I.
INTRODUCTION
A.
Transitions
This has
been an extraordinary year of transition.
A lot of
things are shifting.
For one
thing, we are in the midst of a lot of clergy turnover.
All Saints,
Grace in the Desert, Christ Church, St. John’s, St. Mark’s,
St. Patrick’s, Epiphany, and St. Paul’s Virginia City
have all been
in transition this year.
Transitions cost
time and money,
and they elevate anxiety.
Congregations
cannot move forward
while they are preoccupied with choosing
their clergy.
But All
Saints, Grace, and St. Mark’s have now extended calls
We hope to have
good clergy leaders in place
at all of these congregations very soon.
B.
Governance
On the
church governance front,
we have streamlined our leadership structure
to serve
parishes better.
Our unified
board Standing Committee
has vastly improved diocesan leadership.
They meet
more, communicate more,
gather the information they need,
and make timely decisions.
We always
had good people on the Standing Committee,
but the tangled web of our organization
kept them
from doing their job.
The Standing
Committee has appointed
working and advisory committees to deal with
finance, investments, and property.
They have
provided guidance on real estate issues,
and helped us balance our budget,
redesign our chart of accounts to reflect what we actually
do,
and invest our savings in more profitable ways.
C.
Relationships
Last year I
emphasized our relationships around the diocese.
We are not fighting
but that’s because we aren’t speaking.
We have
retreated to our neutral corners after
old
– perhaps even forgotten – battles.
I said then,
and I say now, there is no a silver bullet for relationships
and it isn’t going to change over
night.
But this
year our priests and deacons
have been communicating more.
Women from
around the diocese gathered in Tonopah
to discuss how parish ECW’s might support each other.
Yesterday,
they organized themselves into a Diocesan ECW.
Our conventions
seem to be becoming more relational.
It isn’t the
2nd Coming
–
but
some people are beginning to talk to each other.
Changing the
tone of out diocesan relationships
can make a difference for parish relationships as well.
We have
several congregations in Level 4 Conflict
–
that’s
the fight/flight kind of conflict
where somebody has to leave.
In most
cases where members of a congregation are seriously
at odds with each other,
the congregation
is at odds with the diocese
or their neighbors in the diocese.
I don’t know
which comes first.
It’s probably
a chicken and egg thing.
But our internal
and external relationships go hand in hand.
If we form a
larger network
of personal relationships in the diocese,
that will help parishes contain their conflict at healthier
levels.
D. Social Ministries
Relationships
among churches and church members is crucial.
But they are
not the only relationships essential to our health.
Being connected
to people outside the church walls
is just as important.
All over the
diocese, I see that churches
connected to their communities flourish;
while disconnected
churches wither.
This year we
have made encouraging moves on that front.
In Las
Vegas, we have formed Nevadans for the Common Good,
an interfaith community organizing effort
to combat child sex trafficking,
improve education,
speak out for immigrants, and improve
life
for the vulnerable elderly.
Our Latino
congregations led the way.
Then 7 of
the 9 congregations in this Valley
turned out in force for the founding Convention.
ACTIONN is a
parallel project in Northern Nevada,
focusing on jobs and education.
Trinity and
St. Paul’s, Sparks led the way by joining ACTIONN, and
every Episcopal Church in the Reno-Sparks-Carson area
was present to support ACTIONN’s founding convention.
E.
Church
Growth
In terms of Church
growth, we are jump-starting evangelism
after a no-growth stagnation that persisted
for at least 20 years despite Nevada’s remarkable
population explosion during that time.
To avoid
growth during that boom too some work.
Three years
ago we began to address this stagnation in two ways.
First, we
invested in Latino ministries.
Second, we
began a small, underfunded evangelism program
–
just
a sign here and an ad there.
Result: Average
Sunday Attendance for the diocese
in 2010 rose by 12% over 2009.
Average
Sunday Attendance in 2011 went up over 2010
by an additional 22%.
The most
dramatic growth
was in Latino congregations;
but congregations that did not have Latino ministries,
like Grace in the Desert and Holy
Trinity,
also showed
solid growth.
Church
growth in Nevada is naturally disconcerting.
So, when I
released these numbers,
people tried to help me find where they were wrong.
I don’t
blame them a bit.
People of my
generation remember Paul Simon’s lyric
“I can’t get used to something so
right.”
And folks a
little younger recall the immortal words of Garbage,
“I’m only happy when it reains.
Besides
their skepticism was rooted in facts.
When you
consider
that nationally mainline denominations are shrinking,
that our congregations with Level 4 Conflicts were losing
people,
that some of our larger churches were in transition
and attendance always goes down during
a transition,
that in 2010 Nevada’s population
went down for the first time since
1920
and
rebounded by only half a percent in 2011,
add that all up and statistics showing growth rates
of 12 and 22% sound wrong.
Well, they
were wrong.
We failed to
include the numbers
from our 2nd largest Latino congregation
and from one of our smaller Latino congregations.
The actual
growth was even larger than reported.
F.
Ministry
Development
The vitality
of our diocese depends on calling, training, licensing,
and ordaining people for ministry in the church.
Since we
lost the Regional Vicars about 7 years ago,
that essential part of our life has
been a challenge.
It still is
– but we are beginning to regroup.
This year the
COOL & MDC revised and clarified the training criteria
for most licensed lay ministries.
They will
establish will get to deacons and priests next year.
This year,
the MDC provided training for Basic Discipleship presenters
and facilitators so that we can offer
the foundation course
for lay ministries anywhere in the
diocese.
The MDC also
provided training
for Gifts Discernment Workshop leaders.
Gifts
Discernment is the second step in preparing for ministry,
and it is now available in most of the
diocese.
