Notes From ILEOS

No Juggling Acts Here

From the Sunday bulletin wherein is also contained the liturgy of the parish:

"[The junior high Christian education group] will meet in the Jr. High Room. Topic: The Book of Common Prayer: It's in the pew rack but do we know what's in it? Let's take a look.

We're Doing All Right These Days

It was Annual Meeting time at ILEOS recently. The meeting is split into two separate sessions on two succeeding Sundays of approximately one hour duration each. For someone used to four hour Annual Meetings at a stretch, this was a pleasant surprise. On my desk, there is now a beautifully printed volume focused on the missional activities of the parish and its finances. There is no membership information, but since I am still not sure whether ILEOS conforms to the Membership Canons of TEC, I don't think there would be anything interesting. [It actually no longer matters whether it conforms or not, because I voted in the Annual Meeting by voice. There was no need to do anything else.] Needless to say, I am now able to make a good assessment of the financial health of the parish.

There is a meme of the conservative side of the church in many denominations that goes like this: Liberal churches are bleeding membership and running themselves financially into the ground, because the current generation of churchgoers are counter-cultural, "politically incorrect," and wants the "good, ol' time religion." The mainlines have become "the church of the old" and "the church of the dying." They are living off their endowments: the wealth of past generations who would decry their support of aberrant behavior and treason to the gospel.

The more reasonable version of this is that the TEC is very good at attracting middle-aged women and other types of "older seekers," typically childless or with grown children. But it is not good at attracting families with young children.

So I thought I would test these hypotheses against the available data.

First, ILEOS is in excellent financial shape. Its greatest asset is its buildings and property, which are assessed at O($20 million). [I will use the O() notation throughout. It means "on the order of," i.e., approximately.) It derives some income from this but not extraordinary amounts and has to pay taxes on income from its parking lots (used by shoppers during the week). In a Hollywood touch for this very Hollywood church, there was less income than usual from filming on campus. There has been construction about. (My university, on the other hand, has been cleaning up on this kind of income but we unfortunately have shortfalls elsewhere.)

Its endowment is surprisingly small, less than $1 million, which surprised me greatly. I'm used to smaller churches with $1-2 million or up to $5 million for a very Anglo-Catholic parish. The budget surplus over the last four years is more than half of the endowment. And thus if we examine the P/E ratio of ecclesiastical economy (the pledge income/endowment income ratio), we find it to be about 138. So much for living off your disapproving parents. Now admittedly, the buildings are likewise the patrimony. But much of the campus was built when this was clearly an untraditional parish.

Now I know that none of this matters. When the Lord comes, we are not to be measured favorably by our assets or our pledges. But instead we hear in Revelation of Laodicea, "How rich I am! What a fortune I have made! I have everything I want.' In fact, though you do not realize it, you are a pitiful wretch, poor, blind and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire to make you truly rich, and white robes to put on to hide the shame of your nakedness, and ointment for your eyes that you may see." But I didn't start the money meme. Laodicea could be as much Houston or Plano or indeed the entire United States.

There is one more financial element I want to examine: pledging units and pledge amount. The number of units has remained relatively steady, fluctuating O(6%) in the last few years. The rector and vestry are aiming for an 8% increase next year. People do keep coming through the doors. I also should note that the difference between the number of pledge units and the maximum pledge number is O(300). This might be an indicator of communal health more than financial health. We also apparently have pledge units in distant cities. People who were introduced to TEC or Christianity by ILEOS often say that they never find a church quite like it or as comfortable again. Some of these units come to ILEOS only on holidays when they visit their relatives. The total number of these units likely small. But I've never heard of a church before where the C+Es (Christmas and Easter worshippers) pledge. Of additional interest is that the pledge amount has increased O(20%) since 2002. This I understand is a trend throughout TEC. Even as we have been bleeding membership since GC2003, the amounts pledged have outpaced inflation.

