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

Cage Free Ministry Basics

1. Clergy (and professional lay ministers) on task-based contract.

A new minister shows up at a congregation - what is the actual work they’re supposed to do?

Often enough, this is never spelled out!

Clergy do what they think clergy should do (they lead worship, they preach, and then what? Pastoral care? (what does that mean, exactly?) Christian formation (what does that mean, exactly?)

Clergy end up doing everything. And congregations just assume that this clergy person will do what the last one did (why shouldn’t they?) And they basically expect full-time work regardless of whether it’s part-time, because clergy are usually doing everything.

The simple yet paradigm-shifting solution to this: a contract that states exactly what work is being done by the minister. Based on the task, not the time.

It’s not about ‘30 hours a week’, it’s about ‘preaching on Sunday’ (how many Sundays? What about other days/services? etc)

2. Clergy not ‘in charge’ of congregations

The 20th-century model of church is clergy as CEOs of small non-profits - making decisions for the community on everything from service times to personnel to programs.

In the Cage Free model, clergy serve alongside congregations, bearing the sacraments, Scripture, and traditions of faith. Praying and leading worship. And supporting the leadership of the lay ministers - and the whole congregation.

It’s not the clergy person’s church!

Personally, as a Free Range Priest who has been serving with a small congregation for a decade, I:

• Don’t have a key to the buildings

• Don’t know what their budget is

• Don’t attend any meetings (unless I’m specifically invited - for a reason)

Cage Free Ministry is about being a ‘consultant’ for the ministry of the congregation or community.

3. Asking ‘Where is God in this?’

After clarifying what our job is NOT, it’s important to clarify what it is:

Theological presence and process.

Helping others grow in their relationship with God, and helping them become the disciples they’re called to be.

The ‘cage’ of the institutional church often puts clergy in the role of social worker, therapist, community organizer, business manager, and other jobs best suited for those who are so called.

As ministers, we have a very important calling, and it’s important to keep this central:

Sit with people and ask where God is in this. Tell them where you see and feel God’s presence. Create space for discernment and listening for God’s voice.

Don’t solve or fix. Be a faithful presence.

4. ‘Root’ not ‘Fruit’ of Christian ministry

Churches should not be doing ‘outreach’.

This may seem contradictory to our faith - because of course we’re called to love and serve our neighbors!

But this is the ‘fruit’ of Christian ministry.

Ministry is where we share the root.

There is nowhere else in today’s world for people to learn and practice and experience the Christian faith than in church (or participating in another ministry).

Ministry should focus on forming disciples - who then feel compelled to share the fruit of Christian ministry in their community.

5.Focus on sharing the Gospel - NOT saving the institution.

This step requires brutal honesty and not a small bit of courage.

Most ministers and lay leaders are exhausted because they are trying SO hard not to let the institution collapse on their watch.

• ‘We’ve got to meet our budget’

• ‘We’ve got to bring in new members’

• ‘We’ve got keep this small group of people happy’

• ‘We’ve got to find more people to help with this program’
  
  

Or else - what?

Or else the church doors could close. Or else the minister’s hours will have to be reduced (or at least their pay…). Or else we might have to let someone go…

The painful truth: the institution is collapsing anyway. We can’t save it through the force of our will.

The Good News: We can let it go. We really can.

If we focus on the love of God, and loving and serving our neighbors, if we preach the Gospel and use our energy to share it - then we know God is leading us forward into new ways of being and doing church.

We just have to follow faithfully.

And be not afraid.

The ultimate goal of Cage Free Ministry isn’t efficiency or

cost savings—though it provides both. It isn’t even supporting clergy and small congregations - though it does this, too!

The goal is breaking out of the institutional cage that is crushing us - and sharing more Good News that is giving us life.

Let’s Bring Church to People.

As a paid subscriber to Free Range Priest, you’re already receiving:

• Week-by-week, step-by-step insights and actions you can take towards Cage Free Ministry and Unstuck Church

• Monthly ‘Ask Father Cathie’ livestream (and submit you own questions)
  
  Become a founding member and get a 360 degree ‘mini consultation’ for your ministry:
  

• Free Ministry Re-imagination mini-courses

• Paid membership to Substack Seminary and Trexo.

• a yearly 1-1 consultation with me.