The COOL has
begun clarifying and simplifying,
our discernment process for ordained
ministries.
That can’t
be done all at once.
But this
year we began the work.
II.
THE
COMING YEAR
As we
consider what we might accomplish together next year,
let me reiterate, it’s all about the
relationships.
We can set
all sorts of marvelous goals.
But whether
they amount to a hill of beans
depends 100% on our relationships.
This coming
year I plan to introduce our clergy
to new processes for building relationships.
We can build
relationships and learn conflict management skills
at our Small Church Workshop this November.
I hope we
will find new ways to connect with each other
throughout the diocese.
Only if we
make those connections, can we generate
the synergy it will take to overcome
our historic areas of weakness.
A.
Church
Growth & Stewardship
Our diocese
has historically been anemic on two counts
–
evangelism
and stewardship.
As a
missionary diocese living off the national church dole,
we got into a habit of passivity.
So we were
weak on evangelism and stewardship.
We propose
to double our investment in evangelism next year.
We have
segregated the rental income
from the old St. Stephen’s property for a new church plant.
The Standing
Committee has authorized one grant and made several
accommodations on parish assessments
strategically designed to invest in
church growth
instead of church maintenance.
Many businesses
came out of the Great Depression stronger
than they were before.
Without
exception, they followed this simple strategy:
“Cut maintenance
costs and invest in growth.”
That’s what
we have done – cutting our rent in half,
cutting travel costs, reducing
communications overhead,
while investing
in growth.
When the
churches in transition have clergy leadership in place,
they can resume growth.
If the Churches
in Level 4 Conflict learn to work together,
they can grow again.
Our host
congregation is a prime example.
Grace was stagnant
for years because they were mired in conflict.
Then they
stopped fighting and got on with the mission.
Result: For
the past five years,
they have been one of our fastest growing congregations.
Being
visible signs of the gospel in our communities
is part & parcel of evangelism.
Where I have
served before, Churches were leaders
in Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding
Together,
and MLK Day service projects.
Last MLK
Day, I volunteered at a community center.
There were identified
groups of volunteers
from banks, Starbucks, and fraternities
-- but no churches.
When other
volunteers learned I was from a church,
they said “Where is your church.
If a church actually serves
the community,
I’d want to be part of it.”
But I was
the only Episcopalian in sight and I don’t have a congregation.
So that
sparked the BBHAG.
My goal for
next MLK Day is to have 300 Episcopalians
at work sites around the state
wearing our T-shirts and hats.
No
preaching: just admit you are an Episcopalian,
and serve your community.
That will
grow our congregations.
I will need
coordinators in each of our parishes
to organize that project.
If we choose
to grow next year, we can do it
–
not
just for the sake of our institutional vitality
–
but
because there are people all over Nevada
who need
some gospel.
If we extend
our church growth rate for a 4th consecutive year,
we can say we’ve turned that one
around.
Stewardship
is almost as important as evangelism,
not just because it takes money to
sustain mission,
but because failing to instill
stewardship
spiritually infantilizes our people.
This year our
Diocese joined The Episcopal Network for Stewardship
and made their resources available to all of our parishes.
A few parishes
have begun solid stewardship programs
in the past four years -- though most have not.
Next year we
will begin a small tentative stewardship program,
just as we began evangelism 3 years
ago.
If we steadily
improve our evangelism and stewardship,
we can reduce the parish assessments
and still fund a diocese.
I do not
have the authority to make this promise.
But I can
and will state this goal.
I want to
reduce the percentage of the parish assessment
by at least 1% each year for the next 5
years.
We can
adjust the formula for the assessment all we want.
But the real
burden is the 25% rate.
Parishes
cannot flourish with that lodestone around their necks.
Shifting the
burden from one parish to another is not the answer.
Instead of
just shifting the load, we need to lift the load.
My goal is to
reduce the assessment to 20%
within 5 years regardless of what happens in the national
church.
National
restructuring may lower the assessment on dioceses.
If and when
that happens,
we may be able to reduce the assessment faster and more.
But cutting
the 1st 5% is up to us.
It takes two
things: evangelism and stewardship.
B.
Communications
One obstacle
to our relationships is weak communications.
In recent
years, we have tried experiments,
with some hits and some misses.
But we have
never developed a comprehensive communications plan.
The
communications questionnaires you have received
are part of that planning.
In the
coming year, we will implement
a new communications package.
C. Strategic Planning
Finally, we need a vision of and a plan for
our life together.
To that end,
I have asked Jim Koehn
to form a Strategic Planning Task Force
to help the Diocese draw its
own big picture.
Tools like
asset mapping, Canon Chuck McCray’s 4T
Days program,
and studies of the 5 Marks of Mission,
are all part of finding our
direction.
But there
cannot be a strong diocesan vision or plan
unless it percolates up from the plans
and aspirations
of congregations.
The framework
of any diocesan plan is to support
parishes in their mission strategies.
We cannot
have a plan or vision for the diocese
unless parishes first discern their own
missions.
The diocese
cannot tell a parish what its mission is.
Parishes
must find their own missions, make their own plans,
so we can weave those ideas into a
whole.
When I ask
some of our parishes about their mission,
they say that it is just survival.
But what is
the point of surviving?
Remember Miracle
Max in the Princess Bride
shouting to the comatose Wesley,
“Hey you in there, what you got to live for?”
Each of our
congregations needs an answer to that question.
I hope the
Task Force will develop a strategic plan for the diocese,
but more importantly I hope
their work will prompt
parishes to do their own planning,
form their own visions, figure
out
“what they got to live for.”
I hope we
will not rush to an answer.
I hope this
will be a process that lasts several years
so
it can keep dreaming, keep thinking,
and keep working out how to be the Body
of Christ together.