The Single Greatest Problem Facing St Anselm s Today On the 15 th of February 2015 St Anselm s Kingsley made a presentation to parishioners on an important issue. It was titled The Single Greatest Problem Facing St Anselm s Today. This paper is a summary of that presentation. We opened with some speculation about what this presentation might identify as the greatest current challenge facing St Anselm s. Many of the comments were insightful and touched on issues of capacity and access. We then heard of some details that lead us to the main point of the presentation. If I arrive close to 9am on a Sunday there is rarely parking close to the Church. When I finally get parked and make it inside there are some seats still available but the building is pretty full. This observation is backed up by the statistics. Below is an outline of Sunday worship attendance for most of the life of this parish. The ones bracketed at the end are also represented in the graph below that. Note from 2012 onwards the upwards trend. We are not far off 100 worshippers on a regular Sunday.
Our level of activity as a parish is also very high. Our year planner is very full. You can tell that by the number of notices we have on a Sunday. St Anselm s now has a sophisticated ministry structure demanding a lot of attention and wisdom from our leaders. We have grown in complexity in both ministry and the support structures behind it. 2
From all of this growth in numbers, increasing activity and growing organisational complexity it becomes clear that one of the greatest problems facing St Anselm s today is - Our Success. SUCCESS is more than just increased numbers. It also pertains to growing apostles, deepening faith, welcoming newcomers, increased participation and responsibilities among members, financial viability, support of mission initiatives, living up to the vision and mission objectives, being outward-looking and not just inward-focussed Why is our success a problem? We need to be mindful that we are at a point of TRANSITIONAL MINISTRY. Our growth in number and complexity brings with it opportunities and risks. Let s look at what transitional means for us as a Church which might help unpack this. There are some risks associated with rapid growth and development in Churches. If you are not careful you won t just stall you will fall. Burn Out leadership especially senior laity and clergy. Newcomers don t see any room for them. (The 80% rule on Sundays says that if the building looks more than 80% full newcomers often feel that there is no place in that community for them). Churches don t have to grow to serve God. But if you choose to operate at a certain level you do need to become more effective and efficient. Let s look at some theory about growing Churches. Most people think that Churches are like fish when it comes to their growth and development. That is, a Church keeps its basic shape as it grows. There are just more people involved. But we are actually more like frogs. That is, as numbers and complexity increases so the form of the Church community evolves and changes. This is an imperfect metaphor. But put simply - when Churches grow and develop they do not just become a larger version of what they were before. They become totally different in their shape, functioning and organisation. In this context Growth refers to becoming larger in size, busier and more complex in organisation. If we ignore this truth, then we risk running into trouble. Especially if we want to grow our Church in number and in Spirit, and to serve God s agenda in the world. 3
Below is one useful model for differently sized Churches from the Episcopal Church in the United States. You can see that there are four broad categories of Church based on their size and the characteristics that flow from that. Like most models it is a bit of a stereotype but this work does provide some useful insights for us. Especially in the area of how these different sized Churches operate when they function well. Here is how these types of Churches look in detail: 4
FAMILY CHURCH A family Church is generally under 50 members. It s the type of Church you might find operating beautifully in a country town. We do have a number of these sized Churches in the Diocese of Perth and in the metropolitan area. The diagram might look confusing but it is straight forward when you get a chance to consider it. A Family Church is basically one cell which holds a small number of households within it. The white circles represent these in the diagram. Everyone knows the other, their history and their current state of affairs. Family Churches Are relational, that is everyone knows everyone else and they know each other well. The Church is made up of families and households. The priest is basically the chaplain to the families in the Church. Because of the low number of people these Churches generally rely on part time ordained ministry. There are generally one or two lay people who are the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Church. That is, they are the people who know the parish history (mostly because they lived all of it!), form the parish council and have moral authority in this faith community. There is also what this model calls gatekeepers. They are the people who a newcomer will meet when they visit the Church on Sunday or other times. At their best gatekeepers help people come into what is a tight knit community. At their worst they are the people who stop others from finding their place. When it works well, family Church is a great place for stability and nurture. Where everyone feels connected and part of a loving network. 5
