Partnering with the Church
This post is building on my earlier post about the vision of Iona House…
Broadly speaking, the Church in America is in a challenging season. A recent article in the Atlantic highlighted data pointing to the painful conclusion that, “30 percent of congregations are not likely to survive the next 20 years.” If that is actually the case, it is extremely significant. The pandemic has already left its impact on church attendance (it’s down across the board, but especially amongst younger people). The article goes on to celebrate the potential of the institutional Church’s demise in favor of new forms of spirituality. Basically the article is saying that religion is not going away… it’s just changing forms. I think this is largely true. However, contra the article authors, I do not not see this as something to be celebrated. It is simply the secularization and individualization of Christianity.
While there is plenty to reform about the Church, deconstructing the institutional, historical dimension will be the demise of Christian faith, not its salvation. The Bay Area is already been operating in this mode for decades. For one dimension of how this secularization / de-institutionalization process is happening, see the audio / video content from our event in SF this past fall: “Work, Pray, Code”.
The reason I’m highlighting this is to suggest that the Church needs all the support it can get right now! One of the central aims of Iona House is to be a vital resource to the local churches of Northern California (and beyond). Having spent the past 14 years in downtown San Francisco in church ministry, we’re quite familiar with the challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities - especially, of urban, post-Christian, secular contexts. The vision for Iona House emerged from this setting as a means of addressing the challenges inherent within such contexts.
How will we partner with the Church?
I could easily write multiple pages about each of these potential avenues of partnership and why they matter. But for now, I’ll just leave them as headers to be “filled in” sometime in the future.
Retreats, workshops, conferences, writing / teaching - addressing the challenges presented to the Church in a post-Christian, secular setting. Iona House will be a place to thoughtfully and faithfully grapple with the most important questions of our time.
Spiritual formation retreats for lay people - designed to give a vision for deep discipleship rhythms that can transcend the challenges of our era
Healing retreats for lay people - churches often aren’t equipped to go deep with people to explore their wounds and trauma and bring lasting healing; healing takes time and a communal setting with resources beyond what a typical local church has to offer
Pastoral / Ministry Leader retreats - both personal retreats via our hermitages as well as midweek group retreat options for clergy and staff; silence, solitude, stillness… sacred space and time (very difficult to find these days)
Spiritual Direction ministry - we will offer individual and group spiritual direction and plan, eventually, to offer a training program to help unleash a wave of classically trained spiritual directors (who go beyond the “therapeutic” mindset often found in contemporary spiritual direction)
Catechist training - Our vision is to offer a training program / community / resources for lay people to get trained and developed as effective teachers for their local church. Training a wave of lay people to know how to engage and address the challenges of our time is essential.
Sabbatical / Restoration Setting - Iona House will offer a unique setting for people (particularly those in ministry) to recover and be renewed after taxing seasons
Introduction to Great Tradition spirituality - Iona House will be a resource for those wanting to explore the Christian faith and practice of the first thousand years (before there was Catholic / Orthodox / Protestant divisions). This is a vital means of strengthening the overall mission and identity of the Church in our rootless / fractured era.
Clergy Support - Iona House with our growing library of 2500+ books will be a phenomenal place to come for the day to work on a sermon or spend time in prayer in a beautiful and peaceful setting or receive spiritual direction or mentoring.
What I’ve expressed above is the just tip of the spear. Much of the value of Iona House to the Church will emerge from the distinctive, immersive ecosystem that we cultivate that allows strategic, purposeful margin from everyday life in an immersive setting of faithful Christian practice in order to become more attuned to the Father’s voice and reflective about how to live differently upon return to ordinary life. As a pastor, I’ve longed for this kind of setting for myself as well as for my parishioners. It is vitally important as a means of escaping the echo chamber of our culture long enough to know how to faithfully re-engage mission.
We believe God has called us to be a resource center for churches (definitely not a replacement nor a mere supplement). We have an extremely high view of the local, institutional Church. We want to see it built up and unified and empowered to be what God intended it to be. It is the Bride of Christ, the place of Communion eternally willed by God as the means of our salvation (see Ephesians). Our deep and abiding prayer is that Iona House will be a great gift to the Church… and Lord willing, your church.