COMMENTARY: Advice from the `real world’ for a bishop-to-be

c. 1996 Religion News Service (Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter living in Winston-Salem, N.C. Contact Ehrich via e-mail at journey(at)interpath.com.) (UNDATED) A friend is a candidate for bishop in the Episcopal Church. He asked for my thoughts. Because I care for him, I told him the truth, […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is an Episcopal priest, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter living in Winston-Salem, N.C. Contact Ehrich via e-mail at journey(at)interpath.com.)

(UNDATED) A friend is a candidate for bishop in the Episcopal Church. He asked for my thoughts. Because I care for him, I told him the truth, as I see it.


This diocese sounds like many parts of modern Christianity in its concern about dwindling vitality, shrinking membership, financial straits and tepid enthusiasm. I suggest you step back from the church language and look for parallels in the secular world.

_ Veterans of Foreign War and American Legion posts. Strongest immediately after wars, helped veterans adjust to civilian life, provided some social benefits within certain age cohorts. Their purpose is less clear in peacetime. Their product looked eternal but might, in fact, be time-bound. As current members die, who will replace them? Answer: Change the product. Problem: Such changes might alienate current members and still not create a product that anyone wants to buy.

_ Downtown shopping. Worked gloriously until demographics changed and behavior changed. Store owners of the 1950s didn’t adapt fast enough to suburbs. Downtowns emptied, some stores followed to suburbs, many closed. Some downtowns are active again, but it’s mostly new enterprises: sports stadiums, franchises appealing to young adults. Old-line stores haven’t reopened.

_ Hardware stores. Used to be corner stores, owned by friendly men who knew their customers, how to diagnose fix-it problems, and how to find widgets on crowded shelves. Then came the mega-store _ not as friendly, staff not as informed, customer does the searching, but the mega-store prospers. People’s needs change! That’s the point. This is an audience-driven environment, not provider-driven.

You can imagine other parallels. My point is this: the world has changed, people have changed, our cities have changed, people’s faith needs have changed, people’s interests have changed _ and we continue to offer the same old product! We thought it was eternal, but it was time-bound. We thought new customers would adapt to our folkways, but they don’t. We clung to old locations and old ways long after people’s behavior had changed. Now, like the downtown department store, we seem far behind the moment.

Finally, because we enjoyed doing things a certain way, we considered new behavior wrong, new providers heathen, and people who go to those new providers stupid. We are paying a high price for our arrogance. We like to say we aren’t a business, and therefore the rules of business don’t apply. But they do. We are selling a product that fewer and fewer people want to buy. (That product, by the way, isn’t Jesus Christ, it’s a particular way of coming to know him.) Some of our congregations are bucking the trend _ by doing things in a new way! It can be done.

The question any prospective CEO needs to ask, however, is this: Does the organization have the will, the flexibility and the resources to do things in a new way? The issue is not are they nice people, do they have collegiality, is theirs a rich history. There wasn’t a nicer guy in town than the corner hardware man. But those guys are out of business! When will we see that?


What would it take to turn this ship around? Let’s get real: The old folks will step aside _ our churches are “graying ” because the “grayed ” won’t let go.

New music will appear _ not ’60s campfire songs, but contemporary Christian music.

Traditionalists will give ground (tradition is a process, not a defined, immutable value, and if the process isn’t working, what’s the point?) The finance committee will do its work in private (i.e. money won’t rule). Clergy will be preachers, teachers and spiritual guides, not club managers and holders of important hands.

Laity will provide pastoral care, especially in small groups. Faith won’t just be on the agenda. Faith will be THE agenda.

We will stop rewarding the emotionally and psychologically sick. People who misbehave will be asked to change their behavior, not be put in charge of committees.

We will learn from successful churches and adapt.

My question for you personally is this: The next bishop of this diocese will have two choices, namely, stay steady on a failing course, or steer a new course. I can’t imagine you wanting anything but the latter. Are you prepared? The dying ways have powerful patrons. Are you prepared for the agony of dislodging the satisfied?

END EHRICH

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