DAN HOTCHKISS REFLECTS ON LEADING CHANGE IN CONGREGATIONS
Clergy often try to change their congregations, and as rule their efforts meet resistance. It hurts to be seen as a threat by the very people you are trying to serve, but when a leader's first move is to advocate for change, that's generally what happens.
The desire to make change is one of the main reasons people become leaders in the first place. New seminary graduates, freshly educated in the latest concepts of improved and modernized religion, are especially prone to look at their first congregation and see all the ways it could be better than it is.
But a congregation, large or small, is still an institution, and institutions tend to resist change. In the flush of new beginnings, leaders frequently forget this obvious but nonetheless important fact.
Why Institutions Resist Change
Why do institutions resist change? When I ask this question in a group, I hear several theories. Some people like to point to traits of personality: "People fear the unknown," somebody says. "People dislike change," Around the room, heads nod.
Others blame the culture of the congregation or denomination they happen to be serving. Pastor Johnson from Wisconsin says, "Lutherans are conservative by nature." Not listening, the Reverend Dr. Hester Washburn says, "What do you expect? This is New England." Father White offers a joke: "How many Episcopalians does it take to change a lightbulb? What-change!?" They each believe-at least until they start to hear each other-that if it weren't for their group's unique brand of stuck-in-the-mudness, change would be much easier.
I have a different theory. Institutions resist change, not because of any special trait personality or culture, but because that's what an institution does. Or better yet, because that's what an institution is. An institution is a way of getting people to engage in repetitive behavior. Resistance to change, in other words, is baked in to the whole concept. People show up for work or meetings, unlock doors, publish newsletters, lead worship, prepare lessons, sweep floors, and practice music-all on schedule.
Clergy often try to change their congregations, and as rule their efforts meet resistance. It hurts to be seen as a threat by the very people you are trying to serve, but when a leader’s first move is to advocate for change, that’s generally what happens.The desire to make change is one of the main reasons people become leaders in the first place. New seminary graduates, freshly educated in the latest concepts of improved and modernized religion, are especially prone to look at their first congregation and see all the ways it could be better than it is.
But a congregation, large or small, is still an institution, and institutions tend to resist change. In the flush of new beginnings, leaders frequently forget this obvious but nonetheless important fact.
Why Institutions Resist Change
Why do institutions resist change? When I ask this question in a group, I hear several theories. Some people like to point to traits of personality: “People fear the unknown,” somebody says. “People dislike change,” Around the room, heads nod.
Others blame the culture of the congregation or denomination they happen to be serving. Pastor Johnson from Wisconsin says, “Lutherans are conservative by nature.” Not listening, the Reverend Dr. Hester Washburn says, “What do you expect? This is New England.” Father White offers a joke: “How many Episcopalians does it take to change a lightbulb? What—change!?” They each believe—at least until they start to hear each other—that if it weren’t for their group’s unique brand of stuck-in-the-mudness, change would be much easier.
I have a different theory. Institutions resist change, not because of any special trait personality or culture, but because that’s what an institution does. Or better yet, because that’s what an institution is. An institution is a way of getting people to engage in repetitive behavior. Resistance to change, in other words, is baked in to the whole concept. People show up for work or meetings, unlock doors, publish newsletters, lead worship, prepare lessons, sweep floors, and practice music—all on schedule.
If anyone suggests that a church quit worshiping on Sunday morning and shift to Tuesday instead—or that it can wait another month to get the website back online—any institution worthy of the name is ready with an answer: No. Most of the time change-resistance is a good thing in an institution, responsible for most of the good it does.
Saying No to Change
That’s why, when a clergy newcomer announces that he or she intends to bring the winds of change into a stuffy sanctuary, the institution says No quickly, without thought. In nice congregations, that No may come sugar-coated—it might even sound a bit like Yes, which can be a way of saying “Sure, you can do new things, and we will tolerate them for the short time we expect you to be here.”
No doubt you’re thinking of exceptions to this rule, and so am I. On her first Shabbat, a new rabbi announced substantial changes of worship practice . The congregation clapped and gladly went along with everything she wanted. An exception to the rule? Maybe—but years earlier, that congregation, after much deliberation, had decided on these very changes and the prior rabbi had refused to implement them. The newcomer’s bold stand was for the status quo, not change.
More typically: a new, change-agent minister announced, “I’ll empty out this church and fill it up again!” Years later, a lay leader of that congregation told me ruefully, “I’ll give him credit: he made it almost halfway through his plan.” This is an extreme example of a common pattern: when a leader enters as a change agent, resistance increases long before it softens.
Alternatives to Advocating Change
So—if it’s not a good idea for the leader to enter as an advocate for change, what’s the alternative? What’s the best way for a leader to promote change? To answer, we need first to ask: If an institution resists change because resisting change is in its basic nature, then why do institutions ever change at all?
Sometimes circumstances force change—the state runs a highway through the sanctuary, the treasury goes broke, or a beloved pastor goes to prison. But institutions sometimes change on purpose. When they do, it’s often because they conclude that the only way they can continue to be what they are is to embrace change. In other words, the institution’s change-resistance forces change.
