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Congregational Sustainablity in the Independent/Old Catholic Community

One of the most significant issues facing the IC/OC movement is sustainability and leadership development. Most congregations in this movement shut their doors at the death or resignation of a pastor. It is essential to have strong lay and clerical leadership in a congregation. Financial sustainability is critical and that requires building a good stewardship model of raising givers to our ministries. Leadership sustainability requires building strong lay leadership,discerning and preparing people for ordained ministry. A good discipleship model will produce lay leaders and ordained leaders arising from our common baptismal call to ministry.

My thoughts on church planting

 The primary mission for all congregations is making disciples . The goal of ministries is transformed lives. Vision is the local context of the mission expressed by how you incarnate your ministry to the people you have been called to reach for the kingdom.
Strategy is the tools that you use to make your church a disciple making organism through worship, study, service, community building and evangelism. In the Independent Old Catholic environment, the Eucharist, daily office, sacraments, catechumenate, bible study are some of the instruments that we utilize . We are constantly focused on helping our people grow spiritually and in discipleship.

Some thoughts on evangelism,church planting,renewal,diversity in the OC/IC movement.

I believe that  Independent/Old Catholic congregations of all sizes can be strong missionary outposts in our local communities

I believe that our congregations can be vital and thriving communities regardless of size.  It is for this reason that I have studied congregational development, church planting and renewal.  I believe the  primary focus of our congregations should be on making disciples, not seeking folks from other churches. The unchurched and dechurched among our communities is significant. If we accept the great commission from Jesus “to makes disciples “ we can create vital communities of various sizes and demographics.  It is from the unchurched and dechurched   people in our communities who should be our primary mission field. They are often right in the neighborhood where are churches are situated.
I believe like the pastor of a Roman Catholic parish in Baltimore, we have much to learn from some of our evangelical brothers and sisters.

“Without apology and eventually without embarrassment, we became students of successful growing churches. Most all that we studied are evangelical Protestants, who have more or less cornered the market when it comes to intentional church growth across the America religious landscape. Seventy five percent of Catholics who have left the Catholic Church to become Protestants have chosen evangelical churches, so it looked like a good place to start. Clearly they have something to teach us. “Father Michael White, Author of Rebuilt.
Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, Making Church Matter

There are many resources from Episcopal/Anglican and Lutheran congregations on effective evangelism and reaching the unchurched. Many of these principles can be adapted to our sacramental context. The creation of welcoming environments for the unchurched is crucial to this evangelism. I must say in this movement some of us have been waiting for large numbers of Roman Catholics to leave their parishes and join us. That rarely happens, except in unique situations.

But there are many evangelicals and non-affiliated ex-Catholics who have not grace the doors of the Roman Catholic Church or our doors. We know that in the majority of evangelical churches, mainline Protestants and that large denomination called “Nones” consists of former Roman Catholics. So it’s possible that we could attract those folks who have left and not found another spiritual home. There are people in our community who been not been a part of any church or  a part of conservative churches who are looking for places to connect to Christ in a community.  How do we reach those people?

If we are to reach those folks, we will need to meet their spiritual needs that have been identified in research.   Strong scriptural preaching applied to daily living, liturgy with strong and good music that they can sing, Bible study that helps people connect and understand scripture and finally service to those in need in our local community, hands on service, not just charity. 

We don’t need to become fundamentalists as we do this.

We may have to find new ways to gather people for worship, study and service and it might not be on a Sunday morning, or in a traditional church building. Things have changed in our society, a lot of people works on weekends, families are often engage in youth sports and that is our competition.  In the Northwest hiking, being outdoors or brunch with friends occupy many young adults and young families. So let the Holy Spirit guide you in serving new expressions of ministry. So instead of lamenting why people have changed, we should be thinking of new ways we can connect to them.  Traditional expressions of church will remain the majority of our ministries, done well, they can draw the unchurched. Excellence in all we do is important. Father Michael White says the weekend experience is primary to our connecting to the unchurched. “The weekend experience is the number one opportunity for people in the community to connect with church.  And almost everyone who actually does come in contact with the parish does so on the weekend.  In that brief time, they will decide if it’s worth it to come back or not. If the experience is boring and bad, then they won’t”

Bishop Eugene Sutton of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland shared this gem in a sermon to pastoral musicians about worship.

“Good worship consists of its own “three legged stool”: music, liturgy and preaching. Each leg of that stool is important, and if one of them is weak than the other two will not be able to stand for long. The truth is no matter how earnestly a church may pour itself into serving its community (which, as I said earlier, is a good thing), if the preaching is uninspiring, the liturgy is sloppy, or the music is barely listenable, then that church will shrink and eventually may have to close its doors as a worshiping community. “

These things ring true for traditional or new expressions of congregations. We do not need to throw out the baby, but we may have to change the bathwater

 Stephanie Spellers speaking about Anglican essentials and evangelism, believes that embracing diversity in the church may require us to change the bathwater without throwing out the baby.  As in the Episcopal Church ,the IC/OC movement  is majority white and middle class. That often shapes the culture of most of our congregations and ministries. Yet if we are going to do evangelism that  reaches other generations and people of diverse cultures. It requires some adaption. They  might seek what we offer and adapt it to their culture or local context. We are called by Jesus ”to make disciples of all people”  So here is what I believe are essentials in our movement as Independent/Old Catholics that we can adapt in traditional and new expressions of congregations:

 The vernacular principle, Incarnation, ancient Catholic traditions,liturgical ordo , God’s mission and Jesus. I add  to those  baptismal covenant and living, eucharistic ecclesiology, synodality, unity in diversity. If we build ministries around these essentials, they make look different in your local ministry context, but they can hold our catholicity.

Our mission and ministry would look different in Seattle and Minneapolis, have a different flavor of worship in an Anglo, African-American, Latino or Asian congregation. Our congregational outreach might focus on immigrants, homeless people, LGBT persons, women or children, our catholicity will hold together in our essentials.   Let’s look around us to see where God might be calling us to plant, renew or create diverse expressions of ministries.  

Our greatest opportunity to reach God’s people is often right in front of our eyes, our local neighborhood. Many people, who never attend your congregation, consider you their pastor.  I encourage some priests to return to the concept of neighborhood or parish ministry.   Make Jesus known to your neighbor, by getting to know your neighbors.  Our congregations must always be outward focused on reaching those who are not a part of our communities. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that God is providing us.

Now to those who think, I might be overly optimistic or idealistic, let me share these words with you today.

I know that it is hard work to build a ministry from scratch, often with your own funds.

I know that is can be overwhelming at times, strategizing about how to reach and connect to people, while working a full time job.

I know what it’s like to have people think your ministry is not legitimate, because it is small and part of a movement that is unheard by a majority of people .

I know it’s hard to put yourself out there among other clergy, who might treat you or see you as suspect, since you are not part of mainstream church.

I know what it is like to spend your free time preparing for liturgy each week, set up the church, and serve as the welcoming committee and marketing specialist. Only to have no one show up or those who do show up, come with many ideas about what you should be doing. They are not willing to help in implementing these wonderful ideas.

I’m here to say to you, if this is what you have been called to do as your primary purpose or even secondary vocation, don’t give up.  But I encourage you to get up, get on with it and stay connected to Jesus in prayer to sustain you in those difficult moments.

Have I become discouraged at times, you bet! Did I walk away at one point, yes, but the call would not walk away from me. Despite all these things, I believe that it is possible to do this ministry.

This ministry that we are called to do in the Independent/Old Catholic Movement requires prayer, planning, purpose and perseverance.  It will require that we step out of our comfort zones.  It requires that we meet people, often one on one. Get out of the office and into the coffee shops, pubs, community centers, walking your neighborhood where your church is located meeting God’s people.

I know this is the vision of evangelism that we are seeking to build in our jurisdiction, it is my hope that this may encourage others as you about your mission and ministry, let us pray for the Kingdom to come among us, as Jesus choose to come among us to change our lives and  the world.

 I believe that Independent/Old Catholic congregations of all sizes can be strong missionary outposts in our local communities.