Free Range Priest.
Like the chicken?
YES!
Because it’s still ministry, it just tastes better.
[Here if you need me: frcathie@freerangepriest.org]
Free Range Priest helps clergy and congregations build vibrant, sustainable ministries for the digital age, fostering deeper faith and relationship with God beyond traditional models.
January 1, 2016.
I started my own ministry: Free Range Priest.
I had zero idea what that meant.
Only that I was no longer a typical full-time congregational minister, and I wanted to figure out how else I could practice my ministry in a changing church (and world).
I wanted to be in ministry full-time, but not in a congregation full-time.
Almost 10 years later, that’s where I am.
And I’m amazed how the church and the world have changed to create space - both cultural and theological - for a Free Range Priest to thrive.
Now I think I’m ready to share what I’ve figured out - and how it’s so much easier today.
Here’s the essentials I’ve discovered:
Crafting an Entrepreneurial Ministry:
Define your unique calling and niche.
Structure your ministry as a sustainable business (LLC) and leverage technology and culture as a solopreneur.
Secure a "grown-up salary" outside of (or along with) traditional congregational pay.
Embracing ‘Sustainable Part-Time’ Ministry:
Learn a task-based model instead of “full-time lite”.
Empower lay ministers by not being in charge.
Break out of full-time expectations that no longer serve you—or your people.
Building a Digital-Age Ministry:
You can’t break out of 20th-century systems without digital tools.
Focus on connection and formation in a ‘post-denominational’ world.
Learn to love two words that scare us—marketing and evangelism.
… whether you are sharing ministry in a congregational context or fully online (or somewhere in between).
… whether you are full-time or part-time (or somewhere in between).
… whether you are lay or ordained.
You can serve thriving - joyful - ministry in today’s church context.
It IS possible to serve traditional church ministry in innovative, sustainable ways.
AND it is possible to create new ways of being in Christian community - calling people to follow Jesus and live a life of joy.
And it’s simpler than you think.
It’s not easy. It takes a lot of faith and it requires us to stand against a lot of resistance (‘we’ve never done it that way…’).
Join Free Range Priest for the insight, support, and practical ideas you need to navigate traditional ministry in sustainable ways.
Free Membership includes:
Monthly blog posts: delivered to your inbox on the first Tuesday of the month.
Weekly ‘Good Stuff’: what I’m reading on Substack about God, the church, and everything - and think is so good you should read it, too!
Become a paid subscriber to:
Get weekly ‘what works’ posts:
For clergy, lay ministers serving with small congregations, and the members of small congregations (which is most of us now!).
Learn Sustainable Part-time Ministry (not ‘full time lite’)
… and the Spiritual Creative Model of serving God and the church (not the ‘franchise model’.
Rediscover the joy of ministry.
Discounts on ‘how-to’ seminars for individuals or groups.
Upcoming seminars:How to 'Free Range' in your ministry: building what you're called to.
How to serve ‘Sustainable Part-Time Ministry’: do less, love more.
How today’s digital tools are crucial for church community.
How to imagine ministry beyond the mid-20th century model.
How to use church management software for deeper ministry in small churches (really!).
How to engage our faith lives online and in-person: spiritual practice in the digital age.
How do I know about ministry re-imagination?
I’ve been an Episcopal priest since the turn of the century (literally. I was ordained in January 2000).
I’m an ‘old school’ clergy person, prepared for serving the institutional church model that saw its peak in the 1960s, only to be deposited into the digital age and a whole new way of doing … everything!
I’ve found it to be an adventure. And as a tech ‘early adopter’, I could see how the church was being called into this future.I’ve served with four congregations over the last few decades.
Three of them in the traditional model - full-time, salaried, and ‘in-charge’.
One of them in the Sustainable Part-time model I developed alongside them.
Guess which way I want to serve for the rest of my ministry!I served as an ‘in house’ consultant for sixty congregations - most of them small - and the clergy who ministered with them.
That’s when I learned that pretty much all congregations and clergy are struggling with the same thing:
The institution is collapsing all around us. And trying to keep propping it up is crushing us.
And we CAN find our way into more life-giving, sustainable ways to serve God and the church.I’m in my tenth year of being Free Range.
On January 1, 2016, I started my own ministry (I trademarked the term ‘Free Range Priest’, and I managed to get the church pension plan to let me stay in it. I consider both a test of my ability to negotiate systems in new ways…).
I built my own Creative Ministry out of thin air - and the Holy Spirit’s guidance. I’ve taught courses, consulted across denominations and geography (I’ve even preached online in Guayana!), coached in various settings, written a book, and basically figured out how serve full-time in ministry outside of a traditional context.
I’ve worked with hundreds of ministers: clergy, congregation members, lay ministers, and dioceses.
I know what you’re dealing with. And I know how to help.
Father Cathie helped transform our small church's migration to the digital age balancing our congregational needs with our limited resources to better support both our congregation as well as provide improved outreach to our broader community.
- Jerry Taylor, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Salisbury, NC.
The way I see it:
We can ‘keep on keeping on’, doing things like we’ve always done them, whistling in the dark, telling ourselves it’s going to be okay despite the evidence (I think mostly that’s what’s happening now).
We can live in denial. ‘Well, my church is growing’, I hear over and over - even though the amount of growth in a few congregations is not enough make a difference in the overall system. People still try to debunk the church decline statistics, even though the trends are abundantly, consistently clear.
We can try programs that are just the same thing in different form - house church, pub church, garden church, even online church - that still presume the structure of a professional, salaried clergy person, a single gathered community, some buildings, or other gathering spaces, all sustainable only through the donations of people in the congregation (or a grant).
We can give up hope. We can give up church altogether - and many are. Clergy are leaving ministry in droves, echoing the leaving of people in the pews. We can prepare to shut the doors when the last member dies.
OR
We can make small, practical changes to the way we understand and practice our ministry,
and rediscover the JOY of sharing God’s Good News in church community.
Join Free Range Priest to find out more ministry joy.
At Free Range Priest, we talk a lot about having less of the ‘stuff’ of ministry (the kinds of institutional structures that are holding us back…) and getting more of the ‘Good Stuff’ (following Jesus).
So I started a second publication just for more Good Stuff - it’s a gym for your soul!
Learn to practice the faith like the first Christians did.
Don’t just study it - experience it.
Follow the prayer, worship, relationship, and hospitality of the early church.
Together with your congregation, or as an individual online.
Or both!
Stretch and strengthen your soul. Find more joy and peace in your life.
Hearts up!
