10 Reasons We Have Not Reached the Unchurched

Another "right-on-target" piece from Thom Rainer 

 I am often amused when I hear myself identified as an expert in any area. If I am a perceived expert, it is because I have had the wonderful opportunity to listen to thousands of people over the past few decades. They are the experts; I am little more than an interested reporter.

Though much of this information could be regarded as dismal, my ultimate assessment is not that pessimistic. I believe in the God of miracles. If my conclusions focused on human ability and goodness, I would have little hope. But my conclusions presume the God of creation is on His throne.

For now, let us focus on what is wrong. Let us look with stark honesty and candor at the ineffectiveness of most American believers when it comes to sharing their faith. And in the coming weeks, let us look at reversing the trend through God's power.

Read it all

Tom Rainer: Leaders Who Don't Delegate

The business leader just turned 50. He had advanced in his organization primarily through his relational skills. He was easy to like and most people felt comfortable with him. To this point in his career, his relational skills were sufficient. He had really been more of a manager than a leader. He thus depended on others to make decisions; he would carry them out with a good attitude and a good work ethic.

The First Sign of Problems

The problems began when he was promoted to a position that was clearly one of leadership. He was now expected to make decisions. He was to take initiative instead of waiting on others to move. He now had people who worked under him who waited on him to make critical decisions.

He failed. He seemed frozen in making decisions. He would not let others under him help him. He treated his new level of leadership as if he was still a manager who carried out tasks. He perceived it was his responsibility to do everything, rather than to see that everything got done.

He failed to delegate and thus he failed in his new job. Read it all

h/t to Robin Jordan of Anglicans Ablaze

Heavy Artillery: the newest Canon

This came by email yesterday from Bishop Stanley Ntagali of the Diocese of Masindi-Kitara. I am honored.  Bishop Stanley is to be enthroned as the Archbishop of the Province of the Church of Uganda on December 16.  I am slated to attend the enthronement.  
Abp Bob Duncan will be preaching.
    

Dear David,

You will be glad to know that today during our sixth Diocesan synod- my very last one as the Diocesan Bishop, I announced you as the honorary canon of St. Matthew's Cathedral in Masindi-Kitara Diocese. Four other clergy and a number of Lay Christians were announced as new Canons of the cathedral. They will be installed in the Cathedral on the 18th November 2012. This will be just a week before the consecration of Canon George Kasangaki as our second Bishop and my successor.  I congratulate you and thank God for you becoming our newest honorary Canon. You will be installed in absentia.

Many thanks and blessings.

Bishop Stanley 

Our Son Greg' Weds on October 27

Our son Greg and our daughter Hannah
 dancing at the reception 

Yesterday afternoon October 27 we celebrated the joining in Christian marriage our son Greg and his fiance Amanda.  Not only was it a wonderful day for them but it was for Gale, Hannah and me too.  Greg, age 35, our oldest of two children is also the first to be married.  The wedding ceremony was presided over by the Rev. Joseph Martin rector of the Anglican Church of Our Saviour in Glenshaw PA at the church.  Joseph was Greg's youth minister 20 years ago and also my seminary classmate and longtime friend going back some 25 years.  So that was a blessing as well.

Hannah and Gale looked stunning -- but you expected me to say that, after all I am the husband and dad.  The reception was held in the Rose Barn at North Park.  

Measuring Our Apgar at Redeemer

On the new Pittsburgh Advance blog, Canon Mary Hays a few weeks ago featured a Christianity Today article, Your Church’s Apgar,here on measuring church health. It piqued my interest. I was much impressed with the author Kevin Miller’s development of a scale to measure congregational health much like the Apgar scale used to measure the health and viability of newborn babies. So I asked the church staff and the vestry read the article and then go-online and take the Church Apgar Assessment Survey here. That being done, we discussed our findings at the staff meeting on October 10 and the vestry meeting October 15 respectively. On a scale of 1 to 10 Miller suggests any score above 7.0 indicates a healthy church. A score of 3.5 or less indicates an unhealthy church and any score greater than 3.5 or less than 7.0 indicates a moderately healthy church.

