"Listening to EDWM Clergy on the Future of the Church, the Benedictine Way"

In St. Benedict's Rule, Benedict tells us that in the monastery, there is a constant search for truth. The abbot or prioress is to listen to all members of the community, open their hearts, and to allow others to share their perspectives on the things that affect the community.

In particular, Benedict refers to the youngest members, i.e. newest members, of the monastic community as those through whom the Holy Spirit often speaks.

In my presentation at Leadership Days, which was last week in Kalamazoo and will next be at St. Mark’s in Grand Rapids on February 23rd, I talk about the “dark night of the church,” and how our attachment to the external things is a liability to the church’s future.

As an illustration, I used the example of an elderly woman in my first parish. Miss Majorie had a strong attachment to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. She found worship to be difficult without it. Every Sunday morning, I came to the church to find all the 1928 prayer books back in the pews after I had put them away. Did she worship God? Or the prayer book?

We develop patterns in our lives. I have the same morning routine every day. I get up, stumble out of bed, and go to the kitchen to start the coffee that I have set up the night before. I take my shower while the coffee is brewing. After my shower, I read the news. I do this just about every day.

Churches also develop habitual patterns. Congregations believe they cannot function as a community of faith without stained glass windows, expensive music programs and their historic buildings. But as I outlined in my presentation, which I will continue to develop for the next two Leadership Day workshops in Grand Rapids and Traverse City, none of these things are essential to the mission of the church, which is to proclaim the gospel and work toward the reconciliation of all people to God and each other.

As the church continues to deal with losses in membership (30% since 1960) and losses in revenue ($23 million less in the 2010-2012 than the 2007-2009 triennium), conversations on our future as a denomination persist.

In the tradition of the Benedictine monastery, we asked some of our clergy who are either newly-ordained or have come to this diocese from other places in the nation or world, to share their advice for the future of the church:

• The Rev. Brian Coleman, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Battle Creek
Churches should provide more opportunities and tools to help individuals engage in deep relationships. This is what people are missing in the world and the church can offer a context where the vulnerability necessary for such relationships can be affirmed and supported. The church should be faithful to its heritage, i.e., liturgical worship, catholic faith, piety without being a slave to convention. The church can be a place for creativity, informality, having fun, taking risks– all within the context of structure and stability. Building extra-denominational alliances and networks around social justice is also a good direction for the church.

• The Rev. Carlton Kelly, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Dowagiac
I hear and feel from others a great deal of anxiety about the future of the church.  One of the foundations of my spiritual life has been from the book of Job: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  This hasn't come from any particular revelation but rather is the result of a difficult childhood in an alcoholic household, becoming an alcoholic and, blessedly, being in recovery, all with the dawning realization as I grow older that God is always God, is always good, and will never, ever leave us. "Lo I am with you always..."  There is nothing we have to fear.  I think that too many evangelism schemes and programs, broadly understood, are born out of institutional desperation and a desire for maintenance.  Instead of looking at this time of declining numbers as perhaps, just perhaps, a gift from the good Lord to be opened carefully and viewed intently, we seem to have gotten caught up in a good deal of self-pity. Everything, even the church, needs pruning, from time to time, to promote healthy growth. We need to be willing to examine everything we do in the light of the Gospel.
 
• The Rev. Aaron Evans, Trinity Episcopal Church, Grand Ledge
To me, The Episcopal Church seems stuck in the late 20th century.  For many in the current church, society and the church changed dramatically during that time.  We need to reflect on how much of that change was good and consider the possibility that we threw the baby out with the bathwater during that time of liturgical, theological, political, and structural change.  Perhaps, we could consider the possibility that moving forward means first going back to reclaim some of things that were left behind. I don't know what the church of the future will look like.  TEC and all mainline denominations appear to be having an identity crisis.  The United States, like Europe and Canada, is gradually becoming more secular and skeptical of religious claims.  As this happens, conservative churches will become centers of countercultural rebellion against the dominant secular culture.  Where does that leave more liberal churches who are in many ways as skeptical of traditional Christianity's truth claims as the nonreligious? What is our reason for existence? What meaning does our more liberal theology have for the never-churched?

• The Rev. Daniel Richards, Grace Episcopal Church, Traverse City
The future of the church is in her beginning.  We are to obey Christ and make disciples, not members. We have to get back to the core of our discipleship as a community:  worship, formation, proclamation.  Episcopalians are formed by the reformed lay monastic dream of Cramner, a people shaped by Daily Office and weekly Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer and Bible.  From the core, you can head out into medieval liturgies or evangelical outreach, but we have to put money, time, and structure back into the center.  We are going to close a lot of churches if we keep trying to reform the church through her butlers instead of forming her children.   Follow Christ and the rest will follow.

• The Rev. Mike Wernick, Holy Cross, Kentwood
I would advise the church to promote itself as a national resource for biblical scholarship and scriptural authority, to do truth-telling, and talk in a lively way about how this relates to the political and other concerns facing Americans and humanity today.  We need to talk about the connections between accountability and community, use quantum physics to show our interconnections, and shift the focus from "right and wrong and good and bad" to one about consequences for us and future generations. Internally, in the church, we must prepare and promote more fluid and meaningful liturgical forms that speak to us about timeless values in modern language, demystify the liturgy, and help clergy be spiritual leaders and not CEOs. I think the church needs to take a lead in integrating technology and protecting the environment, foster Community Supported Agriculture and sustainable neighborhoods, as well as support groups of cohorts in doing what they're good at (for ministry and fellowship), and integrating these groups to do the Gospel.

• The Rev. Jared C. Cramer, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Grand Haven
The church as a whole, I believe, needs to continue a conversation about the purpose of our existence. We need to open ourselves to  the problems of the older Christendom model while still grieving the gifts of that model that are going away. Her leaders need to focus on careful listening that moves into a spiritual leadership that expresses the voice of the Spirit as articulated in the community.  I think the future of the church is that TEC will hit a bottom in membership and then it will begin to turn around. I believe TEC of the future will have moved pasts the arguments regarding inclusion and social justice and towards deeper question of the spiritual life and how that can form and transform community.

• The Rev. Anne Schnaare, Trinity Episcopal Church, Marshall
I see the future of the church as continuing to evolve.  We will discern what among the new things (internet, culture on-the-go, the changing family unit, etc.)  are to be absorbed and adapted for the Glory of God, and what foundational things (the Creeds, Scripture, etc.) are to be brought along as the church is brought into the future (and some would say the present!)  Like the transformation of the Winter Solstice into Christmas, some foreign things will be transformed as they become new treasures.  Other things will be jettisoned, as we realize that they are cultural trappings that are no longer benefiting the Gospel Mission.  I really like what Vincent Donovan’s book Christianity Rediscovered has to say on this point.

• The Rev. Nurya Parish, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Grand Rapids
The church exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and, through grace, to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ. These core purposes of the church will never change: we are here solely and always to serve God's mission in God's world. But so much has changed in the 21st century that to be faithful to God's call, we have to change too. We have to use new media to share the gospel. We have to develop new faith communities, and rethink existing ones, to reach those who need to know God. Most importantly, we have to recognize that our central work is teaching people the purpose of their existence, and leading them into deeply meaningful lives. The church of the future will be focused on making disciples, and will use every effective method to do so, or it will be no church at all.

• The Rev. Bonnie Edwards, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Portage
The future of our church centers on the unique gift that we have among us:  the transformative power that Christian community offers. As we encounter God's grace and love among us, we are changed into something new. New people among us and new situations offer ways to experience and embrace those changes. We then take that good to our wider community which in turn will draw more people to our unique gift.


– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan