Parish Development in the Diocese of Toronto By the staff of the (Resource) Strategy and Development Unit, in consultation with David Robinson, Director of Congregational Development, Diocese of Toronto 1. Introduction The July 2010 issue of the Resourcing Mission Bulletin included a paper entitled Sustainable and Strategic Ministry: Resource Reallocation in the diocese of Toronto. 1 The paper detailed how the diocese of Toronto is reallocating resources to support its strategy of sustainable and strategic ministry whereby every parish in the diocese is classified as either sustainable, static, strategic, or unsustainable and that classification is used to determine resource allocation decisions. The aim of the diocese s strategy is to transform its whole ministry and organization so that it has a more explicit focus on growth, in response to rapid reductions in attendance across the Diocese and major demographic changes. During the period 1991-2003, there had been an overall decline in total average Sunday attendance of nearly 10%, from 30,254 to 27,340, at a time when the population of the diocese increased by almost one million. 35% of Church membership is over the age of 60 compared to 15% of the general population. This paper looks at the key offerings provided by the diocese of Toronto to support parish development, delivered through the Diocese s Congregational Development team of four staff. 2 This work is itself driven by the Diocesan Strategy and is an integral part of the on-going growth and development objectives of the Diocese. The over-arching Mission Statement is for a Diocese Building healthy, vital, missional communities of hope and compassion. The Diocesan Plans and Priorities for 2011-13 have translated this into action through the Our Faith, Our Hope Re-imagine Church campaign. The parameters of this are: Strengthening local parishes Building the church for tomorrow Revitalising our inheritance Giving to others beyond ourselves Strengthening local parishes is therefore a key element of the Plans and one that has been rolled forward from the 2009-11 plan, providing a vital element of continuity. It also helps embed the process within the Diocese, rather than treating it as another initiative. The various offerings have been put together specifically to address the full range of parish needs in helping them to grow and become financially sustainable and, critically, also link into other areas of diocesan activity such as appointments, health and viability, and finance. 1 http://www.churchofengland.org/media/57304/resourcing%20mission%20bulletin%20- %20all%20papers%20-%20July%202010.pdf 2 We are indebted to the Revd Canon Howell-Jones for some of this material, following his visit to Toronto Diocese in Autumn 2010 to find out more about the sustainable and strategic ministry plan. 1
The aim is that the processes for parish development will continue as the campaign moves on. 2. Growing healthy missional congregations To deliver growing, healthy and missional congregations, the diocese has adopted a structured approach to the life of its churches. This focuses on supporting them: In transition, helping them to manage interregnums when they are selecting a new incumbent and then helping the new incumbent and congregation work together; To become healthy; To become missional. A suite of tools is provided to help parishes undertake this. Critically, the diocese also has a cadre of highly skilled experienced volunteers to help provide facilitation, consulting and resource support to parishes, alongside the staff of the Ministry Resources team, to help parishes through the various stages. 3. Transition: Managing interregnums, supporting new clergy and the Fresh Start programme Fresh Start is a diocesan-led programme which seeks to strengthen the relationships among clergy, congregational lay leaders, the bishops and diocesan staff during critical periods of transition in clergy leadership in the congregation. Parishes and incumbents are encouraged (and expected) to make a substantial investment of time and effort to make sure the interregnum itself, the subsequent appointment and the establishment of the new incumbent, are managed well. Diocesan support, including coaching and facilitation (see below) is available to help parish selection committees manage the departure of the existing incumbent, and to recruit and then support a replacement. The strengths and weaknesses of the parishes as recorded through the Natural Church Development (NCD) evaluation (see below) are taken into account in running the recruitment process, to ensure the new incumbent is well placed to address the weaknesses identified in the evaluation. The support extends to formal issues (such as employment and canonical law) and how to draft a realistic parish profile. It also deals with important issues they may face during the interregnum. The Fresh Start programme itself begins with a pre-appointment session for the congregation, covering Exits and Entrances, to help them understand transition theory and how the process will work. In total, the Fresh Start programme involves up to six sessions over a two-year period, covering the transition issues they may face and how to welcome and support their new incumbent. For the clergy, once in their new incumbency the programme involves them in monthly meetings with other newly-appointed clergy for a period of two years. These gatherings are led by trained Fresh Start facilitators and offer a collegial environment in which to examine transition issues in the new ministry. Clergy are expected to participate in this programme. 2
