Congregational ministry is not about buildings. It is about evangelism, stewardship, and growth of congregations that worship, serve, teach and provide pastoral care. As a church we very easily say, "the church is people, not the building." Yet it is the buildings that we protect and "save" at all cost, at the cost of stewardship, evangelism and growth. We even think buildings are necessary and that without splendid buildings we cannot do ministry. If that were the case, Jesus would have been far more concerned with real estate and would have built buildings rather than disciples. When he needed space he found it, borrowed it or rented it. Even though Jesus knew about carpentry, he felt no need to build a temple or a church.

We are falsely convinced that ministry follows buildings, rather than the converse: buildings follow ministry. We want to believe that "if we build it, they will come," (a misquote of "if we build it he will come" from Field of Dreams.) We point to larger churches of other denominations in our communities that have large campuses of buildings and naively think the ministries followed such grand buildings. We overlook the evangelical commitment , the reaching out to the unchurched, the professional responsiveness to visitors and strangers, the business plan for incorporating new members into the congregation in meaningful and powerful ways. We overlook that these large churches never were and never wanted to be small, and that their denominations would close shop before they would declare the year of the small church or a decade of evangelism. To them every decade is a decade of evangelism. We also forget that they manage their finances responsibly and pay their bills, or they are closed.

It's About Becoming Evangelists!

Episcopalians, growing out of an established English church, have generally left Evangelism to other denominations. We are born Episcopalians or marry Episcopalians or think ourselves into being Episcopalians. In other words, congregations have not seen it appropriate to take the initiative. Our favorite way to refer to our congregations is as warm loving families. Is there a slower growing unit of society than a family? Families seldom invite strangers to become a member of the family.

We have a denominational preference for small congregations, with the ideal being a congregation of two hundred members and a priest. Many clergy were taught this in seminary. Is small better than large? Small churches have many limitations that large ones do not have:

• small churches, like small groups, are more discriminating about who fits in (you either fit or you do not fit) whereas large churches have more places to fit in;

• small churches offer general programs for everyone (adult class: The Church’s teachings, led by the rector) whereas large churches target program to a variety of specific needs (adult class: Introducing Preschoolers To Prayer, led by someone trained in developmental principles);

• small churches put pressure on members to support and participate whereas large churches offer choices for participation;

• in small churches liking the rector is very important whereas in large churches you do not have to like the rector; there are other clergy;

• small churches have a hard time making ends meet whereas large churches have resources to reach beyond themselves.

So why are we talking about Evangelism during the 1990's? It is because some of us have re-discovered the first and best mission statement, the Great Commission: Go forth therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize people everywhere in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Mt. 28:19-20). It is because there are so many unchurched people around us, it is because there are missing generations in our churches, and it is because many of our older children, raised in the church, are not attending church.

Our current attention to Evangelism is also budget driven. Small family churches with less than 200 worshipers on a Sunday are having an increasingly difficult time paying the bills, providing a minimum package for a priest, contributing to the support of the diocese, and doing outreach (which we almost never connect with Evangelism). The financial picture is even more bleak for new congregations which think they must have million dollar sites and buildings, the kind established congregations have inherited.

Ten or twenty more pledges might balance the budget. The problem is where and how to find ten or twenty pledging units like us who will not rock the boat with new ideas. While there is better theological ground to stand on than the want of money, that may be how God is getting our attention and calling us to become Evangelists. The truth is we will not get their money without their hearts and we will not get their hearts without the Gospel.

How do we begin to become Evangelists? We have to do more than get all dressed up and wait. We have to begin by dealing with our resistance to reaching out to the unchurched and bringing them in to our communities of faith. Whether the resistance is fed by fear of change, fear of loss of our identity as Anglicans, or fear of loss of the essentials of faith, we need to examine the resistance to see if these fears are founded. If we fear change, we might identify what is in fact truly changeless, and then we could direct our efforts toward supporting what is eternal and not toward resisting anything new. If we are afraid of losing our Anglican identity, we might do some research to identify how others actually perceive us. Our identity may not be what we think it is. If we are afraid that the traditions and practices that we value are going to be lost or watered down by new members, we need to be sure that the cost of preserving the traditions is not the neglect of the Gospel mandate.

Congregational ministry is about Evangelism: inviting in the name of Christ, embracing the visitor and stranger, incorporating the new member in the full life of the community. It is about saving souls, ours and others.

It's About Being Good Stewards!

The average pledge in the Episcopal Church is at an all time high. Yet congregations struggle with under funded budgets. It costs more to do congregational ministry as we choose to do it, than the congregation of the size we prefer, can afford. A congregation with less than two hundred people in church doesn't have to be told this.

Stewardship is not just about raising more money. Stewardship, personally and corporately, is about managing what God has already given us. It is not about wanting to manage more than we have been given. The biblical promise is that if we are faithful with a little, we will be given more with which to be faithful. We have done a better job raising money than we have managing the money we have raised.

The way to begin to manage money rather than be managed by it, is to bind vision and budget together. We church leaders tend to be better at visioning than at funding visions of ministry. Much time is spent in "if only" conversation. Visions alone (without reference to resources) become nightmares. Focusing on money alone (without purpose and mission) becomes a bleak exercise in providing for fixed expenses. When we bring vision and budget together the possibility of a result increases. A ministry may not be done the way we first envisioned it. If a congregation has a vision to have an Episcopal grade school and has the money to fund it, great. If it has a budget that is not able to handle any more debt service and cannot come up with a business plan to support the school, it is not all over. The vision to make a positive influence on children’s lives and the resources that they have (a little money and some people) can provide a tutoring program or an after school program for the public school. That’s good stewardship.

It's About Congregational Ministry
In A Changing Context!

Each of us is asking different questions and struggling with different life issues than we were five or ten years ago. Effective ministry will recognize the current questions and struggles of its members and bring the light of the gospel to bear on them.

It is not the same congregation every year. Aging, transfers in and out, births, and deaths make familiar programs inappropriate, ineffective, and call for new programs and activities. Communities also under-go shifts of population and age. Areas once known for first homes and young families change into communities of retired people in twenty years. The highly needed and praised day care program of yesterday may not be needed today.

Our context for doing ministry is constantly changing around us. Healthy congregations are sensitive and responsive to the change. The theory that explains this process is Congregational Life Cycle (Builder, 1996). The early warning signs for reshaping a congregational ministry are stability in programs and activities that had been growing. The cost of ignoring the stability is decline. The cost of ignoring the beginning of decline is serious decline and death.

This flies in the face of our desire to continue forever every program and tradition that has served us in the past. Business as usual inevitably leads to less business as usual. Responding to changing individuals, congregations and communities results in healthy and energized congregations.

Now, It's About Buildings!

The need for space in which and out of which to do ministry is a real need. When we are seriously about our work of Evangelism, when we are being good stewards of the resources God gives us, and when we are responsive to the changing lives of living people and organizations, providing for buildings is not near the problem it is when we put buildings first. Buildings do not change congregations as much as we want to think they do, and they never take the place of Evangelism, Stewardship, and responding to the changing context of congregational ministry.