will require us to accept and deal creatively with conflict. We all know that change or the possibility of change is often threatening to people, ourselves included. But we also see in Acts that conflict brings opportunity for insight and growth. The creation of deacons, the Council of Jerusalem, the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over the role of John Mark—all these led to enhanced ministry. If we follow a ministry of encouraging others to discover their own gifts and ministries, rather than continuing preexisting programs and committees, we can expect the resistance and criticism that normally accompanies change. Some congregational leaders and members may not only refuse to cooperate but also resist the more enthusiastic, rejecting the new possibilities offered by shared ministry. Pastors and lay leaders alike may have to deal with their own discomfort when the path takes an unexpected turn or when our hopes and expectations are derailed by the surprising winds of the Spirit. The primary example of conflict and creative response in Acts is the discomfort and resistance of many Jewish Christians to the acceptance of Gentiles into Christ’s family and the defense of this acceptance by Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and the Council of Jerusalem.
Vulnerability
Because encouragement involves conflict, it requires acceptance of vulnerability on several levels. As we have already noted, discerning and implementing ministry through the process of encouragement will conflict with the image of leadership many people have. While this dilemma is particularly acute for pastors, who often have well-defined traditional roles and expectations within a given congregation, it will also affect lay leaders. (In fact, it can be a most difficult source of conflict when the lay leadership accepts and works well with ministry by encouragement but the pastor is not yet on board.) Ministry by encouragement takes seriously the ministry of all believers and tries to expand the circle of ministers beyond the select few. Encouragement will sometimes require saying no where we once said yes—no to attending and controlling the agenda for every meeting, no to the idea that ministry should never fail or make mistakes, no to the idea that ministry should be conflict-free, no to the idea that the pastor or other leaders should always get their way. All these nos will violate a lot of comfort zones, including our own, and make us vulnerable to criticism and resistance. Yet effective ministry requires us to accept this vulnerability. Effective ministry will also require us to be honest about our own limitations, fears, and struggles, not indiscriminately or in a manipulative manner, but with an honest and supportive group of colleagues. Scripture is full of vulnerable leaders. Jesus himself, particularly in his dealings with the obtuseness of the disciples and the false expectations of the crowd, showed the necessity of vulnerability. We also see vulnerability in the painful passages of Paul’s letters, Jeremiah’s complaints, and the psalms of lament.
Integrity
Encouragement requires that we lead from integrity, for if we are leading by trust in prayer and the Spirit, we must both trust and be trustworthy. It should go without saying that encouragement should not be embraced on the surface, only to be undercut behind the scenes. If we are going to follow the Spirit, we must genuinely let go of control. Ananias, Sapphira, and Simon Magus all demonstrate the danger of trying to manipulate the Spirit for our own ends. At the same time, stepping back from control does not equal stepping away from work. If anything, encouragement requires more communication, more prayer and study, more listening and dreaming together than leadership by a CEO or an inner circle. The quality of integrity demanded by encouragement requires faith in the Spirit, faith in oneself, and the creation of a method for accountability to Christ and to each other. The Council of Jerusalem again, the break between Barnabas and Paul over John Mark’s reliability and potential, and Peter’s struggles with the “Gentile question” all illustrate the importance of integrity to our shared ministry.
All of these requirements—sharing power and responsibility, humility, dealing creatively with conflict, vulnerability, integrity—are interrelated. It is impossible to say where humility stops and integrity begins or exactly how the ability or inability to share power and responsibility affects how well or badly we deal with conflict. Issues will rise around these qualities, and their existence or absence, throughout our ministry. The ministry of encouragement gives us one effective way to understand these qualities and to make them a positive presence in ministry.
Excerpted fromBecoming Barnabas: The Ministry of Encouragement, copyright © 2004 by the Alban Institute. All rights reserved. For permission to reproduce go toour permissions form.
Read more from Paul Moots »
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"Forming Laity, For Life and Ministry"
In a time of great change in the Catholic Diocese of Camden, NJ, a program gives laypeople the skills they need to bring a new vibrancy and passion to the local parish.
Faith & Leadership: A learning resource for Christian leaders and their institutions from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity
LAITY, ROLE IN CHURCH
Forming laity, for life and ministry
Bishop Joseph A. Galante at a commissioning service at St. Anthony of Padua, Hammonton, N.J. Photo by Christine Scheller
In a time of great change in the Catholic Diocese of Camden, NJ, a program gives laypeople the skills they need to bring a new vibrancy and passion to the local parish.
When Bishop Joseph A. Galante arrived at the Catholic Diocese of Camden, N.J., in 2004, he didn’t introduce himself by issuing directives. He began by listening.
For 15 months, he hosted “Speak Up” sessions at every parish throughout the far-flung South Jersey diocese. He wanted to know: What were the most important pastoral issues facing his flock?
In meeting after meeting, some 140 sessions in all, people expressed concerns that would have been familiar in Catholic parish halls -- and more than a few Protestant churches -- across the country.
