Via Media: Finding grace in a world divided

It's a start.

Storytelling

This morning I caught the number 43 bus up to the University District for an "Adult Forum" at Christ Church before their 10am service. We started out with just a few but the numbers slowly grew over the 30-45 minutes we had together. It's hard to do much of substance in a half hour, especially if you're only coming in once. Thinking we had more time, I planned for a discussion. I think I've decided a lecture style format would have been more appropriate even though I am generally opposed.

I try to begin presentations with some introductions of the Church Center and the Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries in particular. I'll tell how we are not a national church but an international body of 110 dioceses present in 3 regional areas and 16 countries. I'll tell how the Episcopal Church Center is responsible for carrying out the mandates of General Convention, and operates under the direction of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Chair of the House of Deputies Bonnie Anderson, Chief Operating Officer Linda Watt, and Executive Council. I'll explore the recent initiative to move staff out of New York to better represent and communicate with the church body.

Then I'll launch into the history of the current form of young adult ministry, starting with Douglas' arrival eight years ago and the first Young Adult Festival at General Convention in 2003. The following two years brought fall young adult ministry consultations in Denver with representative from 23 and 63 dioceses in 2004 and 2005. These were run by our office in conjunction with the newly formed Committee on Young Adult Ministry. 2006 brought another Young Adult Festival followed by Camino, a service retreat for young adults, in San Francisco in 2007 and 2008's Brand New Way leadership summit. During this time other resources and relationships came into being, bringing us to my arrival on the scene in January of last year.

I tell this story because I think its important for us to know how recent this venture began, how it has slowly taken form, and how important these gatherings are to our development of a sense of identity in ministry together.

From here I decided this morning to open the floor a little bit to hear the story of those present. I invited those over 40 to start by telling the group about their twenties. Where were they? What were they doing? What were the big questions they were wrestling with? It was amazing to watch the clear break down of the generations as people told their stories. Women in their 80s talked about getting married, trying to restore normalcy, racing head first into family. Those in their 60s and 70s described a time of exploration and edited their stories carefully for content. They talked about "returning" to church. Another woman in her late forties/early fifties talked about grad school and career searching while beginning a family. One woman pointed out the incredibly real way each generation was reflecting the social climate of the day, the way that folks in their twenties were in a sense, a barometer of the state of a society.

I should have ended the discussion there. That was definitely the take home I wanted them to have. The reason we so desperately need the voices of those in their twenties is because they speak the culture in which they are immersed. Like it or not they live and breathe the air of the times.

The young adults in the group responded by talking about their own questions, their own desires for the recognition and responsibility of adulthood and we began to explore the kinds of cultural changes that young adult lives are currently reflecting: the malleability and omnipresence of the media, lived pluralism, the availability of information and the concurrent suspicion of the unexamined expert. We then hurriedly began to explore the response we as a church are called to make, the commitment and vulnerability of mentorship on a social, practical and spiritual level.

I wish we had had more time and more stability in our discussion, but Sunday mornings are hectic and early and, for young adults, often not the clearest moments (well, for this one at least). Lessons learned. Next time I might just bring a powerpoint and wow them with the fancy graphics. But then, whose story would I tell?

CYAM

The Committee on Young Adult Ministry is an unofficial advisory committee commissioned by our office to serve as a sounding board and working group for young adult ministries across the church. The group is composed of eight members, 4 women and 4 men, only one clergy person and two professional lay persons. Members serve for three year terms and are nominated by diocesan and provincial leadership for the skills and perspective they offer to the group. We try to meet in person twice a year with the committee, however this year we have had to cancel our in-person meetings due to financial concerns. We nonetheless attempt to meet regularly by phone and remain in email communication.

Yesterday we had our first meeting in over two months. Busy schedules and a lack of common vision have put some of our common projects on hold, while others, like the September gathering of Diocesan Young Adult Ministry Coordinators, push smoothly ahead. The group is deeply committed to our office and to Douglas and myself. They are bright, thoughtful, and hard working like so many volunteers who make the work of the church possible.

