
The Cavalry Won't be Coming

A Way Ahead for the Small Church

Dave Mullan

ISBN 978-1-877357-18-3

ColCom Press

28/101 Red Beach Road,

Hibiscus Coast, Aotearoa-New Zealand 0932

colcom.press@clear.net.nz

<http://www.colcompress.com>

<http://dave-mullan.blogspot.co.nz>

Copyright 2015 Dave Mullan

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# Table of Contents

Foreword

1.—Introduction

2.—The Problem

3.—A New Paradigm

4.—Stirrings of the Spirit

5.—"Whom shall I call?"

6.—Commissioning the Team

7.—Doing it together

8.—The Wider Church

9.—Other Things to Think About

10.—Dangers

11.—Appendices

About the Author

Dave's Books on Church and Ministry

Dave's Other Books

# Foreword

When we used to go to the movies in our childhood we loved to immerse ourselves in the stories of the pioneers in the inhospitable environment of the Wild West.

We gasped at their struggles and we wept over their tragedies. We booed the men in black hats for we knew they were the baddies and we cheered on everyone in white hats. We followed all the ups and downs of pioneer life and when it became impossible to remain on the land we crowded together in the fort with the besieged community. We always felt safe when everyone was in the fort.

But, sometimes, the garrison was empty because the cavalry was away on other duties. They might have been called there by some mysterious challenge we didn't understand. But until they returned we knew our lives still hung by a thread. We were still in a kind of wilderness. And how we cheered when right at the last moment we heard the stirring call of the bugle and saw the flag on the horizon and the troopers came galloping back out of the sunset. Now the baddies would be despatched and everything would be fine.

The experience of many small mainline congregations is that the professional ministry which used to shape and secure their existence is no longer available. The fort still stands and the people are in it but the cavalry has left. So they are waiting for things to return to normal. They can manage their day to day existence but for the big challenges they pray for the cavalry to return and rescue them.

The message of this book is, Sorry, the Cavalry Won't be Coming. You're on your own. You have what is needed.

The writing is shaped around a couple of papers prepared by David U'Ren for the Victoria Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia. These were directed particularly at the members of small congregations for which this style of ministry is most appropriate. It was David's work which stimulated my resolve to embark on this long-delayed project in 1999 and again, now in 2015.

My own account of developments in the Bay of Islands Co-operating Parish in New Zealand from 1991 was a second major source and with David's permission I drafted the merging of these materials under the headings that follow. Exact quotations from both sets of writing are usually presented indented but readers who know either of us will recognise our individual contributions in the rest of the text as well.

With "publishing on demand" any future editions of the book could grow and change from issue to issue. But I have tried to bring together in one place a range of reflections, experiences and resources from which interested people can draw some inspiration, some guidelines, some warnings and, I hope, some enthusiasm.

I have tried to lay out the fundamental principles of this model as distinct from other ways of congregational ministry. The details of how these principles are to be applied need to be worked at in the context of each individual setting. I have made suggestions and given different examples to highlight the variety that is already present.

My basic intentions are to suggest some well-tried ways for those who are just beginning the journey and to encourage those who some distance down the track to seek a common language and be a little more consistent in our various procedures.

You don't have to read this book slavishly from beginning to end. Dive in here and there and use the list of contents to ensure that you discover what you need. And whether you find it or not, feel free to get in touch and offer your feedback— there will always be more for us all to learn.

Dave Mullan,

Red Beach 2015
1

# **Introdu** **ction**

The old strategies have failed or are failing and we are losing. But we have no new moves to bring onto the board. We don't even know the rules of the game.

This rather pessimistic statement is from my book Ecclesion—the Small Church with a Vision. In fact, I went on to offer some significant new "moves" and great developments have been taking place in many congregations in several countries. But only slowly. The picture is still grim.

In most of the first section of this book, my friend David U'Ren, of the Uniting Church of Australia, reminds us of what the church is really about.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is good news to the world; to persons, nations and the whole creation.

It is a call to persons to follow the way of Jesus. It calls those followers to live a radical lifestyle with Jesus Christ as the head, with the Spirit as the empowering presence, and to live in loving and creative community with fellow followers.

It is a call to this community of people to demonstrate the values of Jesus Christ in and to the whole creation, to live as citizens in God's realm and to live for the sake of the world.

The problem is that the church has often been only an obscure reflection of this call. Sometimes it has been captured by the state and society as an expression of the establishment of the day. It has become an enormous institution with all the human limitations of an institutional bureaucracy.

Sadly, much of its life has failed to demonstrate the characteristics of the realm of God and is a caricature of God's will and purpose for the world. Its culture and expression are frequently out of touch with the age in which they are set. Although the church makes pronouncements of splendid rhetoric, its conviction often fails to ring true and as a result seems to have little to offer the world of the third millennium.

Crisis Few seem to recognize the seriousness of the situation that is now facing the church. David U'Ren develops this theme:

We live in an age where the mainline church, in its local and congregational expression, is rapidly declining to the point of extinction in the foreseeable future, at least in its present form. As people born before the second world war die, much of the present shape of church will die with them. Their culture of conformity, loyalty and passive compliance causes them to hang in and pay the bills.

Their children are different. Those who are still with us tell us they find church irrelevant, frustrating and boring. They let us know they often feel unfed in their struggle to live with integrity and faith. They feel uninspired and undernourished as they try to handle the enormous complexities of living in the modern world.

They are a constant reminder to us all of the need for dramatic and urgent change. Their cries of desperation must be heard.

Some hang in with the church out of loyalty and duty and some eventually move off to find their spiritual nourishment and stimulation in the "evangelical/conservative" congregations that have sprung up so vigorously in recent decades.

It needs to be stated over and over again that God is still active in the world. The Divine mind has not changed from loving the world with the gift of Jesus Christ for the salvation of us all. The challenge is to find where God is working and to be there. to find a way of being—faithfully—the people of God.

"Thank God we are going broke!"

The challenges are, of course, greatest in the areas which are under the greatest stress. Smaller congregations, particularly in rural areas are under enormous pressure because the cost of traditional ministry has forced them to adjust.

Thank God that some small churches are 'going broke', unable to continue in their present form because of their inability to pay the minister. This situation has often encouraged a readiness to try new ways instead of simply ceasing to exist. This openness to change, though forced and sometimes faced with reserve or resistance, means that at least some places are trying to find another way of being church. It is the beginning of a path that lets God lead them to new life.

A crisis of faith

Nevertheless, whether in country or urban areas, the crisis remains. Only superficially is it a crisis of funds. In reality it is a crisis of faith. It is a crisis of meaning. It is a crisis of identity as a people of God. It is a crisis that demands real discovery of what it means to be followers of Jesus Christ in this day and age and in this culture. It is a crisis which should draw us back to the essence of who we are, what we are called to and who is the one who calls.

We need to reflect on our traditional ways of being church. Whenever the word church is mentioned we are accustomed to think in terms of church buildings, of professional ministers, of Sunday services, of organs, of rows of pews, of well-dressed people, of gowned clergy, of passive listeners, of sermons, of mostly ancient hymns. In spite of our best rhetoric, it is really difficult to see the church in another way.

This is because the reality is that mainstream churches have invested enormously in money, staff, structure and effort to perpetuate the existing model of church. But this model is probably not going to survive, certainly not going to prosper, and is already failing to create faithful, effective communities of Christ-followers living in a dynamic, radical, alternative lifestyle.

The emphasis is still on training and placing people to minister to diminishing traditional groups of ageing church-goers. These groups are shrinking in size and failing to capture the imagination, involvement and commitment of two generations. In spite of the fact that many are unable to find the dynamic of the Gospel in a relevant way there, the investment in a minister-centred, minister- dominated, passive church continues.

An opportunity

The predominant culture of today's generation is a culture of involvement and participation. Educational principles and practice, unlike the generation of the predominant church membership, are all about questioning and participating. If the call of the Gospel is to involvement in the ways of Christ, of following him with integrity and reality, then this ought to make good sense to the people of today's generation and world. So, why not do it?

People born since the 1950s are not unspiritual nor are they unbelieving in any unique way, they just don't have confidence in institutions like the church. They are disinterested in what they see of the culture and practice of the church.

The challenge is to involve them in some expressions of life and faith that are meaningful to them so that Christ can be named among them. Then their latent faith can be released and applied to their lives of stress and struggle. As this generation catches a vision of the Christ and is captivated by his wonder and gift, the new church will find such an expression that the world will notice that there is a God and that Jesus Christ is the saviour of the world.

There will need to be a rethink about all the assumptions of what is church and how we do church. The times call for radical changes and completely new approaches.

So now let us look at the problem.
2

# **The Pro** **blem**

The Victoria Rural Ministry Task Group of the Uniting Church in Australia is addressing itself to the reality of congregations in rural areas. They say that these congregations find themselves in a parlous situation. Well documented issues include:

* shrinking communities and congregations;

* reducing financial base and inability to support ordained ministry;

* ministry exodus of young people and ageing of membership;

* greater demands on remaining members in their farms/business and in supporting community organizations.

Strategies

In the past various strategies have been adopted to manage the decline, namely:

* enlarging parishes to share the cost and services of an ordained minister;

* ecumenical cooperation;

* employing lay assistants or lay pastors;

* trying to run the church by themselves;

* merging churches into larger but more distant centres.

The Reality

None of these has proved life-giving. Decline has continued. The reality is that there will never again be a placed ordained minister in many small congregations to fulfil ministry functions as in the past.

We affirm the faithfulness, loyalty and commitment of church members in rural communities. They are a resource of excellence for the witness of the Gospel in each place. Frequently they are the backbone of community organizations.

We believe the time has come to question the assumptions upon which the present method and strategy of church life is built. In the face of the present reality and living as we do in a post-Christian/post-modern age, a fresh, open and lateral approach is needed, informed by the Gospel and led by the Spirit.

Challenging the assumptions

We have reflected on the principles engaged by Paul and his fellow apostles together with the experiences of the church throughout the centuries when, in times of challenge, God has done a new thing and brought about renewal and fresh life-giving experiences.

We note that in these experiences common factors include:

* the leadership of the ordained in stimulating and facilitating the people of God to exercise their discipleship;

* the ministry of the whole people of God in the celebration of faith and the service of Christ in the world;

* a passion for Christ and his service.

It is these principles that undergird the definitions and descriptions that follow. It has been our experience that where these principles have been recognised in rural congregations, signs of renewal have emerged.

Changing the way we think

The whole church is surely called to challenge assumptions about ordination and the respective roles of the ordained and the members of the local congregation. The change is undeniable and the challenge is to respond in faithfulness to the call of God for the sake of the Gospel.

It's not just a matter of a bit of window-dressing that we can call change. It is much more radical than that. And most of us do everything we can to avoid change on that scale. We will trot out good arguments that tell the truth about the good of the old ways—though too often while wearing rose-coloured glasses. We will work and scrape to avoid changing our ideas and our situation, even if reality gives us another message.

We need to face the call of Christ now to be his servants and begin now to put in place a new way. Yes, a completely new way, not a way that just dresses up the old.

It's not just a matter of doing more or sharing around a few more jobs. It's not a matter of using more lay people in worship It's not just a matter of beefing up our pastoral care This is a basic change of thinking—a complete shift of the paradigm.

Let's look at a contemporary paradigm from a different area.
3

# **A New Par** **adigm**

Think about the grocer. Many of you can remember when the grocery store had a long counter and large bins for things like flour, sugar, split peas and tins of biscuits. The grocer came to your home—or perhaps you phoned him—and received the order. He went back and made up the order by putting a pound of flour and of sugar in brown paper bags, together with all the other things you ordered and then probably delivered them.

Today the supermarket is a totally different concept. There you yourself choose from the shelves of pre-packaged goods and carry them yourself to the checkout and to your car. This is a new 'paradigm', a different model, a quite different way of operation and of thinking about buying and selling goods.

Today there is also a different paradigm or model of fulfilling the call of God to be God's people in the world. It may be difficult to grasp it unless you try and erase from your minds the way you have always 'done' church and start again with a clean sheet. It is like rubbing all the writing from a blackboard or a whiteboard and starting again with nothing there.

Early Church

Now think about the first Christians. They had been baptised into Jesus Christ. Their lives had been deeply touched by him. They carried the mark of Jesus on them and in them.

They met wherever they could to share the Jesus story, to worship and praise him, to support each other so that they could live out the Jesus kind of life day by day. It was said of them that they out-loved and out-lived people wherever they were. "How these Christians love each other", people said. The life-style, the loving, the simple power of their lives was such that others wanted to join them. They had something that others wanted.

A different paradigm.

Early church Christians were not consumed with maintaining a church building, with raising money, with keeping a church in the town, with trying to support a minister to do the ministry in the district. They were not just good citizens who also go to church.

They were Christ's people who took him with them into their home and community life. Their focus was on the life they have in relationship with Jesus Christ and living out that life in the world. They were a team of `ministers' in that place. That's a different paradigm.

So, in thinking about yourself, try and see the blank blackboard being filled with pictures of your getting together in a warm, sharing group to set Jesus in the centre. See yourselves hearing and sharing the Story, caring for each other and strengthening each other so that you can be even more Christ-like in the places you touch.

Of course, this is not new! But perhaps there are some old pictures of your church life that are not on the board. Perhaps lots of things that have taken your time and attention are not really basic to being Christ's people today.

This is a different paradigm for many. This is a different way of thinking about ourselves.

Try not to be defensive. Try and catch a vision of what a different paradigm could mean for you and your way of being the people of Christ in the world. You may be just a group of ordinary people who want to be faithful to Jesus Christ, perhaps like this:

For as long as we can remember—and before our memory, there has been a church in our district. We have had ministers to care for us. Some of us can remember when one lived in this town and worked the district from here. They were the golden days, perhaps—except, if we are really honest, there were struggles then too!

Then, over the years change has occurred:

* numbers have fallen as people left the district;

* youth have gone to the city;

* we have grown older;

* the church is not as important to people as it used to be;

* there is not enough money and it seems harder to raise it;

* we are working harder with fewer people to share the church and community tasks;

* we shared the minister first with one other parish and then another;

* now we have no placed or appointed minister at all attached to our little church.

The church is important to us and our community—even to those who are not part of it.

But what can we do without an ordained minister to lead and do all the things a minister does? We accept that we are called to follow Jesus in this place and serve him here. But at the rate we are going there will soon be no church here. The younger ones who remain in this district don't seem interested. What can we do? We have to admit that we come to this moment in our life with a bit of fear and uncertainty. We wish things could go on as they have in the past and that we didn't have to go through all this change and challenge.

Yes, don't tell us again! We know. We know that the world has changed and nothing stands still. Certainly every other part of our lives has changed, and we, too, have changed.

We have even grown wiser and smarter as the years have gone by. But we hoped that things relating to the unchanging God might stay constant. We have to admit that the way we worship and serve God has to change. It would be an insult if we did our God-things in a "horse and buggy" kind of way in this day of space travel, computers and high-tech everything.

The fact is that we are beginning to realise that we cannot have a minister in the way we used to. There is no money and no one to come.

But the mark of Jesus has been placed on us in baptism and we are his people, we will just have to get on and do it ourselves.

Or we must "pull the plug" and call it all off.

That's their story. Does it ring bells for you?

Another story

Dave Mullan offers a story from New Zealand. Bay of Islands Co-operating Parish came into existence more as a series of accidents of history than an exciting commitment to ecumenism.

At the height of the local church union movement in New Zealand Anglicans, Presbyterians and Methodists in the Northland region found themselves unable to maintain viable ministries in the traditional way. A strategy of combined work produced a three-way co-operation in "South Bay of Islands". A parish was constituted in 1974 and the existing Anglican vicar was invited to continue as its first minister.

Many people made a total and enthusiastic commitment to the new parish. Extensive adjustments were made to properties and programmes. The well-established central Methodist property in Kawakawa was disposed of and all activities in that "county" town centred on the Anglican property where a fine new minister's residence was erected.

But what I call "shotgun marriages" in ecumenism do not necessarily lead to fulfilment. In 1981 the parish made history by becoming the first co-operating venture in the country to split as the Anglican bishop announced that their denomination would be pulling out. The resulting re-arrangement left the Presbyterian-Methodist parish without its own property at Kawakawa, the county town and logical centre and once more unable to fund the cost of a stipend.

The Presbyterian church hall, together with St Saviour's Church which earlier had been moved alongside at Moerewa became a nominal centre of the new parish. This was against the trend of movement of population and church membership from Kawakawa/Moerewa to Paihia/Opua which was becoming established as a desirable retirement area from the late 1970s.

Some grant monies were found from the parent churches and a Presbyterian minister was called and much vigorous and faithful work was done. But the minutes show that the Parish experienced much conflict as to how to proceed. The dramatic inflation of the 1980s tended to nullify all their financial efforts. Radical differences of theology and church-ship among many of the members did not assist consensus.

When the minister's term was finished in 1987 the Methodist Church accepted responsibility for the parish. However, it failed to make a normal appointment; it was short of both available ministers and the kind of grant that would be required to sustain a parish in this kind of situation. The parish was left "One Wanted" and a "supply" ministry was sought.

For three or four years there was a very interesting period of supply ministry for terms of a few weeks to a year. All of these were part time—an expression which usually refers to the amount of stipend paid rather than the amount of time worked and that was as true for this parish as for any. Three highly experienced and competent retirees from the United Methodist Church in the USA served for terms of several months each. Their ministries combined to consolidate the trend towards Paihia as a centre, culminating in 1987 with the purchase of a larger church site and a church house in Paihia.

The former purchase generated a good deal of financial stress because it was made with borrowed money in the expectation of selling the existing church site for a sum that would cover the purchase and leave more funds for building a proper church.

Those who had a pathological anxiety about entering into this debt might have considered themselves vindicated when, a month later, the stock market crash of 1987 eliminated the possibility of selling the property at all for several years. An eventual loss of nearly $250,000 was carried by the Methodist Church in whose name the Paihia properties were vested. This experience would subsequently colour every discussion about proposals for a new church in Paihia.

Buying the house in Paihia was another occasion of much controversy among Kawakawa people because comparable properties were available in their town for very much less.

It became clear to me that this purchase was also seen by a some members as a reduction in the church's commitment to the lower middle classes of the valley. Kawakawa people of Methodist stock had by now no less than three reasons to feel aggrieved: the loss of their "own" property after the union of 1974 , the consequent loss of any church centre at all in Kawakawa after the failure of that union and now the loss of the minister's residence for the new parish.

After this series of short term ministries—sometimes arranged by the parish without overmuch consultation with the parent bodies—the Methodist Church declared in 1990 that there should be no more "overseas" supplies. At the same time, as part of a wider strategy for the district, it appointed Dave Mullan as "supply". He was leaving the staff of the Theological College where he had been in charge of an innovative programme for preparing unpaid, part-time clergy for "local" ministry in generally marginal situations. With his term coming to an end he had made himself available to the church to work in a situation where a different alternative to the paid ministry model could be explored. This parish seemed a strong possibility.

This was not, however, high on the agenda of all members of the parish council. In the consultation which preceded his attachment it became clear that most people simply felt that another half-time minister was all they needed and all they could afford. However, Dave needed a full stipend so the Methodist Church undertook to organise funding of 25% stipend by way of grant-in-aid and agreed to provide paid consultancy work for him in other places for three months of the year. It also emphasised that its clear intention was that Dave would be able to explore a more permanent style of affordable ministry for the long term.

The arrangement was a compromise: I was free to conduct any number of sessions on lay ministry but among the membership there was not a whole-hearted commitment to exploring new ways in ministry. Some were keen but for most the half-time arrangement was fine.

The parent churches did not come up with more than half of the grant funds promised and the Methodist Church failed to provide the three months' work they had offered. Happily, the Victorian Synod of the UCA engaged Dave for the first of a series of short term consultative ministries out of which the collaboration on this book was born.

Meanwhile, I found, as ministers always do, plenty of work in the parish. There was a large amount of pastoral repair work to be done, membership and pastoral rolls to be located and up-dated, a modest stewardship programme to be put in place, the matter of a new building for Paihia to be considered and many administrative matters to be stabilised.

A review was held of the parish membership and a realistic roll of active members was established. One of the supply ministers returned for a couple of weeks and helped with an intentional stewardship education programme and the giving increased by nearly 50%. By mid-1992 a simple church building had been erected at Paihia and the parish was as ready as it would ever be to face discussions about its future ministry strategy.

We will return to the inadequacies of this rather half-hearted attempt to commence a genuine model of lay-oriented ministry. The details of this particular history are somewhat unusual but the trends will be familiar to many who have experienced parish life on the ragged edge of bankruptcy. More and more small congregations are now realising more clearly than this parish did 12 years ago that the traditional strategy of providing ministry in small communities is simply no longer possible.
4

# **Stirrings o** **f the Spirit**

What kinds of congregations are likely to be considering a radically different strategy for mission and ministry? Here are some of their characteristics. They will most likely be congregations in which—

* Stipendiary ministry has been or is about to be withdrawn, usually for reasons of financial viability;

* Closing is not seen as a serious option although many of the signs are against that decision;

* Regular weekly worship will continue to be a feature of their life;

* Sufficient resources are available to maintain their life and witness with training and support—even if they are not aware of its potential;

* Numbers under pastoral care are small enough to enable the congregation to cope adequately with all aspects of mission and ministry using the skills of their own volunteer people.

* Life and ministry have been managed in tandem with another congregation which is now withdrawing from that relationship; For whatever reason, let us suppose that your congregation has now come to a crossroads and is recognising that something needs to be done. It's time to start doing some dreaming, talking, and planning.

Usually someone from the district or national jurisdiction will have been talking with them by this time. That person will be able to offer some kind of strategy consultation for you to explore together

* The history and tradition of your congregation;

* The nature of the problem you are now facing;

* The choices that are open to you;

* Some steps that can be taken.

In the simple act of setting a date for such an event you are beginning to face the fact that God has put the mark of Jesus on you to be his people in this place. There's no one else. It is you.

You are deciding to accept full responsibility for your life. What a joyful privilege! What a responsibility!

God is in this

But, before you take that first step you need to face the fact that God has not deserted you. The God of new beginnings and resurrections is here to do a new and exciting thing in your midst.

Yes, we really know that God is alive and well. God is at work in the world and God is present in our district. That same God calls us to go with him into his new day. "I am the Lord; I will accomplish it—quickly." (Isaiah 60:22)

So, you will listen for God. This means that you will need to be very deliberate about your praying. Frankly, the formal prayer at the beginning of a meeting is hardly listening for God. Your strategy discussions should be anticipated much more intentionally:

* What about encouraging each other to have a daily time of silence and listening at home? That is not easy if you are not used to it, but it's a great place to start.

* Then you might have silences in your worship and maybe a day of prayer when the church building is open so people can come when they like, and spend time there with God listening for the voice of God in depth of their being. It's not so much listening with ears as discerning what is going on inside you. It is there that we meet God.

It is in this atmosphere that you can listen for God in each other and in your situation. It is in this atmosphere that you can hold a creative discussion and reach a firm decision with confidence We suggest that you will do much of this in the context of the stories of the first Christians.

Back to basics

A lot of people being invited to such a consultation may sense that something pretty radical is going on. Being radical means returning to the root, the fundamentals, the basics. That's where your discussions have to begin**It all started with Jesus Christ and his call to people. Those who responded to the call found a new way of being, with new relationships, new resources within themselves and a whole new purpose for life. They lived in communities of loving, radical people who shared deeply, both their personal being, their hopes, struggles, joys, and also their goods. They celebrated Christ together and worshipped him with their whole person.

But their orientation was not inward to themselves and their own self consciousness as church. Their focus was outward, sharing this amazing new reality and lifestyle with the world. They were not caught up with running a church but with getting on with Christ's mission. And they turned the world upside down.

Luke gives many insights into their life together as the faith spread like wildfire throughout the world. They met together, led by a leadership team appointed from their own number. They shared fully and warmly in the celebration of worshipping the Christ and serving each other and the world. The Spirit of God enlivened them and enabled them. They grew in numbers and influence.

There are a few words which stand out as their life is considered, words like: 'commitment', 'involvement', 'participation', 'ownership'.

This is a way of life. This is a priority commitment. This is total involvement. This is whole-hearted ownership of the way of Christ. This is what you are invited to take up as you examine your mission and ministry for the future.

An impossible task?

What hope did these new groups of Christian followers have of survival? How could they possibly succeed? They had no training. They had no resources—not even a New Testament. They had no buildings, no ministers, no denominational backup nor departments, no specialists, not even a hymn book. Soon these enthusiasts would surely burn out and disappear. But no—they thrived.

With their trust in the living Christ and the gifts and power of the indwelling, enabling Spirit and the guidance and encouragement of the occasional visits and letters of the apostles, they turned the world upside down.

They arranged and conducted their own celebrations of the faith. They looked after all aspects of their life together. They were God's ministers to their community. Because it was 'theirs' and they did it, they learned and grew and it worked.

Every member a minister

In the early Christian church every member of those little congregations was a "minister". That's to say, everyone was involved in ministry and mission and individuals accepted responsibility for particular aspects of the work of all.

In the early 1970s "Every member a minister" became the motto of Te Taha Maori, the former Maori Division of the Methodist Church of New Zealand. They largely abandoned the traditional model of stipendiary, college-trained ministers and developed minita-a-iwi, ministers from among the people. These were to help the whole community have a sense of being in ministry. The motto has been picked up in the rest of the Methodist Church but in that setting it has been confused with the traditional understanding of minister rather than the "servant" concept of the Christian scriptures. It may be more helpful to talk about every person being "in ministry" or "in mission" than to use the term minister. Its use has become so degraded that it tends to convey the wrong image.

Recent tradition has dictated that the ordained minister will, for instance, conduct most of the worship and management of the local church. The ministry has became the province of the professionals. So they dress in distinctive religious garb and act out that professional role. Whether it be planning and running the celebration, preaching, evangelism, community involvement, pastoral care of the whole congregation, visiting the sick, caring for the needy, chaplain to the school, the hospital and the goal, counselling the disturbed, providing welfare for the poor—"it's the minister's job".

Some do this very well. And in smaller congregations they tend to soak up more of this work if only because they have the time and feel a guilty need to be fully occupied. But this model denies the gifts of the Spirit to the body and guarantees to produce a church that can't grow beyond the skills and energy of the professional. This actually limits the growth and development of the church.

Conspiracy?

Dave Mullan suggests that there has been a conspiracy for 300 years by which the ministry of the whole church has been stolen and given to the ordained. And it's a conspiracy in which both parties have collaborated: "If we raise the funds to pay the stipend, you can be free to get on with the ministry." Only by retraining—and restraining—the paid clergy can we enable the reality of "every member a minister" in the local setting. Paid ministers need to be distanced from the local church and to encourage a new style of facilitative ministry with leadership teams.

Reality

The reality we struggle with is where there is a congregation of say 10 to 20 people in a very isolated area. The principle of discipleship, where every follower of Jesus is called to be in ministry must be applied. There is no one else there. Their only resource is in their own membership.

At Bealiba the 12 members of the congregation said "We will all be the team and get on with celebrating faith, supporting each other and serving Jesus in this small community." One of them is the facilitator. The presbytery appointed a Resource Minister who keeps in touch—from a considerable distance away, actually—by phone, email, fax and occasional visits. In this way he serves ten other scattered communities over a distance of around 200 kilometres.

Thinking about the way Paul and the others in the early church tackled this issue, we simply said that under God, we have the gifts we need to do the job within the limits of our situation.

Thus, from their own number they, under the guidance of the presbytery, choose their own leaders. Their leadership team is not the traditional 'minister'. They are the leaders who call forth the gifts for ministry from everyone. They say—

The ideal which we seek to grasp is that each and every member sees himself/herself as a minister of Christ and together we are a team of ministers. The task is not to run a church but to be an effective team of people in ministry here in our local community.

Your resources

One of the things you may discover is that you may have a lot of resources that have not been deeply drawn upon. This is an important issue as there may be a minimal number of gifts and skills (or the potential for them) which is needed if a congregation is to be able to take control of its own mission and ministry. But these are not always very evident and it is a wise congregation that submits itself to a guided analysis of its potential before deciding that "we couldn't possibly do that."

Experience suggests that most congregations which have not already decided to "pull the plug" actually are able to find the resources. There are in every congregation, as "Professor" Jimmy Edwards once said of himself on radio, "There are faucets of my character that have never been tapped."

Small congregations are especially aware of their resources. They know their people. They have often stepped in themselves to carry out vital tasks when a preacher hasn't turned up as planned or when there have been vacancies or the stipendiary resources have been stretched too thinly. Probably they have no one who would actually be willing to take over the role of the former minister—though that does occasionally happen—but they know that among them are many gifts that have relevance for their situation.

Let's look at Bay of Islands again: this parish was determined that a half-time stipendiary minister would be the answer to all their prayers. They didn't seem to recognise that they actually brought a great deal of experience to the challenge of the future.

1. There was substantial potential.

Most importantly, the fact that the people had been providing competent preachers for three simultaneous Sunday morning services meant that there had been continuous use—and acceptance!—of lay preachers.

Secondly, the visiting "supply" ministers, especially Mark Rouch, challenged the people to develop their gifts . Several individuals made themselves available for courses and educational events and were looking for ways of exercising their gifts. Two new lay preachers commenced training, a marriage, funeral and sacramental celebrant was already authorised and many individuals were developing interest and skills in group work. In a parish of less than 60 members in four church centres this was a rich potential.

2. There was a sense of optimism and faith.

This was not universal but many were quite sure that the parish was going to "come right" even if they were somewhat divided as to how this might happen. Some were passionate advocates for a new church building in Paihia where worship had been held in a tiny church hall since 1954. Others were equally enthusiastic that the "right" half-time ministry would successfully build up the congregation so it would be able to afford full-time ministry in a few years (how often have church authorities heard this theory expounded!).

3. A few were dreamers and visionaries.

They had some willingness to experiment with new ways of being the church, of conducting worship and of managing their life together.

