Let Your Light Shine – Ideas and Tools
Grow in faith
Living Discipleship: Practicing our Faith
This is a free curriculum (Practicing our Faith leader’s guide) from Forward Movement that is the perfect companion to their book Walk in Love. This is a course about prayer, beliefs, and practices, and about the intimate relationship between those three things. It is grounded in The Book of Common Prayer, its prayers and liturgies, which help articulate what we Episcopalians believe about life and death, about sin and grace, about ourselves and about God.
Sharing our Faith Dinners
This resource first developed by the Diocese of Texas is one that the deacons and priests enjoyed at our clergy conference. Print this pdf file to make discussion cards and a list of norms for each table. Enjoy a covered dish meal, during which you go over the norms and then each person looks through the cards and picks one to answer. This is an easy way to generate meaningful conversation for groups of any size.
Bibles for Sunday School Participants
St. Anne’s in Tifton gives Bibles to all of their rising 3rd graders, and, every other year, they spend the entire Sunday School year showing them how to use them: how to look things up, major stories, how we use the Bible in church, talking about what to do when we don’t understand what we read, and so on. Contact Emily Guerry at office@stannestifton.com
Godly Play
https://www.godlyplayfoundation.org/
The Godly Play method is a curriculum engaging what is most exciting about religious education: God inviting us into—and pursuing us in the midst of—Scripture and spiritual experience. This creative approach to teach us to listen for God and to make authentic responses to God’s call in our lives has a Montessori foundation with more than 40 years of research and practice. The Rev. Canon Joshua Varner (jvarner@gaepiscopal.org) can assist your congregation in discovering where this is right for you.
Create a Rule of Life
This handout walks anyone through the steps to create a set of spiritual disciplines. The basic idea is to note the important elements of your own spiritual life along with some plan for how you will carry it out. For the rule of life to work, you will need to write it down, keep the list handy and look it over from time to time.
Finding God in Retrospect
A one-page hand out created by Bishop Frank Logue offering one simple tool for any small group to use and one time-tested practice for individuals to assist you in noticing how God is already active in your life.
Centered
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/way-of-love/centered/
This is a new discipleship resource from the Episcopal Church, which is all free online, designed to foster small groups. The experience includes an initial three-session training for group facilitators, followed by nine core sessions during which participants gather to share a meal and prayer; view two short films, discuss questions about God, belonging, and living a meaningful life; and support for each other in committing to intentionally follow Jesus and his Way of Love.
The Difference Course
https://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/priorities/reconciliation/difference-course
Difference is a course is an offering from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The five-week course available free online explores following Jesus in a complex and divided world, seeing transformation through everyday encounters.
Sacred Ground
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/sacred-ground/
A free curriculum from the Episcopal Church, Sacred Ground is an 11-part film- and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story and regional identity.
Transforming Questions
A free adult formation course from Forward Movement designed to help both new Christians and longtime churchgoers move into deeper life in Christ. Over the course of ten sessions, participants engage the basic questions of the Christian faith through a combination of teaching and conversation. Participants gather to share a meal, then a leader gives a presentation about a central question of faith. Participants will wrestle with some of the most basic questions of our faith: Who is Jesus? Does God answer prayer? Why do bad things happen?
Connecting with neighbors
Invite | Welcome | Connect
https://www.invitewelcomeconnect.com/
An ethos rather than a program, Invite Welcome Connect, invites us to see the critical importance of these three activities while providing some tools for doing so. This ministry of transformation is designed for congregations of all sizes. It equips and empowers individuals and congregations to cultivate intentional practices of evangelism, hospitality, and belonging.
Hospitality Checklist
We are to welcome visitors as if we are welcoming Jesus and to do this well means we should from time to time assess how you are welcome and follow up with newcomers. The Diocese of Georgia has a 3-page checklist, which is online here: Hospitality Checklist, which looks at a visitor’s encounter with your church from before they arrive until after they are home.
Stations of the Cross in the Street
During Lent, St. John’s in Savannah offered an outdoor art installation in the arches alongside their church. “Stations in the Street” by Scott Erickson is a striking, modern interpretation of the Way of the Cross. Each work of art is accompanied by Scripture and a meditation on Holy Week and the work of Christ, with us and for us. They offered printed bulletins for a simple liturgy as well as a QR code for those with smart phones to have the meditations on their phone. Contact the Rev. Jonathan Jameson at jjameson@stjohnssav.org
Community-wide Blessing of the Animals
A Blessing of the Animals for your congregation is great, but partnering with your local Humane Society and inviting other churches to take part offers the opportunity to come in contact with more of your neighbors while supporting a local non-profit. Contact your local Humane Society. A sample liturgy is online here: http://georgiaepiscopal.org/docs/blessingoftheanimals-booklet.pdf
Neighborhood Prayer Walks
It’s not just walking around. It’s not just praying. A Neighborhood Prayer Walk is walking through your neighborhood with your eyes and your heart wide open. It’s noticing signs of hope and signs of need, and how God calls you to be present to both. Take a walk as a group. Listen closely. Pay attention. Offer prayer. Then re-imagine how your ministry could join God and join your neighbors. Here is a two-page guide: Prayer Walk.