This meeting, I hope, marked a turning point in our work. I expressed to the committee my own struggle to keep my head above water in a system I am slowly coming to understand and asked for their assistance in moving forward on a number of projects. Together we are beginning to look at new ways to establish a baseline for young adult ministry in terms of community buy in and network access. To start we are looking at two fairly simple initiatives:

Lay Leadership Story Project
Each member of CYAM is taking responsibility for interviewing a young adult involved in the church with whom they are close. They are charged with telling their story of ministry and of their relationship with the Episcopal Church. Then we are going to revisit the videos and see what common themes emerge and how we might better tell the stories with specific interview questions. These will then be posted online and added to over time. They will serve as a means of raising up young leaders, recognizing them for their efforts, and connecting them with one another. We hear all to often that young adults are not present in our church and it can often feel that way, even for those of us who are here. This is the start of bringing the network of very active young lay leaders to the forefront. My hope is that those interviewed will then interview others and further help us understand the dynamics of young adult involvement.

Spectrum of Young Adult Ministry
We often have a very narrow view of young adult ministry. This project is meant to widen our ideas of what young adult ministry can and does look like in our church today. CYAM helped to identify ten broad categories of young adult ministry and are currently helping flesh out what each area includes as well as specific examples. These will then be made into a multimedia web resource which will help ministers and parishes imagine the possibilities for reaching out to and involving young adults in their mission in the world. It will also include opportunities for uploading examples of young adult ministry that broaden our definition even further and a template for telling those stories.

Both of these resources will eventually be folded into a Young Adult Ministry readiness assessment tool to be used by parishes in the initial stages of working to develop young adult ministries. This will include web resources, study guides, as well as ready-made presentations with adaptable information to be used for adult education hours by diocesan representatives. These resources will be developed in conjunction with CYAM in stages and tested out in their local communities. Stay posted to hear more. We move forward on both projects with great hope but also with the spunk of adventure. We'll see where it goes.

Today I also met with the young adult delegates who attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women earlier this Spring. We have decided to continue working together to help formulate a young adult response to the absence of a Women's Ministry desk and to make sure the opportunity they were given is enjoyed by others in the future. At the moment that is far from a given. Our MO at the moment is one foot and then another. So our next meeting will be around women as impacted by environmental degradation. We will be looking at water rights between the US and Mexico, at women in gulf states impacted by storms and by the oil spill, and women in agriculture, a largely male driven industry. I'm excited to see what the three folks leading the discussion come up with. I'll be sure to pass it along. For today, pray for the Executive Council Commission on the Status of Women for the Episcopal Church. They'll be meeting next Wednesday through Friday to help formulate a way forward.

Facing the Alligator

I'm terrified of alligators and crocodiles. It's a totally irrational fear as I've never seen one outside of the zoo, but for some reason they haunt my dreams and my imagination. In fact, when I first moved to Houston I refused to go anywhere near the bayou for fear of being attacked by a ridiculously large-jawed reptile whose lineage has gone uninterrupted for millions of years.

Instead of being greeted by alligators here at Dayspring Episcopal Camp & Conference Center outside Sarasota, Florida, however, I was greeted by a four foot long, 2 inch diameter, black snake on the front stoop. I watched it for a while out of a semi-morbid fascination before chasing it off and entering the Retreat House.

I'm here for the preliminary consultation for lifelong formation with Black Ministries. Joining my two coworkers, Angela Ifill, Missioner for Black Ministries and fellow Formation and Vocation team member, Ruth-Ann Collins, Officer for Lifelong Formation and Older Adult Ministries, are three very lively young women and a young man from around the church.

I came into the consultation a little late after finishing with the College for Congregational Development at noon yesterday and hopping a red eye to Atlanta, and found myself knee deep in laying out a skeleton for future theological, pedagogical, and structural developments in black ministries.