By some standards these experiments were fairly modest but compared with many small churches the parish as a whole was reasonably open to new possibilities. This was not least because a significant group of conservative members had resigned prior to Dave's arrival because he was alleged to have horns and a tail. The departure of these rigid fundamentalists gave the parish a certain freedom and certainly reduced the previously high level of acrimonious discussion in parish council meetings.

It is clear that vision and openness are vital for the congregation that intends to embark on the lay team principle. It is not so important to be able to see leadership potential as this usually is not obvious until it is actually called into being. Many congregations have not had the need to develop the potential of their people because they have simply relied on the long-term availability of professional ministers. So don't expect to be able to identify all the necessary elements of a successful ministry team from the beginning. Do, however, look for some indication of vision, some willingness to be committed to change as you move into a time of assessing your resources and options.

There are many ways of going about this process. More and more congregations have already done some of the thinking involved through participating in other similar strategy consultations.

When a new minister has been working for a few months many parishes engage in a Lay-Clergy Dialogue in which history and dreams and goals are shared, ghosts of the past are exorcised and potential conflicts defused. This has been a highly effective and useful event in many places.

When a term of ministry is ending in any of the Uniting Congregations of New Zealand it is now a requirement that before the next ministry can be considered the congregation must first develop a comprehensive strategy for mission.

Examples of strategy consultations:

Here is a congregation has been involved in a process of discussing their ministry strategy.

We have been through three different ministry strategy events in the last few years. The last one was about a year ago when our minister left. We agreed that what we needed was another part-time ministry for a term of about five years.

We have enough income to be able to cope with this and our mission statement points out that there are many needs in our community which we would be able to fill if we had the right minister.

But the Methodist Church cannot find the minister we need. Nobody is offering for part-time ministry in this part of the country and we are being told that it is unlikely that we will get what we want. They say we have to reconsider our whole mission strategy. It's pretty depressing.

This congregation might well be discouraged but they are experienced enough to know that another mission strategy event of some kind is the next step. A facilitator from the denomination will be available to manage their event. They will again review their history and their various strengths and discuss their hopes and dreams. Because they have gone down one specific ministry strategy track already, the facilitator may offer a presentation about the lay team concept as one option. They may even have considered this previously but rejected it in favour of their preferred strategy. Now they must re-think it.

With their previous experience of this kind of event they may now be able to come quite quickly to a realistic set of new objectives. The Bay of Islands parish did not come to its decision with just an afternoon's strategy discussion and a brisk resolution.

Their experience remains a salutary exercise in how not to move into the lay team strategy:

The first year of my appointment was deliberately given to the priorities of membership, finance, and the new building. There was no immediate move to convene a ministry consultation to explore ways for the future.

In retrospect this was about a year lost. People became very quickly enamoured with the idea of managing with a half-time minister. Such commitment as there had been to develop a team began to diminish. It was only with some difficulty that the matter was dragged back onto the agenda. Even the hard economic fact that half-time ministry actually costs nearly 70% of the overall cost of full-time ministry did not seem to sink in. The very success of the stewardship education programmes seemed to defer the urgency of the matter.

It is better to go straight for the team strategy than to merge it with "normal" ministry; they are not, ultimately, compatible.

Appointing a stipendiary person specifically to wean the parish off its dependence on that kind of ministry is likely to be an exercise in frustration for all concerned.

By early 1992 parish council had appointed a small ministry strategy work group and a series of discussion papers was in circulation among the newly clarified membership. People were invited to make suggestions but very few did.

A series of special discussions was led by the minister at worship times and these engaged people in the issues to some extent.

There were also a couple of special Sunday afternoon seminars, attended by about a third of the parish membership. These tended to be educational rather than inspirational and they led to small changes of thinking rather than dramatic changes of behaviour. And, of course, those who happened to be absent from any event did not share in any change of thinking that was beginning to take place. It was a very hit and miss approach.

Just do it

As has been hinted above, these events should be conducted by an outsider. You will find that your church of oversight can provide a facilitator for an appropriate seminar or consultation to consider your church strategy.

This is the opportunity to look at all your options. If you are a small parish that is going to have difficulty funding the conventional style of ministry the option of an alternative model must be included.

Your facilitator will conduct you through some community building sessions. You will probably spend some time recalling the good events of earlier days. Perhaps you will evaluate recent years and identify the creative, defining, exciting moments as well as sharing some memories that bring regret and discouragement.

You might then engage in a SWOT analysis, identifying your parish's **Strengths** in resources of members, property, location and so on. You will also look realistically at your **Weaknesses** to see how much these offset the things you have going for you. You will then "brainstorm" the **Opportunities** that present themselves for service and mission in your community. And you will look critically at any **Threats** that might stand in the way of their fulfilment. Then you will select a short series of quite specific objectives that you feel you can realistically tackle over the next three to five years.

The Outcome

Look for a firm, creative outcome to your strategy discussions.

This means that those present should normally constitute a quorum of the congregation's decision-making body. This decision must not be debated again in another setting, especially by people who have not participated in the discussions.

You must get it right first time, with the maximum possible discussion and participation in the decision. At the end of your consultation you need to adopt a formal resolution that clearly takes you forward. It may be wiser to have the discussion and the voting in the context of consensual decision-making rather than a hard and fast "majority wins" kind of approach.

The decision itself needs to be firmly and precisely stated in unambiguous terms. If the meeting has decided to seek further information prior to a decision being made it might pass something along these lines:

We request the secretary to arrange a Sunday morning and afternoon visit from an experienced team to talk to us further about the local ministry option within six weeks.

A decision to actually establish a local team of people in ministry might be adopted in terms like these:

We the congregation at .... accept that we are called to be God's people in this place. We accept responsibility for our life and service in this place and agree that all of us will take responsibilty for mission and ministry in this place.

We want to be designated as a "Shared Ministry Congregation" and to be invited to call our own local ministry team.

We wish to proceed a calling worskhop and request the district/presbytery to appoint a facilitator to conduct it within eight weeks.

It could be very appropriate to have a service of dedication after a decision like this. Have lots of music and prayers and praise.

Then have a feast!
5

# **"Who** **m shall I call?"**

Once you have made the decision to be responsible for your mission and ministry yourselves you will need to identify a group of people to lead you. They will be particularly responsible for the developing life of your different way of being church. This group will now be "called" to accept that responsibility.

But, first, let's consider some other principles of early church ministry which might inform and guide this process.

It could be argued that the first century world was totally different from ours and their society unrecognizable by people of the twenty-first century. How can we possibly think that there is a serious and significant connection between them and us? Well, there are a number of principles which are transferable. These are basic characteristics which are constant in every generation.

Leadership from within

The leadership in the first churches was appointed from within their own number:

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to chose men from among them . . . with Paul and Barnabas. (Acts 14:22)

Professionals from the outside were not introduced. God called those who happened to be there. They became God's agents in that place. In baptism they were made Christ's followers—and commissioned to ministry.

Local shared leadership in your congregation will mean that the faith and its exercise is owned and practiced by local people. They recognise that all the resources for ministry are within their own community.

OBJECTION: Jesus said, "A prophet is not without honour—" except in his/her own church! You know what they are like. They all know me and though they respect me as their friend, they don't want me telling them the "truth". It doesn't sound like truth when it comes from my lips.

Yes, it's not an easy task if you are going to try to model a mini-version of the stipendiary minister. But that's not what you are asked to do. You may be asked to pick up a task, but only one that is appropriate to your gifts and your sense of involvement.

And, as a member of the "family" of the local church your concern, your care, your wisdom will be respected.

Ownership and Involvement

As people's lives were touched by grace in the early church they celebrated Christ and committed themselves to serve him. They reached out to each other for support. This was God's call to them, this was their ministry. As the faith is owned and people are involved, the life of the church will be renewed and explode, as in the beginning. The God of the Bible lives on. The Spirit is active today.

OBJECTION: I feel my faith is a very private thing. Anyway, I am far too busy to take on any more. I already do my bit. I work hard to raise the money to keep the minister in the town. How can you say I have to do ministry when in the past it has been someone's full-time work? Of course faith is private. But people are also called to share it with each other and to grow together. And it's not a matter of making more time. It's a matter of the congregation re-structuring the life and service of some of its members so that all can play some part in ministry.

Celebrating Christ Together These first Christians didn't just "go to church", they got together to celebrate the Christ. For those who believed and were touched by grace, the meeting became a celebration, not a task of managing the worship.

OBJECTION: We still need someone to run the service. Someone has to pick the hymns, the readings and preach the sermon. What if they ask me to pray aloud?

Sure, people leading worship need to be helped with education and the church will do that for them. But there are many tasks to be done and you will all learn and grow, not by passive observance, attendance and listening, but by involvement and participation. Everyone's invited.

Resourced by Apostles

How important were the itinerant "resource ministers" who visited, encouraged, instructed, inspired, corrected, affirmed and celebrated faith with each fledgling church in the first century. They brought objectivity and wider experience to help the local church catch the wider vision. Sometimes they brought correction and redirection.

This is surely the role of the trained ministry today, to resource and facilitate the ministry of each member.

OBJECTION: Who is going to pay this visiting minister? Anyway, all the ministers we have had here wanted to do the 'spiritual' bits themselves. Also, ministers might feel as though they have nothing special to offer if they can't be seen to be the ones up front and with all the special ministry gifts.

Sure, some ministers have felt threatened by this development, fearing that their job security was going to be undermined. In reality, the ministry of enabling a congregation to carry out their own mission and ministry will make new and stimulating demands on full-time ministers. It's an exciting role but it certainly won't be a hands-on ministry of the kind that has been exercised so widely in the past.

Calling Workshop

Your first task is to plan a calling event. You may call it a workshop or a consultation or a retreat but its purpose is to bring together a working majority of the whole congregation. Your parish council will, of course, be strongly represented, but it is important that there be a good attendance from all your membership to discern God's will in the matter of a team of people who will be at the centre of your new strategy for ministry.

The calling process may be a continuation of the strategy exercise that has brought you to this point or it may be a separate event on a later occasion. But by now you may know each other well enough to be able to recognize those who might be God's people for this task. They may be the ones who have been prominent in the past and whose gifts are readily noticed. Or they may be some who have been quiet and who have been in the background. But you are beginning to be aware that the potential is there. Now you have to put your collective finger on it.

Alternatives:

Once there is the assurance of a substantial majority of the active members of a congregation planning to gather for a calling process there are now two different ways of proceeding. Each has its own merits.

One is based on the concept that the congregation calls **a group of people** into the team and then the team allocates the various tasks on ministry. They may do this on a permanent basis, so that individuals have ongoing responsibility for specific aspects of the work. Or they may allocate specific tasks on an ad hoc basis from time to time. What is important in this process is that the calling is simply to "leadership" rather than to specific roles. Anglicans in New Zealand and some UCA parishes in Australia may use this style and it can make for a simpler process.

The other way is to call individuals to the team because each is recognised as having **specific gifts** which are required in the team. Indeed, some may not necessarily be recognised as "leaders" in the traditional sense, but are affirmed as having specific gifts for specific ministry. This was, more or less, the model first developed as "Total Ministry" in the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada.

Let us look at this model first.

1. A Gifts-based Calling

Specific Roles

A calling workshop based on specific roles is partly like exploring the roles of ministry in the "Clergy-Lay Dialogue" of the Methodist Church of New Zealand. The people are asked to list all the things they think the minister does—or, perhaps, the things they think the minister should do. Newsprint lists are produced by small discussion groups and collated and hung up all round the walls.

These various tasks can be prioritised in order of their perceived importance but that is not so vital. Simply listing and discussing and clarifying these roles is a vital step towards cementing commitment to a new model which will not have one individual paid to carry them out.

This exercise in demonstrating the extent of the ministerial role is very important. It is surprising how many members actually have very little knowledge of how a stipendiary minister's time is spent. Only when they see the length of these lists do some people really grasp what has been going on in their midst and what that means for the new future to which they are moving.

Requirement for ordination?

Now the group is asked, Which of these various roles on the wall can be performed only by an ordained, stipended minister? This is another key part of the event and usually provides a lot of new insights for some members.

It may require sensitive handling to help people identify these functions but an easy way is just to ask them to place marks on the existing lists on the wall. If the people have already been coping with an extended vacancy they may have already been asking some of the right questions and, hence, finding some answers.

For Bay of Islands—especially with their heavy involvement with the very professional style of American ministry fresh in their minds—this might have been an interesting exercise. But as one of their members was already authorised to conduct the sacraments and at least two had been proposed as possible Lay Supplies during the vacancy it was readily conceded that in terms of actually doing most of what had to be done ordination was not a vital requirement.

This is another eye-opener for many participants and is a big step towards helping people to take responsibility for their own ministry. The question that is implied after "Do we really need an ordained person to do this?" is "OK, who among us could do it?" Few participants in a calling workshop fail to see that implication.

Grouping tasks

If the lists of functions are not already grouped under headings this is done now. In plenary discussion or in small groups, the members re-arrange all the functions or activities into categories.

Some obvious groupings are Worship, Education, Business, Pastoral Care, Community Service. But each church develops its own list.

When the functions under each of these headings were shuffled around and re-defined a little we attempted to allocate the number of hours per week that each might need and we developed a kind of job description. We did some more shuffling to balance up the amount of time in each category and noted that none needed to involve more than 7—10 hours a week which was the amount of time some lay people were already giving in their church and community service already.

Reflection on job descriptions

In a brief closing, in prayer and meditation, each member was given a form with the five "job descriptions".

We were asked to write against each the name of a person (or more than one person) who was thought to be likely to have the gifts to fill each position. This was done without discussion of any kind. The nominations were gathered and dedicated at the close of the event and then sent, unopened, to the District Superintendent.

Another Gifts-based Programme

This outline was proposed by a Uniting Church of Australia group which met in Hilite Retreat Centre, Victoria in 1991. It suggests that if the workshop is not a part of a consultation in which you have already done some worship and a time of community- building those elements would begin the event. After that—

* Some groups find it very helpful to begin by talking about specific acts of the ministry in which they have engaged and how they feel about them. It is often useful to talk also about where individuals find effective support for their own ministry.

* There will be some exposition of the polity of the denominational church and how it is able to help the processes through which the congregation is beginning to move.

* There will need to be some time exploring local objectives in the light of a previously developed Mission Strategy.

Listing

The next phase of the workshop will be to identify the tasks of ministry that are usually done by the traditional ordained minister. These tasks may be listed by individuals and then discussed in small groups where an agreed list is made up. They are usually written up on a sheet and compared. The whole workshop then audits the list and finalises what may be quite a large number of tasks or functions. These are displayed on the wall.

Clustering

Participants now group these lists in some rational way, first by individuals writing their own suggestions on the sheets on the wall. In small groups or plenary the large list is broken down into a series of clusters of related tasks.

Ordering

The cluster lists are now checked again to strike out tasks which actually do not have to be carried out at all and, tasks which require an ordained person. The lists will now reflect what needs to be done and can be done by lay people.

In this process the group may come to see that some of these clusters could be written into "job descriptions" of a few hours a week. It may be possible to give each a name which reflects the nature of the cluster, e.g. Worship, Education, Administration and so on.

Preparing

Now people may need time to articulate what they see happening in the process. There may be some feelings that need to be expressed and it may be a good time to take a break with a walk or some other completely different activity. This would also give time for the groupings of functions to be transcribed to individual sheets for members to use when they return for the final part of the calling process.

Calling

The response sheets with the prepared lists are handed out and the process is outlined. There will be a period of worship, with readings from scripture, some meditation, some silence and, at some point, the formal invocation of the Holy Spirit.

Individuals then fill in the name of one or two of their members beside each grouping of functions. The response sheets are not discussed but are collected in an "offering" and the workshop ends in dedication and thanksgiving and all depart.

What is noticeably missing from this otherwise adequate process is a more intentional discernment of the gifts that the whole congregation bring to the ministry task.

2. A Leadership-Based Process

Now we turn to look at a calling workshop based on a different assumption. This calling doesn't seek to match individuals to particular needs but rather to identify and call the people who have leadership potential. They will sort out who does what later on.

This process places fewer demands on the people who come together for the calling. It is sometimes easier for people to identify "leaders" than to discern individuals' gifts. The discernment can follow once the team is called.

All that is needed is a setting in which the general issues can be reviewed and people enabled to vote.

The voting papers can be blank pieces of paper on which the members are asked to write the names of each person whom they consider is God's person to be on the leadership team.

In this process, participants can write as many names or as few as they like. This could well be done at a suitable time in the worship of the Sunday following a strategy discussion and/or a day of prayer. It needs only a comparatively simple explanation, most of which will probably have been made in previous weeks in preparation. It will, of course, be steeped in prayer.

After the leadership team has been called by this process they will need to decide how to work. A fundamental part of this process will now be to discern their gifts and how to use them.

In this model there is usually a fairly clearly defined set of job descriptions determined in advance. Anglicans in Auckland Diocese always have a sacramental minister, who will be ordained, an administrator, who is usually the team leader, and others such as educator, liturgist, preacher, pastor, musician, funeral minister, vocational deacon, etc. Having these roles clearly defined in their excellent handbook assists the diocese with education and strategy, of course.

3. Discerning Gifts

The model that we use to identify the gifts that people bring to the ministry of the local congregation is based on early church practice. In those days they didn't call for applications or vote for a ministry position of vital importance; they looked for the signs of the gifts necessary to accomplish the task. Paul's teaching is that the gifts of the Spirit are given to all members of the 'body' and are given for the good of the 'body'.

In every congregation, even very small groups, there are gifts to be shared and exercised. The gifts were employed by the first church for its mission. These gifts are available to be applied today.

OBJECTION: That's all very well. I am good at cooking and my husband is a fine farmer. We haven't got gifts for running a church.

Just be open to the Spirit. We believe that ministry gifts are given for all and ministry is the responsibility of all. Those whom God calls, God also equips for their calling.

If it appears that there are no gifts for a particular ministry, then perhaps that means that God wants you to leave that one for now and get on with the ministries for which your church has the gifts.

Here is a suggestion:

So, first, we need to explore ways of identifying the gifts that are already present in the congregation. If you have already called a team of leaders and still have to allocate the responsibilities to each here is a way of discovering each individual's distinctive gifts.

The process is also relevant if you are calling a team of people with specific needs and gifts in mind. In this case you will identify the gifts as part of the calling process instead of doing that after it has taken place.

* After a time of group-building, all sit in a circle 2. Each person writes their own name on a card and then lists their own gifts as they see them.

* The cards are passed around the group and each person adds the gifts they see in the person whose name is on the card.

* Each person gets their own card back and reads the complete list of gifts now written there.

People are often surprised with what they discover about themselves and each other. But the process gives confidence to everybody and becomes a guide to the sharing of responsibilities and tasks in the congregation.

As a congregation, get involved in those things which you can manage and for which you are gifted. As individuals, respond to those tasks for which you are gifted. But remember also, that when it is right for you to get into another area of mission God will gift you for it.

Examples

Here are some models of how the calling process has taken place.

Notice that there are some fundamental principles that are common to the heart of the process whichever model is used. See if you can identify these as you read:

We had been very carefully through a one-day strategy consultation to decide that we were going to take responsibility for our own mission and ministry. We would set up some kind of local ministry team. The council confirmed this easily because most of them had participated in the consultation.

We then set aside a day of prayer to prepare ourselves for a voting process. We had the church building open all day and encouraged everyone to spend half an hour there, alone, at a time that suited each person. The aim was to have a quiet time to listen for God and to make each sensitive to the fact that it is God's leadership which we seek. We had some simple meditation aids to help each of us in our quiet half hour.

Next morning in church we simply put names onto pieces of paper and placed them in the offering. Later, these were tallied by someone from the presbytery and everyone who got more than 70% of the voting of the congregation was approached to join the team.

Later the team met and discussed their individual gifts and interests and then allocated the responsibilities among themselves.

Trinity United, at Whangamata, had also done some previous work in ministry strategy. But their strategy had not got results and they knew they had to change things.

We'd been struggling with a strategy for ministry for years. A succession of part-time ministers kept us going but each vacancy has created a lot of anxiety because clergy are so hard to find.

We've decided we have to do something ourselves and so we asked some people who were experienced with the local ministry team model to do a presentation for us. Almost the whole church council met for about five hours one Saturday and in the following week we decided to go ahead.

A district facilitator then met with us for an afternoon and we went over the issues one more time and developed a set of job descriptions for seven people.

We then went right ahead with the voting process: people were asked to nominate one or two individuals who seemed to be right for each of the job descriptions. This was a careful matching process of identifying people not just as "leaders" but as having particular gifts.

The facilitator looked at the voting, reflected on what she knew of the people concerned, and made approaches in the name of the parish. Over the next two or three days the whole team was put in place.

Bay of Islands parish got results back in 1992 but only through a long and tedious process. For instance, in an ideal world, the strategy seminars and calling workshop really should take place in a single event. This ensures that all who are actively involved in the selection of people for calling to ministry have the necessary background to be able to vote usefully. The Bay of Islands calling event had to assume that people had attended most of the previous sessions and this was clearly not the case.

This workshop should also have been assisted by an outside resource person who had "jurisdiction" from both the parent bodies. The "call" must be seen to come from the denominational church in the same way as a stipendiary minister is usually put in place by the wider church.

Unfortunately, this did not happen and the leadership of the event was left to the incumbent part-time supply minister. Nevertheless there was a willing response and the process resulted in four people being called to the first team in 1992.

It was not a good way to proceed but with the facilitating minister living right on the spot, and with a less than whole-hearted commitment to the LMT model, the parish found it difficult to do anything else.

A postal calling

Here's a very simple but personally addressed invitation for a calling to bring two new members on to an existing team:

To....

You are invited to name two persons to be considered for calling to the Ministry Team for Business and Worship.

The procedure this time is very simple: Please read this leaflet, make your judgment and bring this "prayer ballot" to church with you on Sunday 5th August when the suggestions of all our members will be received and passed on to the District Superintendent.

This invitation was in the form of a comprehensive leaflet which included a lot of other information relevant to the strategy. Statements that were found to be particularly helpful were:

All Ministry team members are described by the Guide to Co-operating Ventures as possessing gifts and qualities which make them clearly suitable for the work: faithful in their attendance at public worship known in the congregations for their Christian faith and love, their reliability and competence, their discernment and good judgment.

Covenant

All team members are covenanted to share responsibility for all aspects of parish ministry, to attend regular team meetings and parish council and to make themselves available for ongoing education through appropriate courses. Each team member has a specific covenant for his/her own ministry, describing what is expected of each and what the Parish will do for each.

The whole text of this useful leaflet appears in the appendix but further specific suggestions are now included here because they are so important for the discernment process.

Who may be suggested?

Any Parish member is eligible. You are asked NOT to seek anyone's consent. Please make your judgment solely on the basis of what you know of a person's suitability for each position as you understand it. Only the two who have recently retired from these positions are ineligible candidates.

However, if you suggest one of the present team members for either of these positions it would help if you offered a further suggestion for a replacement—that might save us having another calling straight away.

Can I talk to others?

Generally this process is a matter for your own prayerful reflection. But it may be appropriate in that context for you to discuss your thoughts with another person about the suitability of a third. It would not be appropriate to talk to any person about your wish to suggest him or her as your choice.

As well as a clear and full statement of the "job descriptions" for the two team members being called on this occasion there was a brief statement of the other roles and who was currently doing them. If a calling for only part of a team is to be held it is necessary to remind people who else is already involved:

Pastoral:

Beverley D. manages the pastoral care network and church programmes that build up pastoral life.

Education:

Ann P. attends to the education life of the parish and its people through services and other events.

Outreach:

Bev M. is the focus for our parish's ministry to the wider community, the nation and the world.

Already it may be apparent to readers that this was a very comprehensive leaflet. The details are included because they provide a useful list of things which need to be mentioned in a calling workshop.

Nature of the Call

A thumbnail description of the principles inherent in the normal calling process seemed to be important on this occasion when that procedure was not being followed:

A local ministry team corresponds to some extent to the ordained minister. The appointment process therefore is rather like the secret and personal "calling" of an ordained minister. It is not simply another church position to be filled.

The calling procedure usually begins in an event assembled for this specific purpose. It will normally be convened by a representative of the denomination of oversight. The actual naming of individuals takes place in a context of prayer and meditation rather than the business session of a committee. The names suggested are not revealed to anyone.

There is no form of public nomination of any individual nor can any member state that "I am not available for calling". Every member may participate in the calling process and every member is eligible to be named for any position. But, of course, anyone who receives a call in this process may judge that it is not appropriate to accept.

The final approach is made by the district executive or other representative on the basis of the names suggested, personal knowledge of the parish and official responsibility for its equivalent of ordained ministry.

The invitation is put like this: "Your people seem to be saying that you are the one who should be doing this work. Do you hear this as God's call to you?"

If an invitation to hear a call is declined the executive will make another approach in the light of other names offered in the voting forms received.

This invitation should also state that the parish will undertake to free anyone from other church duties which might conflict with that person's ability to respond to an invitation. This is a very important provision, sometimes overlooked.

This particular church also announced clearly that it would be generous in its commitment to pay for educational expenses for people in team ministry.

And it is desirable that any invitation is to enter into a long-term responsibility so that there will be adequate time to build depth into the ministry and to gain from education for the work.

It is vital that the congregation understand that the team does not simply take over the work of the minister and leave everyone else to resume the role of passive absorbers of whatever ministry is bestowed upon them. So this leaflet included a clear statement of others who would be intimately involved with the two positions which were now being filled:

Each member of the Ministry Team has the working support of an active group of members of the congregation For instance, the person called to the ministry of worship will co-ordinate a team of people who between them handle the leadership of worship. The team member for administration will have the support of a finance team including such people as the treasurer, office secretary and individuals who keep an eye on property matters.

The Team is supported by a qualified ministry enabler appointed by the wider church to ensure that the work is carried out competently and to help the team members grow in their roles and as a team in ministry.

It is again emphasised that merely distributing all this information in a leaflet is hardly an adequate way of encouraging careful consideration of the issues. Nor did it, on this occasion, produce a satisfactory result and the parish was greatly inconvenienced for nearly a year while the team continued short-staffed. But the material does give an indication of many of the issues that need to be addressed before people can vote meaningfully.

4. Why a Calling?

The traditional way in which people are drawn into full-time ministry is through a personal call which is then examined by the denominational church and confirmed or turned aside. Richard Niebuhr, in The Purpose of the Church and its Ministry, (Harper and Row, New York, 1956) sees three aspects of the call. People offering for full-time ministry usually experience them in this order:

**The Secret Call.** The person hears this first, usually in a highly intimate and personal way.

**The Providential Call.** The person demonstrates the necessary gifts and graces to carry out the ministerial role.

**The Ecclesiastical Call.** The church seals the individual's secret call with its own invitation to prepare for ordination.

A different order

In describing the call to this new strategy for ministry we may expect to see the same elements but they take place in a different order.

Instead of the individual experiencing a very private and personal call and then going to the church for confirmation the ecclesiastical call comes first. The church becomes aware of its need for some kind of special ministry and, under the Spirit, discerns who might have the necessary gifts or potential to fulfil this ministry. It then lays its hand on the individual and invites him or her to see if this might become, indeed, a personal call from God.

More often than not, when the initiative comes in this way from the considered and prayerful judgment of the church a better outcome is the result. A formal calling process of this kind is the only way in which individuals should find themselves involved in a local team for shared ministry.

A local ministry

Another distinctive difference between the two kinds of calling is that the work of an ordained minister is normally not confined to one particular congregation for life. Such ministers are normally itinerant, that is, by choice or call or instruction, they move from appointment to appointment.

But the work of a person being called into team ministry is absolutely related to that local context. The particular needs of the situation and the calling go together and cannot be separated. The individual has no special status by being called except as defined by the nature of the call itself and the tasks that are seen to go with it.

Another distinction

There is another way of seeing how different is this process from others. There are three distinct ways of coming into service of any kind in the local church:

Volunteering:

Anyone can volunteer for a position or task in the life of the church and many members offer in this way to do necessary work. It's not too sophisticated a process to seek volunteers to help in the office, mow the lawns or do the flowers or prepare the elements for Communion. This is an important technique for a congregation to fill positions that require specific skills that people either have or do not have. It is not, however, an appropriate method for bringing people into significant ministry leadership in the local congregation.

Being elected or appointed:

At the annual meeting and at other times churches appoint or elect people to certain responsibilities such as chairperson, secretary, sacramental steward and so on. The usual procedure is for a person to be nominated and seconded by individuals and voted to a position by the meeting. Properly the person is asked to accept nomination before the appropriate voting process takes place. This is a process for positions in which the confidence of the membership is a key to effective working in the role concerned.

Again, it is not an appropriate method for putting people in place in a team for ministry. The particular nature of the team and its relationship to the gifts and ministry of the whole of the people of God in the local setting demands a more comprehensive process.

Being called:

This is a process that is distinct from either of the others. As indicated above, it has been most usually experienced in the decision of an individual to offer for the ordained ministry.

In some of our church traditions it is also demonstrated in the inviting of a minister to accept a pastoral charge.

This method of drawing people into ministry originated in the primitive church and is coming back into usage in these days. It is particularly appropriate in the context of establishing a team of people in ministry leadership in a congregation. So we do not ask individuals to volunteer to be in a local ministry team, nor do we call for nominations. We use a method that trusts the membership, under the Spirit of God, to evaluate the work that needs to be done and to match the discerned gifts of individuals with the needs. Those people are then considered for a calling.

6. Who Calls?

The whole calling process is carried out under the guidance of the appointed person who is assisting the calling workshop. When the time comes for a formal call to be issued this should be done by someone who clearly represents the wider church. It may be the Bishop, the Moderator of Presbytery or the Chairperson of the District but it could also be the facilitator who has been appointed to work with the parish. He or she now will receive the lists of names from the calling workshop. The facilitator will probably present them in person and offer some comments and advice.

In the case of a leadership-based calling there may be quite a large list, arranged in order of the voting. The method of initial selection may be simply to make approaches in order from those who received the most votes. The number selected will be determined by the intended size of the team. With a gifts-based team in mind, no more than one or two persons would be identified for each role. The people selected by either process would then be approached with the call.

Presentation of the call

After reflecting on the nominations received, in the light of personal knowledge of the parish and its membership, the district executive would then make approaches to individuals.

There might be a letter beginning 'Your parish seems to be calling you . . ." and ending. . . "Do you hear this as God's call to you?" In between and attached should be such things as:

* comprehensive statements of the general responsibilities of team members;

* individual job descriptions and expectations;

* offers of personal support and educational assistance;

* a suggested term of appointment.

Some people approached in the way ask to talk the matter over. Indeed, sometimes a personal approach works better than a letter. Individuals should be encouraged to respond fairly promptly. It doesn't always happen as briskly as the 2002 calling at Bay of Islands: We went into a calling workshop in the tenth year of our ministry team. Over the years there had been many changes and only two current members were available to continue. Only 16 turned up for the workshop and there was a little despondency as to the outcome.

A short, sharp workshop that was properly facilitated clarified that we would vote for a team of six people next day at worship. The votes were collected after the service and the District Superintendent and facilitator visited during the afternoon. Parish council met for a tea meeting that evening to hear that a full team of six had accepted callings.

Acceptance

It needs to be clearly understood that people are perfectly free to say, "No, I don't believe God is calling me to ministry in that way." In this case the executive may have to look again at the list of suggestions from the calling workshop and make another approach.

It will be appreciated that some people are, by the nature of their normal work or other factors, simply not able to accept a call to several hours' work a week. But that knowledge should not influence the voting; it is their decision when they receive a formal call and it is quite proper for them to refuse—but only then, not as a way of influencing the voting members' right to make their own choices.

Significantly, many people who accept this kind of call have testified that they would not have accepted the task had the approach come in any other form. Most people find that the calling process throws up an invitation that in the words of several who experienced it "Cannot be lightly set aside."

A term

It is strongly suggested that team members should be initially called for a period of at least three years. Some feel that there should be a rotation of membership right from the beginning, with a calling each year. But good teams that are based on individuals' gifts do not necessarily "gel" in just a few months; natural attrition will usually provide adequate refreshing of the personnel over three or so years. Auckland Anglican teams are not presented with their authorisation until a year or two has passed and they have all settled into their roles. It takes time to develop a confident, settled team and for a group of people to build up a strong sense of commitment to each other and to the task. Long-term, maturing congregational life requires consistent leadership that is continuing to grow and develop. This is not easily achieved with constant changes of membership in the team.

However it is an absolutely sound principle that the whole team should be under review at not more than five-yearly intervals. At this review every member should stand down but some may well be eligible to be re-called. Only individuals who have formally requested to be relieved from their calling are ineligible to be called at any workshop.
6

# **Co** **mmissioning the Team**

There needs to be an appropriate procedure to establish the team in place. In the tradition of the co-operating ventures in NZ the congregation is not the final authority in placing people in leadership in ministry. The diocese, the presbytery or the conference is always involved to some extent.

The placement

Having taken some initiatives in the strategy events which have led to the decision for team ministry and then provided opportunity for the congregation to name its choices for leadership the denominational executive will now need to confirm the appointment.

Methodists will expect this to be done, eventually, by the Bishop or the Conference, as part of their church's "stationing" process.

Anglicans will look for a certificate of commissioning from the Bishop and those of Presbyterian background will know that Presbytery needs to offer final confirmation of the placement of any leadership in ministry. The process needs to be seen to be clear and firm, preferably with the issuing of some kind of certificate or letter of authority to act. This should be followed by an appropriate worship service of commissioning.

For most teams, this occurs soon after the various callings have been confirmed. The parish council is usually invited to confirm the names and the denomination will conduct an appropriate commissioning event.

A Commissioning Liturgy

The following liturgy was used for the first commissioning in Bay of Islands. This wording was inserted into the service of Holy Communion at the point of Offering. You may recall that Dave , the resident enabler, was considered to be part of the team. This would not normally be the case.

The new team members are then introduced to Diane Patterson of Kerikeri who represents the Union District Council. Each, including Dave, the ministry enabler, responds in their own words to "How do you find yourself in this position today?".

When not speaking they sit in the front pew.

Then all stand in order at the front of the church, facing the congregation and Diane moves into the aisle with her back to the congregation and puts the following questions to which all respond together.

Do you affirm again your Christian faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as experienced in your life and in the Church?

I do

Do you recognise the calling of this parish as God's call to you and do you accept the special tasks of ministry which are before you?

I do

Are you determined to work as a team and to share the exercise of your ministry with each other and with the people of this parish?

I am

Do you resolve to strengthen yourself for this ministry of leadership by continuing to develop your personal gifts and to seek every opportunity to nourish your life in the faith?

With God's help, I will

Diane then turns to face the congregation and asks them: Do you, the people of this parish, joyfully receive again these members as leaders among you and do you pledge yourselves to the service of the parish and the wider community.

We receive them gladly and commit ourselves to ministry with them.

Diane goes to the table and the Team turn to face her.

HYMN Come Holy Ghost, our souls inspire

All remain standing in silence for a minute or two and then Diane offers prayer:

Send the blessing of your Holy Spirit, O God, on these people whom we commission in your name. Grant to them and to us all a deep sense of commitment to serving and caring in the name of Christ. Amen.

George Barke, Barry Collins, Mike Deverell, Dave Mullan and Ann Pearson, we rejoice that you have responded to the call of God through this parish. We have confidence that you will fulfil that to which you have been called and that this Team will be a means of blessing to the parish, its congregations and the wider community.

Dave joins Diane at the table as she continues.

George, Barry, Mike and Ann, we recognise you in special ministry in this parish. May God who has brought you to this point lead you and all of us in satisfying service and fulfilling relationships.

Diane greets the new team members, shaking hands with each.

Chairperson Kath then presents each elder with a Bible (they have been asked to bring one or we will just use what's to hand) and a symbol of office, saying to each person  
On behalf of this parish, I present to you this bible, source of your calling and authority in the church, and—(George—Worship) the preaching plan for services in Advent and Christmas (Ann—Education) the parish pastoral roll (Mike—Outreach) the Paihia community services directory which our parish prepared this year (Barry—Business) the minutes of the last parish council Meeting Please accept this symbol of your new office with the good wishes of all of our members.

Team members remain facing the table but separate in the middle to allow the offerings of money and bread and wine to be brought forward.

We sing the Doxology.

The rest of the Communion liturgy followed. More recent services in this parish have varied this procedure but they have usually included basically similar elements. A worthy commissioning service is a central focus for establishing the team in the eyes and minds of the congregation. Such a service should emulate—but not attempt to duplicate—the induction of a minister in the traditional style.
7

# **Doin** **g it together**

Getting Started

There are many things to learn as a new leadership team commences its work. The first New Zealand team to function under this model was commissioned at Russell on a Sunday morning in November 1992. They went immediately into retreat for the rest of the day and developed a schedule of 22 meetings for the year, there being a firm expectation that each member would attend at least 18. An early decision was to describe the shape of their regular meeting. Each time they met there would be

* a brief time of worship,

* a period of team building,

* a ministry education slot (taken by the ministry enabler), and

* time to share in their work and give each other support.

The last session quickly came to take predominance as people got to grips with their roles and began to deal with the undifferentiated mass of material which began to descend on them now the voluntary office secretary had someone to send it to.

Later they saw wisdom in presenting the matters they wished to draw attention to under the headings of

* This is what I have done since we met last;

* This is what I plan to do; and

* Here is how and where I need a little help.

This structure has varied but expressed the general principle by which team members have related to each other and try to assist each other with their individual portfolios. A most helpful way of structuring the precious time for reporting to each other is around a very brief report from each person on

* A **highlight** of my recent ministry;

* An **issue** that is confronting me at the present;

* A **wish** that I would like to have granted.

Some principles

Not the minister

The congregation has not elected a team to be a group of people to do the things one minister used to do. The team is not meant to do everything but rather involve every member of the congregation in doing what is needful and appropriate in their ministry.

A team in ministry

The gifts of God are shared among everyone. Some gifts are more noticeable than others. Some look at others and say, "I wish I was gifted like him or her." Actually everyone has gifts to offer and one task of the leadership team is to involve everyone in the life of the congregation. Anglicans in Auckland Diocese describe their team as "The Ministry Support Team". This is a key understanding. The team doesn't do the ministry as much as support the membership in the ministry of all.

Enabler

The team will have an enabler who will be appointed by the district. This is an absolute requirement of this model of ministry.

This person will normally attend team meetings and will assist the members to function effectively as a team. The enabler will also act as personal supervisor in ministry to the members of the team. The enabler does not become involved in direct ministry in the congregation beyond the occasional appearance for significant events.

Co-ordinator

A member of the team may also act in turn as co-ordinator of the team's life, calling meetings, arranging leadership and note- -taking responsibilities and so on. Some enablers do these tasks for some teams to help them to concentrate on their specific ministry.

A unit

The team is a very important unit. It is vital that the members learn to work together as a team where they trust and respect each other. The team's caring, loving relationships will model a sense of community for the whole congregation.

Functions

If the team has been called on a leadership basis and the individual duties of team members are still being negotiated, one member may need to act as co-ordinator of the various functions of ministry. Usually, individuals in the team become responsible for such things as the worship roster (preparing and supervising a roster so that the gifts of the whole congregation are used), pastoral care (making sure that people are caring for people), communication (printing things and informing everyone), property, music, finance, community involvement, and so on.

Agenda

An agenda for the Team meetings could be very helpful. We've looked at some parts of this already. Here's another way of shaping your team time:

A PRAYING TIME. When the whole ministry is spread intentionally before God

A SHARING TIME. A time for personal sharing and encouragement and care of each other.

A CARING TIME. A time for caring for the life of the congregation—not only persons who need care but for the congregation as a whole and its life together. Members will share some of the issues arising from their special responsibilities.

One way of doing this is to ask each person in turn around the group to report briefly on just one aspect of their work. As long as each person deals with only one issue at a time this discussion can continue for as much time as is available. But time is usually of the essence and people will quickly learn to bring up their most important matters first and to talk least about what they have done and most about where they need some guidance.

A PLANNING TIME. When celebrations of worship are planned along with special events and opportunities for outreach and service.

Remember, this is a new day. Your task is not to run a church like it has always been run. This is now God's new day for you to be God's people in this district in a fresh new way. Your congregation of "ministers" has many God-given gifts. They are the greatest resource for the ministry in which you are involved.

Those "special" tasks?

In this model of ministry, it's natural to ask, Who does those very special tasks that were once done by the minister? For instance, the funerals, communion, baptism, care of the frail elderly and the dying. Well, the answer is, You are the people in ministry, so you do them yourselves.

There are several lay people in small congregations—especially in rural areas—who have found they have a special ministry in conducting funerals. With help from an experienced person in the first instance they now visit the families of the bereaved, work with the family and their colleagues in the congregation and conduct the funeral. This has brought great blessing to many and has meant that the members of the congregation are seen in a special way as friends and carers—and as Jesus people. Your leadership team will work out how this can be done in your parish. Your enabler will help with resources and with guidance and encouragement.

The same principles apply to weddings. Lay celebrants are common these days and you may find that arranging weddings is not a problem. However, again, you may plan to designate someone to be available for that particular ministry and this may involve discussions with your community authority which licenses such celebrants.

The Sacraments

The sacraments of baptism and holy communion are in a different category but most denominational churches now make it possible for lay people to be authorised to preside at the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism, after training and preparation. Where they do not authorise a person to celebrate some churches usually have provision for the reserved sacrament or communion beyond the congregation. Here, lay people may take the bread and wine which has been previously set aside in a congregational celebration to another place or to members' homes.

Your enabler will guide you in this and help persons in your congregation to prepare for this special responsibility and privilege. Your team may be invited to nominate persons for the responsibility of conducting authorised celebrations.

Crisis pastoral care

You are already caring for the frail, the sick and the vulnerable. In most places it is going on all the time. With care and practical love, people are caring for people in every district. This will continue and perhaps your leadership team will talk to you about additional training so that it can be done with even greater effectiveness.

Because we are thinking in a new way about your congregation and about being a team of ministers in your district, you will always be prayerfully looking for ways of being more effective and of using and developing the gifts God has given you.
8

# **The Wi** **der Church**

We need to backtrack a little now. We have been talking about those who help a small congregation through the process of moving from dependence to independence in mission and ministry. We now need to spell out just how they relate to the congregation and to each other from situation to situation.

As already indicated, there is a great variety of terminology used to describe these people but there is a developing consistency about how they function. We believe that this needs to be consolidated and we want to offer a coherent account to assist that process.

We begin with another look at the model given to us from the experiences of the congregations of the early church:

A larger community

The young Christians in the early church didn't have to do it alone. There was always a sense of the "the church" in some other place as well as in the local congregation. Taking up an offering for "the saints" in Jerusalem may well have been the first opportunity for people to contribute to a "mission and service" budget! Perhaps those congregations, like some today, grumbled a little now and then about "head office".

This sense of belonging to something larger than merely the local congregation is inherent in our understanding of what it means to be "church". We are not just a local community; we stand in a tradition that links us with people of our mind and heart in other places. And, somewhere Out There, is an institution that guides, supports and protects us and invites some loyalty and commitment from us.

This denominational authority traditionally provides the local church with necessary ministry and gives oversight to its mission. When a congregation raises up a ministry team that organisation is available to assist in the process.

It will do this in at least two ways. There will be a person in whom the district organisation finds its focus, who will have the authority to put ministry in place. This may be the Bishop or Moderator or District Superintendent or President. This person we have called, for absolute simplicity, the "executive". He or she will always be involved to some degree with any proposal to set up a shared ministry team in a local congregation.

He or she will also be very directly involved when the team is to be commissioned or a shared ministry congregation is to be issued with its own licence in ministry. In some denominations the team will be entered into a list of appointments in the national or regional denomination. All of these conditions assume the involvement of someone in authority in the ecclesiastical structure which undergirds the local congregation.

However, the executive is not likely to be directly and personally involved at every point in the process so will provide a resource person who may also function under a variety of names, depending on the denominational tradition. This person may be a Bishop's Chaplain or Co-ordinator, a Presbytery Resource Person or a Synod Consultant, a Ministry Facilitator or any one of a dozen other titles. Such people are usually employed as specialists with responsibility for conducting seminars and workshops for calling a local ministry team. A part-time resource ministerial could so be assisted to conduct this role from the base of a neighbouring parish appointment. This is the person we have, for simplicity, called the "facilitator".

He or she may often conduct popular events of an inspirational or devotional nature but must also have the capacity to ask the hard questions in matters of strategy. Congregations do not always want to be down the road of ministry alternatives but the facilitator must direct them firmly enough that they can actually get to grips with the realities.

Visiting Apostles

The support of the "parent" church in early Christian times was not always remote. There were travelling apostles who supported the ministry of the fledgling churches with letters and personal visits. Their role was of enormous importance, both as they stepped into the local scene to take initiatives and as they wisely stood back and let the local church grow and happen.

These two phases of the apostolic ministry are a very important model for congregations who opt for another kind of ministry resource than the stipended ordained resident minister. They are also models for anyone who is asked to act in this kind of role in the contemporary church.

Thus every congregation which opts for the shared ministry strategy should have an appointed person to be a resource for their work. The term that has come into most general use for this person is "ministry enabler".

This person may be a minister in a "normal" parish who is charged with being an enabler for another, smaller congregation some distance away. Or she or he may be specially set aside for this particular ministry and carry out an enabling role for a number of congregations.

Either way, the ministry of enablement will be paid for by an agreed contribution from the shared ministry congregation. In some denominations this may be as much as a fifth or even a quarter of the full cost of stipendiary ministry but in other settings it is somewhat less.

Characteristics

Apart from intensive visits of the facilitator at the occasional workshop the enabler will be the person most directly involved with the congregation which has moved into shared ministry. Let's look at some of the characteristics of such people:

* The enabler has the responsibility of being an encourager, a guide, a supporter and an ideas person and will assist with material and aids when they are needed.

* The enabler will arrange special training sessions for the team and for individuals when needed. He or she will be specially in touch with the leadership team, normally attending all team meetings.

* The enabler will sometimes visit the congregation for special celebrations and may occasionally preach or lead worship.

* The enabler will help the team if any tensions occur and will assist them to sort things out if they get off the track.

* The enabler will have the role of teacher and will provide education and formation in ministry for the team.

Having an enabler reminds the team and the congregation that they are not just one tiny "team of ministers" all alone but are part of a big family of congregations like them linked in the wider community of the whole denominational church and the whole church of Christ.

Really Necessary?

It is perhaps in the context of the cost of enabler ministry that some congregations ask if it is really necessary that they have an enabler regularly and intimately involved with the life of the team. Experience in a wide range of settings around the world suggest that the answer must be Yes. When Bay of Islands' minister/ enabler retired the parent denomination of oversight failed to assign a replacement to work regularly with the team and provide ongoing support and further education.

Although budget provision was made for the cost of a contracted person, the District Superintendent assisted with a team retreat and the occasional attendance at team meeting. Soon the team became comfortable in managing without close support and guidance. But before long it became evident that meetings were less directed to delivering ministry than to discussions about general parish matters.

This would be questionable where the discussions frustrated rather than encouraged actual ministry work and quite wrong when they usurped the policy-making role of parish council. The precious amount of time that team members are covenanted to put into doing ministry should not be squandered in just talking about it.

The greatest risk is that the lack of regular encouragement and support from an authoritative denominational figure can allow a congregation to become isolationist in its church-ship. Denominations which are not completely "congregational" in their polity need to ensure that the "ties that bind" their institutional lives are nurtured and fed. In the setting of shared ministry, the enabler is a vital part of that process.

The other temptation

It will always be there. A wish to get the enabler to do things the stipended minister used to do. People will say, "I want a 'real' minister to do it." But be firm. You are a "team of ministers" now, and the enabler is there to empower you to do the job. There's no way the enabler can possibly get involved in routine parish work and also do the vital task he/she has now.

So, use your enabler to help you to handle the work yourselves, even when it becomes difficult. Your enabler is not a sort of last-minute rescue Cavalry for you to fall back on when you find yourselves in deep water!

A Resident Enabler?

An ordained person who is in residence with any pastoral responsibility whatsoever for the parish will tend to diminish the confidence, acceptability and effectiveness of the lay members of the Team. Their ministry will not easily develop if an ordained, experienced person is perceived as being "available" locally , even for the slenderest amount of time (or even galloping in from over the horizon!).

Bay of Islands, like many other causes that struggle on the raw edge of insolvency, attempted to move into the local ministry team model with the assistance of a resident minister. What made this normally impossible task possible in this case was that it was accepted that he would be out of the parish for long stretches of time in which the people simply had to manage. There would be no cavalry to come galloping over the horizon to rescue them when they were near the end of their own resources.

For three years the team functioned with Dave when he was in the parish and by themselves when he was away, usually overseas, doing consultancy and supply work for weeks at a time.

It was impossible for him to return to help out even in the occasional major pastoral emergency. The times Dave spent out of the parish probably did more to establish the team's ministry than any amount of teaching and discussion. When he was not present, they had to manage. They did, and the people accepted their ministry. On no occasion did any emergency result in the calling in of "outside" assistance.

However, the converse was also confirmed: when Dave was present in Paihia most enquiries tended to come to him rather than a team member, even when the issue was one for which a team person was clearly responsible.

Dave's very presence in town tended to inhibit the acceptance of the LMT members who themselves often deferred to him instead of taking initiatives themselves. It was in anticipation of just this problem that Dave's original proposal was to be appointed simultaneously to two or three separate parishes and to reside for a few weeks at a time in each in rotation. He saw value in being with people for more than just a flying visit, to take time for some in-depth sessions in ministry formation and to relieve them of some routine chores while their confidence and competence were being nurtured.

This concept was too difficult for the Methodist stationing system to cope with but it would have greatly speeded up the transition to local team ministry. And local teams could have been developed in three settings at once instead of merely one. However, Dave would be the first to acknowledge that his partner, Bev, could hardly be expected to share his willingness to adopt such a nomadic lifestyle. A few weeks at a time in Victoria was one thing but living out of three temporary homes on a long-term basis. . . ?

The Expert?

It is a truism that most ministers trained in the last twenty years have some expectation that their role will be as a facilitator of others' ministry. However, the perception of their people continues to be somewhat different—this is why the New Zealand Methodist Church's Clergy-Lay Dialogue programme has been so helpful in pinpointing possible role conflicts before tensions build up.

Lay people are generally willing to "help the minister" in all kinds of ways but expect that the "expert" will step in to fill vital gaps of necessary information and skills when lay resources are at their limit.

* Parish visitors will do a great job in caring and nurturing the church links with their fellow members.

* Lay preachers who study carefully—or are able to draw on the invaluable resources of the internet!—often develop a thorough theological foundation for their preaching.

* Most lay people who are prepared to take the time can meet the demands of most ministry work.

But there remains deep in the psyche of most congregations that there is "something more" that the trained, stipended person brings. And the latter themselves do little to discourage the myth; their livelihood depends upon it.

After one three-month absence in Victoria Dave returned to the parish find a list of five apparently urgent and vital matters kept for his immediate attention. On examination it became evident that not one of these involved his theological faculties nor his ecclesiastical status as an ordained person. All demanded simply the kind of time and thought and "know how" and effort that it is possible to apply when one is experienced in church life and has the luxury of time that is bestowed by getting a stipend.

Knowing where to order new communion glasses and just having the time to go to town and challenge a District Council Rates Officer about some bloody-minded bureaucratic nonsense may be why many "Lay Supplies" serve some smaller congregations quite as well as many ordained presbyters.

The stipended person is seldom needed for the roles thought to be endowed by theological training and ordination. The bulk of one's time in almost any parish is, in fact, spent in basic functions like managing, co-ordinating, researching, writing and team-building rather than theologising or administering the sacraments.

The concept of ordained ministry as a task of evoking and developing the gifts of the laity may never be fully realised when the clergy so trained are then placed in a residential relationship with the laity they are supposed to be enabling. Their very presence will usually inhibit people from identifying, claiming and exercising their own gifts.

The team and the congregation

Many congregations have had to think about the relationship between their local ministry team and the governing body of the local church, say the parish council. These reflections may assist others.

The team is, for instance, a corporate "servant" in the parish so they are not in quite the same status as elected representatives on the decision-making body which is the parish council. Because they are called by the wider church as a collaborative group they may exercise quite significant roles like the "executive officer" or "secretary" of a board of directors. So while it might be inappropriate that they have a vote on policy, they might just the same have significant contributions to make. Look at these, for instance.

* They present brief reports on their work on a regular basis;

* They assist the council to make good decisions in respect of their various portfolios, providing information where necessary and offering alternative choices for decision and action;

* They ensure that each meeting includes least one significant agenda item involving theological and practical discussion at some depth;

* Once the decision-making is done, the team then carry out the nuts and bolts of the general policies determined by the council. They are not free to change the general policy but they are expected to use their initiative in making it happen.

* Team members have some obvious accountability to the parish council but they are also put in place by the wider church and have a fundamental accountability there that may sometimes take some precedence over local loyalties.

Voters or Doers?

As servants of the council team members should not really exercise decisive votes on parish council. However, their role in the council is fundamental and is complementary to that of the appointed representatives. They might well manage the business, propose and advocate action and suggest appropriate decisions and then allow representatives to make the decision. If team members fail to exercise these vigorous and creative roles their relationship to council should be reviewed.

In the life of the parish itself, they are the "executive officers" who initiate and co-ordinate action. Their calling gives them a mandate to get on with work rather than sit and merely discuss proposals with each other or with anyone else. It is a good principle of management that the people who are hired to do the work don't always have a say in judging their own proposals and achievements.

Relationship to sub-committees

Of course, the appropriate team member should always be entitled to attend and speak on any committee which is appointed to attend to matters relevant to one's job description.

However, the team as a whole should not act as a "policy" sub-committee for parish council except in matters which relate solely to team matters such as performance, job descriptions, covenant, etc. The reason for this is in the nature of the team itself. Rather like a stipendiary minister, it is the hands and feet of the parish council, not its brain. Team members may make suggestions about how things might be done but the parish council alone should decide what must be done.

When the decision is made the team is the council's executive arm in carrying out its wishes. So, in an ideal world, the team should be concentrating on performing its work efficiently; allowing itself to get diverted into theoretical discussions about policies is not good stewardship of its precious time and energy.

However, the issues are not simple, especially in a very small congregation where the ministry team might comprise the very people who might constitute the parish council. And notwithstanding the erudite and persuasive case just argued against it, the Bay of Islands Parish Council, on a night when attendance was down to single figures, and morale about as low, resolved that the team should have full voting rights in parish council. Everyone except the writer was satisfied. (It should be said that all the council's business is decided by consensus. Votes, even by voice, are rarely taken.)

Frustration

It has recently been reported that the top concern of burned-out lay leaders is frustration with meetings. If team members are to maintain their enthusiasm their participation in meetings must be creative and fulfilling. It is more important for them to help develop effective and stimulating meetings than to exercise votes on every issue.

Change of Direction

After twenty years of Local Shared Ministry, Bay of Islands Parish noted that no less than two dozen people had been called to the Team for different terms. The membership of 20 to 25 was in one year trying to call a Team and elect a Parish Council as well as a Management Committee for the parish's main outreach of free holiday accommodation for people under stress. In a rather anxious Calling Workshop it was resolved to form a combined Parish Council Team, combining both groups. The functions of the Management Committee were handed over to the new Council Team. About half of the new members were "called" to particular ministries because of their gifts and the other half were elected by the parish meeting.

This group of up to half a dozen seems to have functioned effectively for several years. It has greatly reduced the demands on leadership. It has improved communication. It has also avoided conflicts of responsibility and authority that can easily develop when a small congregation has too many committees.
9

# **Oth** **er Things to Think About**

Each early church or ecclesia existed for the sake of sharing Christ with the world. Its people do not seem to have been caught up in an indulgent self-consciousness by which they had to take their spiritual temperature from moment to moment. Indeed, they often had to be cautioned for very basic breaches of good taste, good manners, clean language and good judgment. But they seem to have been trying to live out their faith in everyday situations.

1. Witness to the World

They had been found by grace because someone had brought them the love of Jesus of Nazareth. And his commission was laid up on them, to, "Go into all the world. . . . you are my witnesses". We are called out of the comfort of the church gathering to witness in the community to what we have seen and heard.

OBJECTION: I and my family before me have lived in this district for generations. How can I suddenly go to our friends and neighbours in some new way and talk about Jesus? If you are living out your faith with integrity and openness the call to this kind of witnessing hasn't changed. It is still your responsibility whether you opt for this new strategy or continue in the old ways of being church. But if you plan to make changes you and your congregation may now have to become more intentional about this kind of life-witness.

What are you here for?

This is an important question. It is worth thinking about again and there are many ways of answering it. For now let's remind ourselves that we are people who bear the mark of Jesus Christ. In baptism, we were all given his mark and bear his name. Therefore, one strong answer to the question above is, We are the people of Jesus Christ, placed in this community to represent him and live out his kind of life, seeking to make him known.

Therefore, you are not here just to run a church. Indeed running a church could get in the way of your being and doing what you are here for. Running a church could take all your energy and time.

So, let's think again.

What does your congregation need to deepen your relationship with Jesus Christ and with each other so you can live out your lives for Jesus Christ so that you can be an effective "team of ministers"? You will need to get together regularly—

* To celebrate Jesus Christ, to praise and worship him;

* To hear, share and respond to his word;

* To share each other's joys and struggles;

* To support each other and to plan and pray for your work of love, care and service in the world day by day.

Remember you are a team of ministers. You are not just people who come to church. You are the representatives of Jesus Christ in this community. Everything you are and do is part of your ministry. At home, in your work and rest and in all your living you are Jesus people. You need each other's help and encouragement to be able to do that well. So when you get together on a Sunday (or whenever it is), you are to take another step with Jesus Christ to represent him better. You need to gear ourselves to be that. Everything you do must fit that goal.

Some congregations plan a year ahead (or at least for a few months) to have special events which will bless the district with encouragement and loving joy. These specials are not fund-raisers but gifts of love and care to the community. Consider

* a community-based harvest festival when every group in the community is invited to be involved;

* a pancake day just before Lent;

* a festival of local artists' work;

* or maybe some appropriate music festival.

Think of these as gifts to the community, helping to build community in the district. Remember you are here to be a loving presence of Jesus Christ in this community.

But it is not only in things you arrange, but in community events where you are active participants, taking your place as you always have, but doing it deliberately in the name of Jesus.

This may mean carrying out some of your everyday activities with a new sense of being in ministry. It may also mean that some of the traditional groups and activities you have done in the past could well be dropped to make space in your lives for your new vision.

Serving through your finances

It may have been the burden of money that led you to first explore this different strategy for ministry. But the strategy doesn't just free the small church of an oppressive financial burden—it opens up new possibilities of mission, ministry and outreach for everyone. There is usually a high level of appreciation of the commitment and involvement of the team members and much satisfaction at what can be achieved. This is especially noticeable when some surpluses begin to flow in the annual accounts.

The opening of a $200,000 "Centre for Re-Creation" at Bay of Islands is due almost entirely to the adoption of the local ministry team strategy and the release of capital funds locked up in the minister's residence. After only four years there is a guest occupancy rate that would be the envy of any local motel in this tourist area. More than half of our guests qualify to stay for short breaks of "Time Out" at no cost to themselves.

And about half this parish's offerings are directed beyond its own domestic needs to community, national and international service projects. To have retained a stipendiary minister even part time would have made these developments absolutely impossible.

2. The celebration of worship

Loren Mead says it like this:

The way we worship and what we do there defines who we are in our relationship with God . . . that is where we express ourselves before God—who we are, what we need, what our values are, what we believe in, what we grieve and what we celebrate... that is our moment, our central moment.

Celebration of worship, he goes on...

builds community, opens hearts to the cries of loneliness and joy of each other. It places us with the great pain of the world and of our neighbours, and it sharpens our commitment to making a difference. . . it makes and should make great demands on us—to be committed to serving God's people and God's world.

