241 people looked at my website in the last 24 hours.

(that’s about the same number of views I had in a month before I moved my domain to Substack).

The internet used to work like a phone book

(if you remember what a phone book is, then this analogy is especially important):

• You put your listing in, people looked you up, they found you. The action came from the person looking - you just had to be there.
  

• Church used to be the same way. The building was there. The weekly members all knew the routines. You put a sign up (why are church signs always so confusing? Because they’re mostly there for those who belong already!). Maybe you put a listing in the phone book. Today you have a website so people can find you.

  
  
  The problem is - very few people are actively looking for a church these days.
  The other problem - it’s no longer enough digitally to just exist.
  

  

  
  

The internet now works like a city.

(so does the church)

Now you have to actively work to to be seen.

You have to be on a busy street, where people are passing by. You have to have people talking about you. You have to be in conversation.

A beautiful building tucked down an unmarked alley that nobody ever walks by will not be seen.

We know this is true literally for church - now it’s true digitally as well, because of the way the internet has changed.

A church with closed doors and empty buildings on a lonely road is not going to have people passing by or dropping in.

So it is when church that builds a website, puts up their service times and some lovely pictures, and then... nothing else. They’re languishing in a dark corner, unseen.

The painful truth: without an existing audience, a content strategy, and some understanding of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), most church websites are invisible to everyone except people who already know the church exists and type the exact URL (www.yourchurchhere.org).

In other words - your digital presence needs to be doing something, or else it’s invisible.

My recipe for ‘Unstuck Church’ contains the ingredient ‘technology-based’. Tech can no longer be an ‘add on’ or an afterthought for ministry.

It needs to be the center.

Not theologically - we’re gathered to share the Gospel. But in today’s world, that sharing needs digital tools to be central.

The point is relationship. The point is: someone hears about your community and wants to know more - and when they reach out into the digital world to find you, someone reaches back.

The point is, we need to be reaching out directly and bringing church to people.

(A static website doesn’t do any reaching. It just sits there).

This is why I moved my website to Substack - and why I think you should, too.

• It’s easy to use.

• It’s free (and you can create subscription income with it).

• It helps people find your ministry.

• It’s your website, newsletter, and social media rolled into one, so it’s very efficient.

• It’s a way to engage directly with people.
  
  It’s a place where we don’t just talk about what great ministry we do - it’s where we tell people God loves them and hear their stories.
  
  It’s where we pray and preach. It’s where we truly connect online.
  
  Most people will not ever come to your church. That’s ok. You’re bringing church to them.
  

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry. Right now. Today.
Become a paid subscriber to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

I’m on a big digital evangelism kick recently, and I’m doing a few things in May:

1. Creating an online course called ‘Ditch your Church Website’

   
   How do we use today’s technology for ministry?
   I mainly use two platforms now:

   1. Substack for website and email

   2. Planning Center for administration, organization, and member management
      
      Both are very low-cost (mostly free) ways to upgrade your ministry’s digital ‘presence’ to an interactive, evangelical, custom platform for ‘Unstuck Church’
      
      I’m creating a course (and also consulting ‘bundles’) to navigate specific ways to use these platforms for the most connection, engagement, formation, and evangelism.
      
      The course comes out in May, but if you’re interested, you can sign up now to get early access (once it’s done) and 25% off (the course costs $127)
      
      
      

      Sign up for early access and discount

      (by the way, this sign up form is hosted by Planning Center.
      So you can also fill out the form to see it in action…)
      
      

2. Previewing it here.

Next week I’m going to go live Monday - Thursday, livestreaming the creation of the videos for the course. Tune in 12:00-12:30pm. So you can preview the preview!

It’s just for paid members, though - so subscribe to join us.

Subscribe now

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Technology-based ministry is part of getting church ‘unstuck’.

It’s part of our call to less ‘doing the same things over and over’ and more sharing the Gospel.

If you are ‘stuck’ in your ministry, I’m also starting ‘Ask Father Cathie’, a monthly live stream, the first Wednesday of the month (starting May 6).

Paid subscribers, drop me a line with your questions…

Is your ministry ‘stuck’?

Ask Father Cathie

Live on the first Wednesday of the month (starting May 6)
3:30pm Eastern

Submit a question below…

Ask Father Cathie

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Intentionally Complex’, by .
  ‘That means when I am longing for someone to notice and acknowledge me, heal, and take care of me, love and support me, He is always present and understands the intricate mechanics of each person, individually.

  That’s a useful thought when I am opening my fridge for something that won’t be there.’

• ‘Known in the Breaking’, by ‘That’s not how resurrection tends to arrive. It arrives in the breaking. In a gesture repeated so many times that its ordinariness is part of the recognition. In the bread taken and blessed and broken and given at a table where nobody has it all figured out, where every one of us is, in some sense, walking our own road to Emmaus — a little lost, a little dazed and confused, a little bit slow getting the punchline, our hearts burning in ways we can’t yet explain’.

