endowedparishes

Shiny Ojects Make Good Targets

Cynthia Cannon — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:15:00 CST

GUEST BLOGGER: Author Janet Davis
Refusing to Shine: Don't Dim your Light!

Resources for Endowed Parishes - Take Two!

Cynthia Cannon — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:09:00 CST

Who doesn't want to learn about resources for their parish....in Latin! For those of you who prefer English, try this:

Capital Campaigns: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Cynthia Cannon — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:30:00 CST

All of our members have embarked on Capital Campaigns from time to time – some have been very successful, even in the throes of the most recent recession. If your Church or Cathedral is:

Affinity 5: The Challenges of Downtown Churches

Cynthia Cannon — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 14:08:00 CST

Is your Church or Cathedral located in the heart of downtown? Perhaps you're near the State Capitol or in a rapidly changing urban setting? Some CEEP parishes are located in declining downtowns; others in rapidly gentrifying areas. These changes impact everything – from how to do outreach ministry to how to attract new members.

You face unique challenges and opportunities for ministry and probably have a congregation from diverse geographical areas of the city to minister to as well. This is your opportunity to network other clergy and volunteers to discuss how best to do ministry in an urban setting. Join The Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley from the heart of downtown Richmond, VA, Rector of St. Paul's, and come prepared to share both your difficulties and successes with others.

Affinity 4: Small Groups in Big Churches

Cynthia Cannon — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 13:30:00 CST

What's the secret to creating a vibrant congregation with a real sense of community? Small Groups! St. David's, with its 2500 communicants and 7 Sunday services has had to dig deep to find ways to build communities of different interests within the large congregation. Small groups focus on specific topics for limited time periods on subjects from "How to Read the Old Testament" to "The poems of C.S. Lewis" to one-night sessions on a variety of subjects including personal finance and buying and eating locally grown food. The Church has also instigated geographically based sessions called Compass Groups.

Come prepared to discuss your church's experience with small groups. Are your small groups an important component of your evangelism program? What are the stages of the spiritual journey and their relationship to small group ministries? What sort of small groups ministries has your church incorporated and in what ways have they worked (or not?)? Join Rebecca and others who are doing interesting and creative ministries in small group settings. Plan for an active networking opportunity with other endowed parishes striving to make the best use out of small groups for evangelism and spiritual growth.

Conference 2012: Affinity Group 3: A Different Kind of Legacy

Cynthia Cannon — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:29:00 CST

When you hear the word legacy, do you automatically think about leaving your Church in your will? Setting up a planned giving program and starting a legacy society? In this day and age, most of us do. And it is right and a good and joyful thing to have a planned giving program in your Church.

Conference 2012: Affinity Group 2: Got HR Issues?

Cynthia Cannon — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 13:16:00 CST

How recently has your Parish Business Manual been updated? Who performs annual review of your lay employees? Your clergy? What review form do you use? What sort of personnel records do you need to keep? Do you know how to fire staff in an efficient yet humane way? How can you avoid the most common mistakes made by kind-hearted clergy - like making promises you can't keep or keeping people on staff too long because you know their personal problems?

The other big issue that will be facing Episcopal Churches – with the potential to bring financial havoc – is how to implement the Lay Pension System, Resolution A138, passed by General Convention and now canonical law. Your Church is required to be compliant with this law by January 1, 2013? How do you move your lay staff from a defined contribution plan to a defined benefit plan? What will the financial and personnel impact be for your church? How do you plan for it?

Conference 2012: Affinity Group 1: Rector Search

Cynthia Cannon — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:59:00 CST

Within the next few years, about 50% of the Rectors and Deans of CEEP member parishes will be retiring. Your congregation - and staff - will be in transition as you go through the steps of self-examination and reflection and preparing your parish profile. When it’s completed, you’ll put on a different hat and begin marketing your church to potential new leaders around the country. It’s a long process, and if the wrong selection is made, your congregation could suffer for years to come.

How do you pick the right rector/dean? For that matter, how do you know the interim you pick will plant the seeds for positive new beginnings you are hoping for? Transitions can be fraught with tension no matter how well meaning your parish leaders are.

Adversarial cultures do not create the Kingdom of God

Rob Voyle — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:38:00 CST

What's Sexier Than a Thermometer?

