HOBD post

[Susan Snook]

Just want to let you all know - the "member" of our group who was
sending spam to us has now been banned from the group, so hopefully
this will stop.

And, for those who don't subscribe to the HOBD list, I posted this
yesterday in response to a query about Executive Council priorities.
Since I receive the HOBD list in digest form, I don't know yet whether
anyone has responded.

Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:24:07
To: Bishops Deputies<bishops...@hobd.org>
Subject: [HoB/D] priorities


Thank you to John and Del for redirecting us to a discussion of
strategic priorities for Executive Council. So much arguing makes my
head hurt, and this is a very welcome "cold shower!"

I believe our highest priority is to find a way to reach out to new
people with the good news of Jesus Christ. We Episcopalians are
pretty good at serving others, through our wonderful ministries with
MDGs, etc., but not quite so good at telling them why we are serving
them. We serve others because we follow the One whose life, death and
resurrection was service to the world. If we are people who have been
transformed by the treasure of Christ's love, then how can we hoard
that treasure for ourselves? Yet so often, that is what we do.

Closely related to the call to tell the good news (evangelism) is a
call to bring others into the loving community that we have found in
the Episcopal Church (church growth). Our church is shrinking, as
anyone knows who has read the State of the Church report. This
decline is not only due to departures by conservatives; we lose
something like 19,000 members (the equivalent of one diocese) per year
by virtue of our age structure alone - we are dying off faster than we
are birthing new Episcopalians.

I believe that we need a strategic way of approaching the twin
challenges of evangelism and church growth, yet I am distressed by the
apparent lack of interest in these issues, and the lack of strategic
thinking in our church. Some of the funding and staffing cuts were
certainly non-strategic. If we are planning for the future of our
church, and for the nurture of new believers, and for the fulfillment
of the Great Commission, why do we have a plan for our archives, but
we don't have an evangelism plan (or an evangelism budget)? I believe
we need a strategic plan for evangelism, including planting and
growing churches among underserved populations, identifying and
training gifted ministers to do the work, supporting our existing
congregations in the work of evangelism, and financing evangelism and
church planting ministries. I believe we also need a strategic plan
for how to reach, teach, and nurture the young. We need to plan for
the future, and
then we need to get to work funding and doing the plan. We need to
turn our minds to the future and figure out how we are going to meet
its challenges.

Blessings,

Susan Snook+, C2 Arizona

The Rev. Susan B. Snook


Priest Missioner
The Episcopal Church of the Nativity
7010 E. Chauncey Lane Suite 100
Phoenix, Arizona 85054
(480) 307-9216 Office
(602) 980-4970 Cell
www.TheNativity.net