Social Media & Face-to-Face: What Works for Us

I have been booked several times now to speak about Social Media in the Church. Friends and family who know me well find great humor in this, as do I. Asking me to speak at a conference on social media is a bit like asking a videotape to parse Latin sentences in the presence of ocelots.

When I am booked for such work, I try to talk the person booking me out of it. The truth is: I am not a big social media person. This is when the person booking me tells me that she or he is up against a deadline or that really they just wanted to hear Southside Abbey stories and their only free slot was in this social media. This is not to say that I do not think Social Media is important, because I do. I really, really do. The Apostle Paul used all the media at his disposal: he talked to people, he spoke in public (sometimes in chains), and he wrote letters. We have to be using every type of media at our disposal too.

Let me explain. Southside Abbey has a fair number of people who do not have cell phones or computers or anything like that as an ever-present part of their lives. This may be due to social location, geographic location, educational location, or temporal location, but it is there as a reality. We also have a fair number of people who post a lot of pictures, quotes, videos, articles, and the like. These two groups have kept me from 1) relying on social media for communication with our entire body and 2) kept me from learning a lot about social media because I am surrounded by people who like to do engage that way and who do it a lot better.

This may sound like a digression, but one of the things that I have been asked for more than once is a set of Social Media guidelines. When I have asked as a followup, it is because Southside Abbey's facebook presence (Group for locals and Page for the diaspora) has so far been free from back-and-forth arguments that plague some churchy digital domains.

I can't give what I don't have, but I do have noticed some trends that work for us. My first and foremost rule is that email is for factual transmission only. If an email is as long as this blog post, the information contained therein is probably better shared over a cup of ice cream or the telephone.

The second trend ties deeply to what we are about at Southside Abbey in terms of formation. We do a lot of leadership development, in tandem with working toward spiritual maturity. Social maturity is a prerequisite to both of these, so we work on social maturity too. This work is paying off in our digital space, but may have as much to do with who we are promoting: not ourselves or our way of doing things, but Jesus.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on July 22, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Innovative Leadership Rounds Explained

Perhaps I got ahead of myself with my last blog post. It happens. I am often guilty of: “Ready. Fire. Aim.” In mentioning the Minnesotans' trip to Southside Abbey, I mentioned the Innovative Leadership Rounds, without really unpacking what that program is.

First, the Innovative Leadership Rounds program is made possible by the generosity, support, and faithfulness of the Episcopal Church Foundation's Fellowship Partners Program. For those who had not heard, I am humbled and honored to be named a Fellow for 2015. I am humbled and honored beyond words, which is rare for me – to be without words, that is.

This reality calls to mind the speech the character Kevin makes at the end of an episode of the television show, The Office. Kevin, who is not known for his knowledge or wisdom, is part of a team that has just won a trivia competition. Upon reflection, he offers: “Look, I know it's easy to say tonight was just a fluke, and maybe it was. But here's a piece of trivia: A fluke is one of the most common fish in the sea, So if you go fishing for a fluke, chances are... you just might catch one” (The Office, “Trivia”). That's some deep theological stuff right there. How often are we in the presence of the Holy Spirit, present in the ordinary, and we just miss it?

In short, ECF has been gracious enough to see the Holy Spirit present in the work that Southside Abbey is doing and supportive enough to offer that work as a resource to others engaged in similar work around the Church. This is what the Innovative Leadership Rounds program, which is funded by the Fellowship, is all about.

The Innovative Leadership Rounds are based medical rounds, which demonstrate the best analysis and treatment of real patients to groups of physicians, as these patients personally share their stories. Observing, sharing, and inquiring in groups can teach more than one-sided lectures or presentations. The Innovative Leadership Rounds Project will invite missional church lay and clergy leaders to participate in Rounds with other like-minded leaders from across the Episcopal (and Lutheran) Church.

The Church will tangibly benefit by having leaders developed and learning documented and disseminated. The Rounds project could be a resource for dioceses contemplating starting missional communities, or in early stages of such work. Leadership of dioceses not yet engaged in this kind of work might even be more supportive of an emerging community with an established model and program, like Southside Abbey and the Rounds project.

In a broader sense, the Church will benefit by having more current clergy and lay leaders thinking missionally and communally about spreading the good news of Jesus. People who haven’t traditionally been raised up as leaders will also have an opportunity to participate in the growth and future of the Church, benefitting creativity, diversity, and strength.

Southside Abbey is not the model of the Episcopal Church moving forward. We are a model. The Rounds project is mutual learning. Hopefully the Episcopal Church can learn much from Southside Abbey and the communities with whom we partner. Look for the fruit of this labor to be shared on Southside Abbey's website under our Open Source tab in the coming year, as well as continued sharing through ECF's Vital Posts.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on June 23, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

The Minnesotans are Coming! The Minnesotans are Coming!

