Can’t Stop the Feeling
A Good News Story from LeaderWise
We at LeaderWise have noticed how bombarded we all are with bad news. Organizations losing necessary resources. Faith communities divided. Another house of worship closing. In spite of the news, LeaderWise witnesses good news stories all of the time. As consultant Becca Fletcher reminded us, there are congregations seeding and harvesting little slices of heaven in every corner of our world. We just don’t hear about them often. This year LeaderWise wants to change by sharing the stories of hope we are seeing.
Today, we travel to Eau Claire, Wisconsin…
The Reverend Kathy Reid Walker began serving First Presbyterian Church of Eau Claire in Wisconsin, PC(USA), after the congregation had experienced a time of wandering in the wilderness. As she entered her role, there was little good news even though the church had a memory of being both large and successful. Started in 1857, First Presbyterian Church is the oldest church in Eau Claire. Yet, in the early 21st century, it felt like there were more deficits than surpluses, and they garnered a congregational culture caught in a web of anxiety and fear. Are we enough?
With a Masters Degree in Counseling, Rev. Kathy knew that both she and the leaders at First Presbyterian needed help if they were going to shift the energy in the congregation. It started with 1:1 coaching between Kathy and LeaderWise consultant, Cindy Halvorson, followed by a workshop for First Presbyterian’s Session (governing board) members to help them receive and respond to complaints from the larger congregation.
Soon after, Rev. Kathy learned about the LeaderWise program CrossForm, which “equips congregations for the changing landscape of faith in the 21st century.” It posited that two constants in life are God’s Love and change. How could CrossForm help Kathy and the congregation embrace these two constants? With grant money from her Presbytery, Kathy and the Session applied for the program and recruited a team representing different communities within the church: a few older members, the Director of Faith Formation, someone from the church’s women’s group, the Office Administrator (who is also on Session and has kids in the program), a Session member, and a fairly new young adult. They started their work in the Fall of 2022 (when masking was still necessary).
One of their first tasks was to “get off the dance floor and up onto the balcony.” Church leaders need a break from the day-to-day work of the church to get a larger vision for the way God is moving among them. From the balcony, the CrossForm group looked at the whole of their church, identifying the challenges as well as the assets. One Sunday they invited church members to write an asset, resource, or strength of the church on a post-it note. Together they created a wall of assets. Their overall mindset started shifting from “not enough” to “we have so much” as they saw the wall one Sunday after another. From these assets, the CrossForm group distilled down the 3 E’s: What is essential to our identity? What is expendable; what do we need to release? What is emerging in our community?
On Palm Sunday in 2023, the Group took on naming the real challenges that First Presbyterian Church had experienced in their time in the wilderness. They created a multigenerational worship service that moved their community through a four-part progression:
Reflection: worshipers named losses, worries, and negativity, followed by a Litany that named what was shared,
Release: worshipers wrote what they needed to release on pieces of paper,
Transformation: those papers were then buried in pots of soil and composted,
Restoration: worshipers concluded by writing a message of joy on a different piece of paper, crumbling it up into a “popcorn ball” and tossing them (!) so that you would receive someone else’s joy to read to yourself.
The service concluded with the song “Can’t Stop the Feeling” in which the whole congregation was up moving and dancing. While it may not be a traditional hymn for Palm Sunday, it was a joyful experiment that broke them out of their “Eeyore tendencies.” Church members left the sanctuary that Sunday morning feeling an important shift: “We are really doing something.”
Along the way, Rev. Kathy and the group began the practice of planting seeds: “I wonder what would happen if we….” OR “I wonder what God is calling us to do, in this particular time and in this particular place….” They held their wondering lightly, not getting attached to a particular outcome, not despairing when it seemed to go nowhere, continuing to plant seeds, and waiting to see what would take root. From their balcony time, they noticed that their building held particular challenges. What did it mean to be “welcoming to all” when their sanctuary wasn’t very friendly to aging or differently-abled bodies. How can we create a space, they wondered, that is accessible, comfortable, usable and inclusive for all who enter? They asked the Center for Independent Living to assess their space for accessibility. The resulting report gave the CrossForm group hard data they used to request grant money from the Presbytery, and they encouraged the Session to initiate a Capital Campaign. A few voices said that it couldn’t be done, but fortunately they didn’t listen: The congregation met its fundraising reach goal! With a Presbytery grant along with Capital Campaign funds, First Presbyterian was able to replace their HVAC system (following a Christmas Eve service in severe cold without heat!), upgrade their media and sound system from analog to digital, build a ramp so that everyone could access the chancel platform, experiment with new (comfortable) chairs in the sanctuary alongside the (hard) pews, replace the lifts accessing different parts of their 1960s split-level building, and resurface the parking lot. “These were a part of our effort to be salt, leaven, and light to the community (as well as the church),” explains Rev. Kathy, “by focusing on what we saw as emerging . . . to grow in providing an inclusive, accessible, welcoming, flexible space.” Now, First Presbyterian Church is not only a comfortable space for its members, it’s also a home for many other groups in the community. It’s now a busy place for other religious groups, weekly music lessons, and kids groups.
First Presbyterian’s CrossForm group also learned to live with the church’s “Eeyore tendencies.” There were experiments that failed and disheartened the group. However, instead of holding onto a scarcity mindset, they were able to see these moments from the balcony and even get playful with them. “When I hear people express appreciation for changes, especially for changes that they didn’t think they were going to like, that’s when I know that there’s something more at work here,” says Rev. Kathy.
For the next 30 days, we invite you to create your own “Wall of Assets.” What are the assets, resources, and/or strengths that make up your life, leadership, and community?
Photos courtesy of First Presbyterian Church of Eau Claire