Our staff of five averaged 4.7 with highs of 5.5 and lows of 4.0. The vestry of seven averaged 6.2 with highs of 7.5 and lows of 5.0. Taken together the combined lay and clergy leadership then averaged 5.45. A few observations: 1.) the everyday workers (the staff --which are three-fifths clergy) have a less rosy opinion of the overall health of the church than the elected lay leadership (the vestry), 2.) Both the vestry and lay leadership identified areas of concern that needed improvement and areas of successful ministry, 3.) Both groups recognized the overwhelming change the congregation has experienced in the past 18 months as the major factor that has affected all areas of congregational life.

Using the Acts 2:42-47 passage as the measure of health the vestry divided church life in the four components of the text and ranked them: the Apostle’s teaching, the breaking of the bread, fellowship and the prayers. The vestry identified parish teaching as one of the strongest areas of Redeemer Parish. We have learned lay and clergy teachers and a solid history of adult education and bible study. Interestingly the teaching this past week in our Sunday Adult Ed class led by lay teacher Kathy Bushyager and based on a DVD series by church planter, teacher and pastor Tim Keller called Gospel in Life – it’s an awesome series and I highly recommend using it --- was based directly on Acts 2:42-47.

We have many avenues for congregational prayer: Altar prayer ministry, intercessory prayer, monthly healing services, and the internet prayer chain all come to mind. Fellowship and the breaking of the bread (which we defined as large group congregational meals and gatherings such as potlucks, parish picnics, parish overnight retreats, etc.) were areas that have suffered in the realignment and relinquishment era that we’ve just been through. The vestry also agreed with me that the establishment of a viable small group ministry situated in the neighborhoods where our members live would help meet the fellowship and breaking of the bread need and improve our overall congregational health. The groups would also serve as the embryonic units for planting new churches throughout the South Hills. This was the charge Archbishop Duncan laid before us when he pronounced the formation of the Anglican Parish of Christ the Redeemer in the South Hills on March 25.

Unity a theme at new Episcopal bishop's consecration

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -  October 21, 2012 12:01 am 

Amid the gothic grandeur of the consecration of a new bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, a man in an overcoat and fedora suddenly held forth from the center aisle about a vision he said God had given him for a new bridge in Pittsburgh.

The speaker was the about-to-be-consecrated Bishop Dorsey Winter Marsden McConnell. The Yale-educated former actor, 58, teamed with diocesan youth to stage a parable about an engineer who couldn't persuade anyone to build his "Bridge of the Angels" but used its model to save many families from a fire that broke out amid the great Pittsburgh flood of 1936.

It brought the congregation of 1,000 to laughter and applause, and made a clear statement that Bishop McConnell is someone from whom to expect the unexpected. Bridges and unity were a running theme of the consecration, the first in Pittsburgh since a diocesan split in 2008 led by its last tenured bishop.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/unity-a-theme-at-new-episcopal-bishops-consecration-658425/#ixzz2A3zvRsMY


Check out the bulletin at the link below.  Note the paucity of the "conservative" TEC bishops listed who attended.  Bp. Ed Little and that's it!

Download the Bulletin as a PDF here.  http://www.calvarypgh.org/

Archbishop Authorizes a Theological Task Force on Holy Orders

Archbishop Duncan has appointed the Rt. Rev. David Hicks, Bishop of the REC Diocese of the Northeast & Mid-Atlantic to lead a Theological Task Force on Holy Orders. The Task Force will lead the College of Bishops through a thorough study regarding the ordination of women to Holy Orders.

At the inception of the Anglican Church in North America, the Lead Bishops unanimously agreed to work together for the good of the Kingdom. As part of this consensus, it was understood that there were differing understandings regarding the ordination of women to Holy Orders, but there existed a mutual love and respect for one another and a desire to move forward for the good of the Church. This commitment was deeply embedded in the Constitution and Canons overwhelmingly adopted by the Inaugural Assembly (2009).

Read it all 

http://www.anglicanchurch.net/?/main/page/525