In this blog, I am going
to address a provocative question for Episcopalians and other Church bodies
that have a Bishop. The question is
this; can a Bishop really make a difference?
In 1992, I was the
Director of the Leadership Training Institute located in Evergreen,
Colorado. For 5 years, I had coordinated
and lead a series of weeklong leadership development course for over 500
Episcopal clergy and around 800 lay leaders.
Then, the Board of Directors of Episcopal Renewal Ministries, the
umbrella organization of the Institute, called a new Director. Even though the new Director wanted me to
continue my work, I knew that my time at the Institute was over. What was I now to do?
What had I learned running
the Institute? I learned that we had
dynamic and creative Episcopal Congregations throughout North America with
outstanding clergy leadership. I used
many of them for our teams that presented at each event. I had no doubt that TEC had a vibrant future
given the quality of such leadership and so many capable leaders. However, having spent my entire ministry from
26 years of age onward in the Episcopal Church, I had a churning question. “Did it matter that we had Bishops?”
Let me be clear. I had and still have a high doctrine of the
Church and the three fold ministry of Deacons, Priests, and Bishop, or as we
like to say it, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
Yet I found that many of these creative congregations were notable
outliers to their dioceses and often at best were tolerated by their
Bishops. I certainly had experienced
this when I was Rector of a congregation in Southern Ohio. Now, let me re-frame the question then forming
in me. “Could a Bishop really make a
difference for the mission of a Diocese, or, were they merely obstacles toward
the accomplishment of such a mission, or even worse, ecclesiastical remnants
that had worn out their use? I realized that to answer this question, I had two
choices. I could attempt to become a
Bishop or I could go to work for one.
While pondering this and
my transition. A friend nominated me to
enter the election in the Diocese of Texas for Bishop Coadjutor to follow
Bishop Benitez. I had no illusions that
I could be elected there. I knew folks
in the Diocese and had spoken there on several occasions, but I was an
outsider. What I wanted was the
experience of being in an election and telling people what I thought the
ministry and work of a Bishop should be.
Ironically, and to make a
long story short, Bishop Benitez and Claude Payne, who was elected as Coadjutor,
were impressed with answers and ideas and to my surprise and delight, Bishop
Benitez invited me to join his staff as the Canon for Mission.
I spent the next year
working directly with Bishop Payne and he extended to me the opportunity to
continue in that position with even greater responsibility and authority in the
training of our leaders in Texas. As a
personal side note for those interested, Bishop Payne would probably never have
hired me had we not had that year together.
As one member of the staff said once to me, “Bishop Benitez had the
wisdom to hire you, but had little idea how to use you. Bishop Payne wasn’t sure he wanted you, but
he learned quickly how to use you and your skills.” Serendipitously and in God’s timing, it
worked out and I spent almost 10 years working with an outstanding Bishop,
leader and person who along with his great team made an incredible difference in
the Diocese of Texas and its future.
When elected, Bishop Payne
had been the Rector of St. Martin’s, Houston.
He was 62 years of age and I suspect for many in the Diocese he was seen
as a somewhat short term interim.
However, the story he always told was this. He and his wife Barbara were planning their
retirement when he was asked to stand for Bishop. He decided that he would only stand for
election “if I could really make a difference.”
You may wish to pause right now and stop to think about the significance
of that statement!
I think many people seek
election to the office of Bishop as a natural progression of their vocation and
a fulfilment and affirmation of what they have done. There is a big difference between these two
attitudes. What did Claude Payne do to create
momentum and make a difference? This, as
you can imagine will take more than one blog, but let me begin with this.
In the interim period
before becoming Diocesan Bishop, Claude Payne built his staff. He worked through with us the articulation of
the core values of the Church and the Diocese and prepared to hit the ground
running.
He recast the image of the
Diocese in one sentence that he shared at the council where he took over as
Diocesan. “What would happen if we stopped
seeing the Diocese as an organization make up of 156 parishes and missions, a
hospital, 40 some schools, and numerous committees and commissions and saw
ourselves as ONE CHURCH with one mission lived out in local mission outposts of
congregations, schools, outreach ministries, specialized chaplaincies, board
and commissions?”
Then he
articulated the Mission of the Church, “To reconcile all people to God and one
another in Christ” with its two core values of The Great Commission – to love
one another, and the Great Commandment – to make disciples of all nations.
From that moment onward, he never stopped articulating
that vision of One Church with One Mission and Two Core Values and directing
that all we did in the Diocese on every level was guided by and measured by
that vision.
For his first seven years, the Diocese of Texas was
the fastest growing in TEC in in average Sunday attendance BOTH numbers and percentages. We started 7 new congregations. And the Net Disposal Income of all Congregations
from stewardship DOUBLED!
In my next blog, I will
expand on one of his greatest strength.
As Bishop Payne would say, “it is true that the devil is in the details,
but so are the Angels!’ In other words,
he knew how to put legs on this vision, to do the hard strategic work that had
to follow from such a high vision.