A paper from the Victorian Uniting Church says—

Remember, we are not mere churchgoers any more. We are a team of ministers. We are getting together to celebrate Christ, to hear and respond to the Word, to care, support and stimulate each other, and to plan and pray for our mission to the world around us.

Our gathering will be planned. It will be simple and may not look very much like a church service and may not even have a sermon in the old style! Many of us will participate in some way. It will be involving, sharing, Christ-centred and geared to help us to be more effective Jesus people day by day. It will be something we can handle.

Essentially, you will set Christ in the centre and worship him. You will hear and share his Word, and you will care for each other as you plan your mission to the community and the world. What in God's Name are we Doing Here? is a very helpful booklet with guidance for planning and arranging celebrations of worship. There are many ideas and suggestions which you will find useful. See the Appendix of the print edition of this book for details.

Sunday—it's not ours any more

A big long think needs to be applied to the traditional use of Sunday. This day no longer belongs to the Christian church like it did when the present models of church were formed. It is now a busy day of sport, business, family and personal pursuits.

But when you come to think of it, it is much like it was when the whole thing started 2000 years ago. It was the first day of the working week and the Christians had to worship early in the morning before the day's routine began.

The present-day church which meets on Thursday nights for its celebration of worship and fellowship so that its members can be active in evangelism and involvement with people where they are on Sundays is an interesting model. It is for only traditional reasons that we do not see more of them.

Let's celebrate!

Wherever and whatever we do, the church will continue to meet. And the way that we celebrate our faith in Christ needs to be re-examined.

For some people it is simply "going to church". Some call it "worship". That's a good word and the "correct" word too. But for many people that word carries a load of negative baggage. It conjures up images of dull music, quaint outmoded language, boring sermons and a removal from the real stuff of living.

For the follower of Jesus the Christ, worship ought to be celebration of the Christ who comes and calls. Celebration of the faith, of God's new lifestyle, of rich fellowship and sharing. Worship must be set free from the heavy drudgery of duty and boredom.

Life is worship

Further, to use the word worship for our weekly gathering might imply that we were not worshipping before we got there. That is nonsense. For the Jesus follower, every moment of the day is worship. All of living, our bodies minds and souls, are presented as living sacrifices. ". . and this is our "reasonable worship". (Romans 12:1-2) When we get together we are celebrating these lives of worship, giving them focus and meaning.

Who leads worship?

Our traditions have dictated that the ordained minister will do it all most of the time, perhaps with the exception of the Bible reading, some music and the offering. So she/he dresses in religious garb and acts as the professional.

Sadly this model has several serious problems. Firstly it assumes that all the gifts of the Spirit and the natural skills and talents reside in one person. If this wasn't so stupid it would be laughable.

Paul's teaching is that the gifts are given to all members of the body and are given for the good of the body. In every congregation, even very small groups, there are gifts to be shared and exercised.

Secondly, there is the simple fact that we learn and grow, not by passive observance and listening, but by involvement and participation.

This means that as many people as possible need to be included in the preparation of the celebration. What a great way of learning and growing—to be in a group which struggles to understand and prepare the celebration; to be grappling with the principles of what we are together for; to be discovering how it can have meaning and how it can be full of worthy celebration.

Then, of course, it is important to involve as many people as possible in the actual celebration itself. Instead of congregations of people who, after a lifetime of church-going, are still unable to express faith, share life experiences, understand the gospel issues of the day or find their way around the Bible, they will be learners and growers. People learn what they do.

Breaking free

Who said we had to have four hymns and a sermon? Who said we had to sit in stiff, dehumanizing rows of hard, fixed pews looking at the backs of heads? Pull the pews out or cut them into smaller units. Drag them into a circle or a U shape where people can see people. Put the table in the centre and gather like the family we are.

Start with a clean sheet and put together an event that celebrates faith and the Christ. Let people participate from where they are sitting. Don't be afraid of using your imagination. Try something different. Don't be afraid of things not working well the first time.

3. Buildings

I was married in that building, so were my parents and some of our family. All our kids were baptised here and my mother was buried from here. To change it would be like an insult . . . like heresy, doing away with all that has meaning in our life and faith.

That is often heard, isn't it? Maybe you have said something like that yourself. Buildings are a difficult issue for many to deal with. You have great attachments to them.

That is a hard one to deal with sensitively and in a caring way while also seeking to be faithful to your new vision of representing the God who is alive in today's world.

Our buildings were usually built in another age. They represent the culture and the customs of a time that has now past. They were the product of an age when truth was passed down to a passive audience—when questions were rarely asked. In this age, often described as post-modern, the culture is quite different. Our buildings need to reflect the real world in which God is present and at work today. It is good to look at a modern shopping centre to see the changes that have emerged since the days of the grocer's store at the corner to the open welcoming supermarket of today.

We must also look at our buildings to see if they reflect as relevant a witness to their purpose and function.

Essence or tool?

Are our buildings of the essence of the church or are they really simply some of the tools by which we declare God's good news for the world? If our buildings are part of our equipment rather than the essence of what we are about we may see that they may need to be drastically changed or even dispensed with. How much time, effort and resources could be released in some church settings if people were freed from commitment to buildings that have just become inanimate museums witnessing to a past age and a dead culture.

If the church of the future is to retain buildings as a visible, tangible expression of who we are and what we are on about they must be carefully modified. Their outward appearance and inward functionality must faithfully declare who we are and must facilitate our true nature and purpose. As our understanding of ministry is changing so must our understanding of how we use our buildings. Some simple issues that have been recognised for some time are:

* It is a much more faithful model of the Christian community when we set out the table in the centre and let it symbolize the presence of Christ among us.

* Put the seats (perhaps new seats, not pews) in some kind of circle around the table. People who are nervous about going "out front" to take part are much more relaxed when there is no "out front".

* A carpet on the floor makes the meeting place so much warmer and more welcoming. It also reduces noise and so facilitates more speaking involvement among the people.

* Fresh paint on dull old walls can make a huge difference.

* Glass doors and the ability to 'see in' opens up what otherwise can look formidable or like a secret society. Using glass partitions to enclose part of an old church can make for a more intimate worship space while at the same time creating a more adequate meeting and greeting area. Many reinvigorated church buildings have installed a small kitchen in this kind of area.

* Have an attractive notice board that gives welcoming information that is accurate and up-to-date. Are you impressed by crumbling, worn out, out-of-date notice boards when you are travelling? Look critically at your building with the eyes of a younger, non-church person and think about suitable changes. Let your buildings say something about the living God who is present in today's kind of world.

4. Membership

And what is the basis of membership in such a group of followers? Attendance at church? Name on a roll? Association with a congregation?

For some large churches the essential basis for membership is likely to be defined by involvement in a small group or cell. Here people are committed to each other's growth and development in life and faith. Pastoral care automatically takes place and the groups all get together from time to time to celebrate Christ, celebrate the faith and celebrate what they have in common.

In many small churches the whole congregation actually functions as the small group. Dave's book Ecclesion—the Small Church with a Vision is based on this concept. Any community in which every person can know and be known by every other person in the group is known to experts in group theory as a "single cell" community. A church of this size is able to meet the needs set out in the foregoing paragraph if it is prepared to orient its life around them. If you try to play "big church" with a small congregation in a large meeting space, it usually fails.

Whatever we do, the call of the Christ of the Gospel must be the starting point and the focus. The involvement of people in the call and the celebration is at the core. A realization that every member is in ministry brings new dynamism and effectiveness.

Remember: we are called to be Jesus people to the world and to demonstrate the way of Jesus. We are invited to so celebrate Him; to so love each other; to so care for those in greatest need in the world; that the world's pain and struggle is relieved. These kinds of qualities will be more and more evident in membership rolls that are realistic.

Clusters

Some are finding that being part of a "cluster" or group of shared ministry congregations can provide considerable support and encouragement.

This can be especially true if the cluster is served by one enabler. From time to time the enabler may help you arrange special events for the cluster so you can get together in a larger group and be inspired and encouraged by a specially invited guest preacher and feel the strength of a larger groups celebrating Jesus Christ together.

A variation may be to have a part-time ordained minister working in one large congregation but also providing enabler ministry to a team in a neighbouring small congregation. The risk with any enabler appointment that is situated close to the shared ministry congregation is that the latter can easily perceive the enabler as "their" minister. A physical separation is desirable so that the team is clearly seen as the ministry support for a shared ministry congregation.

In some situations a better result may be achieved by having two adjacent clusters with a mix of both stipendiary ministry and team ministry. Then the stipendiary minister in one cluster could provide enablement ministry in the other and vice versa.
10

# **Da** **ngers**

There are some pitfalls which you can easily fall into as you embark on this new journey. You are solemnly invited to BEWARE—

Drifting

It often happens.

Our minister has been gone for a year. So we are just trying to carry on. We "dob" people in to run the services. We phone around to find visiting preachers. We try and find a retired minister who is prepared to travel the distance and conduct communion.

We seem to manage OK for a while. But interest drops and people get weary, very weary.

This is not what shared ministry is about. That is just struggling to retain the status quo. You have to stop, rediscover who you are and start a whole new way of being church.

Leaving it too late

In this context we have to say that there is a real danger that you can leave your choice too late. Some small churches have resisted making a deliberate choice to change things and then have drifted so long that they have lost the option of a creative future.

In a very small congregation it takes only the loss of two or three key members to reduce the membership to the point where sufficient potential is just not available to take the initiative to change.

In others, of course, the resignation or removal of one or two who have rooted objections may be what is needed to open up the way for creative developments.

Becoming Bible-Bashing Christians

That insulting name is for people who harass others and think they should and must force their faith on people. That is not what being a team of ministers is about. The word "minister" means servant. Your calling is humbly to live out the richness of your faith in caring service of others. Then you may earn the right to express that faith in words—if people ask you to.

Getting off on a tangent

There are many distortions of the Christian faith. It is easy to be misled by an articulate person with strong and convincing views.

You may be aware that this happened very readily in the early church; a lot of the letters in the Second Testament warn against falling away from the main stream of the faith.

That is another reason why we have an enabler. Her/his theological training gives a wider informed view of many facets of the faith. One of the most important of the enabler's tasks is to help you to remain faithful to the mainstream faith of churches of our tradition. When there are differing views keep the lines open and talk things through.

Going it alone

Some congregations don't go wildly astray in their theology or practice but just gradually lose touch with the parent denominations to which they once owned allegiance. This is particularly likely to happen in small communities where there is only one protestant church and denominational loyalties were already fairly fragile.

Again, the presence of an enabler should help to maintain the connections that are so important in helping a small congregation have the sense of being one with the wider church. It is not just a denominational matter: every congregation understands itself a little better as it recognises its place within the greater worldwide church of Jesus Christ.

"Dumbing down"

At a late stage in the writing of this book one of the authors was reminded of the tendency for congregations without professional ministry to come to accept inferior theological and academic standards in preaching and teaching.

This is not an argument for sermons that are academically sound but fail to touch people's hearts. It is a challenge to fledgling preachers to avail themselves of every opportunity to better equip themselves for the preaching task. And it is a challenge to enablers to ensure that preachers and team members are helped to apply to their ministry all of the vast range of resources so readily available these days.

With excellent background material made available in printed and electronic form these days there is no excuse for preachers to become lazy and congregations to become ill-informed about the biblical, historical and theological foundations on which mainline churches stand.

Becoming self-centred

How easy it is to get so caught up in ourselves and our own lives and interests that we can, unintentionally exclude others. That is the opposite of our calling in Christ. The invitation to live out the Christian life means that we will be geared to include others at every point and make them feel important and valued.

Sometimes small churches say, "We are a very friendly church", but not infrequently it happens that their friendliness extends only to each other and others can't break in.

Writing reports

Here's another warning from Bay of Islands. During the three years without an enabler they developed a very heavy emphasis on writing reports for their regular team meetings, for two-monthly parish council and Annual Meeting.

This is already proving a disincentive for some new people to entertain a call; one or two have said "But I couldn't write those kinds of reports." Furthermore, scrutiny of these reports reveals that they often include work that is not connected to the ministry roles as defined in the job descriptions.

The Team meeting exists to help and support its members to become progressively more effective in their ministry, not just to report what they are doing. The ability to write reports should not be allowed to become a requirement of candidates for this ministry.

Wearing out with exhaustion

Yes, it is quite constant and the calls on your time and energy are considerable. You all need to work out your priorities and make sure your lives are a healthy balance. But, having said that, in this new paradigm you set your goal of being Christ's people in the community and then do what you can handle to fulfil it as best you can. Don't try to do everything and don't be afraid to drop old structures and meetings so you have energy for the real tasks. Your enabler should help you sort out your priorities and affirm your decisions to give some things up.

Becoming smug

Sometimes you can be so pleased with your new life and achievements that you can become critical or intolerant of others who are on a different journey or who are struggling to get it together.

This strategy for ministry not necessarily appropriate for every situation. If it has worked for you, be grateful. If you are invited to share your experience with others, do so with conviction. But if others seem less than enthusiastic about following the model, don't feel rejected or threatened. It's their business. In matters of mission and ministry, every congregation has to work out its own salvation. Be aware of the dangers—but don't be intimidated by them. Be yourselves in the Spirit and God will bless your ministry.

Professional problems?

Another area of concern is not so much for the congregations which might think of embarking on this journey as much as for the body of professional ministers who see the threat of redundancy in these strategies.

We cannot state too strongly how inappropriate this fear is. In the first place, congregations which undertake ministry on the lay team model will generally be small and, in the worst sense of that term, no longer viable. These are congregations which a few years ago the same ministers might have been encouraging to close down and merge with others. There is no great threat of job loss here, only the exciting challenge of finding life and hope where there was once only the prospect of death by decree or exhaustion.

Secondly, we cannot forbear to note that the availability of stipended professionals to meet existing needs in every place is shrinking. That there is no evidence that having small congregations opt for lay ministry strategy is doing anything but easing this critical situation.

Thirdly, we affirm that this strategy is founded upon the assumption that the denominations can lay their hands on substantial numbers of highly trained, theologically articulate, experienced ministry enablers. Their work will be, in many ways, much more demanding than that of paid ministry in a traditional congregation.

Many of these enablers will be engaged on a part-time basis while also ministering in the traditional way to other larger churches. The strategy will thus make it possible for some medium sized churches to be able to find the part-time ministry they need as well as providing enablement for some small congregations.

We believe that we are calling for a whole new approach to ministry formation and theological education. Ministers who can grasp this possibility need have to anxiety about their ongoing usefulness in the exciting new church of the future.

Role Creep

Mead coined this phrase in another context but it serves well to describe a situation that could become a problem.

A lay ministry strategy inevitably places demands on some members of the team more than some others. Some require more assistance with specific educational needs than others. Some have much more time than others to give to their ministry roles and easily find themselves doing other things as well.

The strategy therefore has the potential to develop the capacities of one or two individuals while others on the team become less involved.

Sometimes the very effectiveness of an individual means that he or she is allowed to take up an increasingly larger part of the total work. Then when others leave the team there seems to be no need to replace them and the one or two may eventually wind up doing everything themselves.

