wfn.org | [ENS] Evangelism grows with 'Groundwork' around Episcopal Church

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@episcopalchurch.org>]

Thursday, April 28, 2005

Evangelism grows with 'Groundwork' around Episcopal Church

Congregations apply national resources; new packets planned for fall
release

By Pat McCaughan

ENS 042805-2

[ENS] -- A fourth-grader in Washington state helped bring six new
families
to her congregation, thanks to efforts sparked by "Groundwork," the
Episcopal Church's new evangelism resources used for the first time in
Lent.

Audrey Hatfield, 9, said the Groundwork conversations at her church
inspired
her to launch a door-to-door new member campaign for Church of the Holy
Spirit in Washington's fast-growing community of Battle Ground.

Posted online and mailed last January to each of the Episcopal Church's
more
than 7,200 congregations and 110 dioceses, Groundwork seeks to widen
local
hospitality overall, and specifically before the denomination's new
nationwide broadcast advertising begins this August.

The effort further supports the General Convention's endorsement of
building
the Episcopal Church's 2.3-million membership substantially by the year
2020, reversing attendance declines posted in recent years by all
mainline
denominations [see additional resources posted at
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/research_3069_ENG_HTM.htm].

In Cleveland, the Rev. Al Murray of St. Andrew's Church credits
Groundwork,
along with supporting Percept demographic materials, as the impetus for
reaching out and creating important new parish and community
partnerships.

In northwest central Iowa, where St. Mark's "is one church among 53
other
denominational choices in a population of about 23,000 in a declining
community," the Rev. Steve Hall says Groundwork helped underscore the
need
to heighten public awareness of the Fort Dodge congregation's presence.

The Rev. Kathy Munson-Lutes says using Groundwork transformed St.
Andrew's,
Rapid City, South Dakota, into "a listening church," and sharpened its
desire to grow.

Many more congregations say they want to use Groundwork in Lent 2006,
and a
new Lectionary-based study guide is set for good lead-time distribution
as
early this fall as possible, says the Rev. James Lemler, the Episcopal
Church's director of mission.

Posted online at www.episcopalchurch.org/groundwork, the current
resources
guide congregations to such supporting materials as: Percept, or local
demographic information by keying in their zip codes; tips to highlight
the
church's community presence; opportunities to participate in church-wide
broadcast advertising; information about cross-cultural and youth
ministry;
and new-member ministry and communication. Materials are also available
in
Spanish.

The Rev. Elizabeth Habecker, rector of St. Mark's, Downey, a
multi-ethnic
parish of about 120 families in southeast Los Angeles County, called
Groundwork a vehicle for discussion of the church's identity and
mission.

"We've only begun scratching the surface in how it could be used,"
Habecker
said. "This is a total church program, one you can take and use over a
long
period of time. As a former educator, I know good stuff when I see it.
I've
been taught long enough by the church to take what you can use and use
it as
much as you can."

Community partnerships inspired

At Cleveland's St. Andrew's Church, an African American congregation
with an
average Sunday attendance of about 150, rector Murray said Groundwork
prompted the church to take several "good looks" at itself, at the
Percept
information, and at the surrounding community.

St. Andrew's, located near Cleveland's downtown district, is described
as a
well-to-do commuter congregation with an average age among parishioners
of
about 60.

"We asked questions about our community and how they viewed us," Murray
said. "We hosted a forum and invited them in."

"We realized there are a lot of young adults, especially single fathers,
in
our immediate area. We talked about how we could be more welcoming as a
church, and we listened to what they had to say."

As a result, St. Andrew's opened its space for use by a neighboring
music
school.

"The second week, the Suppen Music School came back to our Lenten series
and
brought 50 kids with them and gave a recital," Murray recalled. "It was
an
awesome experience; a layperson has volunteered to lead a youth
ministry,
and we look forward to more creative partnerships in the future."

Murray said that Groundwork helped St. Andrew's realize that if the
parish
wants to grow from a pastoral to a program-sized church, it needs to
reach
out to the surrounding community.

He said the congregation also wants to be more attuned to its own
diversity
-- celebrating the experiences of its African, African American, and
Caribbean American congregants.

Meanwhile, St. Mark's Church in Fort Dodge, Iowa, is few in number --
about
65 on an average Sunday -- and powerful in partnership with the
community,
but ill-equipped to share its story or attract new members, says rector
Hall.

"St. Mark's is a happening place in Fort Dodge -- the problem is, we're
the
best kept secret in town," Hall says. "A medical clinic located in our
downstairs receives 14,000 visits a year. Ask anybody in the local
population if they know where the clinic is and they can tell you,
because
70 percent of the children get shots here. They just don't realize
there's a
church sitting on top of it."

A popular off-site ministry called the Baby's Room offers a range of
services for new moms, yet few recognize St. Mark's role there, he said.

