Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism

Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism
Minutes of the Meeting
June 17-19, 1998
Pasadena, CA

The meeting of the Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism convened with lunch at 12:15 p.m. on Wednesday, June 17, 1998.

Members present: Dr. Scott E. Evenbeck, the Rev. John A. M. Guernsey, Ms. Gretchen Jong, the Very Rev. James B. Lemler, the Very Rev. Stephen McWhorter, Mr. Albert T. Mollegen, Jr., Mr. Peter Ng, Ms. Cynthia H. Schwab, the Rev. Canon David L. Seger, Mr. Howard M. Tischler, Dr. Shirleen S. Wait, the Rev. LeeAnne Watkins.

Members absent: The Rt. Rev. James M. Coleman, the Rt. Rev. Michael W. Creighton, the Rev. Julia K. Easley, Mr. Francisco Navarro.

Others present: the Rev. Charles Fulton of the Episcopal Church Building Fund and consultant to the Church Center Staff in Congregational Development, Mr. Douglas LeBlanc of The United Voice, and Ms. Nancy Seger.

Following lunch, the Commission toured Mision de Pueblo Nuevo, a creative mission of the Diocese of Los Angeles. The Rev. Philip Lance explained the dynamic work of Pueblo Nuevo, both in evangelism and in social action among the poor.

The Commission then visited the Cathedral Center, where the Rev. Jon Bruno, Provost of the Cathedral, gave a tour of the facility and an explanation of the many ministries which are carried out there. The Commission also met with the Rev. Carmen Guerrera, Canon Missioner of the Diocese, who described the multi-cultural mission of the Diocese.

Following dinner, the Commission reflected on the afternoon visits, particularly using the four categories of our proposed 20/20 Vision:

[Newsprint text]

creative strategies for evangelism

spiritual hunger of the unchurched
meet human needs and say why

"primitive Christian" feeling (with dispossessed)
cold calls on janitors in 2 zip codes

awareness of call to acknowledge and proclaim the Gospel explicitly and concisely
lots of contact with neighborhood
rootedness and presence in community
knowing how to share one's faith
friends telling friends
deacons as evangelists
"nesting" congregations (ethnic congregations within a parish)
school as evangelism

recruiting and equipping innovative leaders

entrepreneurial leadership
leaders who know what they are called to do
purposeful clarity
institutional resistance
isolation (who nurtures leaders?)
indigenous leadership
lay preaching
willingness to give one's life for the cause
Cursillo effective in developing lay leaders
competent, inspired clergy leadership to bring out the lay leadership
leadership training

strengthening congregational life

totality of human life served
"pre-congregation" coming together for wholeness
be the church, not play church
school/educational foundation for congregation
power of multi-cultural ministry

prayer and spiritual development

Cursillo in Spanish and other languages
depth of commitment: gangs vs. casual Christians
Cursillo for whole family, adults, youth and children at the same time
lay led spiritual groups
simple and direct prayer with basics
power of the Scriptures in the language of the people

other
development of financial resources (entrepreneurial and governmental)
what makes the institution want to change? (Standing Commission's role)
internet e-mail discussion group on inner city ministry
evangelists and social activists meeting
bold vision and gutsy decisions

The Commission adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 18, 1998

The Commission reconvened at 8:40 a.m. All the Commission members present on Wednesday were in attendance. Others present: Charles Fulton, Doug LeBlanc, Nancy Seger.

Jim Lemler read a passage from The Missional Church, edited by Darrell Guder, and opened in prayer.

David Seeger emphasized the importance of training laity in evangelism. John Guernsey agreed, but said that the congregation will not be more evangelistic than the clergy themselves. Jim Lemler said that it also depends on a core of trained leaders. Ted Mollegen said that the designated leader is the keeper of the vision who must both talk about it and do it. Jim said that someone has remarked that most clergy are functionally atheists; that is, they speak of God but act as if God does not exist.

