The survival mentality found in many small churches can be overcome. Just ask any of the participants in Leadership Academy for New Directions (LAND), a 22-year-old ministry in the Episcopal Church which trains leaders for effective ministry in small churches and rural areas.

LAND XXV, a five-day gathering of 19 participants and eight team members, was held recently at the DeKoven Center in Racine, Wis., the second time the same persons had met together. A year ago, they were involved in a 10-day session, then returned to their homes and started working on a specific project with a mentor. The five-day meeting completed the course.

"The church needs specific training to work in small churches," said Mary Hassell, executive director of New Directions Ministries since 1989. "You are not going to get it in seminary."

One of the reasons for the specific training is purely economic. Congregations with less than 100 members usually do not have a budget large enough to support a full-time priest. Hence the development of such cooperative initiatives as team ministry or yoked congregations.

New Directions Ministries was formed in 1973 when the Joint Committee of Non-Metropolitan Areas of the Episcopal Church began LAND.

"LAND was originally for middle management folks (archdeacons, assistants to bishops, etc.)," Mrs. Hassell said. "As the church has changed, our participants have been more lay, clergy in the field and some middle management."

For the last 11 years, the academies have been held at various sites. In addition, shorter diocesan LANDS are being held.

The gatherings are limited to 20 participants and usually have teams of five to eight persons as leaders.

"It's intended to model a small community, and to make it a small community in all senses of the word," said Mrs. Hassell, of St. Paul, Minn.

"Some participants arrive here with a combination of financial help from the diocese and their parishes," she added. "LAND can give some scholarships with help from the New Directions Associates group. Very few come here on their own."

Participants spend their first few days learning background of LAND and in sharing. That is followed by four or five days of writing. In addition, there is daily Bible study in small groups, theological reflection and worship.

"In the first year, they design and write their own project," Mrs. Hassell said. "Hopefully, they come here with an idea of what they want to do as a project."

"In reality, people start with projects that are just too big for them," said the Rt. Rev. George Harris, retired Bishop of Alaska, who is a team member. "A mentor helps them."

"Our methodology is a synagogical kind of learning," Mrs. Hassell said. "It's everybody learning and everybody teaching."

After the initial 10-day period, participants return to their dioceses and work on their projects with the help of their mentors. When they return the following year, they share with the others what they have done with their projects.

Those projects have been wide ranging. In one, the participant put together what he called a discernment committee in his congregation in an attempt to discern the ministry of those in his church. Another involved a woman who wanted to form a cluster ministry with nearby congregations, but her bishop told her it was not a priority. One priest put a chapel at the geographic center of the United States.

"Over the years priests have come here with strictly personal projects ... how to divide their day so they're participating in the life of the community as well as the life of the church," Mrs. Hassell said.

The Rev. Thomas Gwinn came to the recent LAND at DeKoven with a different kind of a project. Fr. Gwinn, rector of St. Mark's Church, Malone, N.Y., is chairman of the Mission Strategy Committee of the Diocese of Albany and attended in order to "look at means for providing forms of ministry for smaller parishes of the diocese."

Albany will have a diocesan academy in April. "We're focusing it on regional ministry development," Fr. Gwinn said. "I'm here doing the ground work. The concepts of shared ministry, the ministry of the baptized - just relearning - have been helpful in setting it up."

The Rev. Jean Jersey, vicar of Christ Church, Bethel, Vt., was asked to attend by the chairman of the diocesan consultants group following discussions on regional ministry in which both were involved.

"There has to be a substantial piece of education done in parishes before a successful regional ministry can be formed," she said.

Ms. Jersey could be a walking advertisement for LAND.

"I think it's the most important piece of continuing education I've done since seminary," she said. "I've had a huge shift in my own view of regional ministry as a result."

Ministry in small congregations is "more than survival," she added. "It's an opportunity to do the ministry to which we all are called."

The Rev. Gary Lambert, vicar of two small congregations in the Diocese of Chicago, called his project "Facilitating an Atmosphere for Change," and designed it to encourage change in the members of his two churches as well as in himself. Among the results of his project was the establishment of a parish worship council, experimentation by using both eucharistic rites and various eucharistic prayers, and implementation of a Bible study to begin bishop's committee meetings.

"On my original project design, I set a number of goals which were based on expectations exceeding the realm of possibility," Fr. Lambert said. "In other words, my appetite was bigger than my stomach. During my meeting with my mentor, I readjusted my study goal to be always reading and studying something. The upshot of it is that I have studied more in the past year than I have in any other year since my ordination."

At DeKoven, four workshops were offered one afternoon. In one, such practical subjects as supervisory skills, team development and dying congregations were being discussed. Participants shared characteristics of team ministries in which they were involved.

"It's important to be sensitive to others' frustrations," said the Rev. David Henderson, of Steamboat Springs, Colo., during the workshop.

In another workshop at the same time, a group of about 10 persons talked about social issues in small congregations.

Participants have found that the principles taught by LAND are applicable to other situations besides small churches.

"The principles are there," Mrs. Hassell noted. "They can be used anywhere. The principles are applicable to any sized congregations."

Several of the graduates of the program have gone on to become bishops, taking their training to their new ministries.

"When you have a new bishop," you know you'll have a change in leadership style," Mrs. Hassell said. "They're being elected younger. Their specialized training is different. They see things differently. People are more accepting of a new approach."

Mrs. Hassell knows personally about changes in leadership. She's going to retire as executive director of LAND at the end of 1995. Her successor will find a successful process already in place.

"The process works very well for me," said Ms. Jersey. "The understanding that we're all teachers and all learners has been very valuable to me. The content is remarkable." q