wfn.org | Small churches lead the way in Gene

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August 6, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1909
Small churches lead the way in General Convention's support for mission

     (ENS) The inauguration of a yearlong celebration of small church
ministry helped focus widespread energy at the 72nd General Convention
over issues of outreach and mission.
     Small churches are "the leading edge in creating the updraft on
which the rest of us will rise or crash in the decades ahead," said Bishop
Martin Townsend of the Diocese of Easton (Maryland), a member of the
Standing Committee on the Church in Small Communities.
     The committee oversees work with small congregations and rural
communities for the Executive Council, which is sponsoring the "Year of
the Small Church."
     By necessity, small churches have learned to do more with less,
Townsend said, developing innovative and effective approaches to
evangelism, formation and outreach with a minimum of resources and by
tapping into the talents of church members. 
     In his introduction to a video titled "The Leading Edge,"
Townsend stressed the vibrancy and innovative approach to ministry
underway in small churches.
     While the challenges can be daunting, the story of the small
church is not one of despair, Townsend said. Through sharing their gifts,
lay members realize they have an equal and vital role to play in their
congregations. 
     "The intimacy in small congregations strengthens our baptismal
ministry and our self-awareness as the body of Christ," he said.
     His message was underscored in the stories of a dozen
congregations told in the 22-minute video shown to the bishops. Among
the voices affirming the ministry of the laity was the Rev. Canon Ben
Helmer of the Diocese of Western Missouri. Members of small churches
in his diocese, Helmer said, "know they are baptized ministers and are
not afraid to say so."

Broadening their view
     The vicar of a Baton Rouge church described how his members
have broadened their view of the church. "We have learned that we need
to work with all types of people, all cultures, all classes." 
     At another Louisiana congregation, the members have learned that
a church structure is not a prerequisite to effective ministry. This mission
church, which occupies a downtown storefront, has transferred its
building funds into an endowment for outreach ministry. The main
concern, said one parishioner, is attempting to meet "a diversity of needs
without many resources."
     Townsend, who served as narrator in the video, told the bishops
the celebration of the small church should not end in 1997 "but continue
into the next millennium."
     Bishop Wesley Frensdorff, Nevada's pioneer in "total ministry"
who died in 1988, "is looking down upon us and telling us to go for it,"
added Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning in a postscript to Townsend's
presentation.

Structure changes address mission, ministry
     Structural changes adopted by the convention replaced three
standing commissions on evangelism, churches in small communities and
metropolitan areas with a single Standing Commission on Domestic
Mission and Evangelism. 
     The role of the Standing Commission on World Mission also was
clarified and its membership broadened to include more people with
direct representation in world mission. Wording in the original resolution 
that would have required that half the membership be from jurisdictions
outside the United States was deleted.
     Convention authorized the continuation of the office of rural and
small community ministries with a call that the positions of national
officer and field officer be filled as soon as possible. The Council for the
Development of Ministry and the Board of Theological Education were
combined under the new Standing Commission on Ministry.
     Convention also amended the canons to add missionary theology
and missiology~the study of mission~to the subjects in which candidates
for ordination must show proficiency, and directed seminaries to prepare
graduates on interfaith issues. A church-planting goal of 1 percent for
each diocese also was adopted.
     Other General Convention actions related to mission and
evangelism included approving resolutions:
     ~ calling for the Executive Council to fund a full-time
congregational development position for the next triennium;
     ~ encouraging dioceses with metropolitan areas to prepare
congregational development strategies;
     ~ saying "the effects of `welfare reform,' especially as they have
impact on the lives of women and children, (should) be a priority in
diocesan mission outreach planning and action";
     ~ adopting a domestic missionary outreach to ethnic minorities;
     ~ supporting outreach to migrant workers, urging the church to
give greater responsibility to the dioceses and provinces to sustain and
develop ministries among migrant and seasonal farm workers;
     ~ directing the Executive Council to initiate development of a
Partnership for Global Mission in a way that pulls together many groups
that work on mission while retaining the authority of the council over the
work;
     ~ designating the last Sunday of Epiphany of each year as World
Mission Sunday;
     ~ urging comprehensive use by the Episcopal Church of
revolutionary technologies to provide information and to further
community;
     ~ renewing commitment to college work;
     ~ calling on the church to "reclaim the essential mission of
evangelism in the remaining years of the Decade of Evangelism and
beyond;
     ~ encouraging the mission outreach of the Convocation of
American Churches in Europe;
     ~ urging those engaging in evangelism to cooperate in their work;
     ~ directing the Evangelism Office of the Episcopal Church Center
to prepare resources for spiritual preparation for mission in the next
millennium.
     ~ supporting new directions in American Indian leadership
training through the Indigenous Theological Training Institute of North
America;
     ~ directing examination of racial and ethnic ministry development
by appropriate church bodies;
     ~ encouraging Episcopal Church education throughout the life
span;
     ~ conducting a survey of preparation and training of the laity for
ministry in all dioceses;
     ~ affirming the church's commitment to theological education
through parishes contributing 1 percent of their income to one or more
seminaries;
     ~ recommitting the Episcopal Church to the Indigenous Native
Ministry;
     ~ encouraging congregations to support the ministry of and by
older adults;
     ~ requesting the presiding bishop to designate one Sunday a year
as Theological Education Sunday;
     ~ establishing a new Title II, Canon 15, setting a minimum
continuing education standard for clergy of 36 hours annually; and
     ~ calling on dioceses to develop plans for continuing education
for clergy and lay professionals.

~based on an article by David Skidmore, communications officer for the
Diocese of Chicago