They were worried about young people leaving the faith. They wanted more compassionate outreach programs. They were concerned about the shortage of priests; where would new ones come from?
But again and again, they also told their new bishop they wanted better opportunities for theological formation. Across the diocese, laity -- who today serve the church in almost every capacity short of administering the sacraments -- said they needed deeper, richer theological and pastoral formation so they could perform the tasks of lay ministry well.
Based on those conversations, Galante and his staff created an extensive program of lay ministry formation. With few resources in the area -- South Jersey has no Catholic institutions of higher education -- they looked elsewhere for help, putting together a network of Catholic colleges and seminaries to provide both undergraduate and graduate instruction, online and in local classrooms.
“Basically, we’ve created a university without walls,” Galante said.
Questions to consider:
They’re pursuing M.A. degrees in pastoral theology at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, N.J., and St. Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish, Maine. They’re working on M.S. degrees in church management at Villanova University in Radnor Township, Penn.
Patrick McGrory of Vineland, N.J., a Philadelphia-area financial adviser and a member of the diocese’s Lifelong Faith Formation executive committee, has high praise for the program and Galante, who will retire next month at age 74 because of health problems.
In a time of great change in the diocese and the Catholic Church, the program is giving laypeople the skills they need to bring a new vibrancy and passion to the local parish, McGrory said.
This is your church
“Bishop Galante is saying to the laity, ‘This is your church,’” he said. “He is challenging us as individual Catholics to participate actively in our parishes, schools and other Catholic organizations.”
The Lay Ministry Formation Program is part of a much larger change process that has dramatically reshaped the diocese in a few short years. Shifting demographics, a shortage of priests, declining attendance and other factors have forced dioceses across the nation, especially in the urban centers of the Northeast, to close or consolidate parishes, and Camden was no exception.
In what he called a “rip off the Band-Aid” approach, Galante closed or merged almost half the diocese’s parishes between 2008 and 2011, cutting the total number from 124 to 70. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently called it “the most sweeping consolidation of any Catholic diocese in the history of the United States.”
The Lay Ministry Formation Program is separate from the restructuring effort, but they are both part of Galante’s overall vision to create vibrant parishes where people are excited to be part of a Catholic community, McGrory said.
“The lay ministry training program was intertwined with the mergers as a way to provide for training and education, but more importantly, to lay out a foundation of leaders who could then inspire the vibrancy within others,” he said.
The growing role of lay leadership in Camden and throughout the Catholic Church is clearly prompted in part by the priest shortage, but it is also about much more than that, said Linda K. Robinson, the director of the Lay Ministry Formation Program. Laity today are claiming and exercising the ministry that is and always has been theirs by virtue of their baptism, she said.
“Laity have always performed ministry,” she said. “This is about laity becoming theologically prepared and pastorally formed to do it.”
In the Camden diocese and across the church, laity today serve in a variety of roles, some as paid staff, others as volunteers. They work as youth ministry directors and business managers; they lead preparation classes for baptism and the Rite of Christian Initiation. They counsel couples before marriage, lead prayer groups and Bible studies, and serve as catechists and lectors.
The need for theological formation
But, as Galante heard in the listening sessions, many believe they lack the theological formation to do their ministries well. For most laity, formation comes haphazardly, if at all, through the occasional parish program or self-initiated study, Robinson said. Most have had no formal religious study since grade school.
Sister Roseann Quinn, the bishop’s delegate for lifelong formation, said traditional educational models, focused primarily on children, are not as effective as they once were.
“Those models worked for a while, when Catholic homes were stronger in their immersion in faith,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is not to cut the schooling model out completely but to have faith formation from early childhood through senior adulthood.”
The need for qualified lay ministers will only increase in the future, and most pastors realize that lay ministry is essential for the future of the church and the faith, she said. Even so, it’s going to take time for priests and laity to become completely comfortable in their evolving roles.
“Many [parishioners] never saw themselves as having a leadership role in the church, because they thought the priests and the nuns would do it all,” Quinn said.
Laity and clergy have complementary roles to play in today’s church, Galante said.
“Laity are not in competition with the clergy, but there should be a complementarity between what the clergy has been ordained to do and what the laypeople are commissioned to do,” he said.
A national issue
Though new to Camden, lay ministry formation programs are not new to the Catholic Church. Dioceses across the nation have been developing the programs for a quarter-century, said Christopher C. Anderson, the executive director of the National Association for Lay Ministry(link is external).
About a third of U.S. dioceses have lay ministry formation programs, with 18,493 students enrolled in 2011, he said. Because of economic pressures, some dioceses have been cutting the programs, with notable exceptions such as Spanish-language programs, which are flourishing both nationally and in the Camden diocese.
“Places where they are being discontinued always cite it as a budget issue, but every budget is a priority statement, too,” Anderson said. Moreover, cutting these programs can be counterproductive, because they help dioceses make up for limited resources by training a cadre of well-educated, well-formed volunteers, he said.
