Franken's Convention Address 2004

109th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington

31 January 2004

Right Reverend Sir, Delegates, Staff, and Honored Guests:

In both the gospel of Matthew and the gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; …” (Luke 10:2 & Matthew 9:37)

The Episcopal Diocese of Washington encompasses four counties in Maryland and the District of Columbia. The area has a population base of 2.5 million people that has grown by a quarter of a million, since 1990 and is projected to grow to by another 100,000 people in the next five years. Your area is growing at one percent per year and your density is already eight times the national average.

The average annual income of the area is 85,000 dollars moving to over 100,000 dollars by 2008.

Thirty four percent of the people belong to an affluent lifestyle segment, 27 percent ethnic and urban diversity and 24 percent young and coming. You live in an area that, as a whole, is young, ethnically diverse, and affluent.

Of your two and half million people, over 100,000 express a faith preference for the Episcopal Church, which, as a percentage is 33 percent higher than the US average. But in your 92 congregations, you serve only 17,000 of them on an average Sunday. In addition one out of every three people in the area – or 875,500 – have and practice no faith preference. That means you don’t even have to steal them from the Roman Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, Fundamentalists, or synagogues … they are at home drinking coffee and reading the paper.

Seventy six percent of your congregations have less than 225 people on an average Sunday and of those, 32 congregations have less than a 100. Only three or four of your churches host over 500 people on an average Sunday. In the past thirty years it has gotten significantly more expensive to operate churches, in large part because of well-needed increases in clergy salaries, a shrinking volunteer base, and a general increase in the cost of doing business. It has become more difficult to operate smaller churches with full-time seminary trained clergy. Many of your congregations could benefit from larger Sunday attendance … many of them have capacity … many of them have great gifts to offer and just need some encouragement and assistance to shine their light more brightly into their community,

Bishop Chane has just defined mission strategy as being the work you do in your congregations, the work you do in your schools, and the work you do nationally and abroad. One translation of the bible states the great commission as: “Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life …” (Matthew 28:19).

Today’s I am talking about how to implement and improve the training “near” – how to serve more of the 2.5 million people God has placed in your way and made your neighbors. I challenge each of you, individually, to take away at least one new learning about your neighbors and how you and your congregation might serve them better – because we “train” people and build the church one person at a time. And corporately, as a diocese, I challenge you to use this information to embrace a new vision and commitment of supporting your current congregations in growth, and in building healthy and vibrant new congregations for the future.

For Strataventure this process started at the request of your Bishop who asked us to analyze demographic data, parochial report data, conduct focus groups, and use the information we gathered at other meetings to make a report to the regional assemblies of who you are as the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. The essence of this report is available on your website at www.edow.org. This process gave us a reasonably clear picture of who you are and where your gaps in service are.

Some significant findings are:
• It has been ten years since you started a new congregation. And, you have only started two congregations in the last 24 years.
• During the last ten years your average Sunday attendance in this rapidly growing region has been essentially flat – but in fact during the period from 2001 to 2002 the diocese lost a 1,000 people on an average Sunday – that is not growth.
• You have no clear standards about diocesan financial assistance for new starts. Over the years different congregations have gotten different levels of assistance in the areas of land, buildings, and operations.
• Nationally you rank 13th in numerical size, out of 100 dioceses in the US.
• Your average individual pledge is $1,800 per year and ranks you 34th among Episcopal diocese.
• The cumulative pledge of your 92 congregations to the diocese, ranks you 19th.

There is a definition of insanity that says: Insanity is going down the same path in the same direction at the same pace, and expecting to end up in a different place.

It is a time for bold actions in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington to meet the needs of the harvest – and your proposed budget reflects that kind of boldness. David Lloyd George said “Don’t be afraid to take a big step when one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small steps.”

In the report we made to the regional assemblies we provided a series of recommendations, which I will briefly go over with you now:

Type 1 Recommendations are for new congregations or redevelopment—these are places that have been significantly underserved based on growth, population density, and size of congregation, if any, in the area. The seven most critical are:
1. Germantown
2. N. Potomac
3. Montgomery Village
4. Kettering
5. Clinton
6. Rosaryville
7. West St. Charles

Type 2 Recommendations are for areas of significant population diversity shifting – these places represent a significant outflow and inflow of white, black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, and Native American persons. The seven most dramatically changing are:
1. Central DC
2. NE Washington
3. SE Washington
4. Wheaton/Glenmont
5. Greater Landover
6. Gaithersburg
7. Suitland/Silver Hill

Type 3 Recommendations are areas for land purchase for future use, also known as land banking – these are places that show significant future potential for growth but whose current density is not sufficient to consider the area a priority for a new start at this time. The three most immediate are:
1. N Hughesville
2. SE Leonordtown
3. Clarksburg – this area is growing so fast it did not even show up on our demographic studies.

