The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until it was all leavened. (Matthew 11:33)Yesterday during Lois' sermon, I had a realization about working at the Church Center in this time of transition. The upper levels of management seem to think that the staff ought to be the flour being leavened by the church, instead of the other way around. That's an awful lot of leaven for a staff of approximately 200.
The new watch words seem to be "listen and learn best practices." I think this phrase is, or will be, in most job descriptions of the Evangelism & Congregational Life Center by the time we finish the writing process. Those of us who were serious about our work for the church have always been listening and learning so that we can share new resources, ideas, etc. with our networks and the larger church. The assumption, however, is that we have not.
The assumption is that the Church Center staff has not been doing its job, and that we have imposed on the church things they do not want or need. During the "research phase" leading up to the recent reorganization, the management listened to the complaints without listening to the compliments. They probably heard both, but only really listened to the complaints. I feel as if those of us on staff at the Episcopal Church Center are tref, unclean, defiled, and in danger of making the church unclean. It is not a comfortable feeling.
Those of us doing the Formation/Christian Education work in the Evangelism & Congregational Life Center--let me make this an "I statement"--I feel that the I as a staff person responsible for formation and education am being called upon to focus so much on evangelism that the formation piece is in danger of disappearing. It is because the Episcopal Church as a whole has not done a very good job of teaching newcomers--especially those from other denominations--what it means to be Episcopalian that we have this current tempest in a teapot in the Anglican Communion. Somebody has to be responsible for the teaching once the evangelising is done. That isn't to say that I shouldn't be reaching out to those outside the institutional church. But at what point do we say, "We ARE Episcopalians!"?
And where is the line which has to be drawn to preserve my integrity?
Peace,
Jeffri
I love it that Jeffri listens to my sermons. I know to watch for something on his blog when I see him scramble in his pack for paper and pen to take notes!
ReplyDeleteCool.
As to this post itself, well, all I can say is I agree with you. One of my internship supervisors, an Episcopal priest, said to me, "The Church eats her young". He was speaking with reference to the institutional church and the ordination process. I use it with reference to the present refusal to see that the parish system is just about over and we're still trying to shore it up as if there were no other way to be church, because we don't know any other way, instead of calling together all those of us who have had visions of another way and really HEARING us, which is way more than listening, let me tell you, and then doing something about it.
A priest who spoke to some clergy in Delaware ages ago, it seems now, had done a sabbatical at Trinity Wall Street. He told us that he came out of that sabbatical with one word of advice to the Church and especially to her bishops: find your brightest and best Gen-Xers (and now that it's been 9 years since he said this, probably Gen-Yers!), give them a bunch of money and let them go. Trust them. They know where church is going.
But no, we're heavily invested in the parish way of doing church, and in some places it's working. But it costs a pile of money and since that same internship supervisor once wisely observed that the Episcopal Church is being pushed to the margins for a purpose, it would behoove us to start being a church unencumbered by expensive buildings and programs. And I guess you'd better pass this on to "Jake" (aka Terry Martin) because I'm too lazy to cut and paste this into his new evangelism blog.
And I'm done for now. Rant over. (Peace!)