Episode 66: Priestpreneur in the Missional Age
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The Rev. Callie Swanlund serves as both a parish priest—Associate Rector of St. Christopher’s, Gladwyne, PA (outside of Philadelphia)—and a "priestpreneur." She created the film and resource for formation/evangelism How2charist: Digital Instructed Eucharist and leads individuals and groups in the work of Dr. Brené Brown as a Certified Daring Way Facilitator.
Callie is part of the 2019 class of Episcopal Church Foundation Fellows, and is working to integrate her passions of teaching, leading, creating content, and gathering community, to better serve the Church. She is a mama, creator, lover of Jesus, and dreamer who is currently building a missional initiative called The Epiphany Space for others to discover and use their creative gifts. Welcome Callie! |
Alli begins the conversation asking Callie what it means to be a priestpreneur. A year and a half ago, Callie left full-time parish ministry and launched out into non-traditional ministry, which includes traveling, leading retreats and conferences, and creating content through the How2Charist and The Epiphany Space (which we will learn about later). Callie said what she learned from her seminary was how to look at ministry in a different way — shout out to Church Divinity School of the Pacific! One thing Callie has learned not from seminary was the importance and power of sharing your gifts and not viewing it solely as self-promotion, but as an opportunity to share the Gospel in different ways.
The title of priestpreneur, which Callie has taken on, is a way of facing and owning the fact that full-time parish clergy positions is not the reality for most clergy any more in this new missional age of the church. Parishes are closing, the money is not there as it was before, and people are living their lives in multiple places and spaces — all of which influence the roles clergy are to play in this world and the church. Bi-vocational priests, for Callie, was presented as one non-priestly job and one priestly position. Although for her she could not see herself not fully living into her priestly role in all aspects of her life — so the priestpenuer made sense for her.
By taking on the role of priestpreneur, Callie has come to the realization and acceptance that the church - as we know it - may actually die, but that resurrection will happen. Alli agrees and adds that she feels the resurrection of the church has already happened.
Alli shifts the conversation to How2Charist. Callie conceived of the idea over a decade ago in seminary to create a digitally constructed Eucharist. Her inspiration came from VH1’s pop-up video, anyone remember those from the 90s? She had creating a very basic version but it sat on a shelf for a while until she teamed up with The Episcopal Church.
The most essential part for Callie was that it was a communal effort and that it was a product of the church — which was also a heavy thing to carry. Also, she wanted the video to reflect the beauty, intimacy, power, and give the Eucharist the respect it deserves. This did present a challenge is picking the liturgy, music, and location. It was also essential for Callie to have the whole Episcopal Church represented in the people that participated in the video from how they dress to who they were to how they participated in the liturgy.
She also wanted to make it free and available to anyone to use. Callie used Kickstarter to raise $35,000, in addition to money from the Communications office of The Episcopal Church, to produce the whole video.
The How2Charist was a launching point for Callie to dream up and create The Epiphany Space. It already exists virtually, and Callie held one “find your spark” retreats in Cape May. But hopefully next year it will also be a physical space in Philadelphia where people can come and work and dream with equipment to help make their visions reality. It will also be a gathering space to worship, enjoy fellowship, and share the creations made at The Epiphany Space.
You can see all of her great work and learn more at her website CallieSwanlund.com.
The title of priestpreneur, which Callie has taken on, is a way of facing and owning the fact that full-time parish clergy positions is not the reality for most clergy any more in this new missional age of the church. Parishes are closing, the money is not there as it was before, and people are living their lives in multiple places and spaces — all of which influence the roles clergy are to play in this world and the church. Bi-vocational priests, for Callie, was presented as one non-priestly job and one priestly position. Although for her she could not see herself not fully living into her priestly role in all aspects of her life — so the priestpenuer made sense for her.
By taking on the role of priestpreneur, Callie has come to the realization and acceptance that the church - as we know it - may actually die, but that resurrection will happen. Alli agrees and adds that she feels the resurrection of the church has already happened.
Alli shifts the conversation to How2Charist. Callie conceived of the idea over a decade ago in seminary to create a digitally constructed Eucharist. Her inspiration came from VH1’s pop-up video, anyone remember those from the 90s? She had creating a very basic version but it sat on a shelf for a while until she teamed up with The Episcopal Church.
The most essential part for Callie was that it was a communal effort and that it was a product of the church — which was also a heavy thing to carry. Also, she wanted the video to reflect the beauty, intimacy, power, and give the Eucharist the respect it deserves. This did present a challenge is picking the liturgy, music, and location. It was also essential for Callie to have the whole Episcopal Church represented in the people that participated in the video from how they dress to who they were to how they participated in the liturgy.
She also wanted to make it free and available to anyone to use. Callie used Kickstarter to raise $35,000, in addition to money from the Communications office of The Episcopal Church, to produce the whole video.
The How2Charist was a launching point for Callie to dream up and create The Epiphany Space. It already exists virtually, and Callie held one “find your spark” retreats in Cape May. But hopefully next year it will also be a physical space in Philadelphia where people can come and work and dream with equipment to help make their visions reality. It will also be a gathering space to worship, enjoy fellowship, and share the creations made at The Epiphany Space.
You can see all of her great work and learn more at her website CallieSwanlund.com.
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In Christ and Coffee,
Alli
In Christ and Coffee,
Alli