Ted said that he hopes we will do more than write a report for the Blue Book; he hopes we will develop a strategic plan and bring others, including other Standing Commissions, on board with it. LeeAnne Watkins agreed and said she was eager for us to devote time to this. Ted said that the 20/20 Vision contains a number of elements for a strategic plan for evangelism, but it does not address other aspects of domestic mission.

The Rev. Eddie Gibbs arrived at 9:00 a.m. to speak to the Commission.

He shared his unchurched background and his ministry as an Anglican priest, missionary to South America, professor at Fuller Seminary and assistant at All Saints', Beverly Hills.

He said he discovered that he was training people for ministry in the 1980's, while society had shifted to a post-modern culture.

He said that mission is "all that God wants to accomplish through Christ and his church in the world today." Mission is the total task of the church.

God is also at work outside the church; we must always assume that God got there before we did. Evangelization is at the heart of the task, but it is not all the task. Worship, giving God his worth in both his transcendence and immanence, is at the very center; evangelization must flow from worship.

He said that modernity is the apex of the enlightenment, characterized by a great confidence in people's ability to fix things. The evangelical and liberal traditions were both subverted by modernity's rationalism.

The shift to post-modernity, which came first through the English departments of secular universities, results in the view that there is great unpredictability in the universe and we cannot fix things. There is no great story. Truth is elusive or non-existent. It is associated with great pessimism.

Generation Xers are deeply cynical about institutions and very eclectic in spirituality. You live for sound-bite experiences. We saw the return of a great many baby-boomers to the church in the 1980s; it peaked in 1992. But they did not return to the tradition of their youth. They went to independent and charismatic churches, especially larger ones. These mega-churches have more in common with each other than they do with smaller churches of their own denomination. Then, in 1992, boomers began to d rift away from these churches because they viewed religion as an accessory to their life. Some of them are now drifting into liturgical churches because they are tired of celebrity religion and glad to find a place where the table is central, not the pulpit, and they are attracted to mysticism and contemplative prayer, such as Taize. If baby boomers do not stay in the church, they tend to be drawn to the New Age. Generation X is more attracted to paganism. Willow Creek is one megachurch which is adapting to reaching out to Generation X.

He spoke to what would be required for the Episcopal Church to double by2010. He said that it is no longer top down. That does not work with baby boomers and even less with Generation Xers. It is now bottom up, not top down. This is an enormous change for diocesan structures, many of which need to be dismantled. We need to look for local ministries that are effective and build up from there. Flattening of hierarchies must take place for many reasons. We must be a subversive commission. We must move with the movers. Most of the people we must work with are those whom many in our church have never heard of. What are the key areas we should be concerned with? We must talk with people in the know, people who actually make things happen on the ground level. Find out, for example, who are actually making things happen with Generation X, convene them and find out what they are doing.

Who is doing effective evangelism today? Not necessarily diocesan committees on evangelism. The Decade of Evangelism has been a disaster because in the West it has been a decade of debate on evangelism. Top down doesn't work; there has to be ownership at the grass roots.

Loren Mead was one of the first to address this in The Once and Future Church. We've got to go back to a pre-Constantinian model, which has more in common with the church today than with any of the intervening centuries. Then, leadership was apostolic. We've turned leaders into managers with disastrous results. Bishops should be spending 40% of their time on the growing edge of the church, not in firefighting. How much of our structure is really necessary?

Seminary education is too "cookie-cutter" for today's world. We need more regional ministries with teams of professionals in their own right; we must get away from amateurism. We need those with a long-term calling to youth ministries. We need church planters desperately, especially those who can reach the next generation. We are in a mission situation in North America; every seminarian needs cross-cultural, missiological training. He said that he learned how to exegete Scripture, but he never learned how to exegete the culture. We need to train fishers of people, not curators of aquariums.

[The evangelist and author Rev.] Lyle Schaller is quite gloomy; he questions whether 100,000 out of 350,000 American churches will survive the next 15 years.

