Urban Legacy in the East Bay

The PCUSA churches in the East Bay are also trying collaborate and partner as well. Here is what came out of their last few gatherings:

Originally posted on Rev. Abby King Kaiser’s blog:

Fifteen congregations from five cities in the inner East Bay gathered on November 12, 2011, for a full day of fellowship, reflection and dreaming.  Following the Urban Legacy Convocation in San Francisco, the Spirit moved in the East Bay to convene a similar gathering. The twenty congregations of Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond and San Leandro were invited to participate in sharing our stories and dreaming about our legacy through a World Cafe conversation process.  The leadership team–Cal Chinn, George Gilchrist, Abby King-Kaiser, Monte McClain, and Sarah Reyes–hoped for a day as inspired as San Francisco’s but with the flair of the East Bay.

The day glorified God through the diversity of our stories, the breadth of our discipleship and the desire to deepen our ministry in the communities we serve.

We serve…
Just over 750,000 people in five cities

Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond and San Leandro
Our communities are diverse.
Hills and flats, port and marina, neighborhoods with horse trails, neighborhoods with bike trails, neighborhoods sidewalks that require off-road capable strollers.  The area we serve is geographically large with a great deal of variation.  Life expectancy can vary almost fifteen years in the area based on where you live.#  Some of our churches serve a city where almost 70% of the residents have a Bachelor’s degree.# Some of our churches serve neighborhoods where “43 percent of residents over the age of 25 do not have a high school diploma and the dropout rate is 40 percent.”#

Our communities are dense.
Neighbors, on top of neighbors, on top of neighbors. Some parts of our region have as many as 10,000 people per square mile.  The least dense communities are still as dense as many cities in the middle of the country.  Our proximity to each other means that there is always mission and ministry to do, always community to build, always new people to reach.

Our communities are global.
25-45% of the households in the East Bay speak a language other than English.#  A minimum of thirty languages are spoken in the area, by some counts, as many as eighty.  Immigrants, refugees, people seeking asylum all come to the East Bay looking for many of the blessings some of us experiences.  Some are disappointed, finding violence and poverty as bad or worse than where they came from.#  We are connected by Twitter, Facebook and Skype to family, friends and strangers all over the world, and yet Internet access is certainly no universal.

Our communities are in need.
About fifteen percent of the inner East Bay falls below the federal poverty line,# (quick facts) but two in ten families are not economically self-sufficient.#  Our people need better education at all levels, increased access to health care, dignified work, clear roads to citizenship, affordable housing and more.

Our communities are unique and innovative.
The East Bay is a hot bed for food, for music, for art, for culture in a,, its manifestations.  We are the home of Alice Waters, Maxine Hong Kingston, Green Day.  Booby Seale and Gertrude Stein, Oscar Grant and Johannes Mesherle, Jerry Brown and MC Hammer, Bruce Lee and Julia Morgan. Chevron and Sungevity.  Clorox and Green for All. Nobel Laureates are educated and teach here, just up the hill from an animated movie studio, which is just up the shoreline from one of the West Coast’s busiest ports.  Street art, hip-hop, chess, farming, protesting–we take it all, innovate it and make it our own.

It is a blessing to be called to follow Christ here.

It is a blessing to tell the stories of our faith and our communities to those who live nearby but may feel a world away.

We are discerning, but we are also confused.

We seek the will of God in our congregations, we seek to discern the gifts of others, to be open and welcoming, and yet church doesn’t always go as planned.  What we think will solve our problems doesn’t always or we don’t the growth and response that we expect.  We try to remain open and creative, but over the long haul, can get tired and frustrated.  We can’t see people’s passion for God, and can mistake other ways of connecting to God for being disinterested.

In the midst of it all, we may feel disoriented.  We are challenged by the call to do ministry in this context and culture.  How to we minister to a community that speaks many languages?  That lives in many cultures?  How we do see ourselves in relationship to our community what few of our people come from the neighborhood?  We all have our own questions and struggles as congregations, but seek to come out of this isolation to weave it all together for greater strength.

We have blessings and we have baggage and sometimes we can’t tell the two apart.

Our buildings give us presence and shape our identity but can eat up our time and energy and resources.  Our history helps to root us in tradition but can be hard to let go of to.  Our locations have built a particular community but also have restrictions that we feel like hold us back. Our successes gave us a sense of identity but can be as difficult to move beyond as our failures.

We love Jesus, but we don’t always know what it means to be a Presbyterian.

And yet, we share leadership.  We are most proud of our work together when our pastors and our Sessions work together, when lay leadership is encouraged, inspired, nurtured and filled with the Spirit.  We seek to empower others by our work.  We are faithful as leaders and our leaders are faithful, when their leadership leaves a legacy, when they work themselves out of a job.  Relationship with God and with each other is our foundation.