I realized that I have very little experience in black Episcopal Congregations. In fact, after spending a week around leadership from Olympia my mind had become stuck in small aging white suburban parishes. I am inspired by the health and energy of these folks here gathered. I'm reminded of the large vibrant congregations of all colors which dot our ecclesial landscape. I'm reminded that booming campus ministries of several hundred are possibilities even if they are not always our goal, that some congregations have more members attend their 8 am Rite One Eucharist than most have at Easter.
I'm reminded of God's reign of connectedness and unity, here present and just beyond our view.

And I'm reminded that this connectedness is inherent in our makeup. That like this living breathing organism of a south Florida ecosystem, from its Spanish moss to its snakes and even alligators, the Episcopal Church and the Church universal is one, and both health and disease flow through its veins reaching its furthest extremities.

Today we explored some of the intricacies of the black experience in this country, from the deep connectedness of the diaspora to the continually re-opened wounds of cultural tensions, violence, and racism. Then we shared a meal of some awesome sweet potatoes, biscuits, and ham at the dining hall, before re-launching into intergenerational differences, intraracial tensions, and the need for the white community to reclaim responsibility for facing their own whiteness and privilege. These themes run through our blood as Episcopalians. The dis-ease of one will and must unsettle the whole.

The conversation has not been easy for me. There have been moments at which I have not been sure how much of my own foot I was currently chewing on, but these are the conversations we are called to have. Honest, painful and life-giving. I am so excited and blessed to be here. I hope you will follow the movement of this project as it progresses from here into the hands of very capable and talented black theologians, then into the imaginations of black practitioners and curriculum developers, before finally finding its way into our parishes, missions, and ministries.

For now my goal is to spend some time exploring churches not my own, churches with dramatically different histories, membership, and worship, to explore our diversity, all the while listening for our common heartbeat. And watching out for alligators.

Responsibility and Authority

Its a troubling relationship. The relationship between responsibility and authority. We often conceive of them as two sides of one whole, and perhaps in an ideal situation they would be. But often they come in unequal portions. I may be vested with a great deal of responsibility by the constituencies I serve, but if my authority to serve them is restricted by those who employ me or those with whom I work, my progress will be restricted by frustration and sabotage. Conversely, if I am vested with a great deal of responsibility for the growth of young adult ministries by General Convention and the Church Center, but am not granted authority in the dioceses, my work will go unnoticed or under-utilized.

As young adults in an organization largely populated by folks twenty, thirty, and forty years our senior, there seldom comes a time when our responsibility is matched by our authority to enact change. The problem is not that there are not individual authorities willing to grant authority to young adults, but rather, perhaps, that culturally we resist the inexperience of youth.

This is not a value judgment. There are many cultures around the world in which the "elder" is formally held in high esteem simply on account of her age. It is to be noted that many of these cultures also historically have clear processes by which one passes from one life stage to another, and that these processes are often narrower than the life choices presented by our culture.

But in the church, we lack a system by which children are carried into adolescence, adolescents into young adulthood, young adults into adulthood, and adults into older adulthood. The only formalized passing of authority based on faith maturity and community experience occurs with ordination.

We might point to baptism as the moment in which the authority of the Spirit is conferred, but do we really believe that children carry the same community authority that adults do? Or perhaps confirmation, or the canonical 16 year old voting right, or the 18 year old legal entry into adulthood? Theologically we believe in a democracy of voices, but practically and socially we do not live this out. Politically and historically we ration authority for the older members of our community and those with a collar.

The current moment, however, asks something new of us. Our resolutions at General Convention declaring the importance of young adulthood ask something new of us. The necessity of filling empty pews asks something new of us. A generation raised in classrooms filled with team and group based learning ask something new of us. but it is not enough to hand off responsibility to the group, and to those segments we hope to grow. We must along with it relinquish some authority.