Twenty-five years ago, parish staffs averaged 10 non-school employees, six of whom were priests. Now only 1 in 10 is a priest or ordained minister.
“If we don’t have these kinds of programs that provide a true basis in Catholic teaching and Catholic theology, then we’re really going to have a brain drain,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of burned-out people.”
The development of Camden’s program got underway in 2005, when Galante lured Quinn away from her post as dean of graduate studies at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia to head the diocesan Office of Lifelong Faith Formation.
She and other diocesan leaders soon met with Catholic college representatives from outside the diocese to hear about their offerings in pastoral theology and ministry, religious education, and other areas that could equip laity for service.
From those initial visits, the diocese eventually identified four colleges whose offerings best aligned with the pastoral priorities that emerged from the Speak Up sessions. Currently, eight institutions partner with the diocese to provide instruction to laity.
Under their agreements with the diocese, most give students a 50 percent tuition discount. The reduced costs are shared equally by students, their sponsoring parishes and grants from an endowment fund established by the bishop.
A diverse portfolio
The schools offer a diverse portfolio of classroom, online and hybrid courses that lead to a variety of degrees and non-degree certifications in areas such as spiritual direction, youth and young adult ministry, social justice and catechesis.
Georgian Court University, for example, offers a master’s degree in theology with a concentration in pastoral ministry through courses at two South Jersey locations, said Johann Vento, the director of the school’s graduate program in theology. Vento said the Camden diocese has done a particularly good job of providing diverse educational experiences.
“They’ve partnered with several different educational institutions, but they’re not doubling up,” she said. “In other words, they haven’t partnered with several different schools who are all offering the master’s in theology. They’re partnering with others who are doing things that we don’t do.”
Being a financial adviser, McGrory is especially excited about the partnership with Villanova’s M.S. program in church management. Lay ministry and formation is not only about things spiritual.
“To be able to manage the parishes to ensure a strong financial footing is integral to the success of any parish,” he said.
As a relative latecomer to lay ministry formation, the diocese was able to benefit from the experience of others. It borrowed heavily -- with permission -- from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in developing its program. Robinson had taught in the Philadelphia program and was impressed with the faith community that had developed among the students.
“I knew the energy that came with it, both on the part of the instructor, but especially the students,” she said.
In November, the diocese held its third annual celebration honoring program participants. This time, 65 people received certificates marking the completion of some kind of formation program. In addition, five lay ecclesial ministers, who completed or already held master’s degrees in relevant fields and serve in significant leadership roles within the diocese or their parishes, were commissioned.
One of those, Andres Arango, who serves as the bishop’s delegate for Hispanic ministry and director of evangelization, said the lay ministry program has particular resonance for Hispanics, who now account for 20 percent of the diocese’s laity.
“It’s very important to show that there are not just opportunities for Hispanics here in the church in the United States but also a big need for Hispanic people in lay leadership positions,” Arango said.
Another newly commissioned lay ecclesial minister, Mary Lou Hughes, co-director of faith and family life formation in the Office of Lifelong Faith Formation, said her courses gave her concrete language for communicating with parishes about the ministry she was already doing.
Tender shoots
Galante, a diabetic who undergoes dialysis for kidney failure, has said he never expected to see the “full flowering” of his vision for the diocese -- he would have faced mandatory retirement at 75 even if his health were good. Yet he has been able to see the “tender shoots” coming up.
To help ensure the lay ministry program’s long-term success, Galante established the Lifelong Formation Endowment Fund, with a goal of raising $12 million to support formation programs. Though the economy has made fundraising more difficult than expected, the fund is over the $2 million mark, and the diocese is “going to have to keep working at it,” Quinn said.
As chairman of the board of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, a private foundation that supports Catholic projects around the world, McGrory knows the world of philanthropy and praises Galante for establishing an endowment to support the lay ministry program.
“Part of the bishop’s brilliance in all this is the endowment, because that does allow the program to continue even beyond his retirement,” he said. “Bishops are individuals, and they obviously have their own hopes and dreams for each diocese that they become a part of, but my hope would be that the next bishop would be as committed to the laity as our current bishop.”
McGrory, who also serves on the diocese’s finance council, said it can be a challenge to get potential donors to grasp the importance of a program that is not about buildings. Those who buy into Galante’s vision for lay ministry formation are typically either focused on education or have seen how students are able to enrich parish life, he said.
“The challenge is just to continue to spread the word around this program and what it’s doing,” he said. “When people see it in action, they get it.”
Fortunately, as evidenced by the many graduates at the November celebration, more “tender shoots” are coming up every day.
“Parish life blossoms, grows, deepens, and it keeps attracting people when their needs are being met, when they are being welcomed in a whole variety of ways,” Galante said after the ceremony, as the crowd finally dwindled.
Galante will officially step down Feb. 12, when his successor, Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York, will be installed.
Two days after Galante’s retirement was announced, an editorial in the South Jersey Times noted that his tenure had “not always gone smoothly, but Galante will leave the 75-year-old Roman Catholic diocese in a stronger place than he found it.”