Presbyterian is a way of leading, facing not just inward but outward.

We can have trouble connecting across generations, across cultures, across difference.  And yet, when we find common ground, we find the Spirit.

We value our diversity, our shared values, our common faith, our desire for justice and equality.  We need to deepen our relationship to God’s word, we need to commit ourselves to each other’s spiritual formation, and sometimes we just need to get out of our own way.

We need to listen, to be accountable to each other, to equip each other, to realize that we are in the struggle together.

We can be like the staff of Moses–used by God and powerful at the same time.

All of this is part of how we love out our Presbyterian identity and our discipleship of Christ.  This is our legacy to our communities.

We resist change and we embrace change.  We are in transition.

Small is beautiful.  Big is beautiful.  Everything in between is beautiful.  As the church is in transition in the greater culture and many of our congregations are in transition in our particular contexts, we have to re-frame and re-think our identities.  We are not who we once were.  We can be successful and letting go, celebrating our past, and living into the future, but it is hard.  It is also happening around the East Bay.

We face scarcity and competition.  We face decline, irrelevancy and outdated models of working.  And yet, thinking about ourselves this way can be a hopeless framing of our story by a culture of fear.  The Gospel tells a different story and the resurrection offers another way.

That is the story we tell when we come together.

Summary Written by Rev. Abby King-Kaiser, January 2012

Special Thanks to Rev. Cal Chinn, Rev. Charie Reid, Elder Linda Lee and Rev. Monte McClain for their thorough notes

Check Out Video of Past 2 Gatherings

What If Churches Were Missional Outposts?

Originally posted on Still Waters on April 5, 2012

In March, we were able to hold our 2nd Urban Legacy Gathering, where twenty-two San Francisco PCUSA churches gathered together. This time we were able to gather ALL 22! Since this was the second gathering, we wanted to continue the energy and excitement from the last gathering. While the first gathering focused on getting to know each other and coming up with a collective “legacy” to live into, this gathering balanced providing a big picture plan and opportunities to collaborate.

The main theme of the gathering was shifting our perspective from being 22 individual congregations to being one church with 22 missional outposts. How different would we be and do church if we viewed ourselves as missionaries in our particular neighborhoods? For one, we would consider 22 PCUSA churches in a 7 x 7 mile city not as too many but as not enough. We would imagine the many neighborhoods where ministry is possible. We would stop judging each other as who is viable and who is not and see each other for what we uniquely offer. We would no longer feel like we have to do it all, but how we could partner and share.

So, this is what we came up with as way to begin shifting our focus:

Missional Legacy

For congregations who are discerning their viability and want to process the legacy they wish to leave, have a discernment team to walk with them and access resources for them.

There are some local resources that are forming and cropping up to address this like Presbytery Associates (Retired or Members-At-Large Minister Members) who have expertise in financial assistance or real estate and the Lazarus Project who could provide guidance in the process of discerning the legacy the church would like to leave.

Missional Church Development

For congregations who don’t have the financial resources for a full-time pastor and still have the energy to do “something,” have them be a training post for seminarians or recent graduates.

Providing hands-on opportunities for seminarians and recent graduates to plan worship, preach regularly, and experience the joys and struggles of working in a parish is a gift that these churches can offer. In return, they will have some stability in having someone provide pastoral care and leading worship. Local veteran pastors can provide support, guidance, and whatever is needed to cover internship requirements for the seminarian or recent graduate.

Missional Initiatives

For congregations (especially racial ethnic or smaller congregations) who struggle to find the skilled leadership, have lay leaders trained and skilled to provide leadership in their particular context.

By providing affordable retreats for pastors and lay leaders, churches can benefit by having a wealth of skilled lay leaders. In May, we are offering an affordable retreat and bringing in speakers for those who want to continue the conversation of missional leadership. We were able to get free housing and use of San Francisco Theological Seminary at no cost so that the fee was minimal.

Also, the Presbytery of San Francisco transformed a church building that is no longer in use into an Education Center for Commissioned Lay Leaders. They will provide classes in Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish.

Missional Collaboratives

For congregations who want to partner around different issues and ministries, provide opportunities for these churches to gather, plan, brainstorm, and collaborate.

Some of the ideas that came out of the second gathering were forming a city-wide youth group, address housing and homelessness issues, how to welcome interfaith families, nursing home ministry, and how to reach the “unchurched.”

One of the next steps is gathering some of the pastors and elders at the last gathering to brainstorm ways that we can connect with each other. Some ideas are to have a Pulpit Switch day. What if someone from every church agreed to switch and preach at a different church? Another idea is to have a Sunday where all twenty-two churches worship in one place. I don’t know if any of these ideas are possible, but it is fun to dream of ways we can actually get to know each other and see each other’s church in action.

