May 2019 Parish Pulse

Parish Pulse

A Newsletter for Parish Leaders

Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania

and

Diocese of Chicago and the Midwest

Orthodox Church in America

Vol. 7 issue 1

May 2019

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Welcome to the May 2019 issue of Parish Pulse.

The following articles appear in this issue:

2019 Parish Development Forum registration opens
Archdiocese of Western PA begins Shine! Shine! Initiative.
2018 Parish Forum materials
Orthodox Parish Leadership Principles
Reshaping Parish Councils
Building your parish identity/better websites
Modeling gratitude in the parish
Inviting the Unchurched

In Christ,

Joe Kormos

Parish Development Ministry

Archdiocese of Western Pennsylvania and Diocese of the Midwest

Parish Forum Registration Opens

July11-13, 2019 Canonsburg PA

Registration is open for the Parish Development Forum to be held at St. John the Baptist Church, Canonsburg PA.

The Forum will begin at 3:00 PM on Thursday July 11 and continue through noon on Saturday July 13.

The 2019 Forum theme is "Strengthening Our Witness to the Community: Growing and Sharing Our Faith; Welcoming Others".

The Forum is jointly sponsored by the Orthodox Church in America’s Archdiocese of Western Pennsylvania, the Diocese of the Midwest, and the Bulgarian Diocese.

Clergy and laity from sponsoring Dioceses are eligible for full tuition rebates and grants to assist with travel costs. Many other OCA Dioceses offer scholarships to parishes wishing to send participants.

Registration and more info

Shine! Shine!

Archdiocese of Western PA Re-launches Parish Revitalization Initiative

Every parish has challenges.

To encourage parishes to meet those challenges head on the Archdiocese of Western PA recently began a revitalization effort to stimulate and reinforce growth attitudes and Christ-centered action within parishes.

Previewed at the 2018 Archdiocesan Assembly, the effort was recently re-launched as the Shine! Shine! Initiative via a recent webinar. The initiative's title is adopted from the familiar ninth ode of the Paschal canon.

The theme -- "Building a Bright Parish Future: Grow. Share.Welcome" is aligned with the 2019 Parish Development Forum theme. (above)

Make sure your parish is developing plans for a manageable yet meaningful effort related one of these topics:

Growing in Faith: Education. Service. Worship. Community building.

Sharing our Faith: Proclaiming Christ to the world with words and deeds, and effectively communicating our parish life and identity.

Welcoming Others: Inviting, sharing the Light of Christ and showing hospitality to visitors and strangers.

2018 Forum Materials

If you are interested in materials from the 2018 Parish Forum, they can be downloaded here.

What's that? You'd like a quick overview of what was covered at the Forum but don't have time to browse all the documents and PowerPoint presentations?

Checkout the Summary Document " Quotes and Tidbits"

Orthodox Parish Leadership Principles

One important product of the 2018 Parish Forum was the development of a set of Principles of Orthodox Leadership.

During the session attendees worked to cull a list of proposed principles listing leadership attitudes and abilities.

Love – Leadership is both defined and refined in and by love. Good leaders see each person as a child of God for us to focus on, care for, and love.
Humility and Gratitude (toward God) – Orthodox leaders realize their gifts and blessings come from the grace of God.
Conciliar – Leadership in Orthodoxy must be exercised in a conciliar environment. Leaders express their opinions while also fostering dialogue and seeking multiple perspectives and consensus on future direction.

The full set of Principles can be found here.

Parish Councils

The 2018 Parish Forum explored questions and issues associated with reshaping parish councils to be more effective.

Central points of these discussions were that parishes need two critical things from parish councils:

Be future oriented - driving toward a bright future that fulfills the parish mission.

Differentiate the important from the urgent. Urgent matters are usually precise. Important matters are often fuzzy.

When was the last time your parish council discussed something open ended? Action oriented council members often love to feel like things are being accomplished by focusing on details. But at what future price?

A Challenge

Identify your parish’s single biggest goal (priority) for 2019,
Why do you think it’s the most important thing to do?
What challenges do you see in achieving it.
What steps are you taking to make it a reality.

Quick Links

Quick access to resources available on the Western PA Archdiocesan web page or in a few cases the Midwest Diocese website.

Parish Finance

1. Parish Financial Audit Guidelines 2. Best Practices & Principles for Parish Financial Accountability 3. Your Parish Budget: What Does It Convey? 4. Replacement Reserve Accounts 5. Endowment Pros & Cons

Growth & Vision

1. Toolbox for Vision Casting 2. What kind of parish do we envision? 3. Orthodox parishes and neighborhood identity

4. What priest's want? 5. Discovering Parish Core values 6. Approaching Change Fr T Soroka (PPT)

7. Change Workshop Kormos -- Small Parish Forum (PPT)

Leadership

1. Ministry of the Parish Council 2. Empowering Your Parish by Granting Permission 3. Learning to Delegate

4. Eight Good Parish Council Practices 5. Nine PC meeting time savers 6. Better preaching

Stewardship

1. Total Stewardship 2. Good parish Stewardship Practices 3. Intro to Pledging and All member Canvasses 4. Common Stewardship Q&A 5. How Much Should I Give? 6. Relevant Scriptural verses re: Stewardship

Parish Renewal

1. The Orthodox Parish in N. America -Fr. T. Hopko from Orlando AAC 2. Five Qualities of Successful Orthodox Parishes - A. Krindatch study 3. Attitudes that Enable the Church to Grow --Fr John Matusiak 4. Decline in your parish 5. Diversity among growing parishes 6.Commonality among growing parishes 7. Wake Up a Sleeping Church 8. Revit'alization Thumbnail #1

