I’m Father Cathie - you can find out more about me HERE - and my ministry is called Free Range Priest.
WHY are we reimagining ministry in the digital age?
It’s the meetings that are killing us. It’s the budgets that are killing us. It’s the fact that we have to pay for everything and we can’t — that’s killing us. It’s the fact that we can’t make a living as a minister that’s killing us.
It’s not learning the faith. It’s not sharing the faith. It’s not knowing that God loves us, and living in a world where we see the kingdom of God at hand, and sharing that with others.
Free Range Priest is about having less of the ‘stuff’ of ministry - and more of the Good Stuff.
Who FrP is for:
We’re lay and ordained, from all the traditions, serving inside, outside, alongside the institution. We’re people preparing for ministry and those who are retired. We’re full time in a congregation or denominational staff. We’re ‘part-time’ - meaning we get paid part-time and we’re working full-time, often in more than one place. We’re working secular jobs in order to pay for our ministry. We’re worried about losing our jobs. We’re worried about losing our church. We’re entrepreneurial ministers - clergypreneurs - creating online ministry or ministry as an author, musician, spiritual director, coach, consultant or faith practitioner of any kind. We’re serving both traditional ministry ministry and as a clergypreneur. We’re watching the institutional church collapse and wondering if we can save it. We’re praying the institutional church doesn’t collapse and trying to do the same things over and over and hope different results. We don’t know what to do.
Free Range Priest is the umbrella ministry
Once a month (usually third Sunday of the month) - I’ll send a blog about the general topic of how the church is moving into the future - what’s changing, what’s collapsing, how we’re seeing God leading us through.
We’re coming from different places and needs - some of us are interested in some parts, not others.
So I’ve developed three lenses for how to look at reimagining ministry from different points and perspectives…
Lens one: The System
Vision: Agile, networked, technology-based, focused on Christian practice and small worshiping communities
Lens 2: The Community
Vision: Welcome, Belonging, Formation, and Practice
Lens 3:The Minister:
GRIT!!
God (Wondering where God is in the midst of all this)
Root (Focusing on the ‘root’ over the ‘fruit’ of Christian faith)
In charge (Not being ‘in charge’ of congregations)
Task-based contracts (Not doing ‘everything’)
!! (…and giving up trying to save the institution!)
I’ve created 4 Newsletters to look at how these lenses work for your ministry…
At Cage Free Ministry - we’ll go through the System…
It’s about how to do it yourself - break out of the institutional gridlock and bring church to people in your own context, with your own ministry.
Monthly coaching email (last Wednesday of month)
Your six word mission statement (everyone!)
Copy of ebook - The Free Range Priest Way (about the three lenses - exclusively for paid FrP subscribers)
Courses (paid subscribers get 10% off)
One of the small practical things we can do as ministers in the digital age is get rid of static church websites that are now out there in the new internet wilderness - and build an engaging digital ministry system instead! Ask Father Cathie (first Wednesday of the month, for paid subscribers)
Trexo and Substack Seminary are how the lenses are applied …
Trexo: a gym for your soul
Christian practices from the earliest church. Stretch and strengthen your soul to draw closer with God.
It’s Lens 1: the System - because it’s agile and networked. You can participate individually or as a member of a congregation. And Lens 2: the Community - because it is directly about Christian formation practice (which also makes it part of Lens 3: the Minister, because it’s about ‘root, not fruit’!)
Practices (join the gym/become a paid FrP subscriber)
Coffee with Coaches (3 Wednesdays a month, for paid subscribers), coaching email the next day - for everyone!
Workout/Rule of Life (for gym members)
Substack Seminary
This is Cage Free Ministry in community.
It’s Lens 1: the System - because networked and technology-based. And Lens 2: the Community -because it focuses on Welcome and Belonging. And it’s about all parts of Lens 3: the Minister!
Substack Seminary is active on a Quarter schedule (6-7 weeks each)
Q1: Vision & Systematic Change (Jan - Mar)
Q2: Structure & Business Model (Post Easter till late May/early June)
Q3: Theology & Community (August/September)
Q4: Technology & Collaboration (Mid-Oct - Mid-Nov)
Wednesday blog on topic(for all)
Live stream on topic (Thursdays 3:30 Eastern - paid)
Weekly chat on the topic starts Monday (also for paid members)
Find what others are writing on Substack - Fridays for everyoneevery Friday morning, I just put out a blog to everybody who follows me that lists six blogs I read that week that inspired, moved, or engaged me.
I share it as a way to promote other writers on Substack (I subscribe to over 350 publications!) and also as a way to help people who might be new to Substack or not sure where to find things.
I think of this as Lens 1: the System, because it’s agile, networked, and technology-based. It’s also Lens 2: the Community, because it focuses on Welcome and Belonging. And Lens 3: the Minister, because it’s a lot of ministry that is not part of the institution.
Become a Founding member to get everything -
including free courses and a yearly 1-1 check in with me!
It’s the most affordable -and effective - clergy coaching and church consulting for the future of church
At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.
Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.
Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.