Well, that’s it. That’s where we are starting. I’m excited to see how this lives out and transforms from here. If anything, it’s wonderful to redefine what makes a church healthy, valuable, and worthy.

May 14-16: Re-focusing Retreat at SFTS

Re-focusing Retreat at San Francisco Theological Seminary

May 14-16 2012

Cost $100 per congregation/3 representatives from each congregation

(pastor and lay leaders for mission and/or education)

Overnight accommodation and breakfast provided.  Other meals on own in nearby restaurants.

This retreat will be an opportunity for us to continue in greater depth the conversations and exploration on what it means to be a missional outpost.

2nd Urban Legacy Gathering

Originally posted on Still Waters on March 27, 2012

At the Next conference, I shared about a gathering where we gathered the 22 churches in San Francisco to see how we could better partner with one another and address some of the issues that urban churches face. The first gathering was getting to know each other and putting together a document that named our collective legacy as 22 PCUSA churches.

This second gathering we wanted to think more big picture as well as come away with concrete ideas for networking and partnering. Every church was invited to send two representatives (1 pastor & 1 elder or 2 elders). We provided daycare for those who had children. Although the gathering was a grassroots effort and planned by San Francisco pastors, the gathering was financially supported by the Committee on Ministry. With supplies, food, and daycare, we budgeted $500.

Here are the details of the process we went through and the topics discussed. The process was similar to the first one, but we used a different process modality. You can view pictures of the gathering here.

Gathering

Gathering Songs – singing songs to bring us together.

Lighting the Christ Candle

Opening Prayer -

What are your hopes?

What are your expectations?

The Welcome – Welcoming One Another

• Welcome from pastor from host church

Community Building -

Participants were invited to cut out images and words to answer the following questions about their church. They made a collage from their clippings. Then, pastors and elders from each church were invited to share their collage.

• On the church template, what are you proud of about your church? What identifies your church?
• On the outline of the church template, what is your church lacking or missing?

Hearing

We then spent time hearing from Rev. JD Ward who has done a lot of work around missional leadership. He talked about moving from a perspective of 22 individual PCUSA churches to one church with 22 mission outposts. If we looked at ourselves as missionaries, we would look at how our churches engage with the city much differently than we do now. Functioning as a church is very different than functioning as a mission outpost.

Lunch

Responding

Open Space Time – Participants were invited to throw out topic that they would like to have and then brok up into small groups to talk about those topics and then we gathered back together to harvest the ideas and share them with the larger group. Participants were asked to follow the following Open Space guidelines.

• What topics would you like to talk about?
• How’d you like to network and partner?

What Is Open Space?

Open Space is a time for people to gather in small groups around an interested topic. You pick the topic.

Open Space Guidelines:

• Whoever comes is the right person.
• Whatever happens is the only thing that could.
• Whenever it starts is the right time.
• When it’s over, it’s over.
• The Law of Mobility: if you are neither learning nor contributing, join another session where you will be inspired.
• Be prepared to be surprised.

Conversation Guidelines: Please practice and encourage these conversation guidelines.

• Open-mindedness: Listen to and respect all points of view.
• Acceptance: Suspend judgment as best you can.
• Curiosity: Seek to understand rather than persuade.
• Discovery: Question assumptions, look for new insights.
• Sincerity: Speak what has personal heart and meaning.
• Brevity: Go for honesty and depth but don’t go on and on.
• Use Law of Mobility: Take responsibility for your participation. If you feel you are neither contributing nor learning where you are, join another session where you will be inspired.

Conversation Host Guidelines: 

Thank you for being willing to host an Open Space conversation at a presbytery meeting. The process is simple. Email the Meetings Working Group your topic and a brief paragraph describing the topic. The Meetings Working Group will be in contact with you. Topics are considered depending on the presbytery meeting schedule. Open Space time is usually one hour long.

During Your Conversation: 

Remember the six guidelines of Open Space.

Remember you are the host! This is not a workshop but a place to host good conversation around your idea or topic. Trust that what the Spirit wants to say will emerge in the space of open and honest conversation.

When you are ready to begin, read the Conversation Guidelines to your group, briefly introduce yourself and the topic, encourage visual harvesting and begin.

Harvest your conversation by taking notes on the Harvesting Sheet or providing some type of visual. Take a picture of the harvested notes or turn them into a presbytery staff person so that they can be shared on the website.

With 5 minutes left, make connections and discern any important insights that can also be harvested for future partnerships or networking.