My feeling here is not that we should let go of our systems and culture of formalized authority conferral, but that we must examine and question it. How do we raise up and recognize new leaders in our tradition in a way that grants both responsibility and authority while respecting and reflecting our polity? So many young adults are rising up to take strong positions of lay leadership in our church. How do we equip and mark them as vessels of our communal authority? Will we ordain them all? I for one resist this as any sort of stop-gap measure. We must create new systems for sharing and investing authority, or we must return responsibility for the life and future of our church to those who have always had it.

I know I'm raising more questions in this blog than I am answering, but truth be told, we don't have a lot of answers in the current moment. We are at a moment of incredible transition and I feel called to name the pains of our growing so that we can address them, together. I invite your thoughts and responses.

Back to Math Class

Today we examined more models for organizational development. Models of power, models for decision making, marketing models and models for change. Each presents its own insight and each has its own limits. One I found particularly revealing today for me at least was a model for change. It's algebraic, simple, and text friendly so I'd like to throw it out there and see what use we can make of it. Here's the model:

C = D x V x F > R          Simple, no?

Change = Dissatisfaction x Vision x First Steps > Resistance

or in text:
Change becomes possible when dissatisfaction with the current situation, vision for an alternative future, and clear first steps for realizing that future are able to outweigh the resistance to change. The multiplication marks are meant to signify that when any of the three factors are non-existent (zero), change is not possible.

Where do we as a body fall in this model around our desire to welcome and incorporate young adults? It is my feeling that for the most part we fall short on all accounts. Not only are we largely complacent (though how much longer that will last, who's to say) but we lack a vision any clearer than, "We desire age diversity," and we're in the dark as to what to do about it. The resistance, on the other hand, is well stocked.

What is the dissatisfaction that we need to build upon? Or more positively spun, what is the need that we have the calling to address? The vision bit falls neatly in line, asking what capacity do we have to address that need? What might our answer look like? And of course, the steps to instituting that answer will only follow from there.

I had the opportunity to sit down yesterday with two parishes from the Diocese of Spokane to talk about possible ventures into campus ministry. Though we spoke at different times during the day, entirely unconnected, both voiced a desire to reach out to the community colleges to which they are adjacent. In both cases, the rectors expressed a desire to attract "young people."At another point today another parish expressed the desire to attract "people of color." On both occasions I found myself somewhat perplexed. What did any of these folks mean? And why did they think they wanted to do this?

We often think we know what we mean when we say we want young adults. It's a trendy thing to say, but what does it mean in a specific context? Just as the "beauty of holiness" may describe the liturgy of a tradition, but cannot tell me where in the procession the parish banner follows at St. Swithin's in Forks (where the vampires go to church), so outreach to young adults tells us very little about who we hope will walk through our doors.

The community college question is a big one at the moment, as we begin to broaden our demographic focus and reach out to those young adults to whom we have the most to offer. Community colleges are extremely complex institutions and even more complex communities. They do not house a stable, residential, affluent, student body, who, by and large, will remain for four years. Instead they house commuters, international students, high school over-achievers :P, young parents, and "non-traditional" (read: older) students. The needs of these populations are neither uniform nor straightforward, but they are great. These are folks who are often making very clear vocational choices in their coursework. What role might we have in walking with them to lend a spiritual and wholistic dimension to their vocational discernment?

In further conversation with one parish we discovered the community college had a strong nursing program and one parishoner had a connection with the head of the department. Many young single mothers participated in the program. In addition, the parish's membership had a large number of healthcare professionals and a good number of women. Perhaps the opportunity existed for a community of mentors to support these young women as guides and positive role models?

At the other parish we discussed the need for a safe space for young adults to land as they transitioned through the school. They might not become members in the two years, but there was no reason they should not feel welcome and perhaps have a transformational experience on their way through.