PASTORAL CHURCH Pastoral Churches have a full time priest at the centre of decision making and activity. It s the priest who will make contact with newcomers. Be responsible for making sure that things run smoothly. The priest (with LPMs) will visit those who are ill and in need of pastoral care. The priest is the person responsible for ensuring that leaders in the community are equipped to carry out their ministries, and The buck stops with the priest. In a Church of this size, 50 up to 150 members, it is not always possible to get to know everyone as intimately as a family Church. What tends to happen is that different circles of friendship and connection co-exist in the parish community. Members belong at different levels of commitment and connection. Membership Circle People who are on the Parish Roll / Directory and who attend worship and some activities. Fellowship Circle People who attend most worship and activity events and identify as belonging to the parish. Leadership Circle People who take responsibility for the life and running of the Church. Pastoral Churches are busy places which can rely a lot on a few. They have the capacity to have more activities and programs to offer members and newcomers. They represent a significant proportion of Churches in our Diocese. For us at St Anselm s I suspect that we are somewhere between this sort of Church and the next one, Program Church. 6
PROGRAM CHURCH Program Church is necessary when the number of members means that everything can t rest with the Rector. It s hard to service 100 people, their families and the local community with just one full time employed person. A program Church is also less relational and more, well, program focused. Obviously it is still essential to nurture friendships and real connections between members of the faith community, but in a Church like this organisation is based around areas of ministry. The priest is the enabler and chief administrator, working in a close knit team of lay elected and appointed leaders. These leaders take full responsibility for different aspects of the Church s life. The buck for ensuring that everything goes according to plan, and that plans are actually made rests with them. Program Churches are exciting and busy places, opening the way for creativity and new ways of doing business as the People of God. There are not so many of these types of parishes in our Diocese. St Anselm s could be one soon. 7
CORPORATE CHURCH Corporate Churches hold more than 350 members, and Mega Churches number in the thousands. I ll leave a description of these until next year when we are getting close to these numbers here at St Anselm s. You can see from these descriptions of different sized Churches that we are in a transitional phase. We are moving in number and in structure from a Pastoral Church into a Program Church. We are in a time of transitional ministry. Which asks a hard question. Where do we want to go (vision), What will we look like when we get there (objectives), and What might hold us back on the way (roadblocks and resistance) Where do we want to go (vision) This might seem obvious, but is it really? There is some sacrifice and effort that comes from growing and changing Churches. So in a time of transitional ministry the first question we must ask ourselves is What type of Church do I want? This must then be measured against the Divine Agenda. That is What type of Church does God want? If the answers differ - whose vision do I adopt? Essentially at issue here is how comfortable we feel about our Church growing and changing. Will we support the changes that come from that? 8
What will we look like when we get there, (objectives) If we choose to move towards a Program Church shape at St Anselm s we could end up looking something like this. This means that the priest is an enabler to a group of lay and clerical leaders who take responsibility for the life of our parish. They are the ones who make things happen and undertake the planning and effort to make that a reality. We are part way there already. But there is some further change and commitment required to embed this sort of Church structure at St Anselm s. Please also note. The diagram above is not set in stone. There could be more program (ministry) areas or less. We have to make this look like St Anselm s and add in our distinctiveness to make this truly effective and to serve God s call to us. What might hold us back on the way? (road blocks / resistance) Finally it s important to acknowledge that there will be factors which will hinder this process. Ongoing dialogue within our faith community will be crucial to address the very valid concerns people will bring up during any process of change and development. Two common concerns are these: 1. People often make these comments when talking about growth from Pastoral to Program Church. It s not like it used to be because: I don t know everyone. Or I don t get to see / be visited by the priest. 2. A Lot of energy and effort is required. As we a. Find creative solutions to emerging challenges; b. Enable leaders to carry out their ministry; c. Change the Rector s role; d. Make room for newcomers. 9
To conclude: let s reframe the question of our presentation: The Single Greatest Opportunity Facing St Anselm s Today is? Our Success. Let s leave all this with a truism when it comes to Church development and growth. And ask you to reflect and pray about where we are to go as a faith community as we seek to serve Christ and our community. Mark McCracken 2015 10