The editorial(link is external) closed by noting a particular mark of Galante’s leadership: “The bishop never stopped listening, and that is one mark of an effective spiritual leader.”
Read more from Christine Scheller »
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"What Are We Paying You For? Shifting the Way We Ask Lay Leaders to Run the Church"
Imagine a congregation that wants its pastor to be not a chaplain who primarily offers pastoral care but a servant leader who teaches others how to be excellent servants. Imagine elders and deacons who are inspired and nourished spiritually during their terms of office. Imagine volunteers who discover their skills as coordinators of life-changing ministries. No longer do the organizational models of the late 20th century work in the 21st century.
What Are We Paying You For? Shifting the Way We Ask Lay Leaders to Run the Church
Do you know any lay leaders who are spiritually depleted rather than spiritually enriched as a result of their leadership duties? Have you ever known an elected church leader to worship occasionally with a church across town because it has become almost impossible to worship authentically in the congregation where he runs the education program or she runs the annual stewardship campaign? Does the question, “What are we paying you for?” have a familiar ring? How about the following scenario?-------
"Forming Laity, For Life and Ministry"
In a time of great change in the Catholic Diocese of Camden, NJ, a program gives laypeople the skills they need to bring a new vibrancy and passion to the local parish.
Faith & Leadership: A learning resource for Christian leaders and their institutions from Leadership Education at Duke Divinity
LAITY, ROLE IN CHURCH
Forming laity, for life and ministry
Bishop Joseph A. Galante at a commissioning service at St. Anthony of Padua, Hammonton, N.J. Photo by Christine Scheller
In a time of great change in the Catholic Diocese of Camden, NJ, a program gives laypeople the skills they need to bring a new vibrancy and passion to the local parish.
When Bishop Joseph A. Galante arrived at the Catholic Diocese of Camden, N.J., in 2004, he didn’t introduce himself by issuing directives. He began by listening.
For 15 months, he hosted “Speak Up” sessions at every parish throughout the far-flung South Jersey diocese. He wanted to know: What were the most important pastoral issues facing his flock?
In meeting after meeting, some 140 sessions in all, people expressed concerns that would have been familiar in Catholic parish halls -- and more than a few Protestant churches -- across the country.
They were worried about young people leaving the faith. They wanted more compassionate outreach programs. They were concerned about the shortage of priests; where would new ones come from?
But again and again, they also told their new bishop they wanted better opportunities for theological formation. Across the diocese, laity -- who today serve the church in almost every capacity short of administering the sacraments -- said they needed deeper, richer theological and pastoral formation so they could perform the tasks of lay ministry well.
Based on those conversations, Galante and his staff created an extensive program of lay ministry formation. With few resources in the area -- South Jersey has no Catholic institutions of higher education -- they looked elsewhere for help, putting together a network of Catholic colleges and seminaries to provide both undergraduate and graduate instruction, online and in local classrooms.
“Basically, we’ve created a university without walls,” Galante said.
Questions to consider:
- How well do your organization's leaders listen? What can they do to listen better and to help people "speak up"?
- How well does your congregation prepare laity for ministry? How can it form and prepare them more effectively?
- What other institutions could you leverage to help you respond to the challenges your institution faces?
- What is the most surprising concern or comment you have heard recently in your organization? How might it help you effect change?
They’re pursuing M.A. degrees in pastoral theology at Georgian Court University in Lakewood, N.J., and St. Joseph’s College of Maine in Standish, Maine. They’re working on M.S. degrees in church management at Villanova University in Radnor Township, Penn.
Patrick McGrory of Vineland, N.J., a Philadelphia-area financial adviser and a member of the diocese’s Lifelong Faith Formation executive committee, has high praise for the program and Galante, who will retire next month at age 74 because of health problems.
In a time of great change in the diocese and the Catholic Church, the program is giving laypeople the skills they need to bring a new vibrancy and passion to the local parish, McGrory said.
This is your church
“Bishop Galante is saying to the laity, ‘This is your church,’” he said. “He is challenging us as individual Catholics to participate actively in our parishes, schools and other Catholic organizations.”
The Lay Ministry Formation Program is part of a much larger change process that has dramatically reshaped the diocese in a few short years. Shifting demographics, a shortage of priests, declining attendance and other factors have forced dioceses across the nation, especially in the urban centers of the Northeast, to close or consolidate parishes, and Camden was no exception.
In what he called a “rip off the Band-Aid” approach, Galante closed or merged almost half the diocese’s parishes between 2008 and 2011, cutting the total number from 124 to 70. The Philadelphia Inquirer recently called it “the most sweeping consolidation of any Catholic diocese in the history of the United States.”
The Lay Ministry Formation Program is separate from the restructuring effort, but they are both part of Galante’s overall vision to create vibrant parishes where people are excited to be part of a Catholic community, McGrory said.
