Is St. Clement's, Seattle poised for growth?

There is nothing so contagious as holiness

Jul 01, 2024

This article will explore the dynamics of membership growth at St. Clement’s, Seattle. It is the parish Sister Michelle and I attend. When we returned in 2019 the Rector said, “welcome home.” We are both Professed Members of the Order of the Ascension, in the tradition we are called Religious. As such we take seriously the call of Fr. Benson, SSJE about being a Religious, “it is the consciousness of being able to make ourselves at home under all circumstances.” This is home for us. We are also both trained in the field of organization development (OD). So, we are aware that because this is our “home” we are likely to carry a bias and that will influence the story. In OD terms we are participant observers. My hope is that the articles on growth at St. Clements might prove useful to the subscribers of “A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery” and especially for participants in Shaping the Parish. Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four

Is St. Clement’s, Seattle growing?

No. We’ve been on a plateau for the past ten years. Before that we were declining.

Is St. Clement’s poised for growth?

I think so. I’ll explain in part two.

But first, I need you to understand three concepts:

1) Organic evangelization

2) Buzz

3) Equilibrium.

Organic evangelization

It’s the attraction of holiness. Years ago Martin Thornton wrote, “There is nothing so contagious as holiness, nothing more pervasive than prayer. This is precisely what the traditional Church means by evangelism and what distinguishes it from recruitment.” Evelyn Underhill, in a 1933 retreat said, “The final test of holiness is not seeming very different from other people, but being used to make other people very different; becoming the parent of new life.” And C.S. Lewis thought this, “How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing, it is irresistible”

You catch holiness. Holiness brings new life to people. Holiness is irresistible.

And you want holiness. It’s our sharing in the holiness of God, participating in the Divine Life. It is what gives life and meaning to all the parish is and does. Even if the parish does that Episcopalian reserved thing of shying away from the word itself.

I believe that holiness is a mark of every parish church (says so in both creeds!). Though in some it’s a flickering candle and in others a gorgeous glowing flame. But by grace and mercy it’s always present.

Holiness has a different shape in one parish from the other. At St. Clement’s I see pieces of it. An Anglo Catholic parish with an African American heritage. A neon sign saying, “Love always wins.” Toleration and giving people slack. A small group in a small space. Incense, singing and reverence. A mass with energy and beauty that is not quite perfect by some standards. People receive the blessed sacrament, and the dogs get biscuits. This Anglo Catholicism is less Edward Bouverie Pusey's hair shirts and more Fr. Dolling's "rollicking, warm-hearted, full of good spirits". Though it's important to note that both are among the icons in the nave. (You can do your own research into all that if you must.)

And there is a center. A core that embodies the culture of holiness. In large part it’s those of apostolic faith, prayerful and humble. And that overlaps with those who serve the institutional needs and are at least stable sacramental souls. (For more read Chapter 1 “Images of the parish’s intrinsic dynamics and rhythms” and Chapter 3 “Power from the center pervades the whole” in A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church)

Buzz

Buzz is a climate of excitement, a shared sense of purpose, an intense pleasure in the work and the time together. Buzz is word of mouth, spontaneous, self-generating. It’s a passion about who you are. Healthy buzz is around the core of who you are as seen in liturgy, adult formation, and the social exchange in the parish community

What you are seeking is a buzz that is naturally carried by members and visitors to others because there was something that strongly touched or grabbed them. A few examples – Parish #1: Beautiful, rich, liturgy; great preaching and music as part of liturgy, sense of being accepted in the community. Parish #2: Deep acceptance, artists, and decent liturgy. Parish #3: Contemplative worship, training in spiritual practices, commitment to the city, and relationship with the drama and jazz communities.

“There is, of course, Paul's understanding of what God is doing in our lives, e.g. in Ephesians that we are to grow into the full stature of Christ; that the graces and practices necessary for that growth are humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance born of love, eagerness to maintain unity in the bond of peace, truthfulness mediated in love, mutual kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness; and in Galatians that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”[i] The buzz of faithfulness is seen in these manifestations of the Spirit. So, buzz is, in that sense, very related to organic evangelization.