They may do it extraordinarily well and the congregation may be very happy with the situation. But this is a reversion to the traditional model of one "expert" instead of a mutual, shared responsibility.

Whether the individuals are paid or voluntary, trained or relatively untrained makes no difference. When ministry is focussed in the hands of only one or two individuals it has been given back to the cavalry.
11

# **App** **endices**

Now follow some samples of key materials that have been used in setting up and maintaining actual local ministry teams in various places.

Here is a covenant with a ministry enabler. Notice that, in this case, four parties are involved, the responsible church body, the parish, the team and, of course, the ministry enabler.

Covenant with a Ministry Enabler

Reflecting the principle that ministry through a Lay volunteer Team rather than through stipendiary ministry is authorised by the resolution of a specific arm of the wider church, .............

(The Enabler ) is covenanted with .............

(the responsible body)

* to provide appropriate education, ministry formation and supervision so that the Team's ministry is delivered in the most appropriate and competent ways;

* to be accountable to the responsible body for the performance of the Team and the life of the Parish;

* to take responsibility for promoting the personal development of the necessary knowledge, skills and personal characteristics for the members of the team to be growing in effectiveness in ministry;

* to be a wider church presence in the Team, normally attending its meetings.

The responsible body will provide channels through which the enabler can report and will offer personal supervision as required.

Reflecting the principle that Lay Team Ministry is essentially a ministry that is called, developed and continued through the initiatives of the local congregation(s), the enabler is covenanted with the ....................... (Parish)

* to provide an independent link between the Parish and the denominational structures around it.

* to provide authority, information and practical assistance to the parish council by passing on church requirements and reading parish council Minutes and visiting and/or chairing meetings and/or other Parish events if and when invited or required.

* to provide invoices for a fee per evening or half-day visit (details to be negotiated) plus car allowance at standard rates.

* to be responsible for such planning and "calling" events as are necessary to maintain the team and the lay ministry strategy.

The Parish welcomes the appointment of the enabler and undertakes to meet its commitment under this covenant.

Reflecting the principle that the enabler is a full member of the Ministry Team, s/he is covenanted with the Team—

* to provide for the team the function of supervision that is expected of all who are in ministry;

* to give personal support and consultancy to individual team members as and when required;

* to observe the same high standards of loyalty and full team participation as are expected of other members of the team;

* to be the team's advocate to parish council and other bodies if and when required.

The Team welcomes the appointment of the enabler and pledges itself to work together for the best good of the parish.

(Signed by all parties) Here is a covenant that has been used for the whole Team. This is for a Co-operating Venture that functions under the Guidelines for the Uniting Congregations of Aotearoa—New Zealand.

Covenant for a Local Ministry Team

The local ministry team consists of a small number of people who are called by a distinctive procedure and commissioned to exercise particular ministries in the life of a congregation. They are chosen for their potential as leaders, their personal commitment to the parish and the Gospel, their loyalty to the wider church and their capacity and willingness to work as a team.

All team members are the kinds of leaders who are described by the GUIDE TO PROCEDURES (published by the Uniting Congregations) as—possessing gifts and qualities which make them clearly suitable for the work: faithful in their attendance at public worship, known in the congregations for their Christian faith and love, their reliability and competence, their discernment and good judgment—.

Each member of the Ministry Team is covenanted to

* Joint responsibility for parish ministry;

* Particular responsibility for the functions described in their individual job descriptions;

* Theological reflection on the mission of the parish and their individual roles within this;

* Attending at least XX team meetings and YY parish council meetings each year;

* Undertaking the specific responsibilities outlined in their ministry covenants and other tasks as agreed with parish council from time to time;

* Maintaining a watching brief on official correspondence relating to their individual roles;

* Reporting to parish council on their areas of concern The parish council will provide team members with

* The assurance of the council's support for their ministry under the covenant;

* Necessary educational resources to equip them for ministry;

* An ex officio seat on parish council with full voting rights; Agreed financial costs of fulfilling the work to which they are appointed.

All the foregoing wording is part of each person's covenant. A sample description of one possible ministry now follows. This "job description" may be amended more readily if it is not integrated into the covenant itself. This one is for the person who supports the congregation's ministry of service and community outreach.

Community Outreach and Service:

This team member:

* Develops and co-ordinates the ministry of the congregation to its wider communities, local, national and international;

* Seeks to raise members' awareness of their ministry, including the care of families who are not directly involved in the church;

* Initiates specific service e.g. home hospitality to visitors, "Drop in" centres, Food bank, Hospital visiting—all through joint church action where possible;

* Ensures that the parish is represented in appropriate joint community enterprises of service and outreach;

* Develops communication with the wider community through public relations, civic and public events, etc;

* May offer appropriate "secular" celebrations of funerals/weddings for non-church families;

* Studies and reports on issues relating to church and society and co-ordinates the social justice voice of the parish to government, etc.

A leaflet

Now here is the complete text of a leaflet that has been widely used to promote the concept of the local ministry team. It touches, very briefly, on most of the major principles involved in establishing local shared ministry.

The Local Ministry Team Setting

The local ministry team is not a "last resort" for a congregation that is not able to work any other way but it is a genuine alternative to stipendiary ministry.

It assumes that the congregation—* is doing this as a calculated long-term strategy rather than a short-term "temporary fix";

* is going to take responsibility for its own life and mission;

* has the people resources and the authority to put in place necessary ministry through a Lay Team;

* will do this within the regulations of the parent denomination(s);

* will be given adequate support and assistance.

Costs?

The congregation will budget to meet

* expenses of the ministry team;

* education, ministry formation and enabler expenses as determined by the parent church(es).

The Sacraments?

In appropriate circumstances, Presbyterian and Methodist congregations are able to request that specific individuals be authorised to administer the sacraments in settings such as a Lay Ministry Team. Ordination is not a requirement but proper authorisation certainly is and may usually be accomplished without difficulty.

What Ministries are there?

This is up to the calling commission which calls the team into being.

Bay of Islands has five team members; they, with a nod to the Presbyterian component of their constitution, call them "elders".

They have fairly specific job descriptions and each elder is covenanted to work specifically in these areas: Worship, Pastoral Care, Business, Education, Tourism & Outreach During some periods over the seven years the team has had only four elders. They have simply re-arranged the duties into new job descriptions. However, five or six is probably about right for a parish of 40-45 members and more than one congregation.

Forming the Team

The full membership of the congregations of parish will meet with a national or district facilitator for a major calling commission in which the various roles of ministry are clarified and grouped into job descriptions.

Members then vote in secret for the people they feel should fill each position. These votes are NOT counted but are dedicated and later examined by the national or district leadership and individuals are sent letters inviting them to accept a call to specific ministries. This calling letter states the job description, the expectations of the position and offers educational and other support, including an offer that all other positions held by the called person should be subject to review.

If a single individual is to be replaced and the parish has recently been through the full calling commission process the voting may possibly be carried out by mail among the membership.

However it is done, the voting process is very intentional but it does not bind the district executive who may well have other issues to take into account.

Those who are called in this way have a special and different relationship with their congregations and the wider church. This is marked in a special commissioning service on each occasion.

Experience in many congregations confirms that when the call comes in this way people will take it more seriously and prayerfully than if they are simply co-opted or appointed in the traditional fashion or even if they volunteer. Indeed, it often turns out that those who are willing to volunteer are not always the best to handle any particular ministry.

Autonomy of team members

We encourage individual elders to take as much initiative in their work as possible but to consult regularly in team meetings. We suggest that they should report briefly on what they have done and intend to do and, particularly, on items in which they need some support or assistance.

Team Meetings

As well as the elders' reports there is always brief worship, a time of team-building and a session on ministry formation or education.

Relations with parish council?

Parish council makes policy decisions; the team implement them and may also bring forward proposals for consideration. We think of the team as being the hands and feet and voice of parish council. But, because they are covenanted servants of the parish and the wider church, elders should probably not have a vote when decisions are made.

What happens to the funds?

Some churches which have adopted alternatives to stipendiary ministry have found that their giving has decreased to match the reduced level of need.

It is important for a congregation to look to new ways of using its financial resources in creative outreach and service. In the ten years after establishing Local Shared Ministry, the Bay of Islands parish gave more than 50% of its $25000 annual giving to outside causes, most of which could never have been supported before.

What about education?

The parent church(es) will have specific requirements of people who are called into ministry but these can usually be met in the local setting. A normal requirement is a frequent meeting of the team and its enabler. Personal supervision might also be expected of those who work in the pastoral setting.

A commitment to ongoing education is normally a condition of acceptance of a call to ministry in a lay team in the same way as it is for clergy.

Who can be called?

Anyone who is

* in membership in the congregation

* perceived by a large number of members as having the graces and skills for the role proposed

* considered by the calling authority (Uniting Churches Council, or * denominational body responsible for the parish) to be a fit and proper person for ministry.

This six-panel A4 leaflet may be ordered free from P O Box 353, Paihia, 0252 NZ and copied.

Anglican Handbook

Another excellent summary is the Anglican Diocese of Auckland handbook Developing Local Shared Ministry in the Diocese of Auckland.

# **A** **bout the Author**

Retired Presbyter of Methodist Church of New Zealand. Passionate pioneer in Local Shared Ministry, consultant in small churches, publisher of niche market books, producer of prosumer video, deviser of murder mystery dinners and former private pilot.

Dave trained for the Methodist Ministry at Trinity Theological College and eventually completed MA, Dip Ed as well. He and Bev married just before his first appointment in Ngatea where their two children arrived. They went on to Panmure and Taumarunui. Longer terms followed at Dunedin Central Mission and the Theological College. During this time he was also involved as co-founder and second national President of Family Budgeting Services and adviser to the (government) Minister of Social Welfare in Home Budgeting.

Dave's final four "working" years were part-time, developing the first Presbyterian or Methodist Local Shared Ministry unit in this country and promoting the concept overseas. Retirement has brought a whole lot more opportunities and challenges including publication of over 100 books of which he wrote about ten and a blog in which he tries to write fairly seriously on a range of topics.

An ongoing adventure with prostate cancer brought Bev and Dave to the Hibiscus Coast Residential Village near Auckland in 2014 but in early 2015 his immediate prospects seem much improved.

Contact Dave

colcom.press@clear.net.nz

davemullan35@gmail.com

Visit Dave on

<http://dave-mullan.blogspot.com>**  
**<http://www.colcompress.com>

Dave's books on church and ministry

**Diakonia and the Moa**. Although published in 1983 this book offers a distinctive understanding of the role of the "permanent" Deacon in the modern church. A5 170p From: Trinity College, 202 St John's Rd, Meadowbank, Auckland. trinitycollege@stjohns.auckland.ac.nz ISBN 0-9597775-0-4

**Ecclesion — The Small Church with a Vision.** Reflections on the contemporary church and suggestions for revival of the small church in vigorous new styles of Sunday church life, mission and ministry. This book introduces the thinking behind the Lay Ministry Team concept developed for Methodists and Presbyterians in the Bay of Islands Co-operating Parish in 1992. It is being completely revised and updated for e-publication in 2015. A5 140p 978-908815-08-5

**Fresh New Ways — Emerging Models for Mission and Ministry in the Local Congregation**. Ed. Dave Mullan. Papers and reflections from a significant Australian conference, this book details (a) new structures for the church or parish and (b) innovative styles of ministry. A5 130p From: Trinity College, 202 St John's Rd, Meadowbank, Auckland. trinitycollege@stjohns.auckland.ac.nz ISBN 0-908815-76-X

**Koru and Covenant** : With J J Lewis and L.W. Willing. This book offers biblical reflections in Aotearoa and notes some links between the Christianity of the 19th Century Maori and the religion of the Hebrew Scriptures. Warmly commended by authoritative reviewers and some years after publication still very relevant. A5 120p. 120p From: Trinity College, 202 St John's Rd, Meadowbank, Auckland. trinitycollege@stjohns.auckland.ac.nz ISBN 0-908815-60-3

**Mital-93—The Church's Ministry in Tourism and Leisure.** Ed: Dave Mullan Presentations at an Australian Conference are supported by dozens of flax roots ideas that have helped. "A fascinating study... an enabling resource" (Pat Gilberd). 82p. 220p From: Trinity College, 202 St John's Rd, Meadowbank, Auckland. trinitycollege@stjohns.auckland.ac.nz ISBN 0-908815-22-8

**The Cavalry won't be coming (Print version of this e-book)**. Dave Mullan. Introduction to the concept of Local Shared Ministry in which a team of volunteers spearhead the mission of the small church which is discovering that all the resources for ministry are held within its own membership. First edition still available but being revised in 2015. A5 134p, From: Trinity College, 202 St John's Rd, Meadowbank, Auckland. trinitycollege@stjohns.auckland.ac.nz ISBN 0-908815-99-1

As indicated, these books are available from Trinity Methodist Theological College, Auckland.

trinitycollege@stjohns.auckland.ac.nz

Dave's other general books

**A Small Qango** Dave's account of the Home Budgeting Advisory Committee to the NZ Minister of Social Welfare, 1978-1988. This small committee had 120 meetings and ran seminars, consultations and training events. It functioned like to no other Quasi-Autonomous Government Organisation with a degree of independence that left some of the Head Office boffins breathless. It achieved huge financial support for family budgeting volunteers throughout the country. e-book only: 978-1-877357-17-6

**Attwood of Hepburn Creek**. The life of Thomas William Attwood, who settled in the Mahurangi 1907, initiated the NZ Fruitgrowers' Federation and represented NZ fruitgrowing interests in South America and UK 1923-1925 and then went on to found the NZ Alpine and Rock Garden Society. Lady Anne Allum of Auckland was his daughter. A5. 134p. ISBN 1-877357-01-4

**In and Out of Sync.** Dave's life story up to 2013. Extracted from a more substantial text, this book presents Dave's personal family background and professional life and ministry. Reviewers have said it offers a significant and insightful view of the Methodist Church of New Zealand in a turbulent and challenging time. A5 220p. ISBN 1-877357-10-3

**John Roulston, Grazier of Calkill & Runnymede**. With Val Mullan of Brisbane. Our attempt to trace the life of the mysterious and very distant relation from the Upper Brisbane Valley. He left a fortune to family members in four countries when he died in 1929. Most of them had never met him. A5. 122p. ISBN 1-877357-00-6

**The Almost Attwoods.** Ed Dave Mullan. Personal stories of the 143 descendants in the first three generations from James and Emma Attwood of Lewisham. A5. 220p. ISBN 978-1-877357-4-9

**The Saga of Wasp (Print Version of this e-book).** Revised and enlarged collection of Dave's short stories, 2014. Some include significant historical material from his early working life with the New Zealand Forest Service. But all were written mainly for fun. Also available as epub, 2015 180p ISBN 978-877357-12-X

These books are available from ColCom Press stock or printing on demand. Some are soon to be made available in eBook format through Smashwords

Contact Dave

colcom.press@clear.net.nz

<http://www.colcompress.com>****

Other ColCom Books

During the last 25 years Dave has published well over one hundred titles for other writers under the imprint of ColCom Press. Most were done in very short runs for niche markets and were delivered to the authors. Some may be still retrievable in some form in 2015.