4. Health: Natural Church Development To grow churches to be healthy, the diocese has adopted the model of Natural Church Development (NCD). This focuses on eight characteristics or marks of healthy, growing churches. As a starting point, congregations can gauge their overall health by using evaluation tools provided by NCD Canada as a comprehensive and structured approach to identify areas of strength and weakness, and to use their stronger characteristics to address their areas of weakness. The tool is cyclical that is, it provides a way of checking constantly (usually annually) how the parish is moving towards health and viability. It is recognised that this approach is best suited to parishes in a relatively stable situation, and a facilitator trained in NCD is available to support parishes through the process. As at June 2012, 101 congregations had begun the NCD process with over 200 survey cycles completed with the assistance of 18 volunteer coaches. Of these parishes, 14 have seen numerical growth and a further 26 have begun to see attendance stabilise. The diocese has exemplars from different traditions which other parishes can make contact with to understand how NCD will work with their churchmanship and worship style. 5. Mission-Shaped Parishes: Mission: Learn and Mission: Do Once overall congregational health has been achieved, the next step is to develop proclamation and mission. This is now the focus of diocesan support. The strategy aims for the diocese to become shaped for mission and faithful to God s call to serve all in a post-christendom context. To develop its approach to missional transformation, the diocese created two part-time positions: a Bishop s Officer for Mission and a Missional Coach (there are now two coaches). The new part-time position of Bishop s Officer for Mission is engaged in initiatives to help every parish to be mission-shaped through educational resources and opportunities, encouraging local projects, developing funding processes and coaching mission leaders. The diocesan resource for parishes is now focused entirely on mission development and stewardship: familiar functional posts such as youth officers have been cut and the responsibility delegated to parishes. The diocese provides these resources for parishes under the headings of Mission: Learn and Mission: Do. These include both traditional approaches to parish ministries, and developing different approaches to connecting with people who are not being served by traditional forms of church, in the form of Fresh Expressions. Mission: Learn provides links to a five week Mission Possible bible study process 3 and a five-week Canadianised Mission Shaped Introduction 4 course providing different perspectives on learning about and discussing mission within the church. Mission: Do 3 http://www.toronto.anglican.ca/parish-life/mission-shaped-parish/mission-learn/resources/ 4 http://www.toronto.anglican.ca/parish-life/mission-shaped-parish/mission-learn/ 3
covers the Missional Transformation Project, which helps develop parishes for mission, as well as Church Planting and Fresh Expressions. 6. Missional Transformation Project The Diocese also engaged Alan Roxburgh and John McLaverty of the Missional Network 5 to implement a new initiative called the Missional Transformation Project (MTP). MTP seeks to help congregations and clergy re-learn the key abilities and behaviours necessary to enable them to be missional. This is a 2-year process, described as an Olympic athlete level of mission. Toronto is recruiting parishes which have the leadership capacity and overall health (measured through NCD) to benefit from participation as well as to contribute to the diocese s learning. In addition to delivering the programme, the Missional Coach is helping the diocese to develop its capacity to offer the programme without the need for outside expertise. The aim is that the third cycle of MTP will be delivered in-house. Eight congregations and their clergy began the two-year programme of intentional missional listening and experiments in October 2010. The Project was rolled out to a further 8 parishes beginning in Easter 2012. Experience so far is that this programme is generally more successful when a parish has a NCD RQBI 6 capacity score over 30; in practice this means that the parish is able to identify its issues and act on them. MTP has three strands. Each participating member of the clergy is given a pastor leader 360 which helps them to identify what they need to build on to enable them to become missional leaders. Alongside the clergy 360, each church taking part in the MTP is given the opportunity to be involved in Appreciative Inquiry. Each church does about 30 different listening interviews with their community, to understand what God is up to within their own people. The third strand in the MTP is a church leadership 360 which, again, is carried out in each participating church. This helps the churches to look at the structural issues which may either inhibit them or help them to move out into their neighbourhood. The approach is resource intensive: charges over the two years are $3,000 per parish, $3,000 per priest and the diocese contributes $10,000 per parish in addition. Only churches which are sufficiently healthy to be able to undertake and benefit from the programme are therefore invited to join. 7. Managing parishes experiencing difficulties: closure and rebooting A specific strategy has been developed to act on those churches that may be experiencing difficulty and heading towards decline. Where a church has a deficit in its Common Fund (parish share) contribution of the equivalent of three months worth of payments, the diocese provides a team of volunteers who work closely with the parish and the Area 5 http://www.roxburghmissionalnet.com 6 RQBI = Radical Quality Balance Index, - a technical term used by NCD practitioners 4