Serving your community
StoryBox
This ministry started at St. Augustine of Canterbury in Augusta puts good quality books into the hands and homes of children in low income areas of their community. Parishioners read a book to kids in nearby elementary schools and then every child in that grade takes a copy of the book home. This ministry also gives books in the same way to kids at the feeding ministry out of Christ Church in the Harrisburg area of Augusta.
Little Free Food Pantry
https://www.littlefreepantry.org/ and https://www.thelittlefreepantries.org/
A large Little Free Library style distribution box has food for those in need. People may and do drop off food for others to pick up. The church also stocks the pantry with donated items. Cathay Stevens at St. John’s in Bainbridge is a contact for this ministry idea 229-246-3554.
Laundry Love
6-8 volunteers from St. Augustine of Canterbury in Augusta go to a local laundry one day a month and for two hours they enable, financially, the homeless and low income customers to wash and dry their clothes. Prayers are said before each Laundry Love event and upon request. Conversation with the customers is a primary activity. This ministry requires only a few volunteers and additional ministries can be incorporated. Contact the Rev. Deacon John Warner 706-495-0406 (cell) or john@st-augustines.org.
Community garden
https://www.stmarksgivinggarden.com/
The St. Mark’s Giving Kitchen is one of a handful of thriving community gardens around the diocese. The Giving Garden on the grounds of St. Mark’s, Brunswick, gives away produce to those in need. The church received a grant from the Episcopal Church’s Roanridge Trust to use their garden to teach other churches how to their own. They created the website linked to offer step-by-step guidance on starting a community garden and the means to connect with them to learn more.
Raising resources for ministry
Consecration Sunday
This spiritual-growth-oriented process focuses on the needs of the church, the experience concentrates on the need of the giver to give for their own spiritual development. Invite everyone in the congregation to make a special effort to be at church on Consecration Sunday and make follow-up phone calls that are made 1 week before the day. On Consecration Sunday itself, there is a time in our worship service for people to offer their estimates of giving before gathering for a celebratory meal in the fellowship hall. The Monday, following Consecration Sunday, letters and giving cards are mailed to households who were not present at the service. The Rev. Ted Clarkson (tclarkson@goodshepherd-augusta.org) has used variations on this method for years and assisted other congregations in getting started.
Project Resource
https://project-resource.org/
An initiative of the Episcopal Church’s College for Bishops, Project Resource provides the tools to move from pro-forma annual pledging to a church to inspire engaging year round in stewardship in a way that is more inspiring. The link above will show you how to get to a training event. The resources are also offered online here for annual giving https://project-resource.org/annual-giving and further links on that page cover Planned Giving and Major Gifts as well.
Online Resources for Episcopalians
The small set of links below are some of the most oft used in the Episcopal Church together with a few little known treasures.
www.episcopalcommonprayer.org
This website curated by the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music is the best single repository for official and trial liturgies, including the Enriching Our Worship Series, the Book of Occasional Services, Lesser Feasts and Fasts and much more.
www.ecfvp.org/vestry-papers
The Episcopal Church Foundation’s Vestry Papers and other vital practices are a helpful resource.
bible.oremus.org
The online source for the New Revised Standard Version text to search, cut, and paste.
lectionarypage.net
The Lectionary Page is not an official website, but an easy place to find the readings for a liturgy from a dedicated volunteer.
buildfaith.org
This website is a ministry of Virginia Theological Seminary which seeks to equip and inspire churches and individuals for the ministry of Christian education and faith formation.
www.growchristians.org
Forward Movement’s online community of discipleship focused on the practical details of life at home.
www.venite.app/home
The Venite App from Forward Movement is the best daily prayer app for Episcopalians. The App allows the user to set preferences and add a prayer list. The link above is to the web version, but the apps to download for smart phones from your usual app store function best.
episcopalchurch.org/sermons-that-work and lessonplans.episcopalchurch.org
Two lectionary based resources from the Episcopal Church offering sermons and lesson plans for every Sunday and some feast days.