How To Be A Spiritual Community

Transcription

1 Renewal Works Findings and Recommendations to the Vestry and Congregation of St. Gabriel the Archangel Episcopal Church Cherry Hills Village, Colorado January

2 Contents Section Background 3 Who We Are as Parishioners 4 Assessment of Demographics of St. Gabriel's 4 How We See Our Spirituality 6 A Review of Our Beliefs and Christian Practices 8 Findings About Our Beliefs Findings About Our Practices What We Are Doing Well and Should Continue 10 Constructive Opportunities to Improve 11 Specific Recommendations to Our Vestry and Parishioners 15 2

3 Background In the spring of 2015, the vestry of St. Gabriel the Archangel Episcopal Church committed our congregation to a spiritual inventory assessment (the Spiritual Life Survey ) and planning process resulting in recommendations presented to the vestry of how we might strengthen our Christian formation and spiritual practices both individually and as a parish. The selected process, Renewal Works, was developed by Forward Movement, an Episcopal Church ministry. Forward Movement added important areas to the original survey process, which the original survey did not include, such as the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. There have been approximately 100 Episcopal parishes along with over 2,000 Protestant churches, who have completed this assessment process. This large number of participating churches allows us to compare the findings of our parish with both other Episcopal parishes and many Protestant churches. In September 2015, we invited the entire parish to participate in the survey project. Response rates within Episcopal churches typically range from 5% to 75% of weekend attendance. For smaller churches, the response rate should be greater than 50%. For larger churches, a good response rate is 20% to 30%. St. Gabriel's response rate was 71% (124 completed surveys). Therefore, we believe that the findings reported for St. Gabriel's are truly representative of our parish and that suggestions for enhancements to our parish ministries can be guided by many of these discoveries. We formed a task force of 12 people who received the data from Renewal Works and thoroughly studied and evaluated what was reported. The Renewal Works Task Force consisted of David Ariss, Jennifer Casani, Tate Fox, Chris Hirschy, Margaret Kremers, Tess Vonfeldt-Gross, Sharon Stewart, Margi Stewart, Linn Wilson, Kay Ward, Larry D. Ellis (facilitator), and Fr. Chris Ditzenberger (Rector). The Task Force was commissioned in Sunday worship on October 4 th and met for five extended sessions on October 6, October 28, November 11, November 24, and December 29 to study, discuss, and assess the reported findings. All task force members were significantly engaged in the review and discernment process. Many persons participated in writing this 3

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7 detailed approach to help us understand levels of growth within our Christian community. We believe that each person in our parish is somewhere on a continuum in spiritual development. Even so, there are four big stages in each person's spiritual growth process. Given that these four stages offer a reasonable and helpful assessment of the process of Christian growth, which has the ultimate goal of living a life operating from God's point of view, instead of framing life primarily from our own point of view, the Task Force explored the catalysts that move us from one level to the next level. Renewal Works identifies five specific types of spiritual catalysts that advance spiritual growth: 1) spiritual beliefs and attitudes, 2) organized church activities, 3) personal spiritual practices, 4) faith in action and 5) spiritual virtues. In particular, the Task Force has identified three transition points that shift people from one stage to the next on the four-stage spiritual continuum. 1. Moving from exploring to growing: learning to trust God through beliefs, belief in the Trinity, understanding grace, following God and helping the needy 2. Moving from growing to deepening: beginning to take ownership of personal spiritual practices and prayer persevering with private disciplines, reading the Bible, reflecting on Scripture, learning to give, serving others, and participating in small groups 3. Transitioning from deepening our faith with God to living a God-centered life: faith in action, learning to love God, spiritual independence, having a personal ministry, talking with others about prayer and reflection; people involved in these catalysts look for the church to challenge them 7

8 With the above background, we will move into some additional discoveries from our own parish concerning our effectiveness in providing these catalysts to encourage positive growth. Portions of the membership of St. Gabriel s are represented in each of four segments. Each segment contains an important community within our congregation, and no one segment is more important than another. We desire to serve all four of these groups to the best of our ability. Our commitment is to create an environment that encourages spiritual growth along the continuum for each of these segments, encouraging each of us to move forward with our lives centered on God. We believe that intentionally focusing on the catalysts identified above will help accomplish this important mission of spiritual growth. With spiritual growth comes a better understanding of our beliefs and attitudes, where our hearts reside and the attitudes that will shape our actions. The survey results indicate that our parish believes strongly in a relational God, the Trinity (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit), and the concept of Grace (unearned favor by God toward us and for us to extend grace to one another). We place a strong emphasis on the weekly celebration of the Eucharist and other Sacraments within a healthy liturgical tradition, as well as the reciting of the historic creeds. Interfaith conversations are also identified as an integral part of our spiritual growth. Praying for others is practiced regularly by a number of our members and is a significant source of spiritual strength for those receiving prayer. Small group participation and service to others provide sources for fellowship as well as spiritual growth among our members. Opportunities for growth were expressed as the desire for more reflection on scripture, daily Bible reading, and more Bible study options. A Review of Our Beliefs and Christian Practices Findings About Our Beliefs The source of our beliefs are: the Bible, church tradition, human reason, the Baptismal Covenant, Holy Eucharist, and the Book of Common Prayer. Other findings as shown from the data are listed below: We strongly embrace belief in the Trinity. We believe in the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. The Bible contains all things necessary for salvation. 8

9 Jesus is the living Word of God. Every person has freedom and responsibility to discern the truth of God for his or her life. This takes place through Bible study, in conversation with the historic teachings and liturgy of the church, and human reason. We cherish diverse expressions of belief and practice as people grow into abundant and authentic lives in their time and space. St. Gabriel's strongly (54%) embraces the reality of God's grace being extended to us. We have a historic and healthy Anglican liturgical tradition. We understand that we have a personal relationship with God. We believe that our faith is an active faith and that belief calls us to live our lives consistent with that belief. Twenty-nine percent strongly believed that the Book of Common Prayer is a critical resource for our growth. Ten percent of our parish strongly believe that spiritual gifts are critical to our spiritual growth. Findings About Our Practices We participate regularly in the Holy Eucharist, bringing the substance of our lives and the fruits of our labors, offering them to God. We turn to Jesus and accept him as savior, putting our trust in his grace and love, and promising to follow and obey him as Lord. We promise to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being. We believe that God is present and active in the whole of creation and that we are called to participate with God through appreciation and care for creation, through the arts, through our daily work, through our relationships with other people, and in our own inner lives. Within our parish, the reading of Scripture and the Book of Common prayer is quite low, even though we embrace of the importance of Scripture and the Book of Common Prayer. 9

10 Fourteen percent strongly embrace the role of Scripture as critical to their spiritual growth. We see ourselves as a parish that is devoted to prayer, and do a good job of modeling corporate prayer each Sunday in our worship services. We establish great friendships within our parish, but we do not do well at seeking widespread spiritual friendships and accountability through individual and group reflection on our personal spiritual journeys. Shared, volunteered praying out loud together is not common. We are open to creating new ministries. What We Are Doing Well and Should Continue St. Gabriel's is doing many things well. The theologically strong Eucharistic prayers and almost universal participation in Eucharist is very important to our congregation. Eighty percent of our parish attend worship three or four times each month. Fifty-four percent are very or extremely satisfied with our worship services. Our public worship and teaching is clearly Christ-centered. Fifty-one percent actively participate in a small group. We consider this a high participation. We defined small group in a very broad way: any regularly structured gathering of parishioners at least once a month or more, not simply bible studies. We have an outreach committee that coordinates excellent outreach events and other outreach opportunities for the parishioners to go beyond the walls of St. Gabriel (i.e. St. Gabriel's Reach Out Weekend (SGROW) and other opportunities). We understand that as servants of God, we are to be servants of those around us. We value our outreach ministry to our community. We have members who volunteer and serve at Metro Caring and the St. Francis Center on a regular basis. Finally, St. Gabriel has an excellent Vacation Bible School ( VBS ) week each summer that reaches out into our community. We do a great job of creating personal ownership within our parish. Ownership is defined as engaging in services such as serving as lay readers, acolytes, lay Eucharistic visitors, ushers, and coffee hour hosts; participating in small groups, such as Men of the Covenant, men s breakfast group, Daughters of the King, ladies Bible study group, men's book group, altar guild and Solo Angels; providing service to the community; providing 10