The day of residential long-term seminary training is over. We have "3M" students: they are married, they have a mortgage and they have a ministry. We can't take them out of those in order to train them. Seminary costs are rising faster than health care costs. One should prepare for ministry by being in ministry. We need to bring the seminary to the student, not the student to the seminary. The second-career phenomenon brings great maturity and worldly wisdom into ministry, but some have not succeeded in the world and have retreated into ministry as a safe place.

Older seminarians will alienate us from Generation X and often means the wrong people are being trained; the overall standard is declining. The training should be longer; 80% of one's training is after ordination.

In the future, much training will be web-based, which is a threat to the older generations, but not to this one. We used to say you had to have a big library. Seminary education will be interactive, but will not be a dumbing down; it provides more access to the professor, not less. More churches will train their own leaders; leadership will be home-grown. Students will come together for intensives for one or two weeks for 8 hours a day after the reading and study has been done. The classroom should not be where they get the information; the classroom is the conference room. Lectures are printed and read in advance.

We should be training far more people, not fewer; we should be training 500-1,000 people, not all of whom should be ordained; we need highly trained lay leaders. Learning is life-long. Continuing education is desperately needed for the clergy; many are floundering because the world has changed. There should be a mentoring element in all training; one should both have a mentor and be a mentor, sharing with others what one is learning. Everyone also needs a spiritual adviser; the moral failure among clergy is one of the highest of all professions. Intervention strategies are usually too late.

LeeAnne shared an issue raised at the under-35 clergy conference: that many young clergy spend little of their time with people their own age and are out of touch with the issues of their own generation.

Gibbs said that most people either believe evangelism is merely inviting people to church, or else they believe it is everything the church does; but if evangelism is everything, then it is nothing. We've turned the Good Shepherd into Little Bo Peep: if we leave them alone they will come home.

Friendship strategies (bring a friend to church) won't work with the next generation. We have to have an infiltration strategy. 80% of our efforts must take place outside the church site, in the community.

We must train the people of God for ministry, not just the priest. Worship is crucial because we send out worshipers; worshipers become witnesses (see the Book of Psalms). Generation X is looking for this: for authenticity, for faith that makes a difference, for faith that raises questions. Take the worship out of the sanctuary. The small group movement is on hard times because it is turned in on itself: it has become therapeutic. Americans have been described as the loneliest people on earth: hungry for, yet frightened of, community.

The missional church will be lean on programs.

We need people who do not have to be exhorted to evangelize. They need role models. "Don't tell me, show me." We need priests who are comfortable in the world, demonstrating evangelism. We need to resource people to be effective witnesses wherever they are, demonstrating what it means to live the Christian life wherever they are. Priests need to get out of their offices and meet laity on their turf. For example, get the Christian attorneys together to challenge and support each other in their witness in their profession.

We must contextualize our faith. We have too often sacramentalized people, but not evangelized them. People with a hunger for God and credibility must model it to those they lead.

Priests should never have been told not to make friends in the congregation. The short tenure of parish clergy contributes to dysfunctionality.

There is no quick fix. We need a recall of clergy trained 10 years ago who haven't been trained since.

The lively, inner city evangelical church where he came to Christ closed its doors five years ago; the area it served is now largely Muslim. We must change or perish.

You learn evangelism by doing it. He teaches two courses at Fuller: personal evangelism and evangelism in the local church. He gets students to tell their stories to each other without warning. They tell others' stories, as well, because an evangelist must be a good listener. On a 3 x 5 card, they describe someone they know well who is not a Christian. They give the card to another who will play that role. He does not allow students to use any theological jargon or technical language. We've got to learn the language of the street; his students learn paraphrases of each theological term for baby boomers and Generation Xers.

Evangelism in the local church must not be an isolated department, but a dimension of all ministry. Forming a committee often leads others to think they are off the hook. We must be good news people; you can't be evangelistic from a dysfunctional church.

90% of Episcopal priests are not gifted evangelistically. A gifted evangelist must be able to present the Gospel clearly and winsomely, with an ability to entertain and not embarrass. If the priest is not so gifted, then the priest must pray with the Vestry about who is to be the evangelistic leader of our team. The evangelism leader must be held up, recognized and commissioned in the congregation.

Training for ministry must permeate the whole church; train the trainers. The clergy have an insecure profession; they struggle for control. We should not speak of delegation but empowerment. You do not delegate to someone what is theirs by right. We empower, mentor, and train leaders. Most congregations are dominated by controllers, the walking wounded who consume 80% of the ministry. We have a wrong concept of priesthood. We need holy priests and godly people.

How do you spot a leader? Look and see if anyone is following. If no one is following, you are merely taking a walk. We moved from the Builders generation to the Boomer generation. We skipped the Silent generation, the failed generation; they are technologically threatened. Many clergy are of this generation. They think leadership comes with title and position. This is no longer true. Authority is intrinsic; you must earn it.

We have too many pompous clergy; pomposity is insecurity. The media pick up on the pompous clergy. Protecting their pomposity is the last vestige of insecurity. He does not think there is a lot of hope for his generation. We need to help them to stand back in favor of a new generation of leaders, who are doing exciting ministry but who are not recognized.

Generation X is fertile ground for recruiting leaders, but not through the old models. They are street-wise, but highly suspicious of institutional religion. They understand suffering and pain; they understand dysfunctionality. But they are producing street-wise leadership. We must get behind the leadership God is already producing.

Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church and Rick Warren of Saddleback Church are not transferable. What God does through Rick Warren is not transferable to other clergy, but the underlying principles are. The churches that have learned and applied it successfully are the ones who have brought w hole leadership teams of at least 5 to their conferences and have reflected together on how to implement what they are learning.

Bishops hate to learn something from somebody else. Bishops don't make a lot happen, but they stop a lot from happening. Many have been destroyed by being made bishops. You need to take the bishop into your confidence so that they know what you are doing.

The single most effective evangelization tool in the Western world has come out of the Anglican Church: the Alpha program. Yet most Episcopalians have never heard of it. Sadly, it is even bad-mouthed. Alpha is in nearly every prison in Britain today. There are Alpha groups meeting in pubs and homes. It embodies all the principles he has been speaking about. It is the sharing of God's Good News through relational groups. It comes out of Holy Trinity, Brompton, London, where they have four Alpha courses a year, with 500 participants each.

You come to an introductory banquet which features a talk entitled, "Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?" Then there are ten sessions, each of which has a dinner, followed by a talk on some aspect of basic Christianity, then discussion in small groups. Participants then invite their friends to attend the final celebration session, which also serves as the introductory dinner for the next course.

How do we keep this work from being ideologically torpedoed. He knows some who are uncomfortable with Alpha. Some of that is a defensive smoke-screen. The issue is the Gospel. We need to decide what the Gospel is and be committed to it. Bosch (Transforming Mission) is helpful on this because of his commitment both to evangelism and to social justice. There is a uniqueness in the Gospel: Christ died for the sins of the whole world. You can say that imperialistically and obnoxiously or you can stand there humbly in servanthood. Muslims will respect a fundamentalist Christian more than one who merely advocates tolerance.

In seminary education, we should not train people on the basis of future potential. We should look for a track record. Residential seminary education should be for doctoral work; we need a community of scholars who do in depth work. But we need to make that education accessible to those who will minister in congregations. Train on a need-to-know basis; that's how adults learn and it's why learning should be done in the context of ministry. 50% of seminary trained people are not in professional ministry after 10 years.

M.Div. programs are in decline. Mainline denominations think an M.Div. is what is needed for ministry. Other groups are more flexible; most pastors in the U.S. today do not have an M.Div. Business schools are pointing the way toward a new model. We must not sacrifice ministry for the academy. We need the pure scholar, but we also need the opposite end of the spectrum: non-credit courses for those who want the knowledge and training but don't want or need a degree.