For example, a congregation’s members have moved out of the neighborhood. It has two basic choices: it can wax nostalgic about glory days or change. The change might be to follow the remaining members to the suburbs, offer worship in new styles, or find ways to connect its members to the neighborhood. To make big shifts like those, a congregation first needs to decide that it can only stick to its essential mission (serving people, teaching faith) by shedding some of its external attributes (location, staffing, four-part hymns).
Change Agent Jiu-Jitsu
Paradoxically, the designated leader can bring change quicker by affirming the essential mission than by advertising his or her ideas about change. Instead of lecturing the knitting circle about new postmodern Sunday School curricula, the pastor can sit and gently ask them to explain why yarn and conversation and old friends are so important.
Instead of whipping up the passions of the people who don’t see why there’s not already a praise band, a laser show, or a dog walk in the sanctuary, the leader can become the chief admirer of old ways, chief celebrant of deeper meanings, chief interpreter of deeper value in what was and is and ever more shall be.
Pastors who want to make change do better to connect with advocates for continuity. This can irritate the advocates of change. But know this: when change advocates start criticizing you, you may be starting to get leverage that can help you shift the congregation as a whole.
“Change agent” is rarely the most powerful position for a leader who wants to promote change. The most powerful position is the middle, halfway between the diehards and the revolutionaries. From this mediating spot, a leader can articulate the deeper meanings, suggest how those meanings might be carried forward in a changing world, and ask everyone for sacrifice to make it happen.
Dan Hotchkiss consults with congregations and other mission-driven groups from his home near Boston. He is the author of the best-selling Alban book Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership, which has helped hundreds of churches, synagogues, and non-profit organizations to streamline their structure and become more mission-focused and effective.Read more from Dan Hotchkiss »
A NEW OPPORTUNITY FROM LILLY ENDOWMENT INC.
Lilly Endowment is pleased to announce its Thriving in Ministry Initiative 2018, a competitive grant program open to any charitable organization committed to the support of pastoral leaders in congregations and located in the United States.
Charitable organizations are invited to submit proposals for up to $1 million that may be used for up to a five-year period to develop new or strengthen existing programs that help pastors build relationships with other clergy who can serve as role models and exemplars and guide them through key leadership challenges at critical moments in their ministerial careers.
While the Endowment is interested in supporting a variety of approaches, it is especially interested in supporting efforts that: 1) attend to key professional transitions in a pastor's career and/or 2) focus on challenges posed by particular ministry contexts and settings.
Request for Proposals
Lilly Endowment is pleased to announce Thriving in Ministry Initiative 2018. Through this endeavor, the Endowment seeks to support charitable organizations (especially organizations committed to supporting pastoral leaders in congregations) located in the United States in developing new or strengthening existing programs that help pastors build relationships with experienced clergy who can serve as role models and exemplars and guide them through key leadership challenges at critical moments in their ministerial careers. The primary aim is to help pastors thrive in congregational leadership and thus enhance the vitality of the congregations they serve.
Charitable organizations may submit proposals for up to $1 million that may be used for up to a five-year period to plan and implement programs. While the Endowment is interested in supporting a variety of approaches, it is especially interested in supporting efforts that: 1) attend to key professional transitions in a pastor’s career and/or 2) focus on challenges posed by particular ministry contexts and settings.
In this open and competitive grants initiative, the Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 30 grants to charitable organizations that submit exceptionally promising proposals that advance the aim of the initiative and demonstrate the capacity of the organization to design, implement and sustain a high-quality program.
Instructions
Please complete and submit an Interest Form to indicate the organization’s intent to submit a proposal. Interest Forms must be postmarked by April 6, 2018.
The links below provide complete instructions for preparing and submitting grant applications.
Proposals must be postmarked by June 1, 2018.
Links to Documents
The links below provide complete instructions for preparing and submitting grant applications.
Interest Form
This form indicates the organization’s intent to submit a proposal and names a key contact involved in this effort. Its primary purpose is to assist the Endowment in gauging interest in this initiative and in preparing for the review of completed proposals. Interest Forms are due by April 6, 2018 (postmarked).
Request for Proposals
This document provides guidelines for submitting full proposals to develop programs for this initiative. Proposals are due June 1, 2018 (postmarked).
Guide to Budget Preparation
This document is intended to assist organizations in preparing program budgets. Program budgets include two parts: 1) a detailed line-item budget and 2) a budget narrative that explains how you have calculated specific line items.
Lilly Endowment Forms
This document provides required forms that must be completed and submitted with grant applications. These forms include: 1) Proposal Summary Information Form and 2) Exempt Status and Foundation Information Status Form.
Deadlines
Interest Forms Postmarked by April 6, 2018
Proposals Postmarked by June 1, 2018
Questions
If questions arise as you develop the proposal, please email: thrivinginministry@lei.org.
Please send your completed proposal to:
Jessicah Krey Duckworth
Program Director, Religion
Lilly Endowment Inc.