Type 4 Recommendations are areas that should be evaluated for long-term future capacity – they are those places were a current church exists and high growth is present, but the current low density indicates that the short-term needs are probably limited. The 4 most important are:
1. Darnestown
2. Callaway
3. Bowie
4. Valley Lee

Type 5 Recommendations are multi-cultural in nature:
1. Develop a diocesan strategy for multi-cultural ministry, possibly using single sites for multiple congregations because often these groups need and/or want separate services.
2. Review the seven demographic circles where Hispanic/Latino and the 13 circles where Asian are greater than ten percent of the population

Type 6 Recommendations are general “for the good of the organizations” recommendations:

1. Review small congregations to determine their unique needs
2. Revise Constitution and Canons to eliminate Parish Bounds and provide language whose purpose is to support the creation of new starts
3. In a real way deal with issues of race and changing cultures
4. Revise Regional Boundaries to make natural geographic, affinity, or size groupings
5. Continue to improve communications - create an open system that is transparent and lets all affected “players” see what is going on

All these recommendations assume and support a holistic approach to the congregational development component of the Bishops call to a strategic approach to Mission:
• From providing simple demographic assistance to congregations
• To working with congregations by providing a more detailed analysis to determine issues and needs
• To helping congregations address significant cultural shifts in their area
• To assisting congregations through transitional zones - like growing from pastoral size to program size or program size to corporate size
• To creating fresh starts of dying congregations
• To founding new starts to meet the unmet needs of a growing population
All so we can serve better those who have expressed a preference for the Episcopal Church and those still drinking coffee and reading the newspaper on Sunday morning.

Are you the people God is calling to be laborers of the harvest?
• If not you … who?
• If not now … when?

In the demographic analysis of your area, as in much of the United States, the number one programmatic reason that people list for choosing a new church is the recreational and cultural programs offered. From family activities & outings, to active retirement programs, to youth social programs, to cultural programs. My fond memory from my childhood is the youth group that I attended and the Scout-like organization of which I was a part. I am convinced that both of them created in me spirituality, through their recreational components, that I have never forgotten and that have carried me through good time and bad in my faith journey.

In worship style and music, the people in your area generally tend towards the traditional or a blend of contemporary and traditional, but rarely to the full-blown contemporary.

Other faith communities have been exploring alternative worship space, moving from the traditional and historic bricks and mortar, steeple and high pointed roof, to more affordable and flexible space in private schools, shopping centers, and even Safeway stores.

Besides working to grow congregations in health and size, the Diocese of Washington must begin to work toward the establishment of new congregations in high density and high growth areas. You could start a congregation of 500 persons every six-weeks for the next five years and not keep up with the new people moving into the area who express a preference for the Episcopal faith.

We have encouraged Bishop’s staff and Diocesan council to adopt “standards” for new starts, fresh starts and other places where significant diocesan staff or financial resources are expended.

I would like to make some recommendations today, about new starts, which hopefully will be a foundation for the work you and the council are undertaking:
1. The goal of a new start should never be to become a parish or build a building – instead the goal should be to effectively and totally serve the whole of the demographic community into which it is placed.
2. Significant diocesan financial assistance will be necessary for several years, and in the case of multi-cultural congregations it could be for a decade or longer.
3. Clarity about who buys land and who builds buildings is critical – our suggestion is that the diocese acquires the land and the congregation, when it is able, builds the building.
4. Use a broad based planning group to create the identity, determine the plan, build a multi-year budget, and determine the timing of the new start – before any commitments are made.
5. After appropriate approval of the plan, hire a professional church planter and support him or her with a committed lay new start team. Send the planter and team to new start school together.
6. Set a clear minimum start size.
7. Secure the initial worship site for the first three to five years, before starting services.
8. Support the new start with clear and measurable accountability standards.

So what are the next steps?

The first step was to learn about who you are as a diocese and about the region into which God has called you.

Today you, as the rightful representative of the diocese, are asked to take an important step by working in small groups on four very important questions. The feedback from these questions will help in developing a framework for the new start process.

Council will devote its annual planning day to reviewing your ideas and concerns. Then over the next several months they and other leaders will work hard at establishing priorities and find a balance between the needs of the different geographical areas of your diocese. They will work to honor the variety of needs and establish a balance from the simple need to the complex new or fresh start. They will adopt standards and a timeline for these flexible priorities, so that this not something that you just talk about – but it is something that you do.

The Episcopal Church has already lost much of my generation, the Boomers. We are witnessing the greatest wealth transfer in the history of the world and have done little to tap into that resource. We have moved from a consumer-based system to an experientially based system – and through it all we proudly have not changed – but we also have not grown. Stagnant water tastes terrible and breeds death; stagnant organizations can do the same. John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” The church must change its organization and systems to become more nimble if it is to survive well into the 21st century. And change starts through leadership. Recently someone observed, “It would take a generation to raise new leaders.” I tell you that we no longer have a generation to wait … or else we risk losing another generation in our pews – that we can ill afford to loose.

I commend you, Bishop Chane… I commend you, the clergy and duly elected representatives for looking for new ways to serve the needs of the people God has placed in your way, on your path. Wayne Gretsky, the hall of fame hockey player who scored more goals in his career than any player in the history of the sport was asked what his secret was. He said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” I challenge you here today to look at the world and skate – not to where the church has been – not to where the church is – but skate to where the church is going be tomorrow and beyond.