Well, they actually have already come, and gone. One of the blessings of being an ECF Fellow for 2015 is the opportunity that it affords Southside Abbey to grow with other communities that will come visit us as part of the Innovative Leadership Rounds Program. Our time with the Minnesotans was a pilot of that program, graciously put together by Missioner Steve Mullaney and the Episcopal Church in Minnesota.

Nine Minnesotans descended upon Chattanooga's Southside late Thursday evening. I don't know what any of us thought would happen, but I can share what did happen. Somewhere along the way the Holy Spirit showed up for each one of us.

While it certainly helps that Steve brought a fantastic group of faithful followers of Jesus with him, I know that this special weekend is one that I will treasure for a long time to come, as it continues to feed me days later.

This time together was an opportunity to learn from one another. We at Southside Abbey were able to share with our new friends what we are doing, while at the same time seeing Southside Abbey's mission and ministry through fresh eyes.

During our time together: We ate, we prayed, we shared our hopes for the trip, we slept, we went on a “reality bus tour” of Chattanooga's Southside, we ate, we met immigrants and those experiencing homelessness, we shared Christ's table with them at H♥ART Gallery, we ate, we jubilee-ified (now a word) a laundromat – providing quarters, pizza, soap, and hope, we were part of house blessing of a man who had lived on the streets for more than a dozen years, we ate, we worshiped in “traditional” Episcopal ways, we worshiped in “non-traditional” Episcopal ways, we shared stories, we talked, we processed, we ate, we wrote a compline liturgy together (which still requires some editing and permissions, but will soon be up on Southside Abbey's website under the “Open Source” tab), we sang, we prayerfully walked the neighborhood, and we said “see you later.”

Most importantly, during our time together we got to know one another and ourselves, deeply. Our community was formed so strongly that tears were shed when we said goodbye. It felt like camp before cell phones or video games if that makes any sense at all.

One of my favorite phrases to come out of the weekend was uttered by Southside Abbey's Claire LePage. Claire, along with her brother Graham (who happens to be Southside Abbey's lay missioner), grew up in Kenya. As such, she got to see a lot of “mission trips” from the point of view of those who stay behind after the mission trip is over. Claire reminisced that: “the weekend offered everything that a mission trip is supposed to do, but rarely ever does. It built real relationships that will last and we all learned from one another.”

I'm excited to share here a small part of the collaborations that the Innovative Leadership Rounds will bring. The Tennesseans invade Minnesota in the fall...

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on June 10, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Take a Chance: This is Opportunity Time!

Sometimes the Holy Spirit can be inconvenient. There we are going about our lives when, bam! Something happens. I easily produce list after list of the rotten stuff, but that's not for this venue. Besides, often the rotten stuff turns out to be the foundation for living into a new creation. The list that is much harder for many of us to populate is the list of those “bam” moments when we are blindsided by the Holy Spirit and the possibility that death really does not have the last word.

But what about the ordinary? I love the dual nature of the word ordinary. Ordinary, as in the everyday or commonplace and, as in that which is set apart (same root as ordained). God can use the ordinary, yes even our ordinary stuff. In Southside Abbey's small groups, we engage the spiritual maturity muscles. These are required to build a practice of thankfulness for all that “was, and is, and is to come.”

Why might I be writing about these things? I am awakening to the possibility that stuff is not nearly as bad as we thought, that God is still using the ordinary. As I mentioned in my last post, I was gifted with the opportunity to mold the minds of some students at the School of Theology at Sewanee. I shared with them some of the realities the world is facing and how the church might be impacted or be impactful, and how they, in partnership with the Holy Spirit, have a hand in building a church that is passive or proactive.

I have read that between sixteen and seventeen trillion dollars (yes, trillion, with a “t”) is about to change hands. As the last of the Greatest and Builder generations meet their reward and the Baby Boomers retire, the world will see the largest transfer of wealth, ever. That amount is about what the U.S. owes our creditors, but I digress.

The point is: this is opportunity time! The Episcopal Church is primed. We are not a Johnny-come-lately, say-what-we-think-people-want-to-hear-so-we-can-draw-them-in, splash-in-the-pan outfit. No. Society is catching up to us. We have been on the forefront on issues of civil rights, gender equality, and sexuality. Don't get me wrong, we still have lots of work to do here, especially on issues of those who are differently-abled and those who are poor. But, we are standing on a foundation of centuries of theology, scholarship, prayer, and relationships.

I took much from my time with those seminarians, many of whom are young, really young. I, for one, am really excited about their ministry. What great and wonderful things does the Holy Spirit have in store for the church that they will lead?