"Groundwork helped us realize that we tend to under-represent
ourselves,"
Hall said. "We're going to try and do that a little differently; we're
not
going to go bragging about things but we are going to help others get to
know us better" including using the national church ad project, Hall
said.

Learning 'faith talk'

Groundwork also helped give the mostly-Anglo Fort Dodge congregation a
way
to talk about faith.

"It helped our congregation recognize that they don't have a vocabulary
to
talk about their faith, because it's been co-opted by other Christians
with
whom they don't agree," Hall said.

"That's going to be the first piece of our action as we continue using
Groundwork in our weekly sessions. We're discovering that we need to pay
attention to what other people are saying and help them connect the dots
so
they do understand we're really on the same page."

In Rapid City, South Dakota, Groundwork offered St. Andrew's congregants
a
way to begin to tell their own faith stories to one another.

"Groundwork helped us begin to put words around identifying who we are
as a
congregation, to enable us to speak about the passion we have for the
Gospel
of Jesus Christ," says rector Monson-Lutes. "The format was helpful for
people to enter into talking about what even a faith story is."

She describes the congregation of about 100 on any given Sunday as "on
the
bubble" and, like many others, faced with a challenge to grow.

"It seemed to me that people were faced with a choice-either you have to
let
people in or you decide not to grow," she said. "Groundwork helped us
talk
about what growth means, about making some clear choices in deciding to
grow, and how you have to be different in order to grow, because growth
doesn't just happen."

The congregation is still exploring its identity via "a graffiti
approach,"
says Monson-Lutes. "We have a huge poster board mounted on the wall. At
the
top it reads, 'St. Andrew's is ...' People are still filling in the
blank,
with things like St. Andrew's is a home to worship without judgment ...
an
open and warm community, welcoming everybody.
 
Monson-Lutes intends to use the graffiti approach to create promotional
materials for the local Welcome Wagon and other media in Rapid City, she
said.

Evangelizing for growth, change

The Groundwork series also spawned conversations about growth for Church
of
the Holy Spirit in Battle Ground, Washington, conversations that
nine-year-old Audrey Hatfield took to heart.

"I heard the church needed some help," said the Hockinson Elementary
School
fourth grader. "I decided that, if our church needed help, I could write
some letters and put them on people's doors. I went around our area and
started putting them in mailboxes and at doors and hanging them on
doorknobs."

She typed up an invitation on her computer that read: "Church of the
Holy
Spirit is for you. This is an Episcopal Church. This one is a very good
one.
Please come and try it."

Within a month's time the church, located in the fastest growing city in
the
fastest growing county in Washington State, had gained six new families.

Adults noticed Audrey's efforts and joined her, distributing letters and
door hangers from the Church Ad Project within the surrounding area.

In addition to the new families, the efforts earned Audrey the
designation
"Evangelist of the Month" and inspired the congregation to focus
attention
outward for the first time in its 18-year history, says the Rev. Don
Greenwood, interim rector.

Other congregations, like Trinity Church in Watertown, South Dakota, are
also focusing on growth and change.

"We looked at who we are, what God wants for our church," said senior
warden
Dave Eggen who supplemented Groundwork with "From Survival to Growth" a
video series available through the Episcopal Media Center in Atlanta.

"We are in the process of calling a priest and it really helped us take
a
look at ourselves," Eggen said. "Our goal was to build relationships
with
one another, to build a healthy foundation in which we could grow our
church
and to begin more focused outreach.

"For the past 10 or so years, we've done some outreach, but everyone's
been
doing their own thing. Hopefully, we can make a more concerted effort,
and
grow in numbers and to do God's work," said the elementary school
technology
integrationist who assists K-6 schools with integrating technology in
the
classroom.

Eggen, and others, like the Rev. Steve Yagerman of All Saints, New York
City, say they hope to participate in Groundwork on a continuing basis.

"Not everything transferred neatly, it was a little bit like a model kit
you
build at home-there's the glue and there's the parts and you have to put
it
together for yourself," Yagerman said. "Some of it seemed redundant in
some
places and in others there seemed to be gaps and you had to fill them in
and
make it work for yourself.

"Nevertheless, overall it's a very good discipline for a parish to go
through," he added. "It gave people a sense of ownership in the parish
and
of belonging. Hopefully, the national church will continue to refine it
and
offer additional follow-up."

-- The Rev. Patricia McCaughan is senior correspondent for the Episcopal
News Service. She is also associate rector of St. Mary's Church in
Laguna
Beach, California.

___________________________
To SUBSCRIBE to enslist, send a blank email message, from the address
which
you wish subscribed, to: join-enslist@epicom.org

Send QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS to news@episcopalchurch.org.

The enslist is published by Episcopal News Service:
www.episcopalchurch.org/ens