The Diocese of Virginia is introducing five ways of describing church vitality, offering a pastoral framework to help congregations name where they have been, where they are, and where they are going.
Registration is open for The College for Congregational Development to build skills for effective, skillful, and joyful ministry. Programs are available across the nation.
Church leaders may feel like successful ministry depends on magic or the charismatic priest. Not so! The College for Congregational Development offers tools and resources for helping lay leaders and clergy grow churches to be more effective, faithful, and joyful.
For years, parishioners at Church of Our Saviour in Montpelier tried to come up with a mission statement. Nothing worked—until a recent vestry retreat, when they paid close attention to what they were passionate about, in a conversation guided by The Rev. Shirley Smith Graham, the Diocese of Virginia’s minister for congregational vitality.