I have seen it in practice in the microcosm already. Ministries, parishes, and dioceses that have taken a chance on someone who is totally unqualified, by traditional standards, to lead them are rockin'! Which leads me to to wonder: just who is qualified to do this work? To lead in this movement we are required to believe in the impossible, love the unloveable, be present where most people would not be bothered. We give away everything we are given. We rely not on our own understanding. Who better to do that than a bunch of kids?

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on April 30, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Maybe It's Not So Bad Out There

It has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been doing that quintessentially Fringe Episcopal Ministry thing: traveling around telling Southside Abbey's story in hopes that money will come our way. While we fell far short of our fund-raising goals, we did deepen some relationships, and that is impossible to put a price tag on. There was also a wonderful side effect, I've come to accept that maybe it's not so bad out there.

Earlier this month, I was blessed to teach a class at the School of Theology at Sewanee and preach at a parish in a Toronto suburb. I don't know what I was really expecting either place. The last time Sewanee was foolish or brave enough to unleash my brand of this-is-how-it-is on their students, I was not invited back for two years. I found that two-year-ago class utterly naïve to, or in denial of, the realities facing the Church.

This year's class was very receptive to my dispatches from the frontline of missional/emergent ministry. They are aware that in the next fifteen years 17 Trillion dollars (with a “T”) will change hands, and the Church is pretty low on the list of where benefactors are distributing said money. The students are aware that the Church is shrinking, as individual churches and as a denomination. They are aware that there are no jobs, especially for those seeking full-time employment. Seminarians know these things and they are there, studying to be priests anyway. They are there, giving themselves to God in service to the Church.

A few short days later, I found myself preaching in front of a parish in the greater metro area of that oh-so-secular city, Toronto, Ontario. Not only will that appearance double my fee for speaking engagements, as I am now internationally-known – 2 x $0 is still $0 – but it also was a great opportunity to visit a country that, by all counts is about a generation ahead of us in terms of Church decline. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at a worship service full of worshipers, Canadian worshipers. I thought that everyone in Canada played soccer on Sunday morning or something like that. Did these people not get the message? Had they not heard that Canada was like Europe and no one goes to Church anymore? Some very friendly Canadians informed me that they had heard these things, but that they were there anyway. Every week they are there, in spite of trends, projections, and statistics. They are there, giving themselves to God in service to the Church.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but Lent was very long for this writer. I needed some Resurrection in my life and this was the Holy Spirit's gift to me this Easter Season, this Season of Resurrection. Maybe it's not so bad out there. Maybe we just have to trust that the Holy Spirit is right in the middle of all that is going on, as the Holy Spirit has been since the Church began. It certainly takes a lot of the pressure off.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on April 23, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

Three Blogs on Stewardship: #3 "Buy" the Numbers

Okay, so my last post about paid and unpaid, professional and amateur Christians sparked some discussion. I need to be clear about something from the beginning. I am not a cynic. I know that it is tough to discern tone from prose, but am not jaded, fed up, or otherwise done with the Church. In fact, I love the movement that Jesus started. I am spiritually fed by what people would consider “typical” church worship. As we have been clear from the beginning, Southside Abbey is not a move away from anything, but rather a branch of the same limb.

The reality of the numbers is stark. What are the two largest expenses facing every Episcopal church in the land? Property and Personnel. Southside Abbey is a model of another way to be church without a building. Notice I said “a” model, not “the” model. We are providing one solution to the problem of the expense of a building.

Now what about that other expense? Can't you just feel the collective sphincter tightening at the very mention of this issue? In the Episcopal Church, we like our priests. We like to have someone up there we can point to as the expert on God, someone who will interact – on our behalf – with those we don't want to see or know.

Let me break it down in our context. The Diocese of East Tennessee's minimum compensation package for full time employment is $47,000. Church Pension adds eighteen percent, or $8,460. Include (as we must for full time work) health insurance to the tune of $11,148 for the cheapest plan for a couple. Including the life and disability insurance offered by our diocese adds another $1,036. That makes a total of $67,644. If we are to take the Church Pension formula, the math is similarly inflated. Their minimum compensation for full time work is $18,500, which costs $34,014. Now that you know the context, let me put it in perspective.