“The lay ministry training program was intertwined with the mergers as a way to provide for training and education, but more importantly, to lay out a foundation of leaders who could then inspire the vibrancy within others,” he said.
The growing role of lay leadership in Camden and throughout the Catholic Church is clearly prompted in part by the priest shortage, but it is also about much more than that, said Linda K. Robinson, the director of the Lay Ministry Formation Program. Laity today are claiming and exercising the ministry that is and always has been theirs by virtue of their baptism, she said.
“Laity have always performed ministry,” she said. “This is about laity becoming theologically prepared and pastorally formed to do it.”
In the Camden diocese and across the church, laity today serve in a variety of roles, some as paid staff, others as volunteers. They work as youth ministry directors and business managers; they lead preparation classes for baptism and the Rite of Christian Initiation. They counsel couples before marriage, lead prayer groups and Bible studies, and serve as catechists and lectors.
The need for theological formation
But, as Galante heard in the listening sessions, many believe they lack the theological formation to do their ministries well. For most laity, formation comes haphazardly, if at all, through the occasional parish program or self-initiated study, Robinson said. Most have had no formal religious study since grade school.
Sister Roseann Quinn, the bishop’s delegate for lifelong formation, said traditional educational models, focused primarily on children, are not as effective as they once were.
“Those models worked for a while, when Catholic homes were stronger in their immersion in faith,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is not to cut the schooling model out completely but to have faith formation from early childhood through senior adulthood.”
The need for qualified lay ministers will only increase in the future, and most pastors realize that lay ministry is essential for the future of the church and the faith, she said. Even so, it’s going to take time for priests and laity to become completely comfortable in their evolving roles.
“Many [parishioners] never saw themselves as having a leadership role in the church, because they thought the priests and the nuns would do it all,” Quinn said.
Laity and clergy have complementary roles to play in today’s church, Galante said.
“Laity are not in competition with the clergy, but there should be a complementarity between what the clergy has been ordained to do and what the laypeople are commissioned to do,” he said.
A national issue
Though new to Camden, lay ministry formation programs are not new to the Catholic Church. Dioceses across the nation have been developing the programs for a quarter-century, said Christopher C. Anderson, the executive director of the National Association for Lay Ministry(link is external).
About a third of U.S. dioceses have lay ministry formation programs, with 18,493 students enrolled in 2011, he said. Because of economic pressures, some dioceses have been cutting the programs, with notable exceptions such as Spanish-language programs, which are flourishing both nationally and in the Camden diocese.
“Places where they are being discontinued always cite it as a budget issue, but every budget is a priority statement, too,” Anderson said. Moreover, cutting these programs can be counterproductive, because they help dioceses make up for limited resources by training a cadre of well-educated, well-formed volunteers, he said.
Twenty-five years ago, parish staffs averaged 10 non-school employees, six of whom were priests. Now only 1 in 10 is a priest or ordained minister.
“If we don’t have these kinds of programs that provide a true basis in Catholic teaching and Catholic theology, then we’re really going to have a brain drain,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of burned-out people.”
The development of Camden’s program got underway in 2005, when Galante lured Quinn away from her post as dean of graduate studies at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia to head the diocesan Office of Lifelong Faith Formation.
She and other diocesan leaders soon met with Catholic college representatives from outside the diocese to hear about their offerings in pastoral theology and ministry, religious education, and other areas that could equip laity for service.
From those initial visits, the diocese eventually identified four colleges whose offerings best aligned with the pastoral priorities that emerged from the Speak Up sessions. Currently, eight institutions partner with the diocese to provide instruction to laity.
Under their agreements with the diocese, most give students a 50 percent tuition discount. The reduced costs are shared equally by students, their sponsoring parishes and grants from an endowment fund established by the bishop.
A diverse portfolio
The schools offer a diverse portfolio of classroom, online and hybrid courses that lead to a variety of degrees and non-degree certifications in areas such as spiritual direction, youth and young adult ministry, social justice and catechesis.
Georgian Court University, for example, offers a master’s degree in theology with a concentration in pastoral ministry through courses at two South Jersey locations, said Johann Vento, the director of the school’s graduate program in theology. Vento said the Camden diocese has done a particularly good job of providing diverse educational experiences.
“They’ve partnered with several different educational institutions, but they’re not doubling up,” she said. “In other words, they haven’t partnered with several different schools who are all offering the master’s in theology. They’re partnering with others who are doing things that we don’t do.”
Being a financial adviser, McGrory is especially excited about the partnership with Villanova’s M.S. program in church management. Lay ministry and formation is not only about things spiritual.
“To be able to manage the parishes to ensure a strong financial footing is integral to the success of any parish,” he said.
As a relative latecomer to lay ministry formation, the diocese was able to benefit from the experience of others. It borrowed heavily -- with permission -- from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in developing its program. Robinson had taught in the Philadelphia program and was impressed with the faith community that had developed among the students.
“I knew the energy that came with it, both on the part of the instructor, but especially the students,” she said.