The Big Picture -

We then had the participants break out into four groups. This was to a glimpse of a part of a big picture about how we can collectively address some of the issues our urban churches face. The groups were:

• Missional Legacy – for churches who are looking at their future and assets and interested in some type of assessment
• Missional Church Development – churches who can’t afford a pastor be a training post for seminarians or recent grads interested in more urban ministry training
• Missional Initiatives – a clump of churches who can train lay leaders
• Missional Collaboratives – topics and projects that churches want to partner and collaborate on

Going Out

• Song of Response
• Praying together – We began the day with a map of San Francisco and did a collage of the individual churches which was added to the map. For closing prayer, participants were invited to add a word or image to the map that described the 22 mission outposts as one church.

• Lord’s Prayer
• Closing Song
• Benediction

I share the process because I believe the model worked well to generate and foster good conversations, especially in the midst of diversity. We are truly making it up as we go along and look forward to seeing how these gatherings build on one another.

Feel free to use and adapt this process. I look forward to hearing your own experiences if you choose to use this process.

NEXT Church Presentation

Below is a link to the Powerpoint presentation that Rev. Theresa Cho did at the Next Conference sharing what has been happening in the Presbytery of San Francisco to build community with 22 Presbyterian churches in the city of San Francisco. The Powerpoint also includes rough notes, describing each slide.

ULC

How to Shape Conversations in the 21st Century? Part II

Originally posted on Still Waters on June 19, 2011

²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18.20)

Back in February, I led a process sponsored by the six agencies of the General Assembly (GA) of thePresbyterian Church U.S.A. (Office of General Assembly, Board of Pensions, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, Presbyterian Church Foundation, Investment and Loan Program, and General Assembly Mission Council). The conversations were focused on different aspects of leadership. (You can read about the process here.) However, during the gathering, a discussion about dying churches sprang up. It’s interesting that when church people gather around whatever the topic, it always seems to lead to dying churches. This got me thinking about my own context. I am a Presbyterian associate pastor in San Francisco that has twenty-two Presbyterian churches in a seven by seven mile area. Many of the churches are struggling for a variety of reasons.

In a previous blog, I shared more thoughts on this and what led to planning a gathering of all twenty-two San Francisco Presbyterian churches. We called the gathering, the Urban Legacy Convocation. Every church was invited to send two representatives (1 pastor & 1 elder or 2 elders). We provided daycare for those who had children. Although the gathering was a grassroots effort and planned by San Francisco pastors, the gathering was financially supported by the Presbytery. With supplies, food, honorariums, and daycare, we budgeted a little over $1000.

Here are the details of the process we went through and the topics discussed. The process was similar to the one mentioned above, but tailored to the San Francisco context. You can view pictures of the gatheringhere. Throughout the gathering, there was an artist (who is also a local pastor) who created a visual piece as she listened, observed, and interacted with the participants.

Gathering Together

Gathering Songs – singing songs to bring us together.

Lighting the Christ Candle

Opening Prayer -

Lord, this candle that we have lit,

May it be a Light from you

to lighten our way

thru difficulties and decisions.

May it be a Fire from You

to burn up our selfishness,

our pride and all that is impure within us.

May it be a Flame from You

to warm our hearts and teach us to love.

Lord, this candle is a little bit of ourselves

that we offer to You.

Help us to continue our prayer

in all that we do this day. Amen.

The Welcome – Welcoming One Another

• Housekeeping Issues – where’s the bathroom?
• Purpose of the gathering
• History of how we got here
• Introduction of facilitator and artist interpreter

Community Building – Who Are We?

• Write down what you bring to this gathering?
• Write down one expectation you have of this gathering?

Chronological Order:

How many of you live in San Francisco? How many of you have ever lived in San Francisco? (Dependent upon answer adjust the following):

Line up in order of how long you have lived in San Francisco. (Randomly choose some people to share how long they have lived in San Francisco.)

Ask:

• How many were here when the SF Giants almost won the World Series in 1962?
• How many went downtown to watch the SF Giants parade when they won the World Series last year?
• How many were here during the 1989 earthquake? Where were you?
• How many were here when Harvey Milk was supervisor and was killed?

Would You Rather: (According to their preference and answer have participants move to opposite ends of the room. Then have them get in groups of two or three to discuss the question in parenthesis.)

• read an awesome book or watch a movie? (What is the last book you read or movie you watched?)
• go to Starbucks or Peet’s? Non-coffee drinkers, go in the middle. (What is your favorite hangout spot in SF?)
• have a mansion in the middle of nowhere or a small apartment downtown? (Share one thing you love and hate about living in SF.)
• tweet or facebook? If you do neither, go in the middle. (How do you find technology to be relevant in your church?)
• be stuck in the Caldecott Tunnel or on the Bay Bridge?
• live in perpetual San Francisco fog or Central Valley heat?
• swim to Alcatraz or surf with the sharks at Ocean Beach?
• always say everything on your mind or never speak again? (What is an important truth that your church is facing?)