Church stuff

• ‘This is Not Simple Generational Replacement’ by .
  ‘If you walked into a church any Sunday over the last 35 years, the person most likely sitting next to you was a Baby Boomer. That was true in 1990. It was still true in 2024.
  Even as Boomers have gone from 45% of the GSS sample to just 25%, they remain the dominant force in American pews. That’s a genuinely hard thing to wrap your head around’.

• ’Peace be with you (and also with you)’ by .
  ’I became freshly aware that making peace isn’t passive, quiet, and avoidant. It is active, requires admitting that I’m wrong and still learning, and often disrupts my own comfort for the sake of making it right with another. And as is often true, this work of peace starts at home.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich’, by .
  ‘What would it mean to redeem time? Is time something we must spend wisely (atone the time itself)? Or is time like a credit, one used to make our lives more worthy? For that matter, what, exactly, would redeemed time look like? Death only raises the stakes of such questions.’

• ‘The Problem with Fear’, by .
  ‘And I can honestly say that after all these years of experiencing fear, I have learned something: Fear is not in your head. There are no thoughts you can think to get rid of it. Because fear is not a head problem. Fear starts in your soul’.
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘My Digital Conversion’. ‘I don’t think it was a coincidence that I landed at a place where the internet was developing before my eyes, just as I was deep in the midst of religious formation’.

• ’Time for being with God in nature, and each other in conversation’. ‘We’re encouraging ourselves to be “fearless and faithful” in discussing what St. Paul’s could look like - or wants to be - in the future of church’.

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Read more

I built my first website in 1995.

I really didn’t know what I was doing - the internet was in its infancy in those days. But I worked as the assistant to the chair of the Computer Science Department at Duke University, and it was a requirement of the job.

I had to be fluent in the language used by the best computer science minds of the time - so with their help (such a gift!), I learned basic HTML and also Latex - which created high-quality typesetting, so I could produce correspondence that included the crazy-looking formulas that the scientists used.

It was immediately addictive - oh, the possibilities for connection and sharing! oh, the creativity with which we could communicate!

The reason I was working at cs.duke.edu (as they called it, back in the day) was that I was early in the process of becoming an Episcopal priest.

I was heading to seminary the next year, and in the meantime I needed a ‘day job’ to pay my bills while I filled all requirements for church - internships and meetings and retreats - for a couple of years.

I don’t think it was a coincidence that I landed at a place where the internet was developing before my eyes, just as I was deep in the midst of religious formation.

I’ve always seen the possibilities where church and technology intersect.

I’ve also felt the hesitancy .

Ancient tradition and the deeply sensory experience of the gathered church cannot be recreated digitally:

• the smell of incense and candle wax

• the light streaming through the windows

• the feel of old wood and stone floors

• the touch of someone else’s hand

• the taste of bread and wine
  
  

Then there’s the fear that technology allows so much access to each other - and everything about us - that it inevitably leads to bad actions and outcomes. It can cause harm and sin and destruction.

All of this is true. And yet…

I believe the church has a responsibility to use technology boldly for sharing the Gospel.

’Go and make disciples of the whole world,’ Jesus says.

The whole world got a lot smaller - and a lot larger - when the internet burst onto the scene in the 1990s.

It’s gotten exponentially so in the past 40ish years.

Most churches have finally gotten to the point where we use technology in ways that were effective in the 2010s:

• static websites that work like bulletin boards or billboards (that someone has to drive past in order to see)

• Emailed newsletters

• Social media presence that’s mostly just ‘here’s what’s going on’ posts - not interactive space to share God’s love directly.

But so much has changed since then.

It feels like we’re back in the 90s today: on the verge of huge developments in AI, and every day there are new, fancier ways to interact digitally.

It can feel overwhelming - and scary.
It’s also - I believe - a huge invitation into following Jesus in new ways.

We’re disciples, going from town to town, without a bag or extra clothes, proclaiming Good News from place to place on this new frontier of digital community.

Or, we can be.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry. Right now. Today.
Become a paid subscriber to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

I don’t know why God saw fit to form me as a digital evangelist at the same time I was being formed as a Gospel evangelist.

But I do know I feel just as passionately about all things digital today as I did when I first typed:

<h1>Hello, World!</h1>

So I’ve decided to do two things in the coming weeks:

1. Create an online course called ‘Ditch your Church Website’

   
   How do we use today’s technology for ministry?
   I mainly use two platforms now:

   1. Substack for my website and email

   2. Planning Center for administration, organization, and member management
      
      Both are very low-cost (mostly free) ways to upgrade your ministry’s digital ‘presence’ to an interactive, evangelical, custom platform for ‘Unstuck Church’
      
      I’m creating a course (and also consulting ‘bundles’) to navigate specific ways to use these platforms for the most connection, engagement, formation, and evangelism.
      
