The Episcopal Church needs missionaries. If you’re a regular reader of Covenant, you probably know the statistics and you also likely know that the Episcopal Church needs genuine spiritual renewal. To be clear, this renewal can only finally come from the Spirit of God and must be grounded in the clear and courageous proclamation of the gospel in both word and sacrament. Other initiatives apart from this amount to chasing after the wind. For this renewal, we need a new breed of missionaries.
One major issue to address is that two mainstays for renewal and mission have been immigration and procreation, and these two mainstays cannot be relied upon by today’s Episcopal Church.
Let’s first address immigration. In 2013 the National Institute of Health published a paper on the effect of immigration on religious belief and practice. Not only were “new legal” Christian immigrants to the United States substantially more likely to be Catholic (or Orthodox, for that matter) and less Protestant than American Christians, but those Protestant immigrants were far more likely to be evangelical than Episcopalian or some other variation of mainline Protestant.
For example, a study by the Pew Research Center found that 68 percent of new legal immigrants to the United States identified as Christians. Of those, about 53 percent are Catholic while mainline Protestants make up about 10.2 percent. Other research by Pew on the immigration status of religious denominations reveals that 85 percent of the Episcopal Church’s members are third-generation Americans, 9 percent are second generation, and just 6 percent are new immigrants. In contrast, about 26 percent of the Anglican Church in North America’s members are new immigrants.
Let’s turn to procreation. The picture of childbirth is more dire still. Mainline Protestants have the lowest completed fertility rate (average number of children born to adults ages 40-59) among American Christians at just 1.9. There are fewer and fewer children in Episcopal churches, a fact that baptism trends from the past few decades reinforce.
As an aside, it’s worth noting that Episcopalians seemingly lack a coherent or even considered theology of childbearing.[1] We are not entirely sure what children are for and, like many of our neighbors, are evidently unable to come up with sufficient reasons for having them. We think that maybe having children will make us less lonely or that they will add meaning to our lives. As such, children are seen as another possession, like a BMW, quips Stanley Hauerwas.
Coupled with a common yet unfortunate advocacy for abortion, one may reasonably wonder if Episcopalians simply wish to be free from the burden of children. Oddly, many dwindling congregations who themselves have fostered just such a culture now lament the absence of children and families, seemingly unable to make the connection. If having children is an act of radical hope, as Hauerwas again argues, what does it say about a church that is increasingly less willing to welcome them? What kind of people would we need to become to be capable of welcoming children and families?
Episcopalians, of course, are free to not have children, but not for the banal reasons modern people tend to give (“They are expensive,” “I do not want to be tied down,” “This world is too messed up to bring children into it,” “There are too many people here already,” “The planet is burning”). Rather, Christians are free to not have children “because we believe in the power of God to create a people through witness and conversion rather than through natural generation,” as Hauerwas writes. In other words, the church is sustained and created anew in each generation by baptism, not procreation.
Which brings me back to the beginning. If the Episcopal Church cannot count on immigration or procreation for its renewal, then what? Good old-fashioned conversion. The Episcopal Church needs missionaries.
Some will say they do not have the personality or spiritual gifts to be missionaries, but that’s not quite right. After all, most Episcopalians are already very good evangelists. Just get them talking about their favorite book, television series, restaurant, or political candidate. Others will say evangelism is the responsibility of the church generally and not each of her members. Maybe so, but it would hardly hurt to underscore personal responsibility and duty, if only for a season. Every member a missionary, I say!
Nevertheless, a renewed emphasis on mission will almost surely start with the clergy who must set an example for their people to follow. Every bishop, priest, and deacon in the 21st-century Western world ought to identify, self-consciously, as a missionary to the culture. Clergy may be scholarly, but their primary duty is not to be scholars. They may have administrative gifts, but their primary duty is not to be administrators. They may be effective and charismatic leaders, but their primary duty is not to be CEOs. The primary duty of clergy is to proclaim the gospel by word and sacrament, inviting everyone everywhere to repent and believe in the risen and living Jesus Christ. In other words, their primary duty is to be missionaries. To conclude, then, let me offer four practices or postures that can help you (ordained or lay) be a missionary to your parish.
