‘We will treat you like we would treat any other community. If you develop a congregation, then we’ll offer pastoral, priestly support if we can,” Tarrant said. There is no financial support forthcoming now from the diocese for any of the churches, Tarrant said, but he’s excited about the potential for renewal of at least some of the congregations.
“A seemingly simple phrase like, ‘The peace of the Lord be with you,’ turns into a major debate. We end up having to go back to the original texts, some of which are in Hebrew, to try to decipher exactly what the person writing that meant.”
The 11-year-old congregation began with a few families using bales of hay for pews in a local feed store on Mother’s Day, 1999. Shortly afterwards, St. Matthew’s moved to its present location, a vacant chapel on a former state facility for the disabled.
Most of the Café’s readers are probably very comfortable online. You know the difference between a web-forum, a list-serv and a Facebook group. But many in the Episcopal Church’s leadership don’t. Given the economics and the need we have to be evangelists, being a luddite isn’t really an option anymore. Here’s a free resource that can help.
Watching this may remind you of why you’re an Episcopalian – or, if you’re not, it might get you to thinking about the fulness of worship in liturgical churches. Or it could just be funny.
[Rickel] tries to guide church members into a clear understanding of who they are and what they have to offer so they can communicate that passionately, especially since so much of how churches grow these days is by word-of-mouth.
The American church is staggering under the burden of a physical plant that it doesn’t use and can’t pay for; it staggers under the burden of dysfunctional and bloated denominational and professional structures that it can no longer carry; and it is crippled by outdated ideas about what it needs to do its job.
In the Alban Roundtable Blog, Wayne Floyd reflects on a recent “webinar” that took on “High Impact Community Ministry.”
Every Sunday close to 350,000 churches open their doors to the public. How do you know what you’re walking into? What will the pastor be talking about? What kind of people attend? ChurchRater lets you read what others say about the church and rate your own experience. ChurchRater lets you talk back after sitting through a sermon.
The Episcopal Church’s Executive Council heard here Feb. 21 that church membership and Sunday attendance continued to decline in 2008, but also heard a call for the church to promote knowledge of the characteristics of growing congregations.