Project Test Pattern-How Parishes Tick-or Don't
Diocesan Press Service. March 23, 1973 [73083]
Robert Andrews, United Press International Editor
(Reprinted with permission from Washington Diocese; March 1973)
If some of this sounds familiar, your parish may already be in serious trouble :
"People who are silent understand what is going on."
" If nobody disagrees, that means everybody agrees."
"No one should disagree openly with anyone else. It's better to seethe inwardly, withdraw pledges or leave in a huff."
" Evaluation means finding the guy who messed things up and nailing him to the wall."
"The minister always knows best."
"The minister never knows best."
These dangerous attitudes are included in a single-spaced, typewritten list three pages long compiled humorously but in all sincerity by the Rev. Loren B. Mead. A soft-spoken former rector in Chapel Hill, N.C., he resigned in 1969 to spend four years looking long and hard at local congregations. Joining him in this concentrated study have been several associates and consultants working in an organization titled Project Test Pattern.
PTP is a temporary creature of the Presiding Bishop's National Advisory Committee on Evangelism begun under Bishop Robert Brown of Arkansas, and currently chaired by the Rt. Rev. Lloyd Gressle, Bishop of Bethlehem. Initiated at a time of faltering parish attendance and financial support and "backlash" against the social upheavals of the late 1960s, PTP is scheduled for termination in 1973.
For Mr. Mead, his work with the project has affirmed his passionate belief in the importance of the parish. He also believes that some of them, frankly, are "a mess." But he sees in each a great potential for changing the world, if they can find ways to break free of their crippling patterns of behavior. Examining how the local parish works -- and seeking to discover how it can be changed to work God's will more effectively -- is Mr. Mead's task as PTP director.
Operating with a small staff and tight budget from offices on the grounds of Washington Cathedral. Mr. Mead has coordinated some pioneering experiments and research into the life and work of about 30 congregations from Oregon to Connecticut to Florida, most of them Episcopalian.
After some experimentation, Project Test Pattern settled on the technique of sending pairs of specially trained, outside consultants into a parish under contract to try to help identify and solve problems, not proposing answers but serving as coaches. PTP selected parishes expressing a desire for growth in which there already existed a sound relationship between minister and congregation.
Many patterns have been established; much has been learned about stimulating parish growth and viability.
The project's work with individual parishes, important in itself, has yielded a wealth of research information that is obvious and quite simple, but which has not existed in concise terms before. Although there is much, much more to be correlated, Mr. Mead believes one lesson learned from Project Test Pattern is that it is not what parishes do to reach their goals but how they get there that is important.
Furthermore, he is convinced that, whatever form it may take in the future, the parish is here to stay. "The local religious congregation is by far the most important social institution in the world with the possible single exception of the family," he says.
With Project Test Pattern going out of business next Jan. 1, as planned, Mr. Mead and his associates are busy correlating and publishing their findings for others to build on. Besides the report to be submitted to the General Convention in Louisville next fall, Project Test Pattern already has published numerous articles, reports, handbooks, case histories and manuals. Mr. Mead has written a book (New Hope for Congregations, Seabury Press, $2.95). Two others are in the works: To Come Alive by the Rev. James D. Anderson, the Bishop of Washington's Assistant for Parish Development, to be published by Harper & Rowe, and Congregations in Change by Elisa DesPortes, assistant to the PTP director, to be published by Seabury.
In New Hope for Congregations, Mr. Mead expresses his belief that "how religious congregations evolve will make an enormous difference to the kind of world that tomorrow brings."
For instance, the word "freedom" appears repeatedly in the book and in his conversations about local parishes. "I see Christians living in a kind of bondage in their parishes, estranged from what they want to be for each other in the world," he wrote. He sees "people and parishes called to another kind of exodus . . . an exodus that began with breaking out to freedom."
Therefore, just as the individual must throw off self-destructive life patterns to reach his full potential, so must the congregation. Parish hangups may be preoccupation with bigger budgets and buildings, a habit of hostility between parishioners and minister, distrust of the young, or not caring for others in the community.
"It is hard for a parish to witness to the ultimate importance of each person's life when no one knows anyone else's name," Mr. Mead wrote. "It is hard to communicate the importance of what people do if, when jobs are handed out, nobody every checks up to see if the jobs are done. It is hard to talk of the priesthood of all believers when it is obvious that, by long-standing tradition, all the important decisions are made for the congregation by a small, informal committee that 'knows what is best'. "
In biblical terms, "that is Satan at work, denying the spirit of God," says Mr. Mead. He believes that outside consultants who are objective about parish problems, working with ministers "willing to change and take personal risks," can play a critical role in helping a congregation turn around.
Consultants can help members of the congregation, as they learn to work and live together, to accept honest differences of opinion rather than hide them. Each congregation must also appreciate its uniqueness, realizing that while a folk mass may be the answer to another parish's needs, Gregorian chants may best suit its own.
He sees parish growth as resembling the forces at work in a marriage. "A great marriage is not an event ; it is a lifelong process by which two people become ever more distinct, yet ever more united," wrote Mr. Mead. Parish renewal "is not one breakthrough from captivity; it is a continuing process by which the people of a congregation move through their common life meeting obstacles and celebrating victories, constantly deepening the effectiveness of ministry."