Southside Abbey's budget for 2014 was $33,811. For that amount we:

• Kept the seasons of the Church Year, engaging in liturgical worship with our community.
• Served over 3,000 meals as part of that liturgical worship.
• Celebrated St. Nicholas' Day with presents & meals for 175 neighborhood children & families.
• Shared 250 pounds of Epiphany pickles as a way to hear our neighbors' stories.
• Shared 400 cups of homemade soup as an excuse to visit retired folks in section 8 housing.
• Gathered over 200 pairs of shoes & socks for the local elementary school on Maundy Thursday.
• Held a chili cook-off with with about forty gallons of chili from members of our community.
• Made over 210 lunches for neighborhood children on fall break, shared at an Oktoberfest.
• Housed a theologian-in-residence who worked with us while obtaining an STM from Sewanee.
• Were brought under the 501(c)(3) umbrella of the Episcopal Church.
• Became a Jubilee Ministry Center of the Episcopal Church.
• Raised nearly $50,000 to be spent on outside ministries as part of the Southside Jubilee Fund.
• Were featured in articles from Christian Century to the Chattanooga Times-Free Press.
• Mentored three Education for Ministry (EfM) groups.
• Trained leaders, forming 4 postulants, 1 aspirant, 2 seminarians & a lots of lay ministers.

We did these things with help, particularly from the Holy Spirit. We also had some terrestrial partners, perhaps too many to mention, but look at what we were able to do with $34,000 – $34,000 that did not include a clergy compensation package! Such a package would either double or triple our budget depending on which “minimum” we can get away with.

This reality is what makes it difficult to “buy” these numbers. I realize that I am an important part of this ministry, but am I really that much more important than all of my brothers and sisters in Christ who follow Jesus just as faithfully but do it at no cost to Southside Abbey? That is what we as a community and I am personally wrestling with. This is a really cool possibility. I just have to be brave enough to say “yes” to the Holy Spirit. Your prayers are most welcome.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on February 27, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.

3 Blogs on Stewardship: #2 Just What Exactly Are We Funding?

As I mentioned in my last post, Southside Abbey's funding is up. More accurately, my funding is up with the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee in August. It has really been on my mind of late that I am confusing these two issues. Nothing about the funding of Southside Abbey's ministry is jeopardy. The Holy Spirit doesn't call us to ministries without providing for them. No, the only change will be in my compensation.

If I think back to three years ago, I was perfectly willing to do this ministry for free as this was as clear a call as I had ever heard. It's fascinating to me just how quickly I got comfortable with the notion of full-time employment once it was offered through the diocese.

Without going too far down the rabbit trail, I am concerned about the two-tiered system of those who follow Jesus. There are “professional” Christians and “amateur” Christians. Before I spark a firestorm with this distinction, remember that Olympians are considered “amateur.”

This two-tiered system is less about lay and ordained as it is about paid and unpaid, but don't think that ordination isn't often a deciding factor in who is on what side of that line. I really have to face the fact that I am a professional Christian. I get paid to do all of the great and wonderful things to which Jesus is calling me everyday. Would I do the same if I didn't get paid? Does the pay merely free me up to do that which all of us should be doing anyway? What a blessing, right? Before the reader jumps up in arms over “the laborer deserves to be paid”-type cherry-picked bible verses, hear me out.

Recently, clergy from our portion of the Diocese of East Tennessee gathered for conversation, led by our bishop, George Young. When we were asked to share our anxieties, I spoke up. I do not think that the model of professional Christians is either sustainable or, truth be told, very biblical. Routinely the best Followers of Jesus I know are those who don't get paid for it. This shut the conversation down. It was too much for those who had dedicated their lives to this system. No more fears were shared and the conversation turned pretty pat-on-the-back-ish after that.

I have written about working myself out of a job before, but I am really starting to wrestle with what that means. Am I being called to be a tent-maker or bass-player to pay the bills? Maybe there are some places that are really making bi-vocational ministry work, but here in the South, I haven't heard too much about it. Here, it seems to be something that is done as a last resort.

These days are days of deep discernment for me. I often meditate on a would-be-throw-away line from Steve Martin's autobiography of his stand-up career, Born Standing Up. Steve tells the story of being on Johnny Carson's couch on a tonight show break. After Steve has delighted Johnny and his audience with prestidigitation, jokes, and rope tricks, Johnny leans over and whispers to Steve, “You will use everything you ever learned.”

Johnny's words both haunt and inspire me, as they could the Church. How could we use what we learned from the Early Church, a time when there was no distinction between professional and amateur Christians? How could we use what we learned from Paul who made tents or Peter the fisherman?

So, I return to the title of this post, just what exactly are we funding? If two generations of young clergy walk away from the expectation of compensation for following Jesus, what do we lose? More importantly, what might we gain? At thirty-five years old am I really already that much a slave to the Church Pension Fund? For every “the laborer deserves to be paid” I hear, I can find a “do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”

I feel like Southside Abbey has broken open a way to be church without a building. Maybe we are being called to break open the system of two-tiered Christians.

This post was originally published on the Episcopal Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts blog on February 20, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.