2801 North Meridian Street
Post Office Box 88068
Indianapolis, Indianapolis 46208-0068, Indiana
Read more about this initiative and find the request for proposals »
IDEAS THAT IMPACT: LEADING CHANGE
Faith & Leadership
CONGREGATIONS, INNOVATION, CONGREGATIONAL INNOVATION
Five tips for achieving lasting change in congregations by: Edie Gross, JournalistFive tips for achieving lasting change in congregations
Photo courtesy of the Union for Reform Judaism
Synagogues that participated in the Union for Reform Judaism's Communities of Practice identified best principles to advance change.
In 2013, the Union for Reform Judaism, the umbrella organization of Reform Jewish congregations throughout North America, launched a movement-wide set of experiments with Communities of Practice(link is external).
In addition to a young adult initiative, it included one that examined 21st-century financing for synagogues, one that explored how best to meet the needs of young families, and one that looked at meeting those needs through an early childhood education center.
All were topics that had generated many questions from the URJ’s member congregations over the years, and the organization reached out first to synagogues that had already expressed an interest in them, later expanding its recruitment efforts through social media and newsletters.
The URJ wanted the congregations in each Community of Practice to start from the same point. So congregations that hadn’t yet addressed the problem or had been frustrated with the results of early efforts were chosen over those that had already experienced success and simply wanted to build on that.
The URJ insisted that each congregation make a long-term commitment to participate over the course of 18 to 24 months and that each involve both staff and lay leaders -- unless a synagogue was so small that it had only part-time staff or none at all.
The synagogues shared with each other the results of their efforts, what worked and what didn’t. And they continue to do so with each other and with other synagogues through the URJ’s social networking site, The Tent(link is external).
The URJ has recently launched six new Communities of Practice, exploring everything from how to make the bar and bat mitzvah experience deeper and richer for children and their families to how to engage congregants through small groups.
Each of the URJ’s Communities of Practice wrote a report on their experience and included a list of “best principles” for achieving lasting, meaningful change within a congregation.
Even congregations that share the same concerns are diverse in their membership, history, resources and personalities, and no one plug-in solution will work for everyone, says Amy Asin, the URJ’s vice president for strengthening congregations. But outcomes improve when congregations follow a deliberate, methodical approach to developing solutions.
Here are some of the principles developed by the URJ:
- Empower lay leaders. Encourage your target audience, whether it be young adults, young families or both, to take ownership of the process. Establish a trusted, trained core of lay leaders who will be networking while creating the community they want to be part of. Staff can’t, and shouldn’t, do it all. “If you build a world that’s about maximal entry points, you can’t be every place,” says Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas of Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina.
- Play the long game. You may need to devote several years to an experiment before you see results, so be willing to invest time and patience, Thomas said. “My biggest take-away is you absolutely can’t back down. Nothing about this is ‘set it and forget it.’ You constantly have to stoke the fires. … With experiments, anytime you’re pushing the boundaries, you can’t just do it once. You have to do it consistently to create structure.”
- Don’t get caught up in numbers. Traditionally, congregations have looked at quantitative measures of success: How many people showed up to an event? Was there enough food for everyone? Did we stay within budget? All of those are fine to track, but the URJ urges congregations to develop deeper measures: Did anyone make a new friend? Are participants hanging out together outside the synagogue? Are they learning meaningful ways to apply a Jewish lens to their broader lives?
- Be authentic. Temples seeking to attract young adults often assume -- incorrectly -- that if events are “too Jewish,” young people won’t participate. “What we found was interesting and fascinating. In every congregation, they didn’t want anything purely social,” said Lisa Lieberman Barzilai, the director of the URJ’s Leadership Institute. “You shouldn’t be walking away from the Jewish piece -- that’s why they were going to you. If they wanted something purely social, they could go to a bar.”
- Take programming beyond the walls of the institution. Engage your audience wherever they feel comfortable -- whether it’s in coffee shops, offices, pumpkin patches or people’s homes. And particularly when trying to reach young adults, make sure your online and social media presence is responsive, engaging and reflective of the type of environment you’re trying to create.
Read these tips »
Faith & Leadership
INNOVATION, MANAGEMENT, CHANGE
Alan Deutschman: The benefits of change
The benefits of change
What really inspires positive change is hope, not fear, according to a leading writer on change and innovation.
Alan Deutschman is the author of “Change or Die: The Three Keys to Change at Work and in Life(link is external),” first published in 2007.
He uses compelling case studies to show how heart patients, criminals, drug addicts and multi-billion-dollar corporations can improve their future prospects by embracing change that at first may seem impossible.“My research shows that what really stimulates and sustains a change effort is getting positive results, really being able to feel tangible benefits from the change fairly early on,” said Deutschman, former executive director of Unboundary, a strategy consulting firm for top executives.
Deutschman also spent 19 years as a business journalist in Silicon Valley. He has profiled innovators around the world and discovered some of what makes up effective leadership, especially during times of change.
His book outlines the “three F’s” -- facts, fear and force -- which he said are often employed but ultimately doomed to failure as change agents. Instead, he said, they should be replaced with the “three R’s”: relate, repeat and reframe.
In an interview with Faith & Leadership, Deutschman describes the three R’s and offers examples of how they have been successful in helping individuals and organizations make lasting change. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: What’s the problem with the three F’s?