Make a Map on the Floor: (Left – Pacific Ocean; Front – the Bay; Right – East Bay; Back – South Bay

Walk to where you live. Notice your location. Now walk to where you go to church.

Ask:

• How many stayed within the same neighborhood? How many traveled 5-7 miles? How many crossed a bridge or traveled more than 7 miles?
• Is your church racial ethnic? Multi-cultural? White?
• How old is your church? Over 100? 50-100? 25-50? 10-25? < 10?
• How many have a weekly food pantry?
• How many feel your church is in transition?
• How many feel their church needs a new vision or direction?

Introductions and Sharing – Learn about One Another Using Mutual Invitation.

• Share your name, whether you are an elder or pastor, your church, and complete the sentence:
• For elders – “I go to [church] because . . .” (sharing should be no more than a minute.)
• For pastors – “I feel called to serve at [church] because. . .” (sharing should be no more than a minute.)

Lunch

Discern Together – World Cafe Conversations

• Explain World Café Process (5 min)
• Answer the World Cafe questions – (20 minutes each)
• Large group reporting and feedback (1 hr)

There were four topics. We set up eight tables (2 tables with same topic) with 5-6 participants at each table. Each table had a table host who kept the conversation flowing.

For fun, instead of numbering the tables, they were identified according to San Francisco landmarks: AT & T Park, Fisherman’s Wharf, Mission Delores, Golden Gate Park, Chinatown, Ocean Beach, San Francisco Zoo, and Union Square.

Each participant was given a World Cafe map that directed them to the tables they were to go to next.

Below are the World Cafe questions used:

Topic 1: Leadership

Reflecting on leadership:

1. To move a church into the future what leadership qualities are needed?
2. What images express this type of leader? (coach, shepherd, servant, etc.)
3. What are the products or results of effective leadership?
4. How does one measure the effectiveness of this type of leader?

Topic 2: Context

1. What are the particular aspects of being in San Francisco that provide unique challenges to our ministry?
2. What are the particular aspects of being in San Francisco that enhance our church’s ability to do ministry?
3. Given the diversity of neighborhoods in San Francisco, how are we relevant in our neighborhood and community?
4. Does the presence of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in San Francisco matter at all and why?

Table 3: Challenges

1. What are the challenges of Presbyterian churches in San Francisco?
2. What barriers hinder our ministry? How does church building or facility use enhance or hinder our ministry?
3. What are the things that are difficult to let go of from when a church was at its peak?
4. What traditions and rituals hinder our ministry and are hard to let go of?

Table 4: Future Legacy

1. When you think about the 22 Presbyterian congregations in San Francisco, what do you dream our collective legacy to be? How do we go about living into that legacy?
2. What do you feel is missing or lacking in our collective ministry or presence in San Francisco?
3. Knowing the diversity of San Francisco (socio-economically, racial ethnically, life experiences), what do we value together? (hunger issues, youth ministry, racial ethnic ministries, etc.)

Respond Together

• Next Steps – discuss in large group suggestions for next steps.
• Artist Interpreter shares her gleanings and observations

Into the World Together

• Song of Response
• Praying together – There was a map of San Francisco. Participants were invited to light a candle and say a prayer regarding what they experienced from the day.

• Lord’s Prayer
• Closing Song
• Benediction

I share the process because I believe the model worked well to generate and foster good conversations, especially in the midst of diversity. I believe that this model levels any possible hierarchy or division.

Feel free to use and adapt this process. I look forward to hearing your own experiences if you choose to use this process.

Urban Ministry: What Will Be Our Legacy?

Originally posted on Still Waters on July 21, 2011 . . .

Below is what came out of the Urban Legacy Convocation, a gathering of twenty-two San Francisco Presbyterian churches. Out of in-depth conversations, the document and painting encompasses the legacy that we want to live into. “What comes next” will be the next important step which will begin to focus how we can partner to make this legacy a realization. What became clear out of this gathering is that we need to spend more intentional time getting to know each other and need to develop real partnerships for effective ministry.

Drawing by Abigail King Kaiser

Introduction

In November 2010, a group of San Francisco Presbyterian pastors met to address the challenges that Presbyterian churches are facing living in the city. The initial group consisted of InHo Kim (Committee on Ministry co-chair), Cal Chinn (Transitional Executive Presbyter), John Anderson, Theresa Cho, Maggi Henderson, Harry Chuck, Kwang Sun Kim, Jim Kitchens, and Keenan Kelsey. Out of the conversations came an idea to gather the twenty-two Presbyterian churches to give needed attention to the needs, challenges, and potential of our congregations. There was also recognition that even though we live in a seven mile by seven mile city area, we do not know each other as well as we should.

