Ten Things We’ve Learned from the Bold and Beautiful New Ministries in The Episcopal Church

My heart is grateful for how The Episcopal Church is supporting new ministries. Our General Convention has courageously and sacrificially made mission development a priority. Our Presiding Bishop has added staff and reorganized the Church Center to be a place where outward focus is of equal importance to the internal attention that running a mainline denomination requires.

Another learning is that learning is as fun as you make it!

So, as your friendly Staff Officer for Church Planting Infrastructure, what can we report back to the church? (Brew a pot of hot tea and read the full Blue Book report from the last task force for a detailed picture.) Here are ten quick learnings from the new ministries that are going strong and from those that have closed. There are many more, of course, but consider these:

1. The more you plan, the better it goes. There is no substitute for attention to the details at the very beginning. The ministries that had clarity on diocesan financial support levels, supervisory roles and expectations did better. The ministries that had detailed and thought-through ministry plans excelled. It was the ministries that were fuzzy in finances, oversight and plan that had the hardest time getting out of the gate and were the most likely to run into trouble.
2. A comprehensive assessment of the leader is crucial and must be done before finances are committed. The most common mistake made in the launching of new ministries is to have the right idea and the wrong leader. (We’ve also seen the right leader and the wrong idea!) Starting a new ministry is simply different than leading an existing one. This is not a value judgment, its a fact proven by generations of mission developers. This is why we are moving to a team based, retreat assessment event where we ask for spouses or partners to come along as well. We’ll have three of these Discerning Missional Leadership retreats in 2019. This has to come before jobs are offered and grants awarded, not after.
3. The leaders that invested in coaching did better than those who did not. To do well in this ministry, you gotta be coachable. Our mission developers who prioritized their coaching relationships and acted intentionally out of those conversations did much better than those who saw it as “just one more thing to do” or ignored it completely. Convinced of this, we are removing the benefit of receiving coaching for “free” if you’ve been awarded a grant. The mission developer and diocese need to agree upon its importance, pay for it and be willing to go where it leads. If you can’t do that, this is not the ministry for you!
4. Long term sustainability must be discussed at the beginning, not years later when the grant money runs out. Why have we historically planted churches in suburban locations? One reason is that they have a quicker path to sustainability. But don’t we need to start new ministries in places and for people that will be permanently unsustainable from the populations that they serve? Starting those ministries without a plan for long-term sustainability is wrong. Wrong for the diocese, the planter and the community they’ve worked hard to serve. These ministries are fun to start and devastating to close. Have the money conversation first and plan for this challenge before you decide to start.
5. Time in the community is time well spent. We have some incredible examples of this. Take a look at Good Samaritan, Brownsburg, Indiana and Christ’s Beloved Community in Winston-Salem, NC. Service to the poor, helping the helpers and getting the team out in the community doing ministry together is a secret to success. They’ve done it without the expectation of church growth: they do it because Jesus has said to do it. Launch teams of forty people and fewer turn can into a pastoral size congregation quickly. When all the energy flows inward, significant growth becomes almost impossible.
6. The Genesis cohort of mission developers has made a difference. Starting a new ministry can be lonely work. The clergy often don’t feel like they fit in at diocesan clergy gatherings — the differences in emotion and the practicalities of the work are massive. Our Genesis Group has proven to be a lifesaver and will continue to be so. Providing the space for these people to gather, share and deepen relationships is vital to our success.
7. Grant money has meant the world. In just about every case, none of the ministries that received grants from the TEC budget would exist without it. The prospect of these supporting dollars has helped the church dream and lowered that very high bar new ministries must cross to get started. Have you ever decided to buy a shirt because it was 50% off? Our matching dollars has given Bishops, treasurers and executive councils across the church the opportunity to say “yes”.
8. New ministries start, grow and flow better when they are a direct reflection of a diocesan mission. This can make a huge difference! It is the difference between a new ministry being something “they are doing” versus something “we are doing”. We’ve seen ministries start behind the 8-ball. The Bishop agrees to the idea, but begrudgingly. The treasurer thinks its a terrible idea. The diocesan council delegates don’t understand it. At the first sign of trouble — and there will be trouble! — accusations fly and the mission developer is caught in the crossfire. Alternatively, when a new ministry flows directly from the heart of the Bishop and the clearly articulated vision of a diocese, we’ve seen Episcopalians line up wanting to help.
9. Bad locations are becoming great new locations, and great new locations remain great new locations. Without doubt, there is a glaring need for new churches in locations experiencing tremendous growth across TEC. I maintain that our failure to start these new churches is the primary reason for our decline. We have churches that started out being in a good location, turned into being a bad location, but are now in a good location again! Bravely, we have examples where a diocese has closed a church only to go back and start a new church in the very same building. There is potential for this in many locations right now.
10. We need to pray for these ministries much more. I dream of a national network of intercessors that will pray for these new ministries and the people leading them by name every day. I long for the ideas for these new ministries to emerge from time spent in prayer. We can pray these new ministries into being. Recently, I heard one of our talented church planters tell a group of clergy that she spends ten minutes a day in silent prayer and meditation, asking God to show her what the church needs to look like. Amen. This is hard work — it involves our best intellectual and physical efforts. But in the end, it is a spiritual exercise and the results we want will be achieved on our knees.

Think of the things we’ll know three years from now that we don’t know now. Think of the new ministries that will be changing lives that only exist in the minds and hearts of the ministry developers or better still, in the mind of Jesus! Let’s keep going. Please keep supporting and praying for these new ministries that will glorify Jesus and continue for the sake of love.