      The course comes out in May, but if you’re interested, you can sign up now to get early access (once it’s done) and 25% off (the course costs $127)
      
      
      

      Sign up for early access and discount

      (by the way, this sign up form is hosted by Planning Center.
      So you can also fill out the form to see it in action…)
      
      

2. Preview it here.

Next week I’m going to go live Monday - Thursday, livestreaming the creation of the videos for the course. Tune in 12:00-12:30pm, or get the recording the next day. So you can preview the preview!

It’s just for paid members, though - so subscribe to join us.

Subscribe now

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Technology-based ministry is part of getting church ‘unstuck’.

It’s part of our call to less ‘doing the same things over and over’ and more sharing the Gospel.

If you are ‘stuck’ in your ministry, I’m also starting ‘Ask Father Cathie’, a monthly live stream, the first Wednesday of the month (starting May 6).

Paid subscribers, drop me a line with your questions…

Is your ministry ‘stuck’?

Ask Father Cathie

Live on the first Wednesday of the month (starting May 6)
3:30pm Eastern

Submit a question below…

Ask Father Cathie

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘It’s Like Breathing’, by . ‘Looking back, she was doing what a disciple of Jesus does. She wasn’t trying to convert me or signal her piety. She was simply offering herself as a friend.’

• ‘I waited so long for Spring.’ by . But this is God,
  His way of working… Slowly slowly, then suddenly. Inch by inch and then 100 miles per hour.’

Church stuff

• ‘The Risen Christ Walks With Small Churches’ by . ‘I hate hearing those stories because it makes me wonder: Am I doing a good job? Why am I a failure? What did I do wrong? If you’re the pastor of a small church, you probably feel the same way.’

• ‘Our Minds Can’t Sit Still Anymore’ by . ‘Churches are one of the last phone-discouraged public spaces where you can just sit with your thoughts—the things stirring around your consciousness, your paranoias, the self-reflection you’ve been putting off. While it’s not necessarily the most captivating marketing point (“Come on in! We’re boring and quiet!”), shared silence and slowness really is uniquely restorative.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘A Simple Way to Begin Celebrating Eastertide at Home’ by . ‘One of the things I have been thinking about this year is how to carry that joy into ordinary life at home.’

• ‘On Gnomes, Phones + Coming Home’, by . ‘So what do you do? Well, we got to talking with the people we were waiting in line with — a line that easily stretched to two or three thousand people spilling out into the parking lot.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘The real reason you can’t change the bulletin.’ ‘No one wants to change. And the faithful people left in our pews are the least likely to want to change anything - because the system still works for them. Or at least well enough that they’re still there. This should be respected.’

• ‘What’s in a name?’ by (I obviously did not write this, but it’s from a publication we share called . )
  ‘Names are the currency of your flourishing. Because a name doesn’t just describe what you do. It tells people who you are—and who you’re becoming.’

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Just change anything - even if it’s really small.’

The vestry had called me in because they were struggling with the direction of the church, and how hard everything was getting. They didn’t have enough members - or money - to keep running the way they were. And they didn’t know how to change.

So I gave them my best advice:

I showed them how they could completely re-imagine their ministry.

I could feel their energy and enthusiasm rise as I was speaking - they were really excited about changing their vision and focus!

But after I finished speaking, there was a silence.

Then they started talking among themselves …

• ’we couldn’t possibly do this.’

• Eleanor started that program decades ago, it would hurt her feelings if we just quit it.’

• What would we do without the ‘Weeding Club’?
  
  
  They wanted change. They just didn’t want to actually change anything.
  

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry. Right now. Today.
Become a paid subscriber to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

I pointed this out to them - the fear of change, the discomfort.

I could see that this might be too much change for them. So I tried something spontaneously:

’What if you just focused on one change? A small one? As small as you can imagine…’

They decided they could change the font of the bulletin.

It was a little hard to read, anyway. They’d find something cleaner. This sounded great! A step into the future…

Then they started talking among themselves…

• What about the parish administrator? This would put strain on her

• We would have to create a whole new header for the bulletin - we’re not sure we have the tech skills for that

• Would we have to go back and change all the old bulletins? This seems like a lot of work…’
  
  
  In the end, they tabled discussion of the font change until they could gather more information. They put it on the agenda for a future board meeting.
  
  

(If you see yourself in this story - and you really are ready for change, sign up for some time and let’s talk about it)

Free consult

I should not have been surprised.

No one wants to change. And the faithful people left in our pews are the least likely to want to change anything - because the system still works for them. Or at least well enough that they’re still there.

This should be respected.

At the same time, this is how church is stuck.
and it only leads in one direction:
more closed congregations.

The lessons I learned from the spontaneous (failed) change experiment:

#1:

Don’t try to take things away from people

Especially things that mean something to them.