We start out by assuming that people are rational, and we’ll give them the facts -- and that doesn’t work.
So then we say, well, maybe people are primarily emotional, and so let’s appeal to their emotions. The most powerful emotion is fear, so the second F is fear. We’re just going to try to really, really frighten people in hopes that that’s going to motivate them to change.
Then the third F is force. By force I mean falling back on the moral authority of your position. This is what we fall back on when we’ve failed to persuade people either through cool reason or through intense emotion.Q: Where does the title of the book come from, “Change or Die”?
The idea is that people or organizations will only change if they’re faced with a true crisis. So in the book, I look at the biggest crisis that any of us can face: a life-threatening health situation. Yet with heart patients, 90 percent go back to the same unhealthy habits that they were living with before. Even after their doctors say, “You have to change, or you’re going to die.”
Q: You explain in the book that people avoid things that frighten them, so they avoid the change they need to make, right?
It’s actually a very adaptive response to try to avoid dealing with the problems, because if you don’t, you’re not going to get up and get the kids off to school and feed the dog and get your to-do list done.
We tend to actually focus on the things we have to do that we can do and we can get done, as opposed to the long-term problems that seem overwhelming and impossible to us.
Q: Why is hope important when people or organizations are trying to change?
People have to think that change is possible for them. That’s behind the effectiveness of 12-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous. You can see people who are like you, who have had the same seemingly overwhelming problems, and that some of them are really changing and making progress. Often [change] starts by connecting with even one other person or a community that you feel some emotional connection with.
Q: What are the three R’s, and why are they effective in creating change?
The first R is what I call “relate,” and this means forming a close emotional relationship with a person or with a group of peers that inspires a sense of hope and belief that things can be different.
If you wanted to learn to play a new sport or to play a musical instrument or to speak a foreign language, you would want a teacher, a mentor, a coach to help you through it. If you have a coach or a mentor who believes in you, that can open that window as well.
Once you connect with this individual or community, you start taking actions that get you where you want to go.
Q: Talk about the second R -- repeat.
In the book, I look at the Delancey Street program [in San Francisco] that takes felons out of the state prison system. They don’t know how to walk the way middle-class people walk. They don’t know how to talk that way.
Delancey Street tries to teach them how to live in law-abiding, middle-class, sober, nonviolent society.
Change in our lives is the same way. There are just dozens and dozens of small things that we need to actually learn by doing and doing it again and again.
I grew up in the Jewish tradition, where in the Old Testament and the Torah, it’s actually about the practices. In the Torah, there are 613 direct commandments from God, often little things that you’re supposed to do from day to day.
These little actions and daily practices instill the belief, as opposed to the belief informing and motivating the action.
Of course, it can work both ways, but I’ve found that many successful programs are focused on the actions of daily living.
In Alcoholics Anonymous and some 12-step programs, they say, “Fake it until you make it.” You go through certain actions and steps until you ultimately come to a new understanding.
Q: The third R is reframe. It sounds like telling a new narrative of yourself.
That’s exactly what it’s like. Delancey Street has a weekend-long process where the residents tell their life stories, then the community comes together to say, “We understand you and we understand the way you were, and you’re not that way anymore.”
As in many spiritual traditions, it’s a vehicle for atonement and for reckoning with the way you used to be. It’s a profound thing.
Q: At IBM, how were the three R’s cultivated and used to create a new structure that made it a learning organization?
The more successful you’ve been, in many ways, the harder it is to change. Your culture and your people have deeply entrenched beliefs about who they are and the way things are supposed to be.
Here was a company that in many ways was the most successful company in American capitalism.
When there was a profound shift in technology, IBM found itself going from having been the most successful company in American capitalism to being threatened with going out of business. IBM experienced its own change-or-die crisis as an organization.
After IBM nearly collapsed in the early 1990s, they brought in a new chief executive officer, Lou Gerstner, who had been the head of Nabisco. The IBM people derided him as “the cookie guy.” Then the cookie guy hired as his chief of strategy [J. Bruce Harreld], a man who had helped found the Boston Chicken chain of fast-food rotisserie chicken restaurants.
The IBM people said, “Oh great! Now we have the cookie guy, and he’s bringing in ‘the chicken guy,’ who is going to tell us how to run the world’s most important technology company.”
The chicken guy comes in to focus people on inventing new things and starts promising new businesses that are entrepreneurial and nimble. To set an example, he took one of these senior executives, Rod Adkins, and said, “You no longer are going to have thousands of employees and billions of dollars that you’re responsible for. Starting today, we’d like you to start a brand-new entrepreneurial business for us from scratch and show how we can build these future businesses.”
This created a mentor relationship between the chicken guy, who knew about entrepreneurship, and the veteran IBM executive. [Their relationship] went through stages of change as they went out and started a new business.
[Adkins] learned new skills and habits by actually going out and building experience. Ultimately, that executive created a new multibillion-dollar-a-year business and made the shift from thinking like a bureaucrat to thinking like an entrepreneur.
Once IBM had this one example, other senior executives saw that it would be possible to succeed, and that led to a bigger shift in the entire corporate culture.