In November, the diocese held its third annual celebration honoring program participants. This time, 65 people received certificates marking the completion of some kind of formation program. In addition, five lay ecclesial ministers, who completed or already held master’s degrees in relevant fields and serve in significant leadership roles within the diocese or their parishes, were commissioned.
One of those, Andres Arango, who serves as the bishop’s delegate for Hispanic ministry and director of evangelization, said the lay ministry program has particular resonance for Hispanics, who now account for 20 percent of the diocese’s laity.
“It’s very important to show that there are not just opportunities for Hispanics here in the church in the United States but also a big need for Hispanic people in lay leadership positions,” Arango said.
Another newly commissioned lay ecclesial minister, Mary Lou Hughes, co-director of faith and family life formation in the Office of Lifelong Faith Formation, said her courses gave her concrete language for communicating with parishes about the ministry she was already doing.
Tender shoots
Galante, a diabetic who undergoes dialysis for kidney failure, has said he never expected to see the “full flowering” of his vision for the diocese -- he would have faced mandatory retirement at 75 even if his health were good. Yet he has been able to see the “tender shoots” coming up.
To help ensure the lay ministry program’s long-term success, Galante established the Lifelong Formation Endowment Fund, with a goal of raising $12 million to support formation programs. Though the economy has made fundraising more difficult than expected, the fund is over the $2 million mark, and the diocese is “going to have to keep working at it,” Quinn said.
As chairman of the board of the Raskob Foundation for Catholic Activities, a private foundation that supports Catholic projects around the world, McGrory knows the world of philanthropy and praises Galante for establishing an endowment to support the lay ministry program.
“Part of the bishop’s brilliance in all this is the endowment, because that does allow the program to continue even beyond his retirement,” he said. “Bishops are individuals, and they obviously have their own hopes and dreams for each diocese that they become a part of, but my hope would be that the next bishop would be as committed to the laity as our current bishop.”
McGrory, who also serves on the diocese’s finance council, said it can be a challenge to get potential donors to grasp the importance of a program that is not about buildings. Those who buy into Galante’s vision for lay ministry formation are typically either focused on education or have seen how students are able to enrich parish life, he said.
“The challenge is just to continue to spread the word around this program and what it’s doing,” he said. “When people see it in action, they get it.”
Fortunately, as evidenced by the many graduates at the November celebration, more “tender shoots” are coming up every day.
“Parish life blossoms, grows, deepens, and it keeps attracting people when their needs are being met, when they are being welcomed in a whole variety of ways,” Galante said after the ceremony, as the crowd finally dwindled.
Galante will officially step down Feb. 12, when his successor, Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York, will be installed.
Two days after Galante’s retirement was announced, an editorial in the South Jersey Times noted that his tenure had “not always gone smoothly, but Galante will leave the 75-year-old Roman Catholic diocese in a stronger place than he found it.”
The editorial(link is external) closed by noting a particular mark of Galante’s leadership: “The bishop never stopped listening, and that is one mark of an effective spiritual leader.”
Read more from Christine Scheller »
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"What Are We Paying You For? Shifting the Way We Ask Lay Leaders to Run the Church"
Imagine a congregation that wants its pastor to be not a chaplain who primarily offers pastoral care but a servant leader who teaches others how to be excellent servants. Imagine elders and deacons who are inspired and nourished spiritually during their terms of office. Imagine volunteers who discover their skills as coordinators of life-changing ministries. No longer do the organizational models of the late 20th century work in the 21st century.
What Are We Paying You For? Shifting the Way We Ask Lay Leaders to Run the Church
A faithful member serving as the chairperson of the congregation’s property committee takes her seat in the pews for worship on a Sunday morning only to have an usher track her down and whisper into her ear, “Do you know where we could find extra light bulbs?” She leaves her pew to go find light bulbs, during which a Sunday school teacher breathlessly tells her that the toilet in the kindergarten restroom is flooding. After many months—or years—of these kinds of interruptions to her own spiritual nourishment, she feels spiritually bankrupt and bitter by the time her term of service ends.
Or how about this story? The elder who heads up the mission committee has found it easier to do much of the mission herself, so she serves dinner at the shelter every Monday night with one or two reliable helpers, shelves soup cans and cereal boxes every fourth Saturday of the month, and drags her husband along to help her move donated furniture several times a year. She complains often that she “needs more help.” And she considers herself less a “spiritual leader” and more an unappreciated committee of one.
Or perhaps this story is more familiar: The “worship elder” who is in charge of heading up that particular committee doesn’t have time to pray for herself much less to pray for other church members—which she heard somewhere was her role as a “spiritual leader.” And besides, she feels uncomfortable praying out loud one-on-one with her friends. They might think she’s acting “holier than thou.”
Outmoded Ways
If these stories don’t sound familiar to you, they certainly do to me. After 15 years of serving a Presbyterian congregation of 150 accomplished, busy, well-educated professionals, it had become excruciatingly clear that something had to change in terms of the programming responsibilities of the elders in charge. (The position of “elder” has a different name in different traditions, but “elder” here refers to the elected lay leaders who are vested with responsibilities of church oversight and spiritual leadership.)