It just makes them hold on tighter - and resent you more for disrespecting their feelings

(I learned this the very hard way when I ripped up the old carpeting in a church once without asking. It was worn and full of holes - and trip hazards! - and ugly. But I did not take into consideration that someone gave that carpet to the church. And someone laid it down with their own hands.)

#2
Offer a new ‘recipe’ for church.

Not taking things away.
Not changing ‘the way you’ve always done it’.

But a way to see ministry in a different light - a new vision for a new future.

How could we get excited to share the Gospel in ways that don’t seem so hard?

The ‘Unstuck Church’ recipe I’ve discovered is an invitation to more ministry JOY.

The next few posts will focus on each of these…

Read more

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘The Healing Power of Letting Go’ by . ‘Lament is a necessary and healthy response to grief, but it is not about self-pity or getting stuck in constant sorrow. In scripture, lament always moves toward hope.’

• ‘Easter Sunday & Impossible News’ by . ‘I’m glad we got the story of Easter instead. The story of the impossible, the impotence of weak leaders claiming to be strong, and the evergreen lesson that no matter how bad the news gets, it’s never the last news. And so we can say, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!”’

Church stuff

• ‘Why new work rarely gets funded’ by ‘In other words: The innovative work would still be done by newer leadership. But the funding would flow through an older institution.’

• ‘Burnout Is Just the Beginning’ by . ‘Despite terror filling my insides, I decided to jump and truly be set free, leaving behind the life I knew and had worked to achieve in order to discover a more sustainable way to do ministry’.
  

Other stuff

• ‘Zen and the Art of Caring For Your Equipment’ by . ‘I’ve always believed that how you care for your equipment says something deeper about how you care for your sport, and maybe even how you care for your life.’

• ’Trying to Win at Everything Is Why You’re Losing’ by . ‘What deserves my time and attention in this season? What needs to be turned down or turned back up? What dreams don’t need to die, but need to wait on the back burner?’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘“How do I get them to change” is not the question to ask’. ‘’How do I get my congregation to change?’ (also insert ‘priest’, ‘bishop’, ‘denomination’, ‘church board’, etc). The answer: You don’t.’

• ‘It’s Easter! Now what...?’ ‘The earliest spiritual training began with a conversation:
  ‘what do you seek?’ Physical trainers begin with lifestyle and fitness assessments, so they know how to guide their clients.The Trexo gym intake form is a little of each.’

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

It was a great party.

Laughing, dancing, eating good food (and a little wine), catching up.

Then a friend of a friend - someone I’d met only once - grabbed me and said,
‘You’ve got to help my congregation’.

I immediately sat down. (My husband was not thrilled.)

She poured out a story I’ve heard a hundred times (not an exaggeration):
church looked fine on the outside, but nothing was working the way it used to. Too much work. Not enough people. Budget woes. Exhaustion. Conflict. Leadership confused, stressed, unsure what to do.

I gave her my best advice. Then I went back to dancing.

At the end, I told her: have them call me - the leaders who are afraid.

Of course the call never came.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry. Right now. Today.
Become a paid subscriber to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

This is the joy and the challenge of being ‘Free Range’.

Everyone wants it to be easier to be in ministry today - clergy, lay ministers, congregations, denominations, dioceses, etc.

I get weekly calls, emails, texts, social media messages, smoke signals, the works. People launch into their stories of ‘stuckness’.

At the same time, the big, systematic changes required to really move into the Future of Church are scary.

They seem like too much work. We don’t really want to do things differently. We’re too exhausted - and have too few resources, to muster this kind of transformation.

(Incidentally, if you’re organization really IS ready for this, call me! I really can help. Or better yet, sign up for 30 minutes on my calendar…)

Free consult

So here’s some advice for free

(and some advice you have to pay a lot less for than traditional church consulting…)…

#1:

WE have to be the change.

The most common question I get:

’How do I get my congregation to change?’
(also insert ‘priest’, ‘bishop’, ‘denomination’, ‘church board’, etc).

The answer: You don’t.

• We cannot get others to change (repeat that as your mantra).

• Institutions are not built for change - so they aren’t going to (or if they do, it will be very slow)(repeat this, too).

• The change has to come from us, individually - and most of it is changing our perspective, our vision. (‘Be the change’. Repeat as needed).
  
  

And we can change our vision.
We can learn to see what is the Gospel and what is the institutional ‘stuff’ around it.
And we can learn to lean into one and have the courage to let go of the other.

#2
You don’t have to grab my arm at a party.

(though BLESS the brave person who did!)

I really, really want to talk with everyone - all the time! - about how to re-imagine ministry. But it’s seriously not practical.

Which is why I’m extremely excited to start:

‘Ask Father Cathie’

advice for those experiencing church ‘stuckness’ and ministry that feels ‘caged’ by institutional collapse.

