'There has to be a better way'
Four paths to reimagining church in the 21st century
It’s been a big week in the Episcopal Church. We have a new leader - Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe, and frankly, I’m beyond excited about his vision for the church. We also said goodbye to retiring Presiding Bishop Michael Curry - who is also my friend, mentor, and former boss.
So this has been an emotional time for me, not just because of my deep respect and admiration for him, but also because when Bishop Curry left North Carolina as our Bishop to become the PB, I also left my job as a member of the Diocesan staff and started my own ministry.
Bp. Curry was the first person to call my ministry ‘Free Range Priest’.
I did not know what I was doing when I started nine years ago, but what I did know was this: the church was in trouble. Things were changing so rapidly around us and we were struggling to adapt. Congregations and clergy were exhausted and disheartened. And afraid.
’There has to be a better way.’
This is the thought that got me started, gave me energy to strike out on my own. There has to be a better way to do and be church in the 21st century.
I want to do my part to find new ways to bear the joy and the hope of the Christian faith into future.
I’m still reading Michael Plekon’s book Ministry Matters, and I’m very honored that chapter 4 is about me!
I’m still figuring it out, of course. But nine years after launching my ministry, this is what I’ve learned - the paths I believe we need to go down as the church to help us find that better way:
Breaking out of the mid-20th century organizational mindset
Meetings, committees, agendas, budgets, buildings, strategic planning, more meetings… The heavy administrative structure - built on the way things were done in the mid 1960s, when the church was in its heyday - is killing us. This is where technology can really help - the kind of digital tools that help entrepreneurs run their own businesses can (and do!) help church communities re-imagine how we ‘do’ church.
Less of the ‘stuff’ of church, and more ‘Good Stuff’, is what I’m fond of saying.Clergy as consultants to communities of lay ministers
Most clergy serve part-time in today’s church. Or, they get paid part-time because congregations can no longer afford full-time salaries, but they’re still working all the time. It’s not sustainable. For anyone.
Often, there’s not a clear concept of what the clergy person’s job is when serving a congregation (‘should I visit every parishioner?’ ‘Is it my job to put together the budget?’ ‘What do people expect me to do with my time - what do I expect me to do with my time?’)
I have developed what I call ‘Sustainable Part-time’ - I serve this way with a small congregation. It’s task-based (not ‘quarter time’ - what do you want me to do for you?). I am not ‘in charge’. My ministry is helping these leaders grow their ministry.
It works for full-time ministry, too!Ministers as creative entrepreneurs
If clergy want to serve their vocation full-time in today’s church and world, it usually means putting together multiple part-time gigs (see #2 for how this can be sustainable). Clergy - and lay ministers! - are also branching out into their own creative expressions of sharing the faith. I did this with Free Range Priest.
There are a growing number of creative ministers doing the same thing:
finding the niche of how they are called to serve the church, and with whom. Some of us do serve at least part-time with a traditional congregation, and some don’t.
I call this becoming a ’Faith Practitioner’.Focus on deepening faith journeys
This goes back to #1 above: the reality is, so many congregations - and clergy - are so overwhelmed with the burden of 20th century administration that devotion to ministry beyond worship takes a back seat. There’s not that much focus on helping individual members grow in their relationship with God.
Often there is ‘Adult Formation’ or Bible Study, but now that at least two generations of Americans have not been raised in any religious tradition, there is a lot of opportunity to introduce (or re-introduce) people to Christianity, and to meet them where they are in terms of their own path to faith.
Personally, I’m starting to develop ’Your Life with God’, a conversation about what it means to be Christian in today’s world.
I certainly don’t believe I have all the answers! I do believe I’m holding one thread in the beautiful tapestry of what the church is becoming. And I remain entirely grateful to be on the Free Range Priest path!
Well I am the author of Ministry Matters and I made chapter 4 about Father Cathie with good reason. Your points here bear this out. My own experience is that for over 40 years I was a university professor and a priest. This was life saving for me and I hope beneficial for the parishes to which I was attached, by now six in number. The hundreds of members of the first parish in which I served are no longer a common or frequent thing. Parishes are much smaller. I would say that several birth cohorts, maybe a generation and part of another, have no experience of being members of a congregation, of the services, sacraments, scriptures and the fellowship of other sisters and brother in faith. We can spend time lamenting this but it's beside the point. Rather, congregations can still be strong communities of faith, prayer and service to the neighborhoods around them. As described here by Fr Cathie. I have two such parishes as our "home" these days, one on either coast, and there is much joy and much good in these communities. Lastly, it is important for pastors to gather, to lead the eucharist, preach, teach, but the growth in Christ is the work of ALL the people of God. This is the most ancient way church existed and worked.
I’ve seen a real need and congregational hunger for #4. Points 1,2,and 3 are spot on, and 4 rang my bell. It goes back to the idea of “Start with why”. Why do we believe what we believe, why do we do what we do. I’ve discovered a significant percentage of parishioners cannot articulate their faith, and they can’t because (it’s difficult to say it) they have never been taught the Good News of Jesus. I am ordering the book Ministry Matters today; I am praying over my next chapter in 2026.