April 28, 2005
By Pat McCaughan

A fourth-grader in Washington state helped bring six new families to her congregation, thanks to efforts sparked by "Groundwork," the Episcopal Church's new evangelism resources used for the first time in Lent.

Audrey Hatfield, 9, said the Groundwork conversations at her church inspired her to launch a door-to-door new member campaign for Church of the Holy Spirit in Washington's fast-growing community of Battle Ground.

Posted online and mailed last January to each of the Episcopal Church's more than 7,200 congregations and 110 dioceses, Groundwork seeks to widen local hospitality overall, and specifically before the denomination's new nationwide broadcast advertising begins this August.

The effort further supports the General Convention's endorsement of building the Episcopal Church's 2.3-million membership substantially by the year 2020, reversing attendance declines posted in recent years by all mainline denominations [see additional resources posted at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/research_3069_ENG_HTM.htm ].

In Cleveland, the Rev. Al Murray of St. Andrew's Church credits Groundwork, along with supporting Percept demographic materials, as the impetus for reaching out and creating important new parish and community partnerships.

In northwest central Iowa, where St. Mark's "is one church among 53 other denominational choices in a population of about 23,000 in a declining community," the Rev. Steve Hall says Groundwork helped underscore the need to heighten public awareness of the Fort Dodge congregation's presence.

The Rev. Kathy Munson-Lutes says using Groundwork transformed St. Andrew's, Rapid City, South Dakota, into "a listening church," and sharpened its desire to grow.

Many more congregations say they want to use Groundwork in Lent 2006, and a new Lectionary-based study guide is set for good lead-time distribution as early this fall as possible, says the Rev. James Lemler, the Episcopal Church's director of mission.

Posted online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/groundwork, the current resources guide congregations to such supporting materials as: Percept, or local demographic information by keying in their zip codes; tips to highlight the church's community presence; opportunities to participate in church-wide broadcast advertising; information about cross-cultural and youth ministry; and new-member ministry and communication. Materials are also available in Spanish.

The Rev. Elizabeth Habecker, rector of St. Mark's, Downey, a multi-ethnic parish of about 120 families in southeast Los Angeles County, called Groundwork a vehicle for discussion of the church's identity and mission.

"We've only begun scratching the surface in how it could be used," Habecker said. "This is a total church program, one you can take and use over a long period of time. As a former educator, I know good stuff when I see it. I've been taught long enough by the church to take what you can use and use it as much as you can."

Community partnerships inspired

At Cleveland's St. Andrew's Church, an African American congregation with an average Sunday attendance of about 150, rector Murray said Groundwork prompted the church to take several "good looks" at itself, at the Percept information, and at the surrounding community.

St. Andrew's, located near Cleveland's downtown district, is described as a well-to-do commuter congregation with an average age among parishioners of about 60.

"We asked questions about our community and how they viewed us," Murray said. "We hosted a forum and invited them in."

"We realized there are a lot of young adults, especially single fathers, in our immediate area. We talked about how we could be more welcoming as a church, and we listened to what they had to say."

As a result, St. Andrew's opened its space for use by a neighboring music school.

"The second week, the Suppen Music School came back to our Lenten series and brought 50 kids with them and gave a recital," Murray recalled. "It was an awesome experience; a layperson has volunteered to lead a youth ministry, and we look forward to more creative partnerships in the future."

Murray said that Groundwork helped St. Andrew's realize that if the parish wants to grow from a pastoral to a program-sized church, it needs to reach out to the surrounding community.

He said the congregation also wants to be more attuned to its own diversity – celebrating the experiences of its African, African American, and Caribbean American congregants.

Meanwhile, St. Mark's Church in Fort Dodge, Iowa, is few in number – about 65 on an average Sunday – and powerful in partnership with the community, but ill-equipped to share its story or attract new members, says rector Hall.

"St. Mark's is a happening place in Fort Dodge – the problem is, we're the best kept secret in town," Hall says. "A medical clinic located in our downstairs receives 14,000 visits a year. Ask anybody in the local population if they know where the clinic is and they can tell you, because 70 percent of the children get shots here. They just don't realize there's a church sitting on top of it."

A popular off-site ministry called the Baby's Room offers a range of services for new moms, yet few recognize St. Mark's role there, he said.