Once a month - the first Wednesday of the month, starting May 6, I’m going live at 3:30pm Eastern to answer your questions.

It’s for paid subscribers only - both the submission form and the livestream - but you can get a whole year of Free Range Priest (all the articles and the advice, plus discounts on mini-courses) for $80.

Completely affordable - and doable - bite-sized church consultation.
One small change of vision at a time.

So pretend we just bumped into each other somewhere, or take the email you were about to send me, and instead, submit the form below and send me your worst place of ‘stuckness’…

(and if you haven’t upgraded to paid yet, do that now and then submit the form…)

Hearts up!
Fr. Cathie

Read more

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Beloveds, we are heading into the most important part of the most important week in the life of the church.

I wish you a blessed Holy Week - may your faith be renewed by walking the way of the cross.

There’s no ‘Good Stuff’ on Good Friday - so I’m sharing the beautiful writing I’ve discovered so far this week.

God stuff

• ‘Word and Sacrament at the Hospital Bedside’ by ’Hospitals are liminal spaces—fixed between life and death. Human beings enter through birth and depart through death, often within the same walls and at the same time.’

• ‘Cursing at Customer Service’ by . ‘How close did I come to discrediting my sermon? I was about three seconds away from steamrolling a visitor at my church, without even knowing it.’

Church stuff

• ‘Tragic Abundance: Spring Cleaning as Mortification’ by . ‘A typical American, I am vastly superior at the “feasting” and “ordinary time” execution of the liturgical schedule and not so great at the fasting and mortification times…;

• ‘Holy Tuesday Vows’ by . ‘What if, instead of clergy renewing their vows on Holy Tuesday, the Church renewed her vows to clergy that day?’
  

Other stuff

• ‘Dean, you gorgeous man!’ by . ‘I saw all this and then I spoke. “You two are a sign and a wonder!” and they chuckled at me.’

• ‘50 Names. 100 Miles.’ by . ‘Maybe you know this feeling, not from running, but from something you’re carrying right now. A hard season, a setback, or something that keeps asking more of you than you think you can handle.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘Staying awake with Jesus in Holy Week’. Jesus asked his disciples to stay awake with him for one hour. They couldn’t do it - at least not yet. But we’re called again to try… Join us for virtual Vigil at the Altar of Repose.’

• ‘The only Good News we get today is that it’s only the first day of the week’. ‘We’ve been walking through Holy Week - remembering with our lives. Ever since the first Christians did. Ever since the first crowds followed Jesus.’

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘People are Stories’ by . ‘The God who created us saw people as who were storied, people who were filled with volumes and chapters of life.’

• ‘The joy and hope of a repair cafe’ by . ‘There is beauty in the commitment to reducing, reusing, and recycling. But for me, the real gift is in the human connection and generosity of time that says, “You are good and deserve good things. How can I help?”’

Church stuff

• ‘The Silence at the Altar’ by . ‘When you stand at the altar, you do not stand only with those who are visibly present. You stand within the prayer of the whole Church, with the saints and the faithful departed, with those scattered across time and place, and indeed for a world that does not know how to pray for itself.’

• ‘An Obituary for the United Church of Christ?’ by . ‘Denominational leadership has met this reality with a combination of denial, wishful-thinking, doing what we’ve always done only more single-mindedly and even self-congratulation.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘What Punk Taught Me’ by . ‘What I took from punk, and what I’ve carried ever since, is that coalition doesn’t get built through shared agreement on aesthetics or ideology. It gets built through a shared commitment to something real.’

• ‘The Babylon Effect’ by . ‘In this biblical story [the Tower of Babel], people are building toward the sky together — until their language splinters. No one can understand each other anymore. The project stops. They scatter. Something structurally similar may be happening in digital products right now.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘How my ministry became ‘Cage Free’’. ‘So I proposed another possibility …
  what if we designed a new way to serve ministry together, that best supported everyone sharing the Gospel with minimal stress?’

• ‘Staying awake with Jesus in Holy Week’. Jesus asked his disciples to stay awake with him for one hour. They couldn’t do it - at least not yet. But we’re called again to try… Join us for virtual Vigil at the Altar of Repose.’

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.

It was Easter Sunday, 2016

I was scheduled to supply at ​St. Paul’s Episcopal Church​ in Salisbury, NC.

I knew from the minute I walked in that this was a special place: a small church with a big spirit. I loved the time I spent there.

Afterwards the senior warden called me. “We’re looking for a new vicar, and we want you to be that person.”

But I had just started a new ministry - I had just gone ‘Free Range’. Precisely because I knew the struggles that congregations - and clergy - were facing.

I said no.

But still … I felt something very holy about serving alongside them.

So I proposed another possibility to St. Paul’s:
what if we designed a new way to serve ministry together, that best supported everyone sharing the Gospel with minimal stress?

Over a decade has passed since then.

