TO CHANGE YOUR RESULTS YOU NEED TO CHANGE WHAT YOU ARE DOING.This comes from Facebook posts from a visitor named Stephen Lybrand, who is a lay minister at the St John the Baptist ordinariate parish in Bridgeport, PA. He gives his background as
a Catholic layman, former non-denominational Pastor on staff at a growing contemporary megachurch, and Anglican Priest with experience taking a dying Anglo-Catholic parish and breathing new life into it, in addition to helping with a new church plant. My time at the megachurch was a two year anomaly in a lifetime of Anglicanism both as an Episcopalian and later the Anglican Church of North America before coming into full communion with the Holy Father Through the Ordinariate Chair of St Peter in 2016.However, my regular correspondent found his Linkwdin profile, which is at variance with this account. It shows a Master's degree in Theology/Theological studies from Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Wikipedia says, "LTSP offers as first professional degrees the M.Div. (Master of Divinity), the M.A.R. (Master of Arts in Religion), and a new degree, the M.A.P.L. (Master of Arts in Public Leadership)."
It sounds as though Mr Lybrand spent some time as a Lutheran and in some type of formation for Lutheran ministry, although his degree is not an MDiv, which would be the normal professional degree for a pastor, and it sounds as if the degree in Theology/Theological studies would be equivalent to degrees in areas like pastoral studies in other denominations.
In any case, we can add a Lutheran background to Anglican and non-denominational, which suggests that, like many other ordinariate members, he's been on the denominational carousel, and the boutique parish in Bridgeport is perhaps just one more turn on it. But Mrs Gyapong clearly takes his advice seriously, since she's apparently planning to run a series of posts on it.
His advice, which is very general and more like motivational-speaker fare, is partly good, but partly puzzling. For instance,
Don’t talk about money from the pulpit except in a tangential way or if the daily lesson about tithing. Even in that case, don’t ask for money or set an expectation of giving from the pulpit. When the Priest teaches members to be disciples they will give. Plain and simple. If/when you need to speak about money do it in mail, email or at the coffee hour following Mass. And do it in such a way that those who are just getting by don’t have an inkling of guilt upon hearing the message.This is in a parish, St John the Baptist Bridgeport, that we've seen has gone to the trouble of seeking a consultant's proposal on how to renovate the facility, but apparently hasn't developed the funding actually to follow through.
Is this perhaps because the clergy isn't raising funds from the pulpit? Diocesan parishes at least twice a year devote the time normally given to the homily to passing out pledge envelopes, either for the parish pledge or the bishop's appeal, and instructing parishioners to fill them out in the pew, bringing the completed results up to the altar. Perhaps Mr Lybrand could sit down with Abp Chaput and explain to him where the archdiocese has gone wrong and the ordinariate has it right, huh?
Our pastor doesn't hesitate to raise funds from the pulpit, and he responds to objections by reminding the parish how many times Our Lord Himself speaks of money in the gospels. We have a successful parish.
But other advice is probably better.
Another newcomer friendly characteristic which makes a big difference is having the Mass last about an hour. If they are coming from a Protestant church they are used to going about an hour. If they are coming from a Novus Ordo parish, they are probably used to 45-50 minutes. If you want people to come back, have your Mass last about an hour.As we've seen by reviewing several ordinariate masses on YouTube, a typical length is 90 minutes, and considering the Divine Worship missal uses the Eucharistic Prayer 1 with additional Cranmerian prayers at the start, before distribution of the sacrament, and afterward, it's hard to imagine how this could be shortened, even with only a dozen at the communion rail. I would say that typical Novus Ordo Sunday masses I've attended last an hour (not 45 minutes), with at least a hundred but often multiples of that. That clergy are able to manage this feat speaks to their focus and respect for people's time.
So I'm wondering why Mrs Gyapong saw fit to publish this advice, especially in the context of Mr Lybrand's remarks on how difficult it is for parishes to change their ways -- yet if they want a different result, they'll in fact need to change. Are these parishes in fact not growing because, on one hand, they're perhaps reluctant to do serious fundraising, while on the other, a 90-minute mass is a turnoff?
"If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." -- Herbert Stein