First, pray up. Missionaries are motivated by love. Consider this example. You’ve probably talked to someone in the past week about something you love — perhaps your children or a show you’re watching, or maybe a new restaurant you finally tried. The Episcopal Church’s new breed of missionaries will be motivated by their love for Jesus, and not primarily by our “brand.” “For Christ’s love compels us,” says St. Paul, “because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
Prayer is the soil in which such love grows. As a pastor, I often find myself describing prayer to people as “friendship with God.” Cardinal Robert Sarah once referred to prayer as a “heart-to-heart conversation” with Christ. I quite like that. There can be no great evangelism, no good works, no moral or faithful witness at all, apart from a deep and abiding personal encounter with the living Jesus.
Second, show up. Anglicans already have a built-in mechanism called the parish. The priest is called upon to serve the whole parish and not just the people who show up on Sunday morning. At the very least, the parish priest needs to be out and about in the parish, as priest, regularly. One of the simplest ways to do this is to show up to stuff. What events are going on in your parish? Show up as the priest. Among other things, that means wearing your clericals. One advantage clergy have over the laity is a distinctive form of dress that says something before we open our mouth. Take advantage of that.
And for the gospel’s sake, get out of the office. Pick a third space in your parish and show up there, at the same time on the same day, week in and week out. Most Tuesday and Thursday mornings from about 8:30 to 10:30 you can find me at a particular café in our parish. I arrive early and catch up with the baristas. The owner, Brett, is usually there and we chat.
Recently I learned that in the 1970s his family attended the church I serve. Then I take my coffee out to the patio. At some point, Dave arrives on his bicycle and reads his book. Mike and his dog are usually there. Amir or his twin brother will often make an appearance. There are other regulars and those who come and go more freely. Parish priests should be a known entity. Be a character in the story of your neighborhood.
Third, listen up. A large part of being a missionary is simply listening with intention. It’s too easy to rush from one appointment to the next, aimlessly going about your daily tasks. Whenever possible, practice a deeper awareness by being attentive to what’s going on, listening, paying attention.
There’s a wonderful scene in the film Lady Bird when the lead character Christine, a senior at a Catholic girls school, discusses her college essay with Sister Sarah Joan. When Sister Sarah Joan comments on Christine’s apparent love of her hometown of Sacramento, she is caught off-guard:
I was just describing it.
Well, it comes across as love.
Sure, I guess I pay attention.
Don’t you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?
Love manifests in paying attention. Speaking of, be aware of and attentive to the presence of the Holy Spirit. What a difference it would make for the Christian to wake up and go about her day with an active and abiding awareness of the companionship of the Holy Spirit! And if we believe that God made us for himself, then we can reasonably assume the Holy Spirit is active in people’s lives long before they profess faith in Christ. So listen up.
Finally, speak up. There’s a remark that is often misattributed to St. Francis: “Preach the gospel at all times. If necessary, use words.” It’s an unfortunate aphorism because it presumes the gospel can be preached apart from words. It cannot. A more faithful phrasing would be something like “Preach the gospel. At all times, if necessary. Use words.” Words are necessary.
If you pray up, show up, and listen up, then inevitably the Holy Spirit will give you opportunities to speak up, and when those opportunities come, all it takes is a bit of courage. The onus is on all of us. Every member is a missionary. At some point you will be given an opportunity to open your mouth and testify to the hope you have in Christ. You do not need to be ordained. You do not need to have a doctoral degree in theology. You do not need to make an airtight argument or answer every possible question or objection you might encounter. All you need to do is share what the Lord has done for you (Mark 5:19).
In her current iteration, the Episcopal Church is unlikely to experience renewal because of immigration or procreation. What we need is a new breed of courageous missionaries willing to be a gospel presence, in word and deed, to the people of their parish.
[1] For a helpful corrective on this see the recent series on natality published here on Covenant.
The Rev. Jonathan Turtle is a Canadian adapting to life in Florida with his wife and four children where he gratefully serves as pastor to the faithful of Emmanuel Episcopal Church (Orlando) and beyond.