And along the way, we’ve worked out what I call ‘Cage Free’ ministry - a way to get to the most important parts of ministry - prayer, worship, formation, hospitality - with as little institutional ‘overhead’ as possible.

We’ve figured out 5 steps to Cage Free Ministry with a congregation (paid subscribers, see below)…

Join us for Q2 of . A place where innovative ministers - lay or ordained, serving in a traditional congregational setting or setting out on their own as entrepreneurial clergy and faith practitioners -

can find a community for ministry development, training, and support.

It’s where ‘Cage Free’ ministers of all kinds feel less alone.

You’re not weird - you’re early. And now you’re right on time.
Join Substack Seminary - a year-long development, networking, and training community for ministers.

Substack Seminary

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‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Becoming Happy in 10 Easy Steps’ by . ‘Prayer, Scripture study and memorization, fasting, generosity, gathering for worship—these are among the happiest activities we could choose at any given moment.’

• ‘I wanna die with a mellow heart’ by . ‘Because of her, I have a personal goal to live and die without bitterness.’

Church stuff

• ‘The Mainline Church Is Running Out of Pastors’ by ‘The mainline church may think it has a building problem or an attendance problem. What it actually has is a bench problem.’

• ‘Church-hopping, Part XV: “Coffee Hour” Edition’ by . ‘But here’s my secret: sometimes, I go to church for the “coffee hour.”’
  

Other stuff

• ‘The gel isn’t glamorous’ by . ‘“How was your run, Mom?”

  Me: “Great! I ate sugar for 3 hours and watched the sun come up.”

• ‘This Part of My Life Is Called…?’ by . ‘Instead of interacting with the world mainly through screens, now I’m a body in the world again’.
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘Do you have an announcement for church this Sunday?’ For most congregations, the days of a paid parish administrator are long gone. So how do we keep up with the news and the ‘communication’ of the community?

• ‘Digital Ministry Friends’. I didn’t actually write this! This is a post about an interview I did with about … digital ministry. And friends!

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.

by .

Rev. Jim Keat | Digital Ministry

The Future of Church Is Smaller (and Online)

Church doesn’t have to be one big thing—it can be a network of small communities…

Listen now

a month ago · 9 likes · 6 comments · Jim Keat

This is the inaugural issue of ‘Digital Ministry Friends’ by my digital ministry friend Jim! I was honored he asked me for this conversation - and it was so much fun.

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘When the Heart Shifts’ by . ‘Then I asked her to imagine something else. God sits down beside you, looks you in the eye, and says, “I love you.”’

• ‘Three Fresh Ways to Grow Closer to God’ by . ‘As someone who thrives on routine, I can fall into the trap of engaging in spiritual habits because it’s what I always do, instead of being motivated by a desire for greater intimacy with God.’

Church stuff

• ‘The United Church of Christ Is Running Out of People—and Pastors’ by . ‘A church with fewer than 50 worshippers likely can’t afford a full-time pastor. Heck, they may even be struggling just to pay the light bill and the property insurance. And if they do manage to have a pastor who is there 40 hours a week, they are almost certainly cash-flow negative, which means they are living off reserves—which won’t last forever.’

• ‘Power of Community’ by . ‘The buildings might close, take on a new name or be bulldozed into the ground so that new life can begin. The good news of Jesus Christ, God’s love embodied here on earth, with us in the dirt, unwilling to shy away from our mess but instead offer hope, renewal and active participation in what God is up to today will not die.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘I got married two weeks ago’ by . ‘For years I used to tell people that a marriage is a miracle. I mean, how else do you explain two people—in a world of billions—finding each other and fitting together just so and then committing to each other for a lifetime?’

• ‘Two Years Ago I Quit My Life’ by . ‘When things feel uncertain and I feel anxious about how unsettled my life remains, it’s helpful to remember why I left in the first place.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘It’s faithful to believe in the death of the church’. ‘There is danger in conflating the continuation of the church itself with the insistence on a certain expression of it.’

• ‘It’s a love story’. ‘Jesus offers her what her heart really needs. not romantic love - something a million times stronger. the living water - the source of life - that is the love of God that saves us all.’

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.

‘It’s a lie from the pit of hell’.

This is a quote from the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church - the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, speaking at the Episcopal Parish Network conference in Charlotte last week.

Church decline, he went on to say - as 'a final word, and a final story’ is ‘not the teaching of Jesus’.

This quote got a lot of press - I’ve read it in at least three articles this week, plus I heard it from people I knew who were there at the conference (held in the city near where I live).

Bp. Rowe was answering a question about the decline - and predicted death - of the mainline church.

But he answered a question about the Body of Christ.

I completely agree - with my whole life - that the church itself is not disappearing.

I also believe that the way we do church - the mainline institutional structure - is, in fact, collapsing.

