July 9, 1999
Dozens signing up for training in Total Ministry program
By John Moline
TIMES STAFF WRITER
LITTLE FALLS. Cedar and Johanna Morrigan have spent part of a hot summer morning cleaning the entryways and office within cool confines of the elegant 93-year-old Episcopal Church of Our Saviour. That's their ministry for today.
Their future ministries will be greatly expanded.
The back of the church contains handwritten lists of a few dozen names. From those names, drawn from the memberships of four Central Minnesota Episcopal churches, one person may become the next preacher for the Little Falls congregation, another may perform marriages or graveside services, still another may visit the sick, teach Sunday school or administer the parish's finances.
The Morrigans are part of a program called Total Ministry that may help their church and two others in Central Minnesota survive as their membership dwindles. But to do that, they, and many other members of three Episcopal parishes, are going to have to take on roles they probably never expected.
"I think it is the only way these churches will survive," said the Rev. Pat Gillespie, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan in Sauk Centre, as well as the priest in charge of the Church of Our Saviour and St. Stephen's. "The church as we know it will survive. But there are going to be changes."
Small-parish perils
The problem at the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour is familiar to many churches in the small towns and rural areas of Minnesota. Shrinking congregations and not enough money make it hard to support full-time, traditional ministers. The historic church in Little Falls can count on about 52 active members. On an average Sunday, about 25 are in the pews.
"We're a small parish," said Lu Tax, acting senior warden and a member of the Little Falls congregation for almost 20 years. "In our present situation, we don't have the resources to call a full-time priest."
Little Falls is the largest of the three, rural Episcopal parishes in the program, with Sauk Centre and Paynesville each averaging less than 20 on a typical Sunday.
Unable to afford a full-time priest, and unlikely to attract another part-time pastor like the one who served the Little Falls congregation for 10 years, the Church of Our Saviour is considering a program called Total Ministry. In the program, members of the three congregations will be trained to take on all of the traditional ministerial roles,
Total Ministry
Started in Alaska, the Total Ministry program has been used successfully in several rural areas, notably the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For these three rural Minnesota churches and their congregations, it's a new and somewhat unsettling direction.
"Total Ministry is not a particularly new idea," Tax said. "Here, the idea of Total Ministry was brought up 15 years ago. We weren't ready for it then. I think we're much more ready now,"
Total Ministry may be the only viable option.
To see their alternative, the members only have to look at the small, rural Minnesota churches that have closed or are near to closing, Membership in the Episcopal Grace Church in Royalton has dwindled to just a few members and its future is uncertain,
"I used to hear a lot of conversations, 'When the church closes,' " Tax said. "Now we seem to be on a different road. People aren't talking that way anymore. That's very encouraging."
Support is necessary
Members of the growing St. John's Episcopal Church in St. Cloud also will participate in the program, although in a different way. St. John's is able to fund a full-time minister, although the position is currently vacant. But the St. Cloud parish likely will supply volunteers to join the Total Ministry team, and will donate a few hours of its minister's time each week to assist the program.
Shepherding the Total Ministry team will be Gillespie.
While the Total Ministry concept may seem new, it actually dates back to the beginnings of Christianity, Gillespie said.
"The tradition of the priest doing everything is actually a later tradition," Johanna Morrigan said, "That's not the way the early church worked."
In Little Falls, the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour has been without a regular minister for a year and a half. Gillespie is able to lead Sunday services about twice a month, and supply priests of the region have taken care of the other Sundays. The bishop of the Episcopal region encouraged the Central Minnesota churches to find alternative answers.
Embracing hope
Members of each congregation were polled on the Total Ministry idea and few were against it.
"I think we're sort of resigned to the fact we have nowhere else to go," Tax said. "The bishop feels that way. He won't allow a parish to have a longtime supply priest. That, he said, is sure death.
"So we had to do something" Facing that prospect, members of the Episcopal churches have embraced the Total Ministry concept and have embarked on a discernment process that allows each congregation to nominate members for each of nine specific roles in the Spirit of the Heartland ministry team.
Gillespie hopes to attract a team or possibly even two teams of between 12 and 20 members.
"It's my responsibility to build up the team," Gillespie said. "And support them."
Pros and cons
Congregation members see the benefits.
"The positives are we can use the gifts of the individual members of the congregation," said Tax. "In the past, if you had a priest who does everything, that wasn't true.
"This allows members to use their gifts to the fullest."
While Gillespie has been tireless in her efforts to serve her far-flung congregations, she is stretched too thinly. She is currently serving the first and third Sundays of each month at Sauk Centre and Paynesville, the second and fourth Sundays at Little Falls and Royalton.
Having ministerial team members from each of the communities is an advantage.
"If you need something, you've got pretty close contact," said Tax. "And when you raise up a member of own congregation, this person will probably know you better than a priest would."
The Total Ministry plan has its downside, especially for some of the longtime parishioners.
"It's hard being able to let go of the idea of having an ordained priest," Tax acknowledged. "The people doing this work will be very well prepared, but they don't fit the stereotypical idea of a priest."
Gillespie agreed: "I think people are looking to this with both fear and excitement. There are many who long for 'Father Knows Best.'"
Making it happen
Ministerial candidates will be asked either to attend a retreat in July or meet with a spiritual guide to examine the calling. The names of those who respond affirmatively to their call will then be submitted to the Episcopal Commission on Ministry for review.
"The whole process focused on where you felt you were called, and where you felt others were called,'' Johanna Morrigan said. "You nominated others you felt were called to each ministry."
If selected, Spirit of the Heartland Total Ministry members will be asked to complete a training and preparation program starting in the fall. 'Training for some of the ministerial roles may be brief. For others it could last as long as four or five years.
After training, the ministers will be commissioned or ordained for their specific kinds of ministry in the congregations.
"We are all being called to the best of our ability," Cedar Morrigan said. "Everybody has a ministry they're doing in the church."
Each congregation will maintain its own identity, but team ministers from all of the congregations will serve in other churches.
Preparation
Church members are primed to serve.
"Johanna Morrigan has written a sermon so good I will preach it," Gillespie said.
A psychologist, Johanna Morrigan said the possibility of preaching is a daunting one.
"It feels like the spirit is very much involved," Morrigan said. "I feel called. But if you told me two years ago I'd be preaching in a church, I'd have told you you were out of your mind."
Tax admits she is very interested in the position of liturgist, in charge of planning worship services and the music program.
"If I'm called anywhere, that's where I'm called," Tax said. "It's a big commitment to be called to any of these. It's a serious business. But it's really kind of exciting, to tell the truth."
More information on the Spirit of the Heartland and Episcopalians in Total Ministry is available on the Internet www. motherflash.com.