Subscribe now

The institution is collapsing. The church is growing in new ways.
If you’re ready for the adventure of sharing the Gospel in this (not so new anymore) century:

Let’s Bring Church to People.

Free Range Priest

Practical ideas and wildly optimistic theories about how the Holy Spirit is transforming the practice of ministry.

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…

My work is about turning my own spiritual life inside-out.

That’s what I’ve finally come to realize. Or at least, today I have that insight…

I love the church. I see how it is struggling. I also see how it can transform. I want to share that - in a way that is transformative for others.

But just like I’ve learned over 30 years as a preacher that every sermon I give is really for me, I’m starting to get it that the only thing I can do as a church reformer is understand and share how following Jesus and practicing the Christian faith is reforming me.

My own struggles in traditional ministry can be traced back to not just institutional collapse, but my own sense that it was my job to keep it going - by sheer force of will. By thinking I was in charge. By thinking I needed to do God’s job for God.

Now, at 4:22am, I realize I’m still doing the same thing.

So I go for a run.

I’m training for a half marathon in April. I’m turning 60 in the fall, and by then I want to be back in really good shape. My fabulous husband is coaching me, and I’ve got 10 hill repeats (plus 1 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down) on the schedule.

Running is a magic elixer. I often tell myself I don’t have time to run, I have too much work to do, I’m tired, etc., etc. But once I’m out there, my body calms down and my soul fills with joy.

The air is cold. The sun is rising. I feel alive, and I feel God being in charge. I let go of myself.

Hearts up!

I’m fasting, too, for Lent. Following the spiritual exercises I’m developing from the ancient church at the ‘gym for your soul’.

I’m eating, for sure. But a little bit less at every meal, and the simplest foods. I quit eating at 5pm, and break my fast at 6am. It’s amazing how clarifying this is - how it gives me focus.

I realize, although it’s not my nature, that I have to do one thing at a time. I have to discern the next most important thing, and get it done. I ask God to show me what it is.

This week it’s finishing what I call the Golden Document. I’m using AI to build it, and it’s also meant to be for AI to help me run the ecosystem of my ministry.

I can’t do everything myself - but I do have immense technological resources at my fingertips to assist.

The Golden Document is where I’m feeding in every last thought I’m having about how to build the architecture of what I’m envisioning:

• a freestanding ministry of Christian Practice - Trexo.

• a community for innovative ministers building their own ‘faith practices’ - Substack Seminary.

• guidance and direction for a small congregation re-imagining its own ministry - St. Paul’s.

• the theory and principles that undergird it all - Free Range Priest.

The institutional church system is definitely collapsing, and in so many ways I see this as something necessary. It’s time for new systems to be born and thrive.

But it also means a lot of chaos in the meantime. How’s all this supposed to work?

And is it my job to create a whole new system by myself?

Is it? I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like it is. Sometimes I realize how grandiose that sounds - and is. I just have to keep walking the path that God has given me, and trust that it is a small piece of what is necessary.

I think this is what’s keeping me up at night. The feeling of overwhelm.

How to balance how clearly I see things and how strongly I feel called to create with the truth:

• I can’t do it all myself.

• I need God’s guidance and protection.

• I need other people.

I know I’m not alone. I feel God with me. I also have my wonderful partners at Substack Seminary - and , and the amazing people of St. Paul’s.

This week, though, it’s the Golden Document. I just feel like if I can get everything out, and use AI’s help to organize everything I’m envisioning it, then I can share it more clearly with others.

And then maybe I’ll get the courage to let others help me modify the vision, to help me shape it by sharing theirs with me.

Maybe I’ll learn to trust that whatever work is put before me, it is helping me grow closer to God.
And whatever work I don’t get done is doing the same.

Each ministry in the Stained Glass Project has its own Substack site:

Free Range Priest
Substack Seminary
Trexo: a gym for your soul
St. Paul’s, Salisbury, NC

You can subscribe - Free, Paid, or Founding - to each of these to be part of each community.

If you want to be part of everything - and get the discount, and support the Future of Church - you’re invited to become a Founding member of Free Range Priest.

This will give you access as a monthly paid member to all four communities (Subscriptions to St. Paul’s go directly to them. The others support Free Range Priest).

Subscribe now

Hearts up!

Fr. Cathie