And that it may survive in some form - but it will not look anything like it does today (or more accurately, anything it look liked 50 years ago, which is where our imagination tends to get stuck).

There is danger in conflating the continuation of the church itself with the insistence on a certain expression of it.

The danger I see: we miss where God is actually calling us to death and resurrection.

Not our own re-construction of the church the way we remember it.

Not even our own re-imagination of ministry (which is my work!).

The actual adventure of being part of something that God is re-creating - something we cannot see yet. That is not ours to see yet.

And that if we keep insisting that particular denominations and congregations must live on into the future - and framing that as ‘the church’ - then we may be missing what God is leading us toward.

So how do we walk that line?

How do we move forward faithfully - trying new things, while holding to the tradition - while still having the humility to know that, in the words of Thomas Merton:

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

I ask myself these questions every day.

Part of the re-imagination journey for me has been to create a ‘gym for your soul’.

Technically, this is just a modern branch of it. As far back as the fourth century, Christian monastics have been describing a life of faith as ‘spiritual gymnastics’ - ascesis (ἄσκησις).

We don’t think our way into believing - we practice. We actively take part in life with God.

I see so many parallels between the first century and the 21st - it calls me to lean all the way back to the first Christians to find pathways into the church of the future.

Trexo: Gym for your Soul

Hearts up! Start Here to join the gym

That’s not just our slogan. It’s one of the first things Christians said to each other in worship. We’ve been saying it for 2,000 years…

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4 months ago · Fr. Cathie Caimano

‘The decline is how we frame our next spiritual step forward’.

Bp. Rowe said this in the same conversation at the EPN conference.

I think he’s absolutely right about that.

We can’t let our fear push us into denial - and at the same time, we can’t let it push us into believing that we’re just going to do the same things we’ve always done, and God’s going to miraculously restore us.

I can see three ways to faithfully follow where God is leading us during this spiritually adventurous time…

Read more

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘The Invitation’ by . ‘God doesn’t just want to “tell us what to do” because He wants to partner with us in the work of revealing His Kingdom on Earth.’

• ‘Transcendent Trust’ by . ‘The whole economy of God’s work with people is built on the simple binary word “trust”. We will all either trust God, or we won’t.’

Church stuff

• ‘Where sermons come from’ by . ‘My interrogator seemed dubious — more inclined to think preachers must shop at the Sermon Store and buy what they say on Sunday.’

• ‘Do People Think About Meaning and Purpose All the Time?’ by . ‘Engaging in regular worship is incredibly predictive of thinking about meaning and purpose on a regular basis.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘The path of least friction’ by . ‘You’re not stuck because this business is “hard.” You’re stuck because you’re solving the wrong problem, or solving the right problem with the wrong strategy, or solving the right problem at the wrong time.’ (I feel exactly like this with ministry).

• ‘My Mom Died Well - Here’s What that Taught Me’ by . ‘A good death isn’t defined in the final hours. It’s built — day by day, year by year — in the living that comes before it.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘We can’t talk about ministry without talking about money’. ‘My feelings about this are clear, and my struggles with it personally are becoming clearer.’

• ‘Hearts up! Start Here to join the gym’. ‘Here’s the truth: You can’t think your way into relationship with God. You have to participate in the relationship.’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.

I’m fasting for Lent and training for a half marathon.

The Coast Guard Half Marathon is April 12th - just a week after Easter. So the most intense part of both the fasting and the training are happening simultaneously.

It remains to be seen if this is a wise plan.

I’ve had a couple of uncomfortable moments.

I get a little shaky sometimes when I first start my runs, or at about an hour into them.

Yes, I’m fueling. Taking gels and sports drink, along with water.

I’m also learning how my spiritual practice of fasting - taking in a little less at each meal, eating only simple, nutritious food, and lengthening my overnight ‘fasting window’ - has to be coordinated with my workouts.

I eat a banana in the early morning, for instance, even though it may not have been a full 14 hours since I last ate, because I need that extra fuel for the run.

I’ve also learned that even though I technically stop eating at 5pm, on the night before a long run, I’ll have half a bagel and some peanut butter close to bedtime, so my carb stores are full the next day.

I don’t think of this as 'cheating’ my Lenten discipline, I think of it as combining my physical and spiritual disciplines in the most productive - and most faithful - way possible.

This morning on my run, when I got a little shaky (before the next gel kicked in), it made me think about my relationship with God and abundance. Having enough of what I need.

And it didn’t take too long - since running has a way of opening me up to my soul - to start drifting into thinking about abundance in other areas of my life and ministry.

It made me start to think about money. And specifically: the financial sustainability of my ministry.

Hearts up!

During Lent, I’m inviting paid subscribers into my process (or in this case, into my creation of a process…) while I sort out how to:

• Develop Christian Practices to share with individuals and communities

• Build a network of innovative ministers

• Walk with the small congregation I serve as they face the challenges of today’s church landscape and get ‘unstuck’

• Create a series of ‘mini consultations’ I’m calling ‘re-imagination packages’

It’s sort of like inviting you to watch while I rehab a house - there’s things that are messy and hard, but underneath, there’s good bones.