Bishop to develop and restore the parish s finances. This might include reviewing income from sources such as hall hire, running stewardship campaigns, and improving cost management. Typically, the teams succeed in turning around the finances after two years. If the church is unable to achieve viability after three years, and is not regarded as strategic 7, the church or parish is placed into administration and closure procedures are initiated. Where a parish is regarded as strategic a Parish Reboot might be considered. This involves a team of people under an experienced rebooter working in collaboration with the local congregation. This builds on the existing resources of the parish, but helps reconfigure or retool their ministry for new forms of mission in the parish. Often, the rebooting will involve developing fresh expressions of ministry to adapt to major demographic changes. In some cases, a church might be closed but the assets retained for, say, two years to enable a replant to take place and provide effectively a fresh beginning. The diocese is clear that rebooting and planting are different approaches and require very different skill sets: rebooters typically are skilled in working with existing congregations and in delivering change. 8. Church Planting and Fresh Expressions: planting new churches and supporting innovative ways to live and proclaim the Gospel In 2010 the Diocese reconfigured its Church Plant Working Group as the Fresh Expressions Working Group to reflect an expanded role of both encouraging traditional church planting and also encouraging new forms of church to reach the unchurched and de-churched. This work is overseen by the Revd Jenny Andison, Bishop s Officer for Mission. The diocese has also worked to implement the Mission Possible bible study process 8 and the Canadianised Mission Shaped Introduction 9 programme, instituted in 2010 with over 300 participants. Since 2010 the theological colleges in the diocese have also offered a Pioneer Track within their Master of Divinity courses, for those whose preference is to begin new ministries, churches, and fresh expressions of church. The Bishop s Mission Officer also works to oversee and support the work of church planters and missional leaders engaged in work on the ground. Great care is taken in choosing leaders for church plants: potential planters undergo a rigorous 4-hour interview process. In many cases, the individual(s) may not be regarded as planters but the interview scorecard might point to other roles, such as rebooting. Most planters work for around 18 months to establish the new plants before moving on: in such cases the diocese does not use the Fresh Start programme, but deploys clergy good at taking on and nurturing such young churches. 7 That is, in an important location or with an important, distinct ministry, but needs support to develop. 8 http://www.toronto.anglican.ca/parish-life/mission-shaped-parish/mission-learn/resources/ 9 http://www.toronto.anglican.ca/parish-life/mission-shaped-parish/mission-learn/ 5
9. Reach Grants Program - Grants for Mission The Fresh Expressions Working Group proposed and implemented the Reach Grants program to provide small amounts ($500 - $5,000) of start-up funding for local Fresh Expressions that will reach those not currently reached by traditional forms of church. Specific consideration is given to ministry initiatives that are intended to reach out to and connect effectively with the un-churched or the de-churched. As at 2011, $25,000 had been allocated to 12 diverse and innovative projects across the diocese. Examples of grants include $2,500 for a summer day camp for de-churched and unchurched children, funding specifically advertising and materials to provide a bridge from bible study to Messy Church. This has resulted in new baptisms and attracted whole families to the congregation. Another grant was provided to a community centre working with homeless and street people, to help set up a community bakery which would provide jobs and training in an intentionally Christian environment. The grant was used to purchase an industrial oven; the bakery is now supplying communion wafers to churches and high quality bread and rolls to local restaurants. 10. Stewardship In 2004, year-round stewardship education and a six-week sacrificial giving programme was developed by the diocese to provide a more structured approach to stewardship training. Stewardship has now been taken a stage further and developed into the Our Faith Our Hope campaign, launched in August 2010. This provides a highly structured, Diocesan-wide campaign approach. Groups of parishes participate in separate blocks so that they can be effectively supported by the Diocese. At the outset, the Archbishop writes to each participating parish with the campaign start date and an assigned parish fund-raising goal. A campaign director is assigned to each parish to assist them throughout the process, training incumbents and volunteers on proper fundraising procedures, ensuring the campaign adheres to the timetable, and providing campaign materials. Volunteers from parishes from the first blocks also help coach parishes in subsequent blocks. The goals and achievements of individual parishes (and incumbents) are published, and successes are celebrated through a series of newsletters. Parishes are given a target sum to raise based on their income and assessed ability to fund-raise. Parishes retain 40% of the sums they raise, and get to keep 75% of any funds in excess of their allotted target. The programme has raised $38m 10 to date and aims to reach $50m. The diocese also provides a range of more traditional stewardship materials and courses to support day-to-day stewardship activity. One of the most popular is the Missional Narrative Budget, introduced in 2009, which helps parishes explain how their offerings are being used to spread the Gospel message in the community. The aim is for the Vestry (the equivalent of a PCC) to demonstrate its accountability to the rest of the membership, so that its accountability inspires trust, and trust inspires commitment. The diocese is 10 A Canadian Dollar is worth c. 62.5pence. The sum raised is about 23.75m and the target over 31m. 6