Cynthia Cannon — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 11:23:00 CST

“Is anyone using a creative graphic to show progress in Annual Giving pledges as they come in? Something sexier than a thermometer?” This question was floated this week by one of our CEEP member parishes. Following are some creative thoughts and ideas from responding members:

Cultivating Vibrant Institutions

Cynthia Cannon — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 09:10:00 CDT

According to Dr. Jason Byassee, Senior Pastor of Boone United Methodist Church, Boone, NC (and fellow in theology and leadership at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School) and the Rev. Nathan Kirkpatrick, managing director of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School:

The Food Fight of Faith

Cynthia Cannon — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:00:00 CDT

Fast Forward to March 2012 - Charlotte, NC. You're attending CEEP's conference and you see that the first keynote address will be by Walter Brueggemann. You've been around the Church for years and you've read Dr. Brueggemann's books.....in fact, you've heard him speak several times. What can he say that you haven't heard? After all you're dealing with real issues - ministries of outreach that really make an impact in the world. Theology is great and all but right now you feel a little guilty for even being in Charlotte - like Judas, you feel the money might have been better spent on the needy.

WINDOWS TO A FUTURE

Carol Pinkham Oak — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:00:00 CDT

What is the scariest part of beginning a new experience? Not knowing what to expect. When adults feel uninformed, then they feel incompetent. When parents cannot help their children anticipate the next steps, then they feel they are letting their children down. Several years ago, before GPS and i-phones, my family moved to a new state. Every time I took my kids to the next new event, play date, sports activity, or shopping I navigated by the book of maps that I faithfully kept in the car. Inevitably there were wrong turns and stops to check the map. Every time my daughter would anxiously ask, "Do you know where you are going?" And my response was yes, but I need the map to get there.

The maps of today are supplied by technology. The location maps are in our cars and our pockets. But there are other maps supplied by technology that can help us know what to expect from a new experience.

We can view a video to learn how a new kitchen appliance works. We can take a virtual tour around homes that are for sale. We can listen to a conference speaker on that person's website to decide if the conference is worth our effort to attend. We can try out songs on the internet to see if we want to purchase the music from that artist.

Through technology, we can supply maps to our congregations. The two aspects of congregational life that consistently are mentioned as the most important are the music and the sermons. Can people searching for a congregation or those who are new listen to sermons by podcast and a musical selection from last Sunday? Could those searching for a spiritual home view a video about the worship of the community and its ministries? Can our congregations be seen and heard, literally providing a map into a new experience via our websites?

Recently a mother and her two Sunday School age sons attended the Saturday evening service at our congregation. She introduced herself when she entered and we were able to welcome her appropriately. She was looking for a church and a Sunday School for her family. She found us through our website. I did the best I could to describe the character of the worship she was about to experience in contrast to Sunday morning. A video of the vibrancy of our Sunday School community and worship would have offered a vivid map!

Maps pointing the way to the life of our congregation are available. Are we prepared to provide maps to those who are looking for their way to find us? Are we prepared to connect with them and with one another to create those maps?

The Problem of the Diocese, the Judicatory

Loren Mead — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:56:00 CDT

This issue is larger than ‘the diocese,’ but I figured that naming the blog this way will ensure that a lot of people read it! This is about that regional body that all denominations have whatever they name it. Functions vary somewhat – but for out purposes it is that church body located right next to the local congregation. It’s where bishops and executives and such like work, trying to hold together the disparate themes of church work and support the congregations and clergy.

Everybody in churches has a picture in our heads about what the body is, how it works, what we think our relationship to it is. In many cases the picture is a myth, and in fact things have changed so much that even the myth no longer connects very well with what’s going on the ground.
First – the picture. It’s fictitious, in most cases, but it drives how we think. Every diocese, in our Anglican myths, exists to support and strengthen ministry in the area, primarily by strengthening congregations. That’s the goal, the purpose. Note the assumption that may or may not be true: that most congregations are actively supporting ministry. Note the ‘left out’ problem of ‘ministry’: What precisely IS it, and how do you determine how a parish’s program really adds up to ‘ministry.’ And how, pray tell, do you ‘strengthen’ it or ‘make it more effective.’ The definition in our clerical institution focuses on being sure a theologically trained and ordained priest is appointed to lead it. Indeed many denominational regional offices operate primarily to be sure that a rightly licensed clergyperson is in place in a congregation – the assumption being that if that is true, then authentic ministry will result.

Is there a Shortage of Priests for the Church?

Loren Mead — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:07:00 CDT

Is there a shortage of clergy in the Church?

Deferred Maintenance

Loren Mead — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:31:00 CDT

I hate to admit how many times I’ve gone into a parish church and been embarrassed by the condition of the place.
What do I find? The space is often grim. Dark. Not always well-kept. Often with great piles of equipment or other stuff just crammed here and there. Light switches that don’t work. Doors locked where nobody knows where the keys are.
That’s not the worst. Often it’s clear the furnace or the air conditioning is on its last leg. Windows are stuck and haven’t been cleaned in a long time. Paint is peeling and obviously old.

Dependence On Aging Donors

Loren Mead — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:49:00 CDT

I was teaching at Lake Junaluska in the mountains of North Carolina some years ago. It’s the Methodist conference center like - but much larger than - Kanuga. I’d been asked to share some insights from my book, FINANCIAL MELTDOWN IN THE MAINLINE.

In Memory of The Very Rev. James A. Diamond

Cynthia Cannon — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:08:00 CDT

In Memory of The Very Rev. James A. Diamond
Immediate Past President, The Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes

The Truth About Numbers: Denial is Not a River...

Loren Mead — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:54:00 CDT

In a recent study published by the Presbyterian Endowed Parish Network, they reported drop in bequests over the last several years. I asked Cynthia at the Consortium if the same were true of Episcopal Churches. But reports of financial things from denomination to denomination are almost never comparable. The Episcopal Church has tried HARD to make definitions the same from place to place, but there are gaps. Statistics are gathered locally using precise formats for the annual reports, but who can tell how the local people decide what to count? What IS a 'member,' for example? Someone who's confirmed or not? Somebody who comes to church or whose momma and daddy came to church in the 40's? Somebody who 'transferred in' (a strange description that used to be current in the 50's but that isn't even known about by many younger folk)? Somebody who was confirmed here but hasn't been seen since he or she left for college 20 years ago? Most places I go, the "number of members" is a fiction, counting different things based on what people were counting years ago -- with few subtractions even for deaths and none for people who just 'haven't been around.'

The financial data Churches report is equally uncertain. I used to say that the 'attendance' figures were the lies the church ushers told and the 'contribution' figures were the church treasurer's lies. Just try to find out how many pledgers pledged last year and are current this year? Bequests? How are they handled? One 'high steeple, important parish' I know for years treated bequests as windfalls and spent them up on important repairs or projects.

And that's just within the Episcopal family! Each of the other families -- Presbyterian, Methodist, Congregational, etc -- has their own system and set of definitions. Presbyterians DO have the Presbyterian Foundation that tries to ride herd on such in the denomination -- but it's not trusted in many arenas (When I was trying to locate Presbyterian congregations with endowments I had to go through their national figures and try to guess why a parish had a much higher income or outgo in comparison to "pledged income plus donations). Methodists tend to have conference foundations in every conference, and in my experience many congregations tend to hide their endowments from the conference. And all of them ignore 'inflation,' rarely giving comparable figures 'adjusted for inflation.'

So dealing with finances and membership, each denominational family has its own private language, and each is not stated in ways that one can compare with its own record or that of those outside the family. My conclusion-- DENIAL. Nobody really WANTS to know what the facts are. If we KNEW what the facts were, it would scare us to death. Not only THAT, but we'd HAVE to start trying to be responsible.

Take budgeting for example. Almost EVERY Episcopal congregation under-budgets by about 25% (their budgets should be about 25% higher to truly cover their costs -- especially upkeep of property, paying living wages to staffs, funding un-funded liabilities, and setting up reserves for the future). I tried to name some of this in one of my more recent books, FINANCIAL MELTDOWN IN THE MAINLINE, but I don't think many Episcopalians paid any attention to it. Big issues facing every parish I know are these:

1) Dependence on aging donors (most major donors are over 60 now - what do we do 20 years from now?)
2) Lack of strategy of securing and growing new donors
3) Deferred maintenance (hotels renovate their buildings every 10 years -- when were YOUR bldgs renovated?
4) Inflation is rapidly decreasing the number of parishes who can pay a salary and benefits for a priest
5) Escalating costs of dioceses and diminished funds from their parishes
6) Continually escalating elements in our budgets -- medical insurance, legal costs, etc.