Q: If a leader in a long-established institution sees the need for change, how would you recommend that he or she proceed?
Change could be inspired by making new connections with other spiritual communities or other spiritual leaders who have different approaches. Have a contingent from their group come spend time together with you.
Making that connection with other people who are similar enough to you that there is mutual understanding and respect, but different enough that you can see the possibility and the value of doing things differently, could lead to the possibility of change.
Q: The three R’s rely on people beginning in their comfort zone, then moving out of it. What’s the balance there?
If I’m trying to become a good tennis player and I’m watching [tennis champion] Roger Federer playing in Wimbledon on TV, I know I’m never going to be Federer. He’s like a different species.
But if I go to my neighborhood tennis courts and see someone who, like myself, is 46 and a little bit out of shape but who is really doing a good job playing tennis, I might think, “If he can do it, maybe I can do it.” Having a connection with people we can see ourselves in, to some extent, helps make it seem more real and more attainable.
Q: At the end of the book, you apologize for the dramatic title, “Change or Die.” You say that it ought to be “Change and Thrive.” Could you talk a little bit about the notion of thriving and the conditions of change that make thriving possible?
As Americans, whatever our background, there is still this almost Puritan-like influence, the Protestant work ethic, a sense that things have to be painful for us to progress and thrive. But what I’ve found in my research is that in change efforts that work, people really feel the benefits. That is extremely motivating.
Look at the Dean Ornish program for heart patients. People go on this very rigorous diet early on with the idea that they want to quickly get to the point of losing weight. People are feeling better because of these new benefits, and that’s extremely motivating.
Fear can inspire people for a short period of time, but ultimately fear is just too overwhelming for us to keep in the forefront of our minds. What really sustains and motivates change is that feeling of thriving; it’s that feeling of, “Gee, I’m not smoking anymore, and I can breathe freely.”
Q: Your book came out first in 2007. Has anything changed in the landscape of change issues?
The economic and financial collapse that has occurred since my book came out is starting to lead people to live in different ways. For many of us, our expectation of never-ending prosperity and limitless economic opportunity has ended.
We’re starting to reframe a new concept of how we should live our lives and the role of our economic lives in our well-being. People are starting to think that maybe it’s OK to rent rather than to own my home, and maybe there are other things that are more important in life than buying another big house or big car.
I wonder if whether, as a culture, we’ve become open to the possibility of good, fulfilling lives without repeating the same economic cycles of the past three decades.
Q: Is that a reframing of our national story?
Exactly. We had this national story that we told ourselves, as a people of the American dream, of great, limitless prosperity. It will be interesting to see whether, after two or three or four years of living in a different way, we may be starting to think about our lives in a different way.
It will be interesting to see how we change and adapt -- or whether we don’t.
Read more about Alan Deutschman »
FROM THE ALBAN LIBRARY
Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board Leadership by Dan HotchkissGovernance and Ministry has proven to be an indispensable guide for leaders and clergy on how to work together to lead congregations. In this second edition, veteran congregational consultant and minister Dan Hotchkiss updates the book to reflect today's church and synagogue landscape and shares practical insights based on his work with readers of the first edition.
Governance and Ministry highlights the importance of reaching the right governance model for a congregation to fulfill its mission-to achieve both the outward results and the inward quality of life to which it is called. Hotchkiss draws on governance research from business, non-profits, and churches, as well as deep experience in a variety of denominations and congregations to help readers determine the governance model that best fits their needs. The second edition has been streamlined and reorganized to better help readers think through leadership models and the process of change. The book features new material on the implications of congregation size, the process of governance change, policy choices, and the lay-clergy relationship. It also features two appendices with resources often requested by Hotchkiss's consulting clients: a style guide for policy-makers and a unified example of a board policy book.
Written with energy and humor, and offering plenty of practical examples, the second edition of this helpful resource is ideal for anyone involved in church leadership to assist in framing critical questions, creating a vision, and implementing a plan.
Learn more and order the book »
Alban Weekly - "Church-nonprofit partnership proves a godsend for struggling outreach ministry" Alban at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina 27701, United States for Monday 5 February 2018
Faith & Leadership
MISSIONS & EVANGELISM, CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP, PASTORAL LEADERSHIP, CONGREGATIONS
Caleb Tabor: Church-nonprofit partnership proves a godsend for struggling outreach ministry
Church-nonprofit partnership proves a godsend for struggling outreach ministry
INVOLVING THE COMMUNITY HELPED SAVE AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM
Almost every church person I know has been overextended at one time or another, taking on far more than they can handle. We used to call it "having too much on your plate." But just as individuals can overextend themselves, so too can congregations. My own church, St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church in Oxford, North Carolina, is a perfect example.
Historically a black Episcopal church, St. Cyprian's is now a solidly multicultural congregation composed primarily of African-American and Hispanic/Latino members. Our town, Oxford, has great needs but also a group of people who are passionate about their community's well-being. If they overextend themselves at times, whether as individuals or entire churches, it's because they believe that Oxford's future, in this generation and the next, hinges on their ability to do good right now.