Clergy reproduce in their congregation the model of learning they experienced. People should do their learning on their own and then come for training. We need not to popularize our education but to democratize it for the whole church.

He was asked: what do we do as a Standing Commission to affect the whole church?

Ask what our distinctive contributions are. We have warehouses full of reports. We need to identify the churches that are making a difference and network them, and make what they are doing and learning accessible to the entire church.

We've got to get out of our diocesan mentality. We've got to get out of our Episcopal-only mentality and learn from others. Our top-down ecumenism is irrelevant to Xers who do not care about labels.

In a post-modern context, we need to use all avenues to get the message out: books, web-sites, etc. We need to pop up in unexpected ways. Bishops need to be informed; they don't like to be surprised.

Once you can trigger the network, you can learn a lot about creative liturgies to reach Xers. We need to find the models of liturgy done in a way that is highly relational, with professional casualness, making spirituality accessible.

Worship style is not the issue, but is it the best of our tradition. Religious symbols are coming back. Generation X and the younger boomer s use symbols heavily. There is a future for Anglo-Catholic worship, but it must be accessible; it must be done with vitality, not merely ecclesiastical theater."

Sacraments are evangelizing ordinances. When unchurched people come for baptism, he welcomes them with enthusiasm, not with legalism, saying, "What you want for your child, I'm sure you want for yourself as well. Because at some point your child will look at whether this is real for mom and dad. But it will make a radical change in your life."

His word of exhortation: he thinks there is a tremendous future for the Episcopal Church. He thinks the jury is still out as to whether this future will be ours, but he dares to believe in the grace of God. This is a crisis moment in the Episcopal Church and we are privileged to be a part of this crucial time.

Following a break, the Rev. Ed Bacon, Rector of All Saints' Church, Pasadena, spoke to the Commission.

He said that All Saints' holds uppermost the reign of God and seeking to transform people, bringing them into alignment with that reign. Outside of Sunday worship, the parish does this primarily through its emphasis on small groups. He said he is amazed at how long people will worship anonymously before identifying themselves. Often people are drawn because of public stands the congregation has taken on justice issues. They have 1,250-1,350 in attendance in four services.

Leadership development has become an important component of many ministries in the parish. To the degree that leadership development is an important element in the parish, business leaders are attracted to the congregation.

Who decides which stands are taken on which issues? He said the rector takes stands, the Vestry takes stands and others respond. The ordained need to be able to speak the truth without waiting for everyone to get on board and agree. The Rev. Tim Safford of All Saints' said that we also want people of good will in the parish to work together and develop statements for the Vestry to consider. Parishioners may disagree but are unanimous in being glad they go to a church which is not reluctant to engage the issues.

How do you hold together people of diverse positions on controversial issues? Ed Bacon said that the prophets are clear about our call to be a light to all peoples. Los Angeles is the most diverse spot on the globe; inclusivity must work here.

Tim said that All Saints' is a church centered on worship and the Eucharist, not on causes. The open invitation to all to participate in the Eucharist overcomes the divisions and draws together many of diverse points of view. More than any other reason, people cite the invitation to Communion as why they are part of All Saints'.

The Commission adjourned to travel to the Our Saviour Center in El Monte for lunch and a tour of its outreach ministries, led by Ms. Dorris Dann, director, the Rev. Gary Bradley, Vicar of Immanuel Episcopal Church, El Monte, and the Rev. Denis O'Pray, Rector of Our Saviour, San Gabriel.

Friday, June 19, 1998

The Commission reconvened at 8:30 a.m. All Commission members in attendance on Thursday were present except Stephen McWhorter.

Guests present: Charles Fulton and Doug LeBlanc. Ms. Grace R. Dyrness of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture of the University of Southern California spoke to the Commission. Ms. Dyrness explained that the Center was launched out of a research project into the religious institutions which were doing reconciliation work following the Los Angeles riots in 1992. She distributed copies of some o f the reports produced by the Center, such as "Politics of the Spirit: Religion and Multiethnicity in Los Angeles." She described their investigations into the role of religion in various ethnic neighborhoods and in the city as a whole.