11 educational classes related to Scripture, liturgy, developing a daily prayer life, and being held accountable to one another. Through involvement in these things, we lay claim to ownership of our church, thus enabling us to live out St. Gabriel s mission. Through these groups, we do create ownership of our church, but this is an area in which we can improve in order to attract and welcome additional persons to participate. Constructive Opportunities to Improve We are a parish that believes reading the Scriptures regularly and using the Book of Common Prayer as a resource for individual spiritual learning is important. In reality, the vast majority of us do not do either. Only 26% very strongly agree that studying the Bible is critical, and 29% very strongly agree that using the Book of Common Prayer regularly is critical. Only half those who believe that studying the Scriptures is important actually do it (14%), and only 5% daily turn to the Book of Common Prayer as a helpful resource. We need to teach and learn how to inhabit both the Scriptures and the Book of Common prayer in our lives outside of public worship. We have a very low participation in the weekly adult formation classes. A reason for this is that many people are serving in liturgy or leading another ministry within the parish at that time on Sunday mornings. Therefore, encouraging Christian formation in all of our small groups is important. We have excellent teaching resources and facilities for both children and adults, but we might do considerably better at equipping people who desire to teach and lead ministries. We need to better know our neighbors who live nearby the church in order to more adequately meet their needs. We need to improve the communication and promotion of our vision and location to our local community. Our congregational care committee needs to better inform the congregation about their work (where does the money go, how do they select who receive outreach from St. Gabriel, etc.) St. Gabriel's leadership needs to help parishioners integrate service with their faith with the goal of service becoming a platform for faith sharing. Even though we have a significant VBS each summer, we still need work on building bridges to our local community (within a 1- to 3-mile circle around our church campus). This contact can likely be addressed through additional social media participation by the parish. 11

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13 Jesus plan for us. Finally, we can each intentionally create a weekly plan to work toward Spiritual Growth. In order to help our parishioners grow spiritually, we need to more strongly and intentionally employ the catalysts of spiritual transition. We need to develop and implement tools to assist with personal spiritual growth. It would be helpful to put forth actionable items to the congregation each week utilizing church communications resources: weekly sermon and service bulletin, , TV monitor, bulletin board postings. These items could be brief, simple, and actionable things that church leadership could challenge each parishioner to undertake each week. Ensuring each action item is S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound) will help unify our congregation as we simultaneously work toward spiritual growth each week. Examples include some of the following: Provide practical how to tips and suggestions, such as introducing and teaching how to download and use various smart phone apps, access Podcasts, and other on-line tools for daily use (such as Daily Bible by Salem). Host or sponsor retreats and special programs such as Alpha and Faith Alive which could be employed as long as we are clear as to what we believe will be accomplished with them. Parishioners could develop Advent or Lenten devotional to be shared within the entire congregation. Load the library cart weekly with a selection of books from our library and position in the parish hall for check-out. Help people learn about, discover, and employ their spiritual gifts within their areas of living. We can learn more about both personal and communal prayer as a part of sharing our personal spiritual journeys. We can learn more about intercessory prayer, and develop a system of mentoring one another through prayer and encouragement partners, If we can increase our participation in diverse small groups, new people can be more connected to one another. We need to provide more instruction on Episcopal tradition, practices, and worship. An instructed Eucharist, several times a year, perhaps quarterly for a year or two and then semi- 13