When I was vicar of St. Andrew’s, Trenton, NJ the 9:30 congregation took on the name “The Community of Julian of Norwich.”[ii] Its Eucharistic liturgy “began in one part of the church gathered in a circle for readings and a shared sermon, and then moved in a communal liturgical dance around the altar for the Great Thanksgiving. There was incense, lots of silence, occasional jazz masses, along with a common commitment to the arts and the city. The community self-managed its life with working groups and occasional meetings of the entire community. This congregation was more diverse in some ways than the 8:00 -- black and white, gay and straight, younger and older.” The buzz in that group was an integration of the holiness of organic evangelization and the particular culture of that group. The buzz was maintained by who we were, an adequate public presence in that region, and the energy rising from the four parish community meetings each year in which we reflected on our common life and made decisions.

My sense is that the current buzz at St. Clement’s is a mix of our love for who we are and the “St. Clement’s 2040” process we started in 2022. The 2040 process involved several parish community meetings each year used to assess, reflect upon and plan action so the parish will be alive in 2040. The meetings were mostly forward looking and hopeful. Some were emotionally difficult, even painful. But the community’s ability to work through all of it generated a holy and increasingly self-confident energy (“an energy not its own”).

The most recent meeting was remarkable. There was a lightness of spirit, humor, and many funny exchanges. It was as though all the work and struggles of the past two years had now issued forth in, what shall I call it? – joy, bonds of affection, trust. All had always been there but now it was very public and, for the moment, more intense.

When the process began it was … slightly anxious at first .. routinely discussing and accepting more communal responsibility for our life as a community ... having a say but not the final say (there’s still a rector and vestry) .. becoming competent at working together as a large group .. easy participation .. productive sense of movement .. then a hard decision was made by the rector and vestry .. most people sad .. a few enraged. And over several months the congregation navigated it.

Along the way was a burst of energy that set off buzz, including for the first time the parish hearing itself say “yes we want to grow.” Prior to that the conversations were mostly “oh yes, we want to be a small parish.” But no one had ever asked in a public form, “yes but how small?” And once that was asked virtually everyone said, “well not this small.” That changed the energy.

In this parish the buzz is likely to have an impact in two ways. Newer members may find themselves sharing something they value about the church with friends that may result in some visitors. First time visitors may also find themselves caught up in the energy of the liturgy and the friendliness of members — they may experience the buzz. You catch holiness and buzz. We saw that in a first time visitor who attended the “St. Clement’s 2040” meeting and appeared to be enjoying the good humor and sustained work of the group.

Equilibrium

I’m using the term as understood in Kurt Lewin’s change theory. It’s the state of a system when the forces pressing for change and those pressing against the change are equal. The parish being on a plateau is in effect the same state of being. We are relatively stable in our size as a parish. In Doug Walrath’s size model we have been, according to the numbers, in the “Very Small” (attendance under 50) or the “Small” (attendance 40-100) category for the past ten years. In the numbers there are just enough new people who join to compensate for those that die, move or leave unhappy, i.e., 2015 – 35, 2016 - 47 … 2022 – 45, 2023 – 43. Looked at in terms of size characteristics I think we’re functioning as a “small” church in our patterns of interaction, the role of leaders, ways of decision making and communicating.

“A plateau is when a parish seems stuck between sizes. It just cannot make the move from "Small" to Middle-Sized" and from "Middle-Sized" to "Moderately Large" and so on. Alice Mann writes of "plateau zones" in which attendance hits a place on one side or another of a size type and just hangs there (The In Between Church, Alban, 1998) The numbers and patterns of parish life just don't change enough to settle into a stable size.” Or we might say they have settled into a stable position in-between size categories. Such a position can result in tensions about how we organize ourselves and communicate.

Such an equilibrium offers a sense of institutional and organizational stability and at the same time means we are stuck in a position that limits our hopes and wishes. More on size dynamics and issues is in the End Notes.[iii]

In Part Two we’ll look at: