Post on 18-Jan-2016
What does spiritual growth look like at the American Cathedral in
Paris?
Opening prayer, introduction and
reflection on scripture
The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the
saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14We must no longer be
children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by
their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in
every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly,
promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
What do we mean by church growth?
What do we mean by church growth?
What do we mean by spiritual growth?
When have you experienced spiritual
growth? What contributed to
that?
When have you experienced inertia or
been stalled spiritually? What contributed to
that?
Questions that prompted this
work:
From the Outline of the Faith:
The mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in
Christ.
What does that movement look like? How does it
happen?
Brian McLaren’s question:
The life-and-death question for each of our churches and
denominations may boil down to this: Are we a club for the elite
who pretend to have arrived or a school for disciples who are still
on the way?
From his book, Finding Our Way
Cartoon of aquarium
Dwight Zscheile’s questions
What does it mean to be a disciple in today’s world? What does it mean to be a church member? Are they the same?
How does the shape of life in the Episcopal Church foster depth and
commitment to the way of Christ and how does it undermine it?
Who are we as Episcopalians and what are we here for?
From his book People of the Way
Questions I asked as a rector:
Does more programming/activity
produce more growth in the church?
Is flat the new up?
Background on RenewalWorks:
Where we’ve been and
what we’ve learned
The aim of RenewalWorks: It’s about spiritual growth
To help congregations, and individuals, and ministries in those congregations to move from where they are to
where they are called to be, with the expectation: If you come here, you will grow.
A.k.a.,The Great
Conversation
Willow Creek CC suffered membership stagnation and a lack of enthusiasm among the faithful. Bill Hybels confesses that although Willow Creek is successful at some things, it has failed to meet the congregation’s deepest spiritual needs. A quarter of core members described themselves as spiritually stalled or dissatisfied with the role of the church in their spiritual growth. Church leaders found that 25% of the stalled segment and 63% of the churches dissatisfied segment contemplated leaving the church. A good business model brought thousands to Willow Creek. But did it work as a community of deepening connection to God and others? Maybe not.
-Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion
A decade of research
•Over 450,000 congregants
•Over 1,700 churches, 15 countries
•Census profile: geography, type & church size
•Denominations represent 68%
Through the Eyes of Parishioners
What are characteristics of
growing churches?
What drives spiritual growth in an individual?
Strategic questions
(18)(18)
2011 – All Rights ReservedOriginate Ventures – Willow Creek Association
(18)(18)
2011 – All Rights ReservedOriginate Ventures – Willow Creek Association
What does seem to matter?Expression of relationship
with God and neighbor.
17
•Spir
Spiritual Growth Continuum: a picture of deepening
relationship
So by spiritual growth we mean what?
Growing in relationship with God, neighbor, world and self
Jesus said: The first commandment is this: Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other greater commandment than these. Mark 12:29-31
Factors indicating Spiritual Vitality:
Looks at:1. Church’s role
2. Personal Spiritual Practices3. Service
Parallel between the Spiritual Vitality measures and the work of
12 step groups
The RenewalWorks Process
•Parish members take an on-line inventory
•Four workshops with a selected team, asking four questions
•Recommendations to vestry and parish, launching a process of long term focus on spiritual growth, a process which unfolds over a number of years
Emerging implications from research among
Episcopalians:There is a distinctive and pervasive Episcopal culture. Not particularly high expectation for transformation.
Eucharist, prayer, solitude, and service are key catalysts for spiritual growth.
Serving is important to congregants, but there’s a need to ground that ministry in theology and scripture.
We as Episcopalians are rooted and restless. But mostly rooted.
Can spiritual growth be measured?
Role of articulation of beliefs and
practices
Best Practice Principles1. Get people moving
2. Embed scripture3. Create ownership
4. Pastor the community5. Focus on the heart of the
leader
1. Get people moving
From Pope Francis’Homily at Daily Mass on February
14, 2014
You cannot think of a stationary Christian: A Christian that remains stationary is sick in their Christian identity. The Christian is
a disciple to walk, to move.
What part has the Cathedral (or another church) played in getting you moving in your spiritual journey? Has church ever
gotten in the way?
-
What part has the Cathedral (or another
church) played in getting you moving in your spiritual journey? Has church ever gotten
in the way?
2. Embed the Bible
We are left with our question. What makes the church, your congregation and mine, different, utterly essential, without equal, unique? Let me venture a response:
A congregation is Christian to the degree that it is confronted by and attempts to form its life in response to the Word of God.
-Will Willimon, Shaped by the Bible
When has scripture been helpful to you in your spiritual journey?
When has it been an obstacle?
3. Create ownership
I can’t read the Bible for you.
-Bill Hybels
What do you see as the responsibility of each member for his or her
own spiritual journey, and for the spiritual growth of
the church?
4. Pastor the community
The baptismal covenant•Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers?•We you persevere in resisting evil and whenever you sin repent and return to the Lord?•Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?•Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?•Will you strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being?
What are the ways that the Cathedral pastors
the community? Are there opportunities for this work that you
are not doing right now?
5. The leader’s heart:It’s at the center.
•You have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for your benefit.
•You have heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to you for me by revelation.
•You have heard how God’s gift of grace was designed for me for your benefit.
•You have head the way in which God entrusted me with the grace he gave me for your sake.
-Ephesians 3:2
A letter from Evelyn Underhill toArchbishop Lang of Canterbury
(Found among her papers, c. 1930)
May it please your Grace:
I desire very humbly to suggest with bishops assembled at Lambeth that the greatest and
most necessary work they could do at the present time for the renewal of the Anglican
Church would be to call the clergy as a whole, solemnly and insistently to a greater interiority and cultivation of the personal life
of prayer.
More from a letter from Evelyn Underhill toArchbishop Lang of Canterbury
(Found among her papers, c. 1930)
The real hunger among laity is not for halting attempts to reconcile theology and physical science but for the deep things of
the Spirit.
We look to the clergy to help and direct our spiritual growth.
God is the interesting thing about religion and people are hungry for God.
What was learned: Four
characteristics of leaders of vital congregations.
Leaders of vital congregations
are...Disarmingly humble: Jim Collins GOOD TO GREAT: “Best leader is someone who demonstrates combination of deep personal humility with intense professional will.”
Leaders of vital congregations...
Focus on growing hearts, not growing attendance.
Be single-minded in the objective of forming disciples, said another way, single-minded about spiritual growth.
Leaders of vital congregations...
start with their own spiritual journey:
“The journey to a spiritually vital church must begin with your own heart. You can not reproduce in others what you are not producing in yourself.”
Leaders of vital congregations...
model a life of discipleship: including vulnerability and transparency about the joys and challenges of the journey.
“They don’t just teach the Bible. They let the Bible teach them.”
What does it mean to be a spiritual leader? Who are the spiritual leaders in the church? Who have they been traditionally? Should
that tradition change?
How are spiritual leaders developed? Do you see Vestry members as spiritual
leaders?
What can Vestry do to support clergy as spiritual leaders? What can clergy do to
support Vestry members as spiritual leaders?
How do we as leaders stay in touch with our first love (i.e., the thing that got us into this
work)?
“If you come here, you will grow.”
If you come here, you will grow.
Looking at everything the church is doing, we commit to…
•The belief that every ministry can deepen
•All ministries can be evaluated
•Wherever a person may be, each person can grow spiritually
What would it mean to make spiritual growth (Growth in love of God and
neighbor) the priority for our common life?
Beginning to chart next steps for spiritual growth:
What in our conversation today helps you think about how to move forward?
What are the priorities?
What are specific next steps?
What are you thankful for?
What are you concerned about?
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that according to the riches of his glory he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullnes of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19