14 annually after that would be helpful toward that end. It would be helpful to provide a reintroduction of the Book of Common Prayer, explaining its origin, its purpose, and opportunities it makes available to us. We should link the Bible to the Book of Common Prayer and the Sunday services, and show origins of the parts of the Book of Common Prayer that are based on Scripture. We can provide more background on each Sunday's readings and provide guidance on why particular readings are included. We can provide additional narrative on where we have been and where we are going within the Lectionary and point to other Scripture that parallels the prescribed readings. Regardless of where our members identify themselves on the Spiritual Continuum Profile, we seek to encourage and foster continual personal spiritual growth. Studies show that when people take responsibility for their own spiritual growth congregational vitality blossoms. As a congregation, the Spiritual Life Survey identified an opportunity for more reflection on scripture and for daily Bible reading. This lead to the question of how we might embed the Bible in to the fabric of the congregation of St. Gabriel s. For too long the Bible has been seen as a closed book to many, intimidating for one s personal use, and yet the Bible is the source and grounding of the faith. To help us embed the Bible in our personal lives, we can offer more small group Bible study opportunities many people work and are not able to attend the current Wednesday morning study. We need to better embed the Bible throughout the ministries of the parish, as well. Examples include: A Scripture of the week, listed in the bulletin on Sunday, followed up by a Constant Contact on Monday, including a reflection from staff or from a parishioner volunteer "Sticky notes" on the pew racks with passages of scripture and the page numbers in the Bible. Encourage a quiet time prior to the service again and again. Provide more contextual information for the weekly Lectionary readings, perhaps prior to the service or through the service bulletin. Provide one Bible translation from the same printing run so that the pages are all the same for possible reference during the service. (Perhaps utilize Bible book tabs for easier reference.) 14

15 Encourage Scripture memorization. We believe the Spiritual Life Survey also illustrated the need to further encourage the personal practice of spiritual disciplines. This might be accomplished through teachings on developing personal ownership of our spirituality as well as developing a Rule of Life. Ways to accomplish this would be offering resources such as the various daily devotionals (Forward Day by Day, Jesus Calling, My Utmost for His Highest were all mentioned) and encouraging exploration of our own church library. We identified the concept of expressing our spiritual maturity through regard for others. In an age of increasing societal fragmentation, we would like to develop an awareness of the needs of others and a calling for outreach, through SGROW, SGROW Light and other opportunities to serve others, and to see these activities as expressions of our relationship with Christ Jesus. It is vital that we also ensure there are ways to participate at various levels of ability and for all ages. In addition, we hope to encourage the practicing of a sense of presence and mindfulness. As a parish we could ask everyone to read the same book at the same time once a year, and perhaps have a large gathering to discuss it or have ongoing side narratives in the bulletin, Trumpet or . We can enhance our outreach visibility and communication. This could include more communication about St. Gabriel s outreach programs, i.e., who served, reporting the specific number of canned goods donated each week, how funding was decided, how can others be incorporated. We might expand outreach to include information on programs that are not currently being funded. This might encourage individuals to expand their efforts in new areas. Specific Recommendations to our Vestry and Parishioners The major goal of the Task Force was to make an assessment of where our parish spiritually and to identify areas where we need to make improvements. We are not implementing these recommendations directly, but believe that these recommendations are essential for us to move forward spiritually as individuals and as a parish. The Task Force recommends that vestry committees establish specific measurable goals with the intention of implementing specific actions within the parish. To continue in this endeavor, we need to : 1. Develop a clear teaching of what spiritual growth is and identify the transitions that 15

16 move us along. 2. Review the three transition points and ensure that our parish will create a healthy environment for growth for parishioners at all stages. 3. Develop a plan to better embed Scripture throughout all our church ministries. Possible suggestions include encouraging each small group to begin with a short scripture reflection using the African Bible Study/Lectio Divina, or dramatic readings of the Bible. 4. Develop teaching and discernment of people's spiritual gifts and encourage their use. 5. Develop a plan for identifying and empowering new leadership within the parish. 6. Develop an even better system of communication within the parish as well as with those who are not familiar with our church. Small groups should be publicized on the website, s, bulletin and Trumpet. Information should include the person to contact, meeting times and locations. Provide increased web presence for the parish, perhaps targeting profiled persons within the neighborhood. 7. Vestry to review the suggestions and examples in the Constructive Opportunities to Improve section above to guide implementation of specific actions by the May meeting. Respectfully submitted, Larry D. Ellis, Renewal Works facilitator and vestry member, as well as the other members of the entire Renewal Works Task Force: David Ariss, Jennifer Casani, Tate Fox, Chris Hirschy, Margaret Kremers, Tess Vonfeldt-Gross, Sharon Stewart, Margi Stewart, Linn Wilson, Kay Ward, and Fr. Chris Ditzenberger (Rector) 16