I’ll also keep you updated on the training and the fasting, in case you’re interested.

I’m building all this into what I’m calling the Stained Glass Project - all four of my separate ministries (the Four ‘Panes’) and how they work together…

Read more

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘The Cost of Getting Closer to God’ by . ‘Our whole life is an opportunity to grow in intimacy with God, and to live in worshipful response to God’.

• ‘What the Heart Wants’ by . ‘Having desires is not the problem. Our challenge is that we do not begin life knowing what truly deserves our deepest love.’

Church stuff

• ‘Studying the Past to Cure an Unacceptable Present’ by . ‘Generation by generation, Christians are forced to learn—often the hard way—that our endless patterns of wanting cannot be satiated by anything this earth has to offer.’

• ‘We had an Epiphany!’ by . ‘We would also like to issue an official apology to the liturgical season of Epiphany for sleeping on it for much of our young adult lives.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘How far back in time can you understand English?’ by . ‘Go back far enough, and English writing becomes unrecognisable. Go forward far enough and the same thing will happen, though none of us will be around to notice.’

• ‘The School of Adulting’ by . ‘One of the hidden geniuses of a healthy church body is young people learn how to be adults from men and women who have figured out a lot of things about how to live a life that matter.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘This work is never finished.’ ‘I’ve grown to appreciate my own heedless optimism - my sense that of course I have endless time and energy. But of course I don’t. And I have even less when my body is revved up before I even open my eyes.’

• ‘We’re only human’. What would have happened if Adam and Eve had stayed in the Garden of Eden?… they would have gotten bored! …‘Ho-hum another day in paradise…’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.

It’s 4:22am.

I’m an early riser, but this is getting ridiculous. I wake up at 3, then convince myself I must get at least one more hour of sleep.

Lately I’ve been playing a game with myself like I’m a kid - ‘you can’t get out of bed till the big hand hits 5’.

So I lay here and worry.

Maybe it’s not worry - it’s more like simply being overwhelmed. I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in.

I’ve always been a big picture person, and things come into my head fully formed. Then I feel like I have to produce every last detail of this vision today.

I’m always kind of amazed at myself that I think I can do this. I’ve grown to appreciate my own heedless optimism - my sense that of course I have endless time and energy.

But of course I don’t. And I have even less when my body is revved up before I even open my eyes.

Hearts up!

During Lent, I’m inviting paid subscribers into my process (or in this case, into my creation of a process…) while I sort out how to:

• Develop Christian Practices to share with individuals and communities

• Build a network of innovative ministers

• Walk with the small congregation I serve as they face the challenges of today’s church landscape and get ‘unstuck’

• Create a series of ‘mini consultations’ I’m calling ‘re-imagination packages’

It’s sort of like inviting you to watch while I rehab a house - there’s things that are messy and hard, but underneath, there’s good bones.

I’ll also keep you updated on the training and the fasting, in case you’re interested.

I’m building all this into what I’m calling the Stained Glass Project - all four of my separate ministries (the Four ‘Panes’) and how they work together…

Read more

‘Good Stuff’ = blog posts I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Love Your Enemy...even when I don’t wanna’ by . ‘Those ashes remind us that nothing here is permanent, maybe not even humanity’s tendency to fall under the thrall of fear and anger and greed. People, systems, philosophies, hatreds die.’

• ‘What quitting coffee taught me about God’ by . ‘Over time, I found that it’s nice to fast as a community, but also, it’s surprising how many of your problems can be solved obliquely.’

Church stuff

• ‘When Churches Refuse to Talk About the End’ by ‘In hospital chaplaincy, I see what happens when families don’t talk about limits. They carry unbearable weight because no one gives permission to say, enough.’

• ‘Why Replicate When You Can Reimagine?’ by . ‘What would you create if you were starting from scratch—knowing it would live entirely on YouTube? Or Zoom? Or Substack? Or wherever people are actually gathering online?’
  

Other stuff

• ‘A father's diary of grief: Day 16’. ‘…we are not done transforming experiences into memories. We will carry that feeling of loss everywhere we go, but we can pack it up with our sunscreen and garishly colored garments and take it places we’ve never been.’

• ‘And Then My Phone Buzzed’ by . ‘For now, we’ve settled on a situation in which interruptibility is a necessary condition for modern life.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘This is what you can do to help the church’. ‘It was on a training run this weekend that I realized I need to remember the thing I tell everyone else. The thing that God tells me: You are not alone.’

• ‘Follow us as we follow Jesus’. ‘How to become formed in the Christian faith by practicing the way of Jesus within our context … and create new digital pathways for membership.’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re reimagining ministry in the digital age.