Last week I attended a churchwide meeting convened by the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church (TREC). It wasn’t a “reading a public statement” kind of affair, so I wanted to post the feedback I sent to the committee. I did ask a question that spoke to these concerns, and I’m writing about it today over at Key Resources.
My name is Kyle Oliver. I’m the digital missioner in the Center for the Ministry of Teaching at Virginia Theological Seminary. I serve as well as a part-time parish priest here in Washington and a board member for Forma, the Episcopal Church’s independent network of faith formation ministers. My comment is about the proposed “transition in the mission-related staff of the Church Center to a primarily contractor-only model.”
In our center’s resourcing and training work, we regularly collaborate with the Church Center’s Lifelong Christian Formation Office and also the Diversity and Ethnic Ministries Office. The local church needs these Church Center staff members. They do a ton of the heavy lifting of forming and resourcing the parish, diocesan, and campus ministers who pass on and nurture faith at the local level. And none of our reorganization will matter if we aren’t forming disciples.
As you know, fewer and fewer dioceses have the resources to support local faith formation excellence. Already there is much more demand for low-cost training, consultation, and resource-sharing than is available, and the situation would get much worse under this proposal. Of course it is possible, though probably not just, to outsource and commodify specific faith formation programs and other projects. But you can’t outsource the rest of what these ministers do, which is provide invaluable support for the many effective networks doing good work around the church.
Networks may not have centers, but they do have hubs. They may not need executives, but they do need conveners. The faith formation ministry ecosystem needs well-connected connectors, idea-bouncer-offers, experienced mentors, and wise stewards of pilot money to help new projects get off the ground. I believe no one is better positioned to do such work than highly qualified, full-time church center staff members.