For several years, St. Cyprian's has offered a free after-school literacy program for children from low-income homes throughout the area whose reading skills are at least two years below grade level. Although very effective and much loved, the literacy program was struggling when I arrived as vicar about two years ago. Despite its popularity, the project was overextending the congregation's resources and coasting on financial fumes. Without a significant infusion of funds, it would have to close.
But the program's failure would cause much more harm than just embarrassment for St. Cyprian's (and its young new priest with something to prove). It would cause real damage in the community by eliminating a much-needed service that was helping at-risk children.
A priest and his congregation reached out to the community to help save their popular after-school literacy program.
Almost every church person I know has been overextended at one time or another, taking on far more than they can handle. We used to call it “having too much on your plate.” But just as individuals can overextend themselves, so too can congregations. My own church, St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in Oxford, North Carolina, is a perfect example.
Historically a black Episcopal church, St. Cyprian’s is now a solidly multicultural congregation composed primarily of African-American and Hispanic/Latino members. Our town, Oxford, has great needs but also a group of people who are passionate about their community’s well-being. If they overextend themselves at times, whether as individuals or entire churches, it’s because they believe that Oxford’s future, in this generation and the next, hinges on their ability to do good right now.
For several years, St. Cyprian’s has offered a free after-school literacy program for children from low-income homes throughout the area whose reading skills are at least two years below grade level. Although very effective and much loved, the literacy program was struggling when I arrived as vicar about two years ago. Despite its popularity, the project was overextending the congregation’s resources and coasting on financial fumes. Without a significant infusion of funds, it would have to close.
But the program’s failure would cause much more harm than just embarrassment for St. Cyprian’s (and its young new priest with something to prove). It would cause real damage in the community by eliminating a much-needed service that was helping at-risk children.
Determined to save the program, we scoured the church budget for available funds but didn’t find much there to help. We brainstormed various fundraising proposals and other revenue ideas but were stymied there as well. We could fry every catfish in North Carolina for a fundraiser and still not raise enough to cover the program’s expenses. And charging a fee large enough to cover our costs would exclude the population of children we wanted to serve. Surely even wise King Solomon would have been stumped; we certainly were.
Exhausted, we turned to the church’s proven go-to strategy for problem solving: we formed an advisory committee. To ensure a wide range of input, the church decided to include community members on the committee. One parishioner suggested asking the mayor whether she or anyone she knew might be interested in serving.
Understandably, some members were hesitant to reach out to people and organizations beyond St. Cyprian’s. We didn’t want potential partners to think they were being asked to endorse more than just the church’s literacy program. And some members had the same fear that often comes with reaching out -- the fear of rejection (which in our case would have been even more humiliating when soon followed by our very public failure). With all of that churning in my stomach, I gave the mayor a call.
I had met her shortly after I started at St. Cyprian’s in 2015, when I was making my rounds in the community. Like everyone else I met, she welcomed me and told me to let her know what she could do to help as I settled in. Although I appreciated the sentiment, I dismissed her offer as one of the ritual niceties that are still part of daily life in small Southern towns. Being a good Southerner myself, I was later surprised to find myself taking her up on her offer.
To my amazement, the mayor was excited that she might be of some help. Although she politely declined the invitation to sit on the program’s board, she offered another -- and better -- idea. She suggested that the church form a partnership with the local office of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central North Carolina, and she connected me with the director.
Nobody at St. Cyprian’s liked the idea of giving up our autonomy in the program, but we were out of options. It was this or nothing, so off I went to talk with the club director. When I met with him, he was impressed with our program and its effectiveness and immediately agreed to join with us to keep it going. Now in its second year, the partnership has been a godsend. The literacy program isn’t just viable now; it is thriving, having expanded to serve twice as many children as before.
St. Cyprian’s desire to serve the community was laudable. But overextending ourselves in the process was a flawed strategy for sustaining God’s work. What we discovered was that the work we wanted to do in the community could be much more effective when done with the community and not just for it.
At St. Cyprian’s, we were trapped in the belief that we weren’t really leading unless we did our good works solely on our own. As a result, our church became overextended spiritually and financially. We risked losing the joy of service and becoming just another frustrated, disconnected voice crying out for change while sacrificing effectiveness for autonomy.
As St. Teresa of Avila and others taught, we are to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. But even as we act as the Savior’s hands and feet, we must remember that we are not the Savior. We are called to be Christlike, not to take Christ’s place in the divine order of things. Trying to be the Savior overextended St. Cyprian’s and almost killed a life-changing program.
If we act as though the church is an island unto itself, we diminish both ourselves and others. If we believe in the illusion of total self-sufficiency and neglect opportunities to create meaningful partnerships, we will never truly engage with the community. At St. Cyprian’s, we’ve learned that extending Christ’s hands to the world doesn’t mean overextending ourselves. Sometimes it means reaching out and asking how the community can help us serve.
Read more from Caleb Tabor »
A NEW OPPORTUNITY FROM LILLY ENDOWMENT INC.
Lilly Endowment is pleased to announce its Thriving in Ministry Initiative 2018, a competitive grant program open to any charitable organization committed to the support of pastoral leaders in congregations and located in the United States.