The twenty-two San Francisco Presbyterian churches span the spectrum of diversity:

• 1 Mandarin
• 1 Cantonese
• 1 Japanese-American
• 1 Taiwanese-American
• 1 Indonesian
• 3 Korean-American
• 2 African-American
• 1 Latino-American
• 6 Multi-cultural
• 1 over 500 members
• 12 under 100 members
• 8 have no pastor or currently have interims

On June 18, 2011, each Presbyterian church in San Francisco was invited to send two representatives: either two elders or an elder and a pastor. The theme of the gathering was “Urban Ministry: What will be our legacy?” We tackled the questions: What will our legacy be 25 years from now? How do we, together, create a lasting presence in the city? What will be the result of our witness? Centered in worship and using the conversation model of World Café (worldcafe.com), participants spent time getting to know one another and engaged in conversation around topics, such as context of ministry, challenges, leadership, and our collective future legacy.

What We Bring

As participants of this gathering,

as residents of San Francisco,

as servants of our particular congregation, and

as followers of Jesus Christ called to this particular time and place,

we brought . . .

• more than 25, 30, 50 years of church experience
• an open heart and mind
• readiness for something new
• a strong belief in the power of partnership
• an eagerness to connect and be heard
• a willingness to learn from others
• a desire to keep church alive, making it sing and shout
• a hope for the future
• experience in working through transitions
• humor
• vision
• a heart for youth and mission
• persistence
• amazement
• concerns
• encouragement
• anticipation
• hope
• love and knowledge for PCUSA
• questions
• an open spirit for change
• optimism for things to come that are good
• sense of humor for things to come that aren’t as good
• experience in organizational development
• myself

What We Expect

As participants of this gathering,

as residents of San Francisco,

as servants of our particular congregation, and

as followers of Jesus Christ called to this particular time and place,

we expected . . .

• acknowledgement of everyone’s gifts and assets
• to learn about other churches
• to make mission connections
• surprise and excitement for future
• to identify goals and develop a follow-up plan
• to feel a sense of community
• answers, direction, and renewal
• to discover if we are still a connectional church
• guidance
• to get a fresh perspective
• to get to know each other and how we can work together
• to dream a collective mission for youth, homelessness, immigration, race relations
• to get a spark of a vision about the unique PCUSA mission in San Francisco
• engagement
• partnerships and clarity on how we can partner

San Francisco: Our Urban Context

San Francisco,

aka City by the Bay,

Frisco,

Fog City,

San Fran,

Golden Gate City,

46.7 square miles of rolling hills and beautiful views of the bay and Pacific Ocean,

a city that holds Chinatown, Japantown, North Beach, Castro, Little Russia, Little Siagon, Mission Delores, Tenderloin, and Haight Ashbury,

where on the same day, the sun shines on the Financial District and the fog hovers over Ocean Beach,

where the population of dogs outnumber the kids and Sundays are no longer Sabbath, but filled with birthday parties, marathons, festivals, sports, and rallies,

where coffee shops are not only for coffee lovers, but filled with those searching for free wifi and conversation,

where parking spaces and affordable housing are at a premium,

where people are more nature-lovers and spiritual than church attenders or faith seekers.

Urban Ministry: Our Unique Challenges

The many things that we love about our city are some of the very things that bring unique challenges to doing ministry in the city. The cultural shifts in the neighborhood, the change in need of those in our community, the competing activities pulling on people’s time, and the increasing cost of living make it challenging for congregations to stay relevant, connected, and in touch with their community.

The diminishing size of congregations adds to the stress as churches struggle to find ways to attract, sustain, and nurture different kinds of people to worship. San Francisco is filled with people in transition that move in and out of the city like a revolving door, either because of cost of living, new jobs, public school choice, or raising a family. Smaller congregations also struggle to maintain the church building; therefore becoming too dependent on rental income or unable to put resources towards ministry due to building maintenance. Church buildings have moved from being worshipful spaces, community centers, and places of ministry to a source of burden, an albatross, or physical hindrance to do ministry. And let’s not get started about the lack of parking. For ethnic congregations, there are not only challenges of how to reach out, but also how to preserve and honor their particular culture.

Challenges do not only stem from the outside, but from within as well. Questions that need to be asked are: Is there a willingness to try new things and change? Is there room to think creatively about worship? The city is changing fast, are we willing to adapt to be relevant? We say we want to welcome people, but opening our doors will change who we are, are we ready for that?

By focusing on our challenges, congregations can often feel lonely and isolated. However, we must not be discouraged because as Presbyterians we are a connectional church. We are not in ministry alone. Are there ways we can support each other by sharing resources, ideas, space, energy, prayers, and ministry?