There are no clear models for this type of ministry, but the possibilities grow in clarity when we define the vision more narrowly. Once a vision is beginning to emerge, as negative as it sounds, we must be active in sowing the seeds of dissatisfaction. Christ came to bring a sword, to unsettle us by asking us to look his suffering, the suffering of the world, in the eyes. Who are the specific young adults we seek to serve? Looking in their very specific two eyes, what brokenness do we see and find the call to address? I invite you to share with us and one another the specificity of your ministries. What young adults are you ministering to? What young adults are you hoping to minister to? What is the dissatisfaction that drives us?

Old and New Expectations

Everywhere I go I am met with a similar look. There is the shock of the first encounter (assuming folks are not Facebook fiends) and then the inevitable questions, "So how old are you?" "Are you ordained?" "How did you get this job?" I am not what most expect from an 815 staffer, and I think that is part of why I was hired, to perhaps extend the box a bit. But no system actually likes to change, even if it has made the conscience choice to do so.

We collectively have made any number of new and adventurous hires and decisions in the last two years. I think particularly of the satellite offices in Seattle and Los Angeles, or the creation of the Offices for Intercultural Ministries and Environmental and Economic Affairs. Structurally we are choosing to raise our experimental and prophetic voice to reach new audiences and to reach existing audiences in new ways. But neither the expectations, nor the support for "815ers" changes overnight, so I'm packing my tool belt.

I've chosen to spend this week close to home at the College for Congregational Development in the Diocese of Olympia. The College as it now exists is a project of Bishop Greg Rickel and operates under the direction of the Rev. Melissa Skelton, Canon for Congregational Development and the rector at St. Paul's, Seattle. Together with about 70 other folks from Olympia, Spokane, New Westminster, and Arkansas, I am undergoing an intensive 2 year, 8 day course (as in 8 days during two consecutive summers) on the basics of organizational development as it pertains to Episcopal Organizations.

I'm hoping the training will aid me in my work and help recover a perceived deficit in seminary education and congregational experience. I'd love to post every learning I gain up here on my blog for folks to feast on, but I don't have copyright permission or the complete vocabulary and fluency of the subject, so I'll have to settle with sharing my application as it evolves.

The one thing I do want to share at the moment is a model many of us are familiar with, the concentric circles of the faith development in community model. The model looks like a target with Mature Practitioners at the center, the next ring being Sunday Sacramentalists, the next out, Occasional Attenders, and the final, Vicarious Affiliates. There are many versions of this model but this is the one we are working with. The model is meant to represent the degree of commitment to the specific tradition which falls at the heart of the bullseye. There is no value judgment associated with affiliation at any level nor would we want everyone at the center (i.e. a cult), but we do want to continually draw folks in and create opportunities for movement inward.

In young adult ministry on all levels it is easy to become obsessed with the numbers game, which in a period of rapid growth is composed primarily of folks on the outer rings. That is all too true of the anxieties of a church facing a shrinking population--even on the national level. But just as in a parish, its all about gravity, gravity built by strengthening and building up our mature practitioners. The Episcopal model is one of gravitational pull, people are drawn in by the faith lived by others in community. The center must not only get bigger, but it must get denser. If we want to increase the number of young adults healthily affiliated with the Episcopal Church as a collective body, we must build up the existing young adult mature practitioners of our faith into a tight community of faith and relationship. We must also ease the transition from one level to the next. When the "national church" becomes an entity unto itself with carefully guarded entrances, we run the risk of cutting off healthy organizational growth in terms of a national community of young adult Episcopalians.

Why do we need such a community? Aren't our local and diocesan communities enough? I don't believe they are. Why? Because we are a body, together, and because young adults are highly mobile. We need a body to which we all belong even as we move across the church, a body which is healthy and integrated. The potential for that body is great. As is the potential for its health. Where are our mature practitioners in the young adult community? How do we connect them? How do we build them up in new and inventive ways, even as we raise their visibility to one another? Loose thoughts, I know, but hopefully we can work together to piece them into a way forward.