"Groundwork helped us realize that we tend to under-represent ourselves," Hall said. "We're going to try and do that a little differently; we're not going to go bragging about things but we are going to help others get to know us better" including using the national church ad project, Hall said.

Learning ‘faith talk'

Groundwork also helped give the mostly-Anglo Fort Dodge congregation a way to talk about faith.

"It helped our congregation recognize that they don't have a vocabulary to talk about their faith, because it's been co-opted by other Christians with whom they don't agree," Hall said.

"That's going to be the first piece of our action as we continue using Groundwork in our weekly sessions. We're discovering that we need to pay attention to what other people are saying and help them connect the dots so they do understand we're really on the same page."

In Rapid City, South Dakota, Groundwork offered St. Andrew's congregants a way to begin to tell their own faith stories to one another.

"Groundwork helped us begin to put words around identifying who we are as a congregation, to enable us to speak about the passion we have for the Gospel of Jesus Christ," says rector Monson-Lutes. "The format was helpful for people to enter into talking about what even a faith story is."

She describes the congregation of about 100 on any given Sunday as "on the bubble" and, like many others, faced with a challenge to grow.

"It seemed to me that people were faced with a choice-either you have to let people in or you decide not to grow," she said. "Groundwork helped us talk about what growth means, about making some clear choices in deciding to grow, and how you have to be different in order to grow, because growth doesn't just happen."

The congregation is still exploring its identity via "a graffiti approach," says Monson-Lutes. "We have a huge poster board mounted on the wall. At the top it reads, ‘St. Andrew's is ...' People are still filling in the blank, with things like St. Andrew's is a home to worship without judgment ... an open and warm community, welcoming everybody. Ý Monson-Lutes intends to use the graffiti approach to create promotional materials for the local Welcome Wagon and other media in Rapid City, she said.

Evangelizing for growth, change

The Groundwork series also spawned conversations about growth for Church of the Holy Spirit in Battle Ground, Washington, conversations that nine-year-old Audrey Hatfield took to heart.

"I heard the church needed some help," said the Hockinson Elementary School fourth grader. "I decided that, if our church needed help, I could write some letters and put them on people's doors. I went around our area and started putting them in mailboxes and at doors and hanging them on doorknobs."

She typed up an invitation on her computer that read: "Church of the Holy Spirit is for you. This is an Episcopal Church. This one is a very good one. Please come and try it."

Within a month's time the church, located in the fastest growing city in the fastest growing county in Washington State, had gained six new families.

Adults noticed Audrey's efforts and joined her, distributing letters and door hangers from the Church Ad Project within the surrounding area.

In addition to the new families, the efforts earned Audrey the designation "Evangelist of the Month" and inspired the congregation to focus attention outward for the first time in its 18-year history, says the Rev. Don Greenwood, interim rector.

Other congregations, like Trinity Church in Watertown, South Dakota, are also focusing on growth and change.

"We looked at who we are, what God wants for our church," said senior warden Dave Eggen who supplemented Groundwork with "From Survival to Growth" a video series available through the Episcopal Media Center in Atlanta.

"We are in the process of calling a priest and it really helped us take a look at ourselves," Eggen said. "Our goal was to build relationships with one another, to build a healthy foundation in which we could grow our church and to begin more focused outreach.

"For the past 10 or so years, we've done some outreach, but everyone's been doing their own thing. Hopefully, we can make a more concerted effort, and grow in numbers and to do God's work," said the elementary school technology integrationist who assists K-6 schools with integrating technology in the classroom.

Eggen, and others, like the Rev. Steve Yagerman of All Saints, New York City, say they hope to participate in Groundwork on a continuing basis.

"Not everything transferred neatly, it was a little bit like a model kit you build at home-there's the glue and there's the parts and you have to put it together for yourself," Yagerman said. "Some of it seemed redundant in some places and in others there seemed to be gaps and you had to fill them in and make it work for yourself.

"Nevertheless, overall it's a very good discipline for a parish to go through," he added. "It gave people a sense of ownership in the parish and of belonging. Hopefully, the national church will continue to refine it and offer additional follow-up."

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Patricia McCaughan is senior correspondent for the Episcopal News Service. She is also associate rector of St. Mary's Church in Laguna Beach, California.