We all know what the ministry ‘cage’ is.
The 20th century institutional church system is collapsing. Ministers and congregations are exhausting themselves trying to hold it together: another budget meeting, another committee, another program we’re hoping will ‘bring in young families’ and more volunteers.
The work of upholding the institution threatens the reason it exists: sharing the love of God and having our lives transformed by it.
Cage Free Ministry is stepping outside the institutional system far enough to rediscover the JOY of serving the church and the people in it.
Most of us know in our bones that the 20th century institutional church is collapsing.
We feel the anxiety and burden. We know the pressure and exhaustion.
And mostly: we don't know what to do about it.
Or we try the same things over and over again, expecting different results.
Or we're simply overwhelmed by the huge changes required to overall an institution.
Or we just quit - we quit going to church, we give up on our ministry callings.
But there are things we can change - small, practical steps that can lead us to more ministry sustainability and JOY.
Cage Free Ministry gives you those steps.
At St. Paul’s in Salisbury, NC, I serve alongside the congregation rather than being ‘in charge’ of it. We agree on the work I provide, while the community takes responsibility for its leadership and decisions (the story of that relationship).
From them - and in my years of serving my own Cage Free Ministry as a Free Range Priest - I’ve developed concepts for ‘bite-sized’ changes based on a new way of thinking about ministry and building a more agile system from the inside of church.
Cage Free Ministry is 12 rubrics built around:
the System: how we organize ourselves as the church.
the Community: what we do and believe as the church.
the Minister: how lay and ordained leaders serve God and the church together.
You'll learn them the way we’re learning them:
by practicing, discovering, and building sustainable, JOYful ways of bringing church to people.
Cage Free Ministry is NOT …
The minister doing ‘everything’.
No boundaries around time or energy (regardless of what the minister is paid).
No explicit understanding of what the minister’s job is within the community (or what everyone else’s job is…)
Everyone assuming the minister does whatever the last minister did, or whatever this minister did at their last calling. Whatever that is.
Whatever the pastor says, goes.
Clergy ‘in charge’, making all the decisions.
Opportunities for conflict/issues between minister and congregation.
Confusing apostolic teaching and theological authority with ‘being the boss’ of an organization.
Organizing outreach and social service initiatives as the central work of the church.
Serving our neighbors is important! But it’s the fruit of the faith.
Ministry supports the spiritual growth and maturity that inspires members to serve their neighbors.
Losing sight of the theology, liturgy, tradition, and authority of the church.
In fact, it is returning and reconnecting with the practices of the early church and the Scripture, creeds, and sacraments of the broadest tradition of the Christian faith.
It’s church being church - and retaining your own congregational/denominational traditions
… and canons, guidelines, structures, regulations.
A static church website (that no one sees) and a social media account (no one keeps up with)
and calling this ‘digital ministry’.
Instead, it’s using today’s technology as the center of ministry operations
… lowering administrative burdens and increasing evangelical reach.
Another capital campaign. Another pledge drive.
More hoping for ‘young families’ and ‘more volunteers’ to shoulder the work we’re being exhausted by.
Instead, it’s using agile creative business concepts (including subscriptions) to create truly sustainable ministry.
The expectation of being in a particular building several times a week.
Or having to have an app for all the ways we’re scheduled to ‘work’ at church.
Or having to find more ‘volunteers’.
Instead, it’s each member growing in their own ministry and deeper relationship with God.
Become a subscriber to Free Range Priest, and you’ll be on your way to becoming Cage Free!
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You can be Cage Free
There are small steps you can take to live into an agile, networked, technology-based system of being and doing church.
Ministry can be sustainable for ministers and small communities.
New ways of sharing the faith can thrive in the 21st century.
We can have our lives transformed by the Gospel by bringing church to people.
Reimagine ministry with Free Range Priest.
