The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome – Part 4

By Ken Howard

Today’s post is the fourth of a multipart series on Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome.
Click here for last week’s post.

In this series of blog posts, we are reviewing the signs and symptoms of Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome so that we can learn to spot it before it becomes terminal. So far, we’ve explored how E.A.S. often works in ministry discernment and in seminary. However, Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome is not limited to pre-ordination church systems and processes, but remains just as prevalent after ordination.

Post-Seminary Ministry

In the Episcopal Church, clergy ordination vows include a pledge to be loyal to one’s bishop. Unfortunately, a symptom of E.A.S. in Episcopal bishops is that many seem to almost subconsciously think of that a vow of loyalty is a promise never to express unwanted, yet truthful criticism.

[Read more…]

Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome – Part 3

By Ken Howard

Today’s post is the third of a multipart series on Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome.
Click here for last week’s post.

In this series of blog posts, we are reviewing the signs and symptoms of Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome so that we can learn to spot it before it becomes terminal. After Commissions on Ministry, the next opportunity for E.A.S. to set in is in seminary.

Seminary

Near the end of my seminary experience, as I sat in front of the Commission on Ministry for my final interview before approval for ordination to the transitional diaconate, my bishop (God bless him) asked me if I could share a metaphor that would honestly capture my seminary experience. My response was that “It felt like a cross between kindergarten and boot camp. They assume you enter without relevant opinions about ordained ministry, and if they find out that you do, the quickly and thoroughly disabuse you of them.”

[Read more…]

Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome – Part 2

by Ken Howard

Today’s post is the second of a multipart series on Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome.
Click here for last week’s post.

Last week we began a discussion of Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome (or E.A.S.):  an emerging, infectious, but poorly understood pathology afflicting an increasing number of churches. E.A.S. occurs when the body of the Church turns against its own, perceiving healthy agents of corrective change as threat to “the way things are” and activates the organizational immune system, which then expels those threats from the organizational body. Like its human namesake, Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome drives churches to screen out of their leadership and its followership the very people who could bring life-giving, health-renewing change, while screening in those less likely to bring the discomfort that change – especially healthy change – inevitably brings with it. E.A.S. is slow-moving and almost unnoticeable, but is very frequently a systemic slide into death. The result of untreated E.A.S. is a church that would rather die than change

But what are the signs and symptoms of Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome and how do we learn to spot it before it becomes terminal?

Perhaps it would help to share some real life examples of how E.A.S. functions in various church organizations and processes.

[Read more…]

Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome – Part 1

by Ken Howard

Today’s post is part of a new multipart series.

Autoimmune Syndrome is one of the least-understood of human pathologies. The human immune system is the body’s active defense against infectious disease. When working properly, it responds to invading microorganisms, such as viruses or bacteria, by producing antibodies or sensitized lymphocytes (types of white blood cells) that attack the invaders and either kill them or expel them from the body. Under normal conditions, the body’s immune system cannot be triggered against the healthy cells of the body it protects. Autoimmune Syndrome occurs when the body mistakes perfectly healthy cells, tissues, or organs of the body for pathogenic threats, causing the body’s immune system to attack the perceived “invaders,” and kill them and/or expel them. It can lead to a wide variety of diseases include Crohn’s disease, juvenile diabetes, endometriosis, fibromyalgia, lupus, multiple sclerosis, narcolepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, and hundreds more.

Like its human equivalent, Ecclesiastical Autoimmune Syndrome (E.A.S.) is also a poorly understood pathology. It occurs when the body of the Church turns against its own. [Read more…]

Rapid Iterative Prototyping: Validated learning within a context of tradition

by Ken Howard

This is the fourth post in an ongoing series on Vision-Guided Experimentation
click here for previous post

Faith Communities are living organisms made up of human beings. They “live and move and have their being,” sharing many of the characteristics of the people who populate them. Like them, one of things faith communities have to do in order to survive and thrive is sense, respond, and adapt to the environment in which they live.

Last week’s post was about the sensing part of that equation: Mission Context Analysis. We discussed ways of “Getting Outside the Building,” in order to learn more about the characteristics, needs, strengths, and aspirations of the people who comprise the neighborhoods we hope to serve.

This week’s post is about responding and adapting, employing a process we call Rapid Iteration Prototyping. Once we have gotten to know the needs and aspirations of the communities inside and outside the building and having discerned how God is calling us to respond to those needs and aspirations, the next step is creating actual ministries and programs to carry that out. And because of the rapid pace of change in our neighborhoods we have to be able to develop and test them quickly, discarding what doesn’t work and refining what does.

To do that, we start by creating what folks in the business startup arena call a Minimum Viable Product, or in our case a Minimum Viable Program or Ministry. We create a prototype of the program – not a “deluxe” version with everything WE might WANT in it but a much simpler version with only what we have VERIFIED they NEED. In the illustration above, we label this step “ADAPT,” in order to remind ourselves that since, as the proverb says, “there is nothing new under the sun,” that for this step to work we don’t have create a program “out of whole cloth,” but that creativity often takes the form of stealing and repurposing something someone else has already tried.

Then we begin the actual process of rapidly and repetitively testing and tweaking. We test the program with the intended audience (APPLY), ask them what they think about it (ASSESS), and then tweak the aspects of the prototype that are working and toss those that don’t. Then we repeat, learning and adapting more and more with each iteration, until we get it “right.”

Over the nearly 20 years I’ve been designing and refining this approach to ministry development and redevelopment, I’ve seen it applied to every aspect of congregational life, from startup to expansion, from evangelism to worship, from marketing to member giving.

Let me share an example from a church I served, about prototyping a program to engage and serve an underrepresented population.

[Read more…]

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