currently in the process of developing a new generation of stewardship material adapted to the needs of the 21st century. 11. Welcoming ministry Material for assessing and developing a good welcoming ministry is provided primarily on the diocesan website (rather than via the Diocesan support staff), and is provided to support NCD within individual parishes, where development of a welcoming ministry is identified as a weakness. The material covers: Getting Involved - a simplified description of the process of how potential new congregational members or visitors may view a church on their first visit(s) and the factors which may determine whether or not they decide to attend, and go on to become active members and disciples; Taking stock - instructions for existing congregations on how to assess their existing welcoming ministry and how to improve it; The components to consider in an Action Plan. These include the NCD assessment and Visioning process described above; Welcoming events; Every- Member Evangelism; Organising for Growth; Small Group Ministry; and Marketing and Advertising. Links are also provided to potential resources, examples and ideas on how to develop welcome, covering a range of church traditions. This includes resources for Back to Church Sunday and Magnetic Church (a non-confrontational, practical way of evangelism to help churches attract and retain new members ). 12. Gifts discernment Similarly, the diocesan website provides access to resources to assist congregations where necessary to create, expand and support a ministry of all the baptized through a gifts discernment programme. This includes three courses (Life Keys, the Stephen Ministry Gifts Inventory and NCD Colours of Ministry ), as well as links on its website to a range of internet resources and reading material. 13. Adapting church buildings for effective ministry and mission The diocese has noted that: Healthy growth requires careful pruning as well as planting, tilling and nurturing. In recognition of this, diocesan staff have worked with a number of parishes to reconfigure and reorganize congregations for sustainable ministry. There were 10 closures and amalgamations between 2009 and 2011. A further option has been the designation of churches as chapels of ease. This option provides for communities where a need for continuing pastoral care to a community has been identified, but when it is not viable to maintain a congregation as a standalone parish or a full point of a multi-point parish (the equivalent of a team). 5 such designations were undertaken in 2009-11. In parallel, there are on-going strategic discussions with clusters of parishes to explore reconfiguration and innovation to respond to the specific challenges in 7
different parts of the diocese, leading either to reconfiguration, Fresh Expressions or new church planting. All of these reconfigurations were done to allow the Church to respond in more missional and effective ways to the challenges of ministry in the relevant areas. The capital funds realised through the sale of surplus properties continue to be redeployed in support of mission at the local level throughout the diocese. 14. Coaches and facilitators The structured use of coaches and facilitators has been a key strand of the diocese s approach to church development. The diocese has an on-going process of recruiting, training and deploying coaches and facilitators, to assist congregations with resourcing at critical times. Specific examples include those facilitators trained in Natural Church Development, who assist parishes in the NCD cycle; those in the Fresh Start programme, who are available to assist parishes to prepare for a new incumbency; those used to help parishes with financial issues; and those deployed to help bishops lead Parish Selection Committees effectively. This has resulted in a significant reduction in the time taken by many parishes to fill vacant incumbencies. An additional team of volunteers has recently been established to help with parish mergers and closures. Volunteer coaches and facilitators are thus a key resource for the diocese, and are managed accordingly, with their support and development given a high priority. The volunteers meet every 6 weeks as a team, and the aim is to build a praxis in each area. The diocese now has several staff trained in volunteer management providing the equivalent of a full-time post. 15. Conclusion The diocese of Toronto provides a model for parish development which: is an integral and supporting element of a wider, long-term strategy to deliver parishes with strengthened health and viability; is highly structured, with clear pathways for parishes to follow on their journey, from whichever point they start; is long-term, so it can be adapted and developed in the light of experience and becomes part of the DNA of diocesan and parish life; utilises a wide range of pre-existing resources as well as developing bespoke offerings, to meet a wide range of development needs; has shown it can help parishes grow and develop both their mission and financial health. Equally, the approach provides a way of targeting interventions and holding parishes to account, through approaches such as: assessing parishes mission and financial health and viability at regular intervals; the NCD cycle has the concepts of evaluation, review and continuous improvement built in; 8
having clear goals and expectations with regard to mission and viability. As a case study, Toronto also provides an interesting example of a theory of change at work, where there is a clear logic of how various interventions will deliver an overall goal. In this case, a long-term strategic goal (strengthening parishes) is the focus for a range of clearly structured support and interventions, which are designed to help parishes deliver their own goals of becoming healthy in terms of mission and funding. 16. Further information For further information please contact: David Robinson, Director of Congregational Development: drobinson@toronto.anglican.ca Heather Steeves, Consultant in Congregational Development and Volunteer Management: hsteeves@toronto.anglican.ca The Revd. Jenny Andison, Bishop s Officer for Mission: jandison@toronto.anglican.ca The Revd Canon Dr Duke Vipperman, Missional Coach: dvipperman@toronto.anglican.ca 9