The most hopeful news I heard at ILEOS' Annual Meeting, however, did not concern finances. It concerned the Sunday School and Youth Group numbers. ILEOS has several staff responsible for children and youth, including Youth Pastors for Senior High and Junior High. The Junior High Youth Pastor actually appears to be my age and recently graduated from a local small Christian college. This investment seems to have paid off. Sunday School enrollment is up 60% or so. And the Youth Group (Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights) is so popular that they are overcrowding their designated space. The Rector feels this is one justification for a new building. I have to agree. And more importantly, this is a sign that ILEOS is attracting families with young children who will be rooted and grounded in love with us. And yes, some of these families are headed by gay or lesbian parents. It sometimes seems as if ILEOS is a church of aging hippies, but there are signs that it cannot remain that way for long.

Vestry and Diocesan Convention delegation elections were smooth voice votes on slates presented by a Nominating Committee. It was somewhat amusing hearing that the Diocesan Convention delegation is full of people who "like to stir things up." The vestry, like all vestries I know, is rather lawyer-heavy but seems to be good stewards of the church's goods. It's also a diverse crowd: men, women, blacks, whites, Hispanics, gays, lesbians. They even have a youth member (16 years old or so), who serves a one-year term. In the parish where I was a teenager, this would be an impossibility (by law, I think, but they could have allowed someone a voice if not a vote). It's funny being intermediate in age between the youngest and next oldest vestry member.

OK. The question to ask now is what's wrong. There is no perfect community but the Triune God.

1. I have concerns about the liturgy of the church. This church can make even me happy-clappy, which I enjoy... The congregation sometimes applauds the sermon. These are good things or minor irritances. My major concerns are the omission of the Nicene Creed and the General Confession. We also could stand to read the Epistle more often and hear a Psalm more than once a month. I can cope. I've taken to silent recitation of the Nicene Creed after the sermon. I've also taken to picking up the BCP at certain points during the service for the recitation of appropriate private prayers, including the Prayer of Humble Access (I started doing this after a mangled celebration of Rite I a few months ago). I've also taken to being shriven from England, a situation that simultaneously acknowledges the transcendence of God and the Sacraments over space and time and demeans the incarnation at the heart of the Christian religion. At some point, I really need to talk to the Associate with responsibility over this, but I am still praying about the most humble, amicable, and Christian way to broach the subject. Let's not even think about the project to compose new liturgies and creeds. I've heard neither hide nor hair of it since I first heard of it.

To some extent, ILEOS does honor the most important concerns. In the key exception to their rather radical use of inclusive language, they baptize in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit +. This is nearly the only time when the "legal name" of the Trinity is heard in the church. As much as I hope this inconsistency stems from a desire to honor the concerns of "the weaker brethren" (like me...), I wonder how long this can last.

2. I have concerns about Christian education. I have heard the historic Creeds are criticized by the Rector in the new member classes. Having been catechized traditionally, academically, and liberally, I have to say that I prefer tradition. I prefer to know what Christians generally have believed before learning about the messiness of it all. I will never be able to say that "for two thousand years, Christians have believed X," but I am able in most cases to know and usually to justify the majority opinion. ILEOS shows an interest in bringing its peculiar brand of the Faith to the world. Its best leaven, however, lies in its parishioners, who often have opportunity to witness. Let't just say I think good catechesis might make it easier for parishioners to be leaven throughout TEC and make it hard for, um, Al Mohler to make critiques. Some days, I wish I had double-concentrated in Early Christian Literature and had some more time for ILEOS, so that I could offer Sunday morning forums on some historical theology or the wonders of the Book of Common Prayer. As it is, I feel like a half-read and half-trained wretch, who should read fewer novels and more theology. (Unfortunately, I don't do much novel-reading lately).

In summary, ILEOS often seems to be a church of the wounded. So many people I know have been harmed by other Christian communities. To some extent, such harms can be healed with soft words and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. At other times, the wounded should be equipped with the armor of God so they cannot be so easily wounded. And, hey, it's entirely possible that ILEOS' clergy might discover that their parishioners might like their theology a little more traditionally grounded.

In summary, thanks to be God through Our Lord Jesus Christ that I have come to this place and may my going hence leave it better than my coming thither. AMEN

In my next entry, I think I will be taking on the new issue of the Reformed Review on homosexuality. So pray brethren...