Leadership We Need

These challenges mean we need effective leaders to help our congregations partner and explore creative ways to overcome these challenges. What characteristics are necessary for effective leaders for the church in today’s context and time?

Leaders who go deep…

plumbing the depths of faith in God and God’s people;

setting the church’s story and individual stories

within God’s story of grace, redemption, justice, and mercy

through Jesus Christ;

…and leaders who stretch wide:

reaching beyond comfort zones;

bumping into and embracing the complex and wondrous dimension of all of God’s people;

making space for the breath of diversity of God’s people in race, culture, class, age, theology, and context;

claiming in word and action that relationships are foundational to results.

Leaders who ask questions…

Why do we do what we do?

Where is God in our midst?

What’s out there?

Where are we going?

What will our legacy be?

What are we afraid of?

What do we dare dream?

…and leaders who live into answers:

letting ideas and vision ferment;

listening for what bubbles up;

trusting the wisdom of the community;

keeping an ear on the pulse of those in need;

staying open for creative inspiration.

Leaders who let go…

giving up the need to control;

sharing power;

risking failure;

checking ego.

…and leaders who take up:

moving beyond the idea of being open to that of actively pursuing openness;

starting with the gifts of the community rather than the needs of the institution;

going out into the world instead of waiting for the world to come in.

Leaders who lift up others…

encouraging and empowering;

mentoring and serving alongside;

equipping people to find the joy of their work in the world;

…and leaders who maintain self­awareness:

honing strengths and admitting weaknesses;

checking biases and norms;

nurturing a spiritual life that responds humbly, “Here am I.”

Leaders:

Servants, Teachers,

Networkers, Shepherds, Entrepreneur,

Mentors, Empowerers, Team Players,

Weavers of Visions, Community Organizers,

Evokers of Gifts, and Celebrants of Life’s Rituals

adapted from PCUSA Six Agency Leadership Consultation 2011 

What Will be Our Legacy?

We are 22 Presbyterian churches serving a diverse, urban city.

Alone we struggle.

Alone we are limited.

We are 22 Presbyterian churches serving a population with needs.

Together we are a missional community.

Together we are partners in Christ’s service.

We are 22 Presbyterian churches with struggles and challenges.

Alone we are burdened by

lack of finances,

limited resources,

burden of building.

We are 22 Presbyterian churches with potential to make our dreams a reality.

Together our weaknesses are fulfilled with others strengths.

Together we are one church with 22 satellite locations.

Together our burdens (like building) can be another’s asset.

Together we can

feed the city, advocate for rights of immigrants,

partner with public schools, promote justice and peace,

collaborate in mission, and

create a sanctuary for our youth to experience

and grow in Christ.

How to Kill a Dying Church by Theresa Cho

Orginally posted March 3, 2011 on Still Waters. . .

¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” ¹¹ The word of the LORD came to me: “What do you see, Jeremiah?” (Jeremiah 1.11)

This is a great call story. It is typical in the fact that like other prophets, Jeremiah does not feel qualified to be God’s messenger and God quickly reminds him that God not only finds him suitable, but will provide what he needs to get the job done. Also like other prophets, Jeremiah refers to a weakness as his greatest defense of not accepting the job . . . in this case his age and ability. What is wonderful about Jeremiah’s call story is that God reminds him that God not only created him and therefore knows him, but also believes that Jeremiah is a sufficient vessel for this work. Unlike the Presbyterian ordination process, there is no training program and no hoops to jump through. A simple ‘yes’ will suffice.

The job that God has tasked Jeremiah with is not a small one. What I find interesting about this interaction between God and Jeremiah is the question that God asks him, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I believe in many ways God continues to ask us this very same question: what do we see? In many ways as Presbyterians, I think we are asking ourselves this very same question. In recent months, there has been much attention and discussion over the future of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. denomination. Whether it is the group of pastors who signed the “deathly ill” letter or the group that planned the Next Church Conference, the questions at hand are “what is the future of our church?” and “what do we do about it?”

It seems to me that no matter whether you are hopeful or discouraged about the fate of the Presbyterian church, one topic of conversation that keeps cropping up whenever the future of the church is discussed is — what to do with all the “dying” congregations out there. Some believe that we should just suck it up and close them down, therefore using the assets to fund new church developments and other ministries. Some believe that it is a reality of our new future: smaller ministries and congregations — which is not necessarily a problem, but a need to recalibrate our focus.

For as long as I’ve been a member of the Presbytery of San Francisco (8 years) and actively involved in a committee that supported local congregations, we keep running into this question – how do you kill a dying church? Some of the many challenges we face are:

1. How do you know if a church is dying? What are the determining factors: lack of membership, money, mission, and ministry? What if a church has 200+ members, but because of the population they serve, they don’t have the financial resources to survive? Are they dying? What about a 20 member church that has $600,000 in their endowment, but no pastor and no mission? Are they dying?
2. How do you go about closing a church, especially when the presbytery is not in the habit of forcing action upon a congregation? Do you form a committee (like Presbyterians love to do)? Does the presbytery just make a blanket decision to close all congregations with membership less than 50?
3. What is the transition process for members and the property?
4. What should the assets and money be used for?

Especially after the recent downturn in the economy, many congregations both large and small were faced with assessing the health of their congregation. And not only congregations, but our presbytery as well. No longer did the Presbytery budget financially support racial ethnic congregations, start up new church developments, invest in redevelopment congregations or support mission activities. Instead, the Presbytery tasked the congregations to partner up. Easier said than done! Especially when more and more smaller congregations are needing financial assistance and more and more larger congregations are cutting their mission budget.

To put all of this into context, the Presbytery of San Francisco is divided into three areas: San Francisco, East Bay, and the Peninsula. I live and serve at a church in San Francisco. In this 7 mile by 7 mile city, we have 22 Presbyterian churches. 22! And by any measuring scale, only a handful are considered healthy and vibrant. The state of the congregations in San Francisco was low on the totem pole of issues to address for the Presbytery, especially when the Presbytery was already overwhelmed with balancing a deficit, redesigning the staff, congregations “graciously” departing for other denominations, and finding a new Executive Presbyter. So, I took to heart what the Presbytery always reminds us: WE are the Presbytery. Since I am a part of that WE, I decided to be a squeaky part. I approached our San Francisco pastors gathering about my concerns. I talked incessantly about it to the chairperson of Committee on Ministry (who happens to conveniently be my husband) as well as the Transitional Executive Presbyter. From these conversations, the San Francisco Urban Strategy Team was formed that consisted of San Francisco pastors. Our task was to figure out how to address the state of all the 22 congregations in our city. Like Jeremiah, this was no easy task. Because what we saw when we looked out over our city and through the eyes of our congregations was a lot of mistrust, misguided energy, feelings of isolation, and lack of empathy for one another. Especially for some of the smaller congregations, they did not trust any outside help for fear that they would be shut down. So getting connected to these congregations was not going to be easy.

When we looked at our task, what we realized is that the question we are asking is all wrong. The question shouldn’t be “how to kill a dying church?” or even “what constitutes a dying church?” The question for all the churches — big and small, healthy or not — should be “what legacy do we want to leave here in San Francisco?” — a question not to answer only as one congregation, but as a collective 22 — a question that helps us all reflect on how our congregations engage in ministry and mission in our community. On June 18, this is the question that all the San Francisco Presbyterian churches will be invited to answer. Using a similar process that I used at a recent leadership consultation, each congregation is required (with the support of Committee on Ministry and the Transitional Executive Presbyter) to have two people attend the gathering – whether it be one elder/one pastor or two elders (what we don’t want is two pastors). From 9am to 5pm, we will spend a lot of time getting to know one another and each other’s context and congregations as well as worshipping together. Mainly because, although we live in a geographically small city, we don’t know each other at all and building relationships is the key foundation to a healthy, vibrant ministry. The goal of the process is to level out the playing field so that small churches has as much impact and power as larger congregations, so that racial ethnic congregations have voice, and so that our diversity is not an issue but an asset. We will then spend the rest of time being in conversation and answering the question “what legacy do we want to leave here in San Francisco?” We will have a facilitator to guide the process as well as an artist whose task is to observe the spirit of the conversations and the content. The hope is that what will come out of this gathering is a document and a visual piece that states what the legacy of the collective San Francisco Presbyterian churches will be.

It is this document/visual piece that will be used for another team (people more experienced in assessment of churches) to assess and evaluate all the churches in San Francisco. Hopefully, since all the churches had an opportunity for input on the value all churches will be evaluated on, it will decrease the issues of  distrust and refusal to cooperate.

I share the journey of this process only because I have found it difficult to find any resources that address this matter — a matter that many congregations and presbyteries are facing. I have interviewed many executive presbyters and pastors about how they handle this issue and have found no luck in finding concrete processes. I am also tired of talking about the matter which in turn makes me feel frustrated and paralyzed to do anything about it. This is my attempt to try something and see if it works. I don’t know what the end result will be of this process, but I am hopeful that it at least invites everyone to the table of discernment and is a process that is not meant to be judgmental, but instead transformative.

I’d be interested to hear what processes you have been a part of that addressed this issue or any suggestions you have as we continue to discern the legacy we feel called to leave behind as well as live into.

Details of the process that was followed at the June 18 gathering can be found here.