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Greetings!
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As we look toward spring, we offer tips on healthy growth in leadership, stewardship, and participation. We hope you enjoy this issue!
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Encourage leaders to register for Learn and Lead
Saturday, March 1, 9:00 am to 3:30 pm at St. Luke's in East Greenwich
Churches get a $10 rebate for every 5 people who select their church on their online registration -- so encourage your congregational leaders to attend. Sessions include:
- Resources to develop and equip leaders (The Rev. Canon Linda Grenz)
- Leading sustainable change (Dr. James Burgess)
- Meetings to foster spiritually healthy leaders (The Rev. Jay Sidebotham)
- Leading in the face of anxiety (The Rev. Tim Rich)
- Raising up young vital leaders (The Rev. Meaghan Kelly)
Registration and details.
Do you know someone who would be great on the Diocesan Properties Committee?
We're looking for contractors, designers/decorators, landscapers, realtors, and more
Are you (or do you know) team players with skills to help the diocese and congregations with property matters such as renovation, assessments, building plans, real estate, and hands-on work? All kinds of skills are needed, and the team will delegate work according to each person's gifts. Send names and contact info to Jim Rezendes at jimrez@cox.net.
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Make Lent a season for stewardship
For many churches, stewardship season takes place in the fall, as we look to the end of the current year and the start of the next. But that timing may not make the best fiscal or religious sense.
What if your church were to move the annual pledge appeal from year's end to the season of Lent? That's what a church in Maine has done, inviting parishioners to use Lent as a time of prayer, discernment, and contemplation about their pledge.
In this article on ECF Vital Posts, Lisa Meeder Turnbull talks about why that makes sense, how she thinks it may actually increase the amounts pledged -- and how it helps to bring God into people's financial lives.
This Lent, why not challenge your church to a new sense of stewardship?
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Facing challenges to church growth
Churches can obsess about numbers: What's our ASA? How big is our average pledge? But we don't always know how to create healthy and sustainable growth -- or what might be standing in our way. And if you're interested in growth, you might also try this recommendation from Bishop Knisely:
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The vestry hand-off: Orientation for new members
The annual meeting is over, the new leaders have been elected, and it's time to start working together. How do you transition from the former leadership team to the new one?
Some churches simply schedule the next vestry meeting and keep on as if nothing happened. Others hold a retreat soon after the elections or are otherwise very intentional about orienting new members.
What you do will depend on your congregation's size and the experience of your newly elected members. You may be able to do a quick review in a one-on-one conversation or at the first meeting. But most churches need to do more.
Here are some suggestions to consider.
More about vestries from ECF Vital Practices.
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