The role of our elders was to chair committees of the church—an organizational model familiar to many mainline congregations. Each elder was responsible for a committee, which we often called a team, but the truth was that our elders were often teams of one. And our monthly Session meetings often ran like committees of the whole; each elder promoted his or her own committee’s programs, competing for budget dollars. And they all ran themselves ragged as overworked volunteers.
In my church, the idea of commit-tees was a myth. Most “committees” were run by one or two individuals who often complained about having no support while at the same time clinging to the responsibilities or congregational “power.”
Elder-led committees were the preferred organizational model during the mid to late 20th century. When mainline membership numbers were at their peak, when many more women were home during the day—either with school-aged children or as retirees—
the pool of volunteers with free time was much larger. And many congregations could afford to call multiple pastors, as well as educators, music professionals, and support staff to run the church.
The impact of 21st-century cultural shifts on the church is well-documented, but our organizational models in the church have not shifted—or at least not enough. Increasingly, congregations that allow elected officers to “run the church” are finding that this model no longer works—for several reasons:
- People do not become members of a church in order to serve on committees.
- Elected officers charged with being spiritual leaders do not have the time or energy for spiritual leadership if they are also organizing mission trips, scheduling educational events, and overseeing stewardship programs.
- Recruiting new officers becomes increasingly difficult as the congregation observes the enormous time and energy involved in being an elder or deacon.
- “People are too busy to volunteer. We can’t even get them to serve as officers!”
- “Nobody’s going to do this kind of work for the church without getting paid!”
- “What if they do something we don’t like? Can volunteers be fired?”
- “What if new members want to be on this so-called staff? They don’t know enough.”
- People with a passion for ministry make time to serve those passions.
- Many individuals can indeed volunteer their time and find it energizing.
- Volunteer staff members can work with clear job descriptions and within the parameters of established core values (and the annual budget).
- New members are often the best staffers because they come with fresh ideas.
The “priesthood of all believers” is a cherished doctrine of the church and a foundational idea for Protestants, but the reality is that few parishioners consider themselves to be anything resembling priests. Especially if those who gather for worship are “participating Christians” rather than “practicing Christians,” then the divide between those who lead and those who follow increases.
Martin Luther wrote that we are all consecrated priests through our baptism, quoting 1 Peter 2:9 and Revelation 5:10:
“You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people . . .”
“You have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God . . .”
But most parishioners happily relinquish all priestly duties to professional clergy, excusing themselves for a variety of reasons:
- They are not sufficiently educated in biblical and theological studies.
- They have their own vocations to worry about—and their vocations have little to do with their spiritual selves.
- They are concerned about being seen as fanatics if they openly talk about their faith or their spiritual leadership role apart from Sunday mornings.
- They are paying someone else to fulfill all spiritual responsibilities in the church.
- We have professional degrees that attest to our biblical and theological training.
- We have chosen a spiritual vocation replete with spiritual garb, accoutrements, and historic significance.
- We are expected to speak of holy things and refer to spiritual matters in conversation.
- We are paid to do this, and some of us even spend our off-duty time in church-owned housing.
“The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ . . .”
The word for “pastor” here—poimen in Greek—is also translated “shepherd,” which is a problematic word for clergy in a church culture that demands that the pastor’s role is to serve the sheep. Perhaps we have confused the role of sheep and shepherd because our 21st-century culture is so far removed from agricultural metaphors. Current-day parishioners are often under the impression that the pastor’s role is to lead their congregational sheep into green pastures and beside still waters so that the sheep can spend their lives relaxing in the sun eating clover. But in actual farm life, the purpose of the sheep is to benefit their owner. In fact, in some cases, they give their very lives for the one who owns them. Hmm.
Paul Borden, for one, points out that we professional ministers have completely misunderstood the whole sheep/shepherd metaphor. We call ministers who are supposed to “pastor” congregations—primarily offering pastoral care—when actually, according to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the congregation is called to carry out those responsibilities for each other. The pastor/professional minister is called to teach the sheep to do this for each other. Our most fundamental role is to equip the saints for ministry, not to do it all ourselves.
This is a profoundly threatening premise for many professional ministers. We generally enjoy the power of being the one who gains entrance into the intensive care unit by virtue of our pastoral credentials. We like the power of being called in the night and meeting traumatized families in the emergency room like heroes in the night. We might relish the role of savior, often to the point that we hesitate to surrender our power to mere laypeople. And yet to refuse to share in this ministry is an affront to the premise that all baptized people are called to be priests.
Any pastor will attest to the fact that it is a profound privilege to be the one who is called to the bedside of a dying parishioner or to the operating room before a crucial surgery. Some of our holiest moments occur by the incubators in the neonatal intensive care unit or in the living rooms of newly widowed church members. But we should not be the only ones who get to participate in these holy moments. Our chosen lay leaders have been called to participate in this ministry, too. We professional pastors are called to equip them and set them free to serve accordingly.
