Scott Rands
From Exhaustion to Possibilities
By: Steve Matthews, Consultant, Genesis II: Re-Vision and Renew It’s summer. It’s summer after more than two years of pandemic. It’s summer and the work of justice seems more urgent than ever. It’s summer and it’s hotter, and dryer… and maybe wetter than it’s ever been. It’s summer and it’s also time for ice cream, […]
The Episcopal Church: An Outside Perspective
By: The Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, Staff Officer for Church Planting Don’t worry, I’m not actually going to try to write about The Episcopal Church from an outsider’s perspective. My Episco-credentials read something like Paul in Philippians – baptized as an infant at Saint Andrew’s, confirmed at age 12, ordained a priest and working for […]
Love that Changes Us
By: The Rev. Tom Brackett, Manager for Church Planting and Mission Development Over the last few months, several of us have noticed the proliferation of some tired old myths about what it takes to renew congregations. Most of these worn-out ideas actually originated in corporate America, circa 1950. Though there are many variations, the usual […]
What are you not seeing?
By: Steve Matthews, Consultant for Congregational Redevelopment Isn’t that a beautiful picture? Daffodils springing forth every year give me hope. I love their reliability and consistency (not to mention that brilliant yellow color and sweet fragrance). They always come up in the spring and they beautify our landscape. In these uncertain times reliability and consistency […]
Redefining “hybridization”
By: The Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, Staff Officer for Church Planting I need to develop a new relationship with the word “hybridization.” After two years of Covid, including the absolutely exhausting start-stop caused by Omicron, for me “hybrid church” has come to mean “twice the work church.” A book that’s helped me is called “The […]
What do you love?
By: The Rev. Tom Brackett, Manager for Church Planting & Mission Development A few months ago, I spent five minutes under a rogue black bear, fighting for my life. The attack was under the cover of darkness and the bear’s cunning and ferocity was so much more than anything I could have imagined. I kicked […]
Really? Plant new churches… now?
By: The Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, Staff Officer for Church Planting So… why plant new churches? Why now? As of today, Omicron is still tearing across the country. Three of the four out of town events I’d had on my calendar have been canceled, and my church is going virtual (again) this Sunday. Polls say […]
The Kind of Leaders We Need
By: The Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, Staff Officer for Church PlantingJuly 2, 2021 The Episcopal Church has a missional leadership crisis. Steady decline, swift culture changes and a global pandemic are making it apparent that we are failing to seek out – and in many cases are actively weeding out – the sort of leaders […]
A Reflection on Genesis II: Revision & Renew
by Steve Matthews, Church Redevelopment Consultant Genesis II: Revision and Renew is the Redevelopment side of the Church Planting & Redevelopment Office. When I came to the Episcopal Church from Baptist-land in 1997, I realized that words matter. I was drawn into the beauty of the liturgy of St. Paul’s, Richmond, and since I was so […]
Prepping for 2050
By: The Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers, Staff Officer for Church Planting When I took the Clifton StrengthsFinder a couple of years ago, it revealed something my husband swears he already knew: I am a futurist, and probably to a fault. “Achiever, Strategic and Futuristic” all appear in my top 10 themes. Toward the bottom are […]