Charitable organizations are invited to submit proposals for up to $1 million that may be used for up to a five-year period to develop new or strengthen existing programs that help pastors build relationships with other clergy who can serve as role models and exemplars and guide them through key leadership challenges at critical moments in their ministerial careers.
While the Endowment is interested in supporting a variety of approaches, it is especially interested in supporting efforts that: 1) attend to key professional transitions in a pastor's career and/or 2) focus on challenges posed by particular ministry contexts and settings.
Request for Proposals
Lilly Endowment is pleased to announce Thriving in Ministry Initiative 2018. Through this endeavor, the Endowment seeks to support charitable organizations (especially organizations committed to supporting pastoral leaders in congregations) located in the United States in developing new or strengthening existing programs that help pastors build relationships with experienced clergy who can serve as role models and exemplars and guide them through key leadership challenges at critical moments in their ministerial careers. The primary aim is to help pastors thrive in congregational leadership and thus enhance the vitality of the congregations they serve.
Charitable organizations may submit proposals for up to $1 million that may be used for up to a five-year period to plan and implement programs. While the Endowment is interested in supporting a variety of approaches, it is especially interested in supporting efforts that: 1) attend to key professional transitions in a pastor’s career and/or 2) focus on challenges posed by particular ministry contexts and settings.
In this open and competitive grants initiative, the Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 30 grants to charitable organizations that submit exceptionally promising proposals that advance the aim of the initiative and demonstrate the capacity of the organization to design, implement and sustain a high-quality program.
Instructions
Please complete and submit an Interest Form to indicate the organization’s intent to submit a proposal. Interest Forms must be postmarked by April 6, 2018.
The links below provide complete instructions for preparing and submitting grant applications.
Proposals must be postmarked by June 1, 2018.
Links to Documents
The links below provide complete instructions for preparing and submitting grant applications.
Interest Form
This form indicates the organization’s intent to submit a proposal and names a key contact involved in this effort. Its primary purpose is to assist the Endowment in gauging interest in this initiative and in preparing for the review of completed proposals. Interest Forms are due by April 6, 2018 (postmarked).
Request for Proposals
This document provides guidelines for submitting full proposals to develop programs for this initiative. Proposals are due June 1, 2018 (postmarked).
Guide to Budget Preparation
This document is intended to assist organizations in preparing program budgets. Program budgets include two parts: 1) a detailed line-item budget and 2) a budget narrative that explains how you have calculated specific line items.
Lilly Endowment Forms
This document provides required forms that must be completed and submitted with grant applications. These forms include: 1) Proposal Summary Information Form and 2) Exempt Status and Foundation Information Status Form.
Deadlines
Interest Forms Postmarked by April 6, 2018
Proposals Postmarked by June 1, 2018
Questions
If questions arise as you develop the proposal, please email: thrivinginministry@lei.org.
Please send your completed proposal to:
Jessicah Krey Duckworth
Program Director, Religion
Lilly Endowment Inc.
2801 North Meridian Street
Post Office Box 88068
Indianapolis, Indiana 46208-0068, United States
Read more about this initiative and find the request for proposals »
IDEAS THAT IMPACT: SUSTAINABLE OUTREACH
Faith & Leadership
MISSIONS & EVANGELISM, LAITY, ROLE IN CHURCH
Joy Skjegstad: Developing lay leaders for community ministry
Connecting with people and institutions outside the walls of the church isn't a job for professional staff alone, says the author of "7 Creative Models for Community Ministry."
Congregations do amazing things in their communities. From tutoring programs and legal clinics to health care and food drives, I’ve seen the way churches can help meet community needs.
The stakes are high. Our communities -- urban, rural and suburban -- are facing tough issues. Churches can help. But they have to do it in ways that are careful, effective and sustainable.
Strong lay leadership is critical for those ministries. Rather than launching and running them with paid staff alone, churches can empower lay leaders to add the gifts, perspectives and hours of labor that are needed to truly serve the community well. Strong lay leadership can also keep ministry sustainable and growing even when the professional staff changes.
I’ve spent many years helping churches develop and launch new ministries, and I can attest to the importance of strong lay leaders. One church I served was located a few blocks from an elementary school that was the lowest-performing school in the state. Out of conversations within the church and with people at the school, a reading skills tutoring program was born.
Volunteers from our church went into the school each week to work one-on-one with students. The result was that, on average, students were improving their reading scores by two grade levels each year they were in the program.
Lay leaders played critical roles in designing the program, recruiting and training the volunteers, working with the school to set it up, promoting the program in the church and the community, and evaluating progress. When I left my job at the church several years later, the program continued without a hitch, largely because of the passion, skills and investment of lay leaders.
What could your congregation do to develop lay leaders in community ministry? Here are a few thoughts.
Create a culture of service. In my experience, the churches that are most effective at community ministry have made service a way of life. Great ideas often spring up in a climate where generosity is emphasized and there is regular teaching on our call to service as Christians.
In addition to preaching and teaching, many ministries of your church can incorporate the call to serve -- youth service projects, small-group studies, an advocacy focus for women’s ministry, to name just a few. Make service a theme you always come back to.