Just as clergy must relinquish some of the pastoral care to the ruling lay leaders of their congregations, the ruling leaders must also relinquish their assumed power to those who are called and able to run the church’s programs on a day-to-day basis. If elders, for example, are freed from running the stewardship campaign and the annual mission fair, they can focus on vision casting and pastoral care while unelected volunteers run the church. Again, this requires giving up often-cherished power and granting permission for others to do these jobs.
Laying the Foundation
Our congregation is now led by a staff of paid and volunteer ministers who run the programs of the church. Our elders and deacons are charged, respectively, with overseeing the ministry in accordance with our core values and offering pastoral care. This has been a dramatic shift in the way our congregation is organized. No longer do our ruling elders control the programs of our church. No longer does the pastor serve as the sole spiritual leader of the parish.
In order to accomplish such a change in congregational organization, certain preparatory work must be done:
- The elders must establish the core values of their particular congregation, and an annual budget must be created that provides parameters for both volunteers and paid staff. As long as the church staff works within the basic values and budget of the congregation, they have the freedom to plan programs and events that enhance the spiritual community.
- All staff—both paid and volunteer—must have clear job descriptions that spell out their responsibilities, which include the basic duties of recruiting, training, supervising, and evaluating those who assist them on their particular ministry teams. For example, if a volunteer heads up the mission ministry, that volunteer is called to coordinate the mission program of the congregation but not to serve unilaterally. He/she will create a team to serve in the local and global mission efforts of the congregation. To avoid the “committee of one” issue, the passions and gifts of the members must be assessed. (There are church information programs—some similar to Facebook—that can assist church staffs in collecting information on member interests and talents.)
- Volunteer and paid staff are evaluated annually by the pastor and/or personnel committee. Church members often feel queasy about evaluating other church members, but a focus on call and gifts makes this endeavor more about serving God and less about personal turf and negative criticism. Sharing with members what their gifts are and what their gifts are not is part of the discernment process. Again, if ministry is about serving God’s purposes rather than personal power, then leaders will appreciate placement in an area of ministry in which they are gifted and called.
- Elders, deacons, and other officers also need job descriptions that clarify their roles. No longer are they called to “run the church.” Their responsibilities are more far-reaching, in the tradition of the Apostolic Church. In addition to overseeing the ministry, offering pastoral care, and serving in whatever capacity their particular denomination requires, they make a commitment to spend time reflecting theologically on the overall ministry of the congregation. They commit to praying, studying scripture, and taking advantage of workshops and other educational opportunities offered by higher judicatories. And all officers make the commitment to support the congregation financially.
- Imagine a church full of people who get this.
- Imagine a congregation that wants its pastor to be not a chaplain who primarily offers pastoral care but a servant leader who teaches others how to be excellent servants.
- Imagine elders and deacons who are inspired and nourished spiritually during their terms of office.
- Imagine volunteers who discover their skills as coordinators of life-changing ministries.
As the culture continues to shift, the church is also shifting into a community that is becoming more collaborative and more spiritually nurturing, more about practicing our faith and less about participating in a steady stream of programs. It’s about time.
________________________
Questions for Reflection
- Name a specific situation in which your ministry transformed the life of someone in your congregation.
- Name something in your ministry which has spiritually fed you in the last month.
- What about your church work energizes you spiritually? What saps you of spiritual energy?
- How does the organizational structure of your church leadership spread the responsibilities for ministry?
- If you asked your congregation, “How many true ministers do we have?” what would they say? Who would be identified as a “minister” in your church? Why?
CONTINUE YOUR LEARNING: DENOMINATIONAL LEADERSHIP
It seems like only yesterday that you were the pastor of a congregation, and now you are offering leadership to your denomination at the regional or national level. Not only are the scope and scale of your responsibilities different, so too are your available resources and the ways you can lead effectively. This four-day educational event is designed so you can consider your practice of leadership and be equipped with the tools and strategies you need to navigate the complexities and changing landscape of denominational and institutional life today.
People of all denominations who are transitioning into executive-level positions within denominational governing bodies or who have been in their role fewer than three years are welcome to apply for this selective program.
This event will offer participants:
a variety of learning experiences designed to develop their individual leadership capacity;
the opportunity to learn about their leadership by receiving 360-degree feedback;
ways of understanding change processes and transition times; strategies for practicing innovation at the regional or national level;
tools for responding to challenges that are particular to the work of a denominational executive, including managing personnel processes, having "critical conversations" and offering difficult feedback; and
times to network with colleagues in similar positions.
LEARN MORE AND APPLY
FROM THE ALBAN LIBRARY
This comprehensive guide is based on Urban's consulting, training, and planning with shared ministry directors and teams the past 12 years, her experience building a shared ministry system in a congregation, and her own studies in the field of volunteer management.
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