9. Revit. Thumbnail #2 10. Triple Digit Anniversaries -- Face Forward 11. Describing Parish membership 12. When Parishes Close Themselves 13. Local Mission Teams 14 Diet & Exercise on our terms

Parish Ministry & Education

1.Reorganizing Parish Ministries

2. The Blank calendar 3.Love Thy Neighbor

Evangelization

1. Evangelization Principles 2. Survey of Orthodox Converts 3. How Visitors Experience Your Parish -Mystery Worshiper Reports

4. Common Q/A: Orthodox Inquirers

5. "Sharing the Hope" Course 6. Which Parish would YOU Choose? 7. Communicating Our Faith Fr Stephen Frase 8. How Visitors Define Friendly

Communicating Your Parish

1. Website Webinar slides 2. Taking Parish Photographs 3. Toward Better Parish Websites (I) 4. Better Websites (II)

5. Improving Bulletin Content 6. Improving Bulletin Format

Youth

1. Establishing a Solid Parish Youth Effort 2. Souls in Transition 3. Soccer vs. Church

PowerPoint

1. Intro to Orthodoxy - A Three Part Inquirers Class (Powerpoint)

Webinars

1. Parish Revitalization Series #1 Building Urgency and Hope 2013 2. #2 Characteristics of Vibrant 21st Century Orthodox Parishes. 2013 3. #3 Driving Life in Your Parish. 2013 4. Profiles in Parish Revitalization (June 2014)

5. Communicating Your Parish - Yellow Pages Is Not Enough 6. Waking Up Your Parish with College Ministry

7. Fostering Generosity & Practical Stewardship 8. Parish Council Practices

Building Your Parish Identity

Parish Websites

One of the jobs of parish leaders is to communicate the parish and its strengths to others. So naturally important agenda time at the 2018 Parish Forum was dedicated to using the web to define and share our parish identity.

Key points made about parish websites were:

Front Door

We live in a post website/social media world but the parish website is still the front door to a chain of experiences from inquirer to disciple.

While Facebook has a role, the website is a must.

Mobile

Most people read emails and browse the web on mobile devices. Make sure your site is mobile friendly.

Reshape Parishioners Vision

The most important job of your website is to communicate to your parishioners how you want to be seen by the world.

Counter Stereotypes

Websites can and should effectively unravel stereotypes about Orthodoxy and Orthodox parishes. If the primary message is "Pirogis for Sale" you're reinforcing a stereotype that may unwittingly become attached to other parishes.

Photos

Churches are abut people. Use good photos of people (looking attentive and smiling!) liberally throughout the site. (More than just a parish photo page.) Avoid photos of empty church services. (See article below.)

Know Your Audience

Who would attend your church? What are their primary questions? What inaccurate impressions might they have of your parish that need subtle correction?

Test

We're incapable as "insiders" of assessing how inquirers will react to our website content and design. Have non-Orthodox friends provide an unvarnished review.

More Impactful for Orthodox

Websites are more important for Orthodox parishes. Technology levels the playing field - makes small look big. We're not well known. Orthodox parishes specialize in beauty.

Ten Key Parish Photos

During one session at the 2018 Parish Forum attendees built a list of important photos for parish websites.

The list was long.

Here are ten of the most popular:

Vibrant worship
Attentive bible study or adult education
Children learning
Child lighting candle
Fellowship hour - with laughter
Outreach event
Sacraments: communion, weddings, baptisms
Men – to counter idea ‘only women go to church’
Parish exterior sign
Family entering church (on a sunny day!)

Breaking News: Websites Need to Be Up to Date

Nothing Says "Stay Away" Like an Out of Date 'Front Door'

Photo from the Babylon Bee. Jan 27 2018.

Go to a Diocesan or Jurisdiction listing of Parish websites. See how long it takes you to find a similar out of date item.

Note to Webmasters

It is now (past) time for Nativity Services Schedule headlines (for whatever year) to be replaced with something more timely!

Modeling Gratitude in the Parish

Say Thank You Often

1 Thessalonians 5:18 tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

We once read a quote from a non Orthodox Bishop to the effect: 'I have found the essence of good stewardship and it is gratitude. I wish I had understood that earlier in my life.'

Gratitude is a two way street.

When we offer our pledge for the coming year we say "thank you" to God for the many blessings we've received. Our pledges and offerings help to establish a relationship with God by uniting the Giver, the gift, and the grateful recipients. Every Eucharist is a service of Thanksgiving.

Conversely -- priests and lay leaders -- need to acknowledge and thank parishioners collectively and personally for their presence, their prayers, their commitments and the ministries they perform. Do servers, singers, council members, bakers, greeters, teachers, webmasters, decorators, donors, cleaners, ministry workers et al sense their time, talents, gifts and experience are appreciated?

Let them know.

Say "Thank You!" often. Parishes teach gratitude by modeling gratitude.

Inviting the Unchurched

Build Trust -- Ask Questions -- Be Open

"Go out into the highways and lanes, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled."

Luke 14:23

Many of us have heard that the most potent method of church growth is to simply invite people (FRAN: Friends Relatives, Associates, Neighbors) to church. Putting that into practice is not always easy.

A Basic Approach

Discussing a potentially uncomfortable topic like "church" with a non-church going person --even a friend --usually requires, among other things, taking it slowly.

Read more ... concerning: 1)basic approach; 2)key practices; 3)tips for conversations; 4) conversation starters.

Action Question

When inviting becomes a part of parish life it becomes easier to invite.

How can your parish begin to help parishioners to feel confident and comfortable in inviting others to church?

Thank you for exploring this issue of Parish Pulse.

Your feedback is welcome. As always let us know about future topics of importance.

In Christ,

Joseph Kormos,

Parish Development Ministry