REPORT OF THE LOCAL MINISTRY NETWORK

CONFERENCE

BRITANNIA COUNTY HOUSE HOTEL, DIDSBURY,

MANCHESTER: 13th - 15th NOVEMBER 2014

Fifty four people attended the Local Ministry Network Conference "Holey, Wholly, Holy".

The conference drew together lay and ordained attendees, both from parish and diocesan contexts, and aimed to provide a forum for reflecting on the opportunities, challenges and vision of ministering locally around four key points:

  • There is only us, holey though we might be;
  • We are called to minister, wholly, to all in our parish;
  • And we remain inspired to create and serve local holy communities.

We were enormously grateful to the thought- provoking insights provided by our lead speakers, Joanna Cox, Alan Billings and Chris Edmondon, along with equally valuable input from our workshop leaders and our chaplain.

Welcome from the President

The Chairman, Jonathon Kemp, introduced the Message of Welcome from our President, The Right Reverend Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans.

Bishop Alan spoke of the many challenges and opportunities, especially in rural areas where there are multi parish benefices. Absolutely fundamental and foundational to the future of such places is the role of lay ministry.

The Bishop talked of the rich and complex interplay; the collaboration of the various ministries, both lay and ordained; the role of the Deanery; the demographics; the resources we have at every level of the church and of course, everything undergirded by prayer, worship and witness.

Joanna Cox: ‘A National Perspective: Implications of work being done by the C of E Archbishop’s Council on Lay Development

The first session of the Holey was a presentation by Joanna Cox, C of E National Adviser in Adult Education and Lay Development.

A major part of her work has been to support the General Synod on the subject of Developing Discipleship. She outlined the research that informs the 10 marks of a Diocese committed to developing disciples. The audit was designed by the Archbishops' Council to discover information about lay ministrypatterns.The pictures provided by the report “From Anecdote to Evidence” give emphasis to the importance of lay roles and how rotating roles leads to growth. We were challenged to think broadly about which forms of lay ministry we support and how they are recognised. We need to think about what kind of training we offer. Do we offer training and spiritual discernment to church wardens, for example?

How intentional are we in identifying the 'holes' and in developing the whole people of God?

Presentation Workshops

The second part of the first day was devoted to Presentation Workshops

  • Revd Canon David Bowers: Re-defining incumbency. Taking the ministry of the baptized seriously.
  • Revd Dr Colin McCarty: Diocesan developments of voluntary ministry - the plethora of arrangements. So much of the diocesan teaching is focussed on the stipendiary ministry. There is concern that this misses the huge pool of talent.
  • Revd Stephen Tranter: Sewing, growing, harvesting --developing connections between faith, gifts and ministry

Revd Pam Smith: 'i -Church'

The Conference was interested in Pam's account of 'On-line Ministry'. As Christians we seek to be both culturally relevant, so that we are heard by the people around us, and counter-cultural in challenging the assumptions of habits that take people further from God or prevent them from hearing the Gospel. The digital world is built for speed. It is possible to have an idea for an on-line campaign or initiative and set it up within weeks, if not days. ( See also Pam’s book ‘Online Mission and Ministry’ published by SPCK.

On the morning of the second day when we focussed on Wholly, the Revd Canon Dr Alan Billings led two reflections on the Church and Society.

Revd Canon Dr Alan Billings: ‘How the contemporary church was made – the unacknowledged consequences of social and economic change.’

'you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the sign of the times'.

Matthew 16:3

Alan explored from a sociological perspective how the Church has responded to wider changes in society. The consequences for Christianity and the Church have been significant during three decades of social and economic change. He challenged churches to get over their obsession with growth and get out there and serve the world. Embrace the opportunity afforded by a diminishing welfare state, and recognise and respond to the complexity of faith in a post Christendom context.

Revd Canon Dr Alan Billings: ‘Lost Church and the evangelical future’

Will this church be able to play some of its traditional roles, and does this matter?

After presenting a comprehensive Typology of Christianity, Alan then presented pertinent quotations from a variety of leading commentators on the Parish Church re-valued: Belonging, Attending and Believing. This highlighted the complexity of faith and allegiance to the church in the 21st Century. This is developed in Alan's book 'Lost Church' which is a very interesting read on how to connect with 'Belongers' who don't come to church.

Presentation Workshops

In the afternoon there was a choice of presentation - workshops:

  • Revd Canon Pam Powell: Towards 2020: creating Mission areas
  • Joanna Cox: Volunteering and Lay Ministries
  • Revd Stephen Tranter: Manchester Diocese's ALM scheme
  • Revd Canon David Bowers: the model of Total Ministry in North Michigan
  • Revd Dr Colin McCarty: the Local Ministry Network website
  • Sector/Interest Group get together

The Future of the Network: ‘From abstract noun to active verb’

Jonathon Kemp, Chair of the network Steering Group, led us through a free flowing discussion before the AGM. This was supported by survey results, presented by Wendy Carey. Key points made in the discussion included:

  • The continued value of the conference and network, and its uniqueness in bringingtogether parish, diocese and centre (Church House)
  • The purpose and aims of the conference and intended audience must be made clear.
  • The network and conference are valuable in providing a visible sign of what it is to be collaborative
  • The conference plays a role in articulating aspirations and how we view the future.
  • There is no single definition of Local Ministry, but our values can be communicated. It was suggested that these could be described under three headings: collaborative working; contextual mission; learning environment.
  • The name should be changed to 'Shared Ministry Network'

Presentation by a Collaborative Ministry Group – St Paul’s Church, Blackley, Manchester.

On the evening of the second day there was a presentation by a Collaborative Ministry Group.

'Before I leave, I will show you that you don't need a vicar' and 'it is your church. My job is to help you get the one you want'. Provocative messages but ones intended to get from church being a spectator sport through to proper engagement and on to real ownership.

A team of Authorised Lay Ministers from St Paul's, David, Jo and Pam, told the moving story of how their church had moved in recent years from a time when being collaborative simply meant it was 'not just the vicar doing stuff' to a position now where lay leadership and ministry is flourishing and growing.

Telling the story of their urban parish with a wonderful mixture of humour and poignancy, (and in the absence of their incumbent, Revd Eddie Roberts) the team led us through some of the joys and pitfalls, small steps and giant leaps they had experienced on the journey: 'Start small - we probably took on too much to begin with, if you want something to be then begin by living as if it is a reality already' were just two of the hard-earned nuggets of wisdom they shared with us. The evening ended in a deeper modelling of all that the team had described, as they together led the conference in their closing evening prayer.

*This was an inspiring presentation which gave a magnificent example of the value of Local Ministry and Lay Leadership.

The third day brought us to Holy

The Rt Revd Christopher Edmondson, Bishop of Bolton: ‘A disciple for life – wherever and whenever’ and ‘The local church – still the hope of the world’

These two addresses provided a very pertinent follow-up to the previous day, bridging the divide between 'wholly' and 'holy'. We were challenged to reflect on what it means to live life in all its fullness and how to live out our discipleship so that we make a real difference to the world around us. Whole life discipleship isn't a 'bolt-on' but a holistic integration of the whole of life. We reflected on the images of light and salt, and what healing and preserving means in terms of discipleship, how we add flavour. we were reminded of the transformative power of story, and the importance of affirming people where they are, on their unique frontlines. In his second address, he took us through a leaflet (see appendix), expanding on the practicalities of how to re-imagine church so we create a culture of listening, welcome, expectation and distinctiveness, along with a learning environment that leads to real transformation.

Worship

Worship took place at the beginning and end of each day, with other opportunities for midday prayer and reflection.

Geoffrey Mercer,

Member, Steering Group

May, 2015.