Our May Enews is packed with updates from our Kanuga clergy Gathering, info on upcoming Gatherings, and the Episcopal Church Foundation’s pre-Pride month work from a variety of voices in the church.Playing for the Same TeamThe Rev. Jane Gober attended our North Carolina Gathering at Kanuga and offered a beautiful reflection to us. So beautiful, in fact, that we knew we needed to use it for our opening essay this month. The entire piece is posted on the GOL website, but please enjoy this eloquent account of Jane’s experience, really a manifesto of who you, who we, are. And, if you’re feeling pinched, tired, or burned out we hope you will consider joining us for one of the Gatherings this year. At breakfast the morning the conference started, those of us who had arrived the day before gathered at tables and began the joy of what I call ‘Episcopal Tag’, our version of the Kevin Bacon game, but with usually no more than two degrees of separation. When Presiding Bishop Curry came into the dining area one of my new friends said, ‘I saw his name on the schedule, but I thought he would be video-ed in. I guess not!’ I had run into him the night before and wasn’t as surprised (however I was when I ran into him). This was my first Gathering of Leaders, and it was also his. I had been trying to make the journey since the end of 2019, and we all know how that went. In North Carolina, I was looking forward to making new ‘comrades’: and this is certainly what I found. Or perhaps I should say new teammates – because we are all on the same team from the PB to the volunteer youth minister and the multi-vocational rural cleric. We don’t always practice this mission (of union with God and all others in Christ) like we are on the same team. We may play it like a sport, but it is more like platform diving: one vs all the others including your fellow citizens; it is immensely judgy, and all about the spin, and splash, or lack thereof. What would it look and feel like if the clerical and lay leaders of this tradition lived and served as one huge and talented team? The approach of the Gathering of Leaders is peer-to-peer learning, teammates to teammates. None of us can figure out how to do this on our own, particularly in this post-Christendom and late-pandemic moment. Peer-to-peer means telling each other about successes and failures in the love of Jesus. It isn’t a one-method suggestion, an accurate analysis of the waters we are in with no real plan to swim, nor is it a program to subscribe to in the hope that it will keep you afloat. The blessing of the Gathering of Leaders is truly living into being teammates, as players who do not know it all, who know we cannot do it all, who need each other, and the power of the sacraments to guide Jesus’ people right now. This is the treasure I left the Carolina mountains with – new friends, fresh ideas, and once more being reminded that none of us are standing alone on a high dive above an unknown pool. My first GOL offered a beautiful and deep embrace of connection and mutuality – which embodies the very name of this network: a gathering of leaders. – The Rev. Jane Gober |
 |
![A Critical Point for a Changing Church We have all been called into ministry at this time, in this world, and to our specific roles for a reason. I am dwelling uncomfortably in this liminal space and churning over the most recent parochial report data for the Episcopal Church, the havoc the pandemic is wreaking on the world, and the turmoil in our society over racial injustice and political discord. I keep hearing the phrase “We as a church are at an inflection point,” and it is so easy for me to nod my head and agree, but what does this mean? What are people saying? In mathematics, an inflection point is the point where a curve’s concavity changes, but that doesn’t easily decode what is currently happening in the Episcopal Church. In the business world, a strategic inflection point is “a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end.” (A. Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive) This definition gets me closer to understanding, but hasn’t the Episcopal church been here for a while? Our numbers have been declining for some years. Why are we now “at an inflection point?” With that in mind, we are NOT at an inflection point; we are at a critical point. By definition, a critical point is a mathematical concept that expresses the church’s reality so much better than ‘inflection point.’ In math, a critical point of a continuous function is a point at which the derivative is zero or undefined. The ‘ache’ we feel as a church is that we are undefined in this time. We are in limbo. We are in the liminal space. We are all seeking an ‘answer’ but, by definition, a critical point is yet undefined. (based on image from The Stern Opportunity.) To be clear, I am not saying that we do not know our traditions, our faith, or our call to follow Jesus. What I am saying is that we do not yet have a strategy or definition for who we need to be right now and into the future. When seeking relevance in a modern world, how do we, the Episcopal Church, be the thing that bends and yet does not break? Do we need to break in order to find our undiscovered future? I repeat: We have all been called into ministry at this time, in this world, and to our specific roles for a reason. It is here where the Gathering of Leaders (GOL) network is called to play a key role, as are so many leaders in our church, both ordained and lay. GOL and its participants have always had a hope-filled vision for the future – but we have never defined what that future looks like. Instead we are building that future as we go. WE are the boots on the ground. WE are defining the future. WE are leading that future right now. This critical point where we find ourselves does not have to be an inflection point. We do not have to die faster than our numbers show; instead, we are reimagining our ministry, re-envisioning our methods, and reclaiming the Great Commission in as yet undiscovered ways! The pandemic is forcing us to be the church in ways we never imagined. We are being forced to evolve while maintaining the core of who we are, and it was for this that we were called. Finally, and most importantly, you can share your thoughts, methods, and strategies for addressing this critical point in the history of the church with others. Through GOL’s partnership with the Episcopal Church Foundation, we have a broad audience with whom we can share the creative, life-giving, and Christ-centered ways that you are impacting people daily in the name of Christ, and through which you are discovering the future we are being called to define. From my own liminal space, Haley Bankey Executive Director, Gathering of Leaders haley@thegatheringofleaders.org Notes/Ideas: Critical Point: A critical point of a continuous function f is a point at which the derivative is zero or undefined. The ‘ache’ we feel as a church is that we are undefined. We are in limbo. We are all seeking the ‘answer’ but by definition of a critical point, that answer is undefined. Inflection point in business: [A] strategic inflection point is a time in the life of a business when its fundamentals are about to change. That change can mean an opportunity to rise to new heights. But it may just as likely signal the beginning of the end .” Andrew Grove, ex-CEO of Intel from Only the Paranoid Survive The pandemic is forcing us to be the church when we can’t come together for Eucharist the way we always want to. We are being forced to evolve. GOL is built on a hope-filled future – but we have never defined what that future looks like. Instead we’re building that future as we go. YOU are the boots on the ground. YOU are creating the future. Seeking relevance in a modern world! “How do we be the thing that bends??? “When seeking relevance in a modern world, how do we the church be the things that bends? “(from Lilly Conversation) Scripture: Attribution: https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/10/16/2019-parochial-reports-show-continued-decline-and-a-dire-future-for-the-episcopal-church/ Photo Credits: https://brilliant.org/wiki/critical-point/ https://brilliant.org/wiki/inflection-points/ http://sternoppy.com/2013/10/higher-education-at-a-strategic-inflection-point/ When approaching ministry in under resourced communities and seeking relevance in a modern world, how do we the church be the things that bends?](https://www.thegatheringofleaders.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Critical-Point-for-a-Changing-Church-NEW-300x200.png)
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.
You must be logged in to post a comment.