Now. I bet you're sorry you asked! But maybe you see some of why I have such a stake in the Consortium. It won't fix ANY of these problems, but endowments will give parishes that have them a little time for the major changes that lie in the future for all of us. Churches without endowments will hit the wall faster and more catastrophically.

Living an Unscripted Life - Without Fear!

Cynthia Cannon — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:44:00 CDT

CEEP Recommended Summer Reading

Cynthia Cannon — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:30:00 CDT

“Self consciousness, an appreciation of who we are and what flows and fields make up our life, will inevitably lead to our desire to see the flows of others unblocked and running free, whether this means lifting them out of poverty or releasing them into artistic practice.” So begins “Other: Loving Self, God and Neighbour in a World of Fractures” is the new book just out by Kester Brewin, a rising star in the fresh expressions/emerging church movement. According to Brian McLaren, "With Other, Kester joins the community of leading public theologians for a new generation of thoughtful Christians."

Kester, who lives in London, will be making a special U.S. appearance at the Wild Goose Festival in Shakori Hills, NC. He'll be speaking Friday, June 24 at 8pm in the Geodesic Dome and describes his upcoming presentation: "From noisy neighbors to racism, fundamentalism, issues about immigration and terrorism, the problem of dealing with 'the other' has been at the centre of our conflicts, both internal and international. By roping in pirates, poetry and quantum physics, as well as unhealthy doses of TAZ, dirt, Facebook and theatre, we will seek to uncover what Jesus' instruction to love others might mean in our paradoxically fractured-yet-networked world."

Moral Imagination in Literature and Culture

Cynthia Cannon — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 11:22:00 CDT

What do we do during the early summer at the Consortium? We plan next year's conference. 2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year both for workshops and overall program. One offering we have just confirmed will be entitled "Courage, Compassion, and Community: Exploring the Moral Imagination in Literature and Culture". Led by best-selling author Dr. Greg Garrett, (who has written books on religion and spirituality in Harry Potter, Hollywood films, the Irish rock band U-2, and American superhero narratives) will focus on music, movies, and books and the compelling spiritual stories they tell.. For parishioners and seekers alike, these current-time morality tales are often more engaging than sacred texts, but they can lead us back to those texts with new insights and understanding.. Greg will share his methods of mining secular texts for sacred truths, and discuss how truth and beauty in the culture can lead us back to the Author of truth and beauty. Participants will be exposed to a wide range of contemporary cultural texts and receive resources for further study and parish use. Plan now to attend CEEP's 2012 conference in Charlotte, NC (March 7-10) so you can explore with other congregations what it means to become God's Courageous Community.

Special Audit Consultation Offer for CEEP MEmbers

Cynthia Cannon — Tue, 31 May 2011 15:29:00 CDT

As a way of saying “thank you” to CEEP for for allowing PSK,LLP, to participate in our 2011 conference, PSK is extending an offer to CEEP members/conference participants it normally reserves for its clients. If your church has been considering instituting an annual #audit - or selecting a new #auditor - you might want to consider PSK,LLP. They offer a full array of church consulting opportunities, and regularly provide their clients with a free morning or afternoon of consulting about audit/administrative needs.

PHOTOGRAPHS ON YOUR CHURCH WEB SITE

David Posteraro — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:48:00 CDT

A picture may be worth a thousand words but if you don’t have the right to use that picture it can cost you a lot more than $1,000!

Churches all want to make their websites more inviting to the visitor, be she a regular member of the congregation or someone searching for a place to worship. Photographs (or videos) of the church, worship or ministries are often the best way to present your church. But posting a photograph may be illegal if it is done without the photographer’s authorization. The Copyright Act extends protection to professional and amateur photographers and videographers for their work. Even if the photographer is a member of the congregation, you are best served by having a written authorization (or license) from the photographer to post the image.

In some instances you may want to use an image to illustrate a point about the church and you find the perfect photograph on the internet. Just because you found it, does not make it yours. There are, however, a number of websites that operate under a Creative Commons license. Flickr has millions of images available to use under sharing guidelines. Similarly, Picasa, owned by Google, also offers the option to search for photos that are free to use. In addition, Google also allows you to search for images that can be used for free. From Google.com select "advanced search." From there, click "usage rights." Searches can then be made for images that are free to be reused.

Do disaster recovery planning for your Church Now!

Cynthia Cannon — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:34:00 CDT