Engage leaders in the community. Community ministry leaders are most effective when they understand the issues, assets and struggles of the people who live in the neighborhood. By going out into the community to listen, your leaders will be more informed and possibly more motivated to respond to the needs and opportunities that they see.
Form a small group to start a “listening process” in your community. Group members can conduct short interviews with institutional representatives such as school personnel, law enforcement officials, and business and nonprofit leaders, as well as informal leaders who may not have titles but who know a great deal.
Interviews should focus on three short questions: What are the top concerns in this community? Who is addressing them? How can our church help?
Invite leaders to develop ideas. This can be difficult for staff-driven organizations, but it’s important to invite laypeople to come up with new ministry ideas to respond to the needs and opportunities in the community. Staff may be used to asking for input late in the process, but they should understand that lay leaders are often much more engaged when brought to the table early on and, as a result, are more willing to put in the hard work to launch a ministry. They are also much more likely to be “evangelists” for the ministry in the congregation, drawing in other laypeople as volunteers.
The role of staff in this situation is to help lay leaders shape their ideas to fit the church’s mission, vision and values and then to develop a plan for moving forward.
Create opportunities. If you really want to develop leaders, give them something to lead! Lay leader involvement ought to be much more than rubber-stamping staff efforts. Empowered lay leaders strengthen ministry by bringing their many gifts and perspectives to it.
Laypeople can serve in many roles, including leading planning processes; serving as liaisons to community organizations; planning events; speaking; writing; posting on social media; working on a website; recruiting and leading teams of volunteers; handling logistics like setup, tear-down and transportation; leading a prayer effort; and raising money.
Set clear roles and goals. Choose a few straightforward goals to pursue each year. Be focused and be strategic; a goal like “Involve 50 percent of all church members in volunteering” might not be realistic, but “Recruit 50 volunteers for three pilot projects” or “Teach about service and justice through small-groups ministry” might be both motivating and attainable.
Developing job descriptions for lay leaders is another essential step. These descriptions should specify the leaders’ volunteer duties, when they are expected to serve, where, and how often. Volunteers are more likely to come through for you when they know what’s expected.
Read more from Joy Skjegstad »
Faith & Leadership
MANAGEMENT, MISSIONS & EVANGELISM
How to sustain good work by: Mary Alice Casey, Journalist
How to sustain good work
The founder and executive director of Good Works Inc. shares what he has learned in the past 30 years about building and sustaining a community of hope.
Keith Wasserman started Good Works Inc. in 1981 when he and his wife welcomed the first guest of their ministry into their home in Athens, Ohio. Here Wasserman shares what he has learned over the past three decades about creating and sustaining an institution.
Know your community. I counseled a pastor recently who wanted to start something in their building and bring people to the building. I suggested he tell his people to get out and spend a whole year volunteering in the community. Get them out and see what the gaps are, where the needs aren’t being met, and see some of the innovation that’s already going on. Have those people get together and talk about what they’re learning and discovering. And then, in a year, ask the question, “What do we need to do that’s uniquely formed by us, that would be an expression of who we are in the community?” Don’t rush into anything.
Start small and build over time. Get small groups of people to start incrementally and build up rather than start monumentally and have to lay off people.
Get the right people. Our selection process is really careful. If someone wants to come and have a job here, they have to buy into the greater community, to the community values. We say, “Come for a week and hang out with us. And if you like us and we like you, then we’ll maybe set up a more formal interview.” But at first it’s very informal. It’s really about the people and the chemistry.
It’s important that every person in the organization understands the importance of character over skill. You could have great skills, but it won’t work if you’re not working on your character. You have to have a teachable heart. You have to be able to listen and take criticism from others. You have to be a team player in giving affirmation to others.
Don’t be grant-driven. Be relationship-driven. We have a lot of long-term supporters who believe in us and our mission and our values and have been financially committed. We don’t use a lot of techniques to raise money. We just build relationships and invite people to participate. Cultivating a solid financial base is really important.
Stay out of debt. For the most part, you can do things without going into debt. We’ve structured our projects to be volunteer-driven. There are a lot of people out there who genuinely want to do something for their neighbor. So people come and do things for the organization.
We’ve never bought toilet paper, paper towels or cleaning supplies. We’ve organized the ministry to be dependent on people who would give us those things.
Take time with decision making. We don’t try to make quick moves around here. The ship has gotten a little bit bigger, so we try to steer it more carefully.
Read more about Good Works Inc. »
FROM THE ALBAN LIBRARY
Leading Congregations and Nonprofits in a Connected World: Platforms, People and Purposeby Hayim Herring and Terri Martinson Elton Leading Congregations and Nonprofits in a Connected World shares emerging practices for leading and organizing congregations and nonprofits in our increasingly networked lives.
Drawing on studies of congregations across denominations, and nonprofits with historic ties to faith communities, Hayim Herring and Terri Elton share practical, research-based guidance for how these organizations can more deeply engage with their communities and advance their impact in a socially connected world.
Learn more and order the book »
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Alban at Duke Divinity School
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