Jim Lemler asked her, "What makes churches effective in reconciliation work?"

She responded that coalitions are an important part of it. Where people and groups are working together, they are making a difference.

Howie Tischler asked about the differences among the various Spanish-speaking ethnic groups. She said that the churches play a significant role in preserving cultural heritage of the various groups, even when there are several different cultures represented within a single congregation. There is resentment among some groups over economic issues, often from the more established immigrants toward the newer immigrants.

The website of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture is: http://www.usc.edu/go/rol .

Jim Lemler distributed a draft of a Response Form which the Commission could distribute to other groups in order to get feedback about the 20/20 Domestic Mission Imperative. The Commission edited the draft. Commission m embers are urged to distribute this to any groups or individuals they meet with. They should then distill the comments they receive and send both the summary and the forms to the Secretary.

Writing assignments were made for each of the four areas of the Mission Imperative. Each team has the responsibility to: sift the information gathered; reflect on the responses returned on the questionnaire; tease out strategic implications.

The writing teams selected are:

creative strategies for evangelism: Gretchen, Ted
recruiting and equipping innovative leaders: Jim, Cynthia
strengthening congregational life: Scott, Shirleen
prayer and spiritual development: Howie, John

Each writer is to draft his or her own version, then work with the partner to produce a single draft to distribute the entire Commission by October 15, 1998.

Jim Lemler shared an invitation from the Rev. Winston Ching to send representatives to a Visioning Conference to develop a vision for the future of congregational ministries in the Episcopal Church over the next ten years, to be held in New York, October 19-21. He will find out how many representatives we may send and ensure that we are well represented.

LeeAnne reported on the conference for clergy under age 35, held at Virginia Seminary.

She said that 140 out of the 300 under-35 clergy attended. Bishop Griswold was present. She said she had assumed that these young clergy would all be visionaries. Instead, she discovered them to be a microcosm of the church, but they all had high energy for ministry. They expressed clear support for Bishop Griswold. A web site is being set up: http://www.young priests.org . They plan to meet regularly (once every year or two).

There was ownership of the idea of recruiting the next generation of leaders, especially among people of color. There was clear sentiment in favor of the Episcopal Church moving away from the dominant models rooted in English culture, with the frequent refrain being heard, "Let go of England, already!"

There was great concern about debt from college and seminary. She said that the Diocese of Atlanta is testing a process for the discernment of call for those under 23 years of age. LeeAnne will distribute this to the Commission. She will also distribute to the Commission any information she gets from Bishop MacDonald of Alaska. She asked for the Commission's approval of her doing research into youth/young adults volunteer programs. She will be the keynote speaker at the convention of the Diocese of El Camino Real on the 20/20 vision.

Jim Lemler reported on his conversation with the Presiding Bishop, noting that Bishop Griswold is enthusiastic about evangelism and growth. He is especially eager for strategies to be developed to support our goal. He is passionate about a theology of connection among communities of faith.

Scott suggested that Jim and Ted meet with the Presiding Bishop and Pam Chinnis to share what the Commission is doing and what feedback we are receiving. Jim said that he would try to arrange this before our Houston meeting in November.

Ted said that he will set up a website for the Commission. He will also send to the Commission information about various internet listservs which relate to visioning the future of the mission of the Episcopal Church.

Charles Fulton explained the Congregational Ministries Cluster of the Church Center Staff, which includes evangelism, stewardship, congregational development, women's ministries, ethnic ministries and the Presiding Bishop's Fund. The Rev. Winston Ching is the head of the cluster.

He described four areas of his work: researching on new church starts undertaken since 1980; assisting with a national demographic study; serving within the cluster and in the wider church as the congregational development staff person; and working to create a network of diocesan congregational development professionals.

Following a celebration of the Holy Eucharist at All Saints' Church, the Commission adjourned at 11:00 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

John A. M. Guernsey, Secretary

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