The mission of changing church culture
GROWING BEYOND THE DOORS
By Rev. Canon Grayhame Bowcott
WHEN ANGLICANS are open to using self-deprecatory humour, sometimes we poke fun at ourselves for our extreme resilience towards change.
Whether it is jokes about changing lightbulbs or family pews, one of the character traits that most Anglican congregations embody is a longing for things that are known and familiar and a resistance to things that are uncertain or untried. If certain patterns or habits of ministry have served us well for 150 years, why risk trying something new?
In my local context, St. George’s, The Blue Mountains, there is a cultural trend that has caused me to lose just about every one of the spare hairs on my head over the past decade (and I don’t have many left to spare). This is a trend of financial stewardship that has defined our congregation for generations. The trend looks like this: while our parishioners are both exceedingly faithful and generous in their support of our shared ministries – we have closed in the black each year, for eleven years – the challenge for our congregation is that roughly 1/3 of our annual revenue comes in the last few weeks in December.
Each year, there is a routine that I, as a parish priest, absolutely dread. It’s the routine of having to stand up in front of the congregation in the remaining Sundays before year’s end in order to pronounce the St. George’s “GAP”. That GAP is the amount of money that we need to make up from all remaining sources of revenue in order to meet all financial obligations in that year. In 2025, our GAP amount was $77,000. This was the amount of funding we needed, on top of our already set levels of preauthorized giving, in order to close the year in the black.
I believe that there is a little bit of Anglican psychology that may explain the reason why the annual GAP campaign has been part of our St. George’s tradition for generations. And, I imagine it goes like this: many of our members wait until our church leaders stand up to say: “We need your help.” If we don’t ask for financial support, it is likely that it won’t show up in the generous ways that it does each year, when we have to launch an anxiety-filled end-of-year stewardship campaign right before the Christmas holidays.
So, what’s the solution? How might good-intentioned Anglicans change their habits of giving to ensure a smooth process of predictable revenue (and therefore more accurate budgeting of church expenditures)?
It’s not easy to change Church culture! The first step towards change is often having the courage to name why past practices might not be working anymore. This year, at our annual Vestry meeting, we talked about how our pattern of giving creates great anxiety for our leaders who are chosen to steward our gifts: our wardens, treasurers and Rector. We talked about how our challenge was not about how much money people were giving, but rather WHEN they were choosing to share their gift.
Once the challenge had been named, we then needed to address it head-on. In our case, in 2026 we are hosting a full-year stewardship campaign, but not to ask for more money! Our goal is to change the habits of our parishioners as to when they choose to be generous.
If each of our members simply prayed over what they feel they can offer to support our church’s ministries, then the ministry of stewardship would be for them to divide up their support (whatever amount they had determined through prayer) either quarterly, or even better, monthly. And, if any were unwilling to change their practice and still intended to offer a one-time gift per year (as, you know, we are Anglicans – sometimes teased as being “the frozen chosen”), we are asking that these might consider using the occasion of Thanksgiving (as opposed to Christmas) to offer up their gift to God and to the ministries of our church.
Will our efforts of changing church culture work? I don’t know. But we are entering into 2026 with our eyes wide open, with a keen understanding of our own past practices and motivations, and with a desire to bring about prayerful change in our culture of stewardship. I promise to check in later this year to let you know how we made out, but I firmly believe that changing church culture, although difficult, doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. Sometimes, change can be one of the greatest blessings for our Church, but only if we have the courage to seek it out.
Rev. Canon Dr. Grayhame Bowcott is passionate about fostering congregational relationships and sharing our Anglican vocation with others. He serves as Rector of St. George’s, The Parish of The Blue Mountains, and as Program Director for the Licentiate in Theology program at Huron University.