More about the church blog

 Today, it's official: the blog is up and running, and officially accepted. I didn't expect that—thought it would be seen as some sort of rebellion or something. But no, it's all smiles and congratulations from several people who really count. Now let's see if it works.

And the blog

So the church website is still live, though the information is very outdated (and some of it was wrong in the first place). Daniel seems to think that maintaining it is his responsibility, though he does not know the passwords and does not have the equipment or expertise. There is, however, a button to take readers to the church blog, and I can do things with that. So I did. Fixed a few old issues about incorrect links, got a cheery theme, and put together three user-friendly posts. Ran the thing by Dale Traven and Melissa Phillips. (They loved it.) Dale said I should run it by Daniel, so I did.

The reaction was a very cold non-approval. I'm writing this on Saturday evening, and Daniel wants to have a talk about it this coming week. I really expect he will tell me to take it down because:

• Daniel didn't write those items
• Nothing went through a Vestry committee (and probably each entry will need that process)
• And the unspoken idea that it's OK to reach out to people who are very far away from Shelby (Tanzania or Nicaragua), but we're quite uncomfortable with asking locals to visit.

July 4, 2026

 Just a couple of weeks ago, I walked in the Pride Parade with St. Matthew's and Grace Episcopal; Fr. Hofer generously took pictures that really highlighted me and posted them online. I'm waiting for the Shelby blow-back.

Still no real thinking about keeping the parish rolling. They are very Shelby, participating enthusiastically in Bicycle Days, etc., but no effort whatsoever to either grow the parish or to ensure their survival. (I notice as I write this that it's all "they" not "us.") What can happen? For a very low-impact beginning, at least do something about the website and let me start writing a blog again. There really are some visitors from time to time.

For deeper stuff, consider answers to some serious questions:

• What have we got that the neighbor churches don't have? (One possibility is "welcome to LGBTQI+ people," but that would absolutely lose two or three members. It's what is saving both Grace and Ashland, though, and it's part of the ECUSA (which probably explains why Shelby isn't too thrilled with the ECUSA.)
• Old Spokes is a tremendous asset, but the church does nothing to capitalize on it.
• All that Champion Fund money is anonymous (or nearly so). The checks vanish into a void. Ditto for the Ignited ministry. We send out the money, but we never invite those people to become part of us.

We need to answer some very basic questions: "Why should I come to this church rather than one of the others?" "Why should I come to church at all?" 

Note: In the past and in many Baptist churches, growth came from the Sunday School. Parents wanted some sort of moral upbringing for their kids and the Baptist church was very willing to bring them in by bus and do a program. Then the kids wanted their parents to come to Christmas pageants, etc. And then the parents ended up in the church. And, not to be discounted, when a 12-year-old kid falls in love with the church, there's a possibility that in ten years he will want to be there with a spouse and his own kids. St. Mark's Shelby won't cooperate with other Episcopal churches that way because they aren't in Shelby. Much better to send kids to the local Catholic church, so in effect, we are feeding the local Catholic parish.