I have been thinking about how to bring about significant improvement in churches. Operating strategically, through the School of Formation, and being impatient for progress by nature I want to help make a difference rapidly to the practice of ministry, especially in austerity when the need for churches to serve their communities is even greater.
I thought about providing training to encourage and enable local ministry teams and certainly have not ruled this out. However training teams to lead and enable others to improve ministry feels a touch top down, remote, and slow. What is needed is a rapid improvement model at least I think it is.
The collaborative breakthrough model is well-known in bringing about rapid improvements in health care. I’m thinking about trying to apply it to help improve how churches in Somerset support their communities as they face the consequences of the economic austerity measures being applied by the government.
If anyone has experience of using the breakthrough approach in church settings or of using it in health care and has lessons to share please get in touch.
I was taking to someone yesterday who said that when they were very small they went into a church and prayed that when they grew up they would become a church musician. After so many years of education and training they felt they had achieved their aim.
Today, when there is rarely a job for life in the secular world, and younger people acquire a basket of skills before thinking of how to use them, I wonder if the sense of ministerial calling has changed from being called to a particular vocation to exercising a variety of ministry roles at different times.
If this were to be the case, I wonder what it says about the purposes and methods of being Church?
In a workshop last Saturday, we had been also been looking at the experience in Exile and the challenges of living in a strange land.
I asked groups from rural churches to think about their hopes for the future. Recalling the returning exiles were disappointed I asked them to be as realistic as possible.
One group said they were not going to compromise their faith in a largely secular land, rather they were going to both make a noise that God is still here in rural villages and to give themselves even more fully to serving others in the life of the rural community.
Making a noise in a strange land and giving yourselves to others spoke to me about people who feel confidently taken hold of by God, blessed by God, and both opened outwards, as the bread that is broken and given in communion to those alongside whom they live.
we looked at this this morning as a team and thought it was great
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
I am sharing this for two reasons:
1) the style of presentation is totally captivating and makes you listen and
2) it poses key questions about how we are helping people learn and develop for contemporary society
Over the last few months I have run seven seminars on church development planning for teams of three people from parishes/benefices with the aim enabling them to lead a local planning process. Over 100 people from some 75 parishes came. The event have been well received and plans are starting to be developed.
The church development planning processes involves looking at the journey of faith in the parish so far, looking at the communities served by the Church, looking at how God has gifted the Church, creating a vision of the journey ahead and deciding the immediate steps on that journey.
Feedback from one parish has been
‘We held a successful on Saturday, but found that we needed a few hours more to complete the full agenda. We’ve produced a wonderful village map and decades frieze (soon to go up in the Church), and also did some community profiling. However we ran out of time at that stage, prior to compiling of the tasks and their assignments. But we fully intend to have the second session soon.’
Besides producing a plan the process also grows relationships amongst the Church and its understanding of those around it.
We have decided in the School of Formation to use the term learning networks rather than communities of practice though our endeavours will be informed by the theory and emergent evaluated practices of communities of practice. We are aiming to develop a learning network for Church Treasurers over the next few months and also one for Church Wardens. These are clear church roles, the real challenge will be develop learning networks for emerging lay ministries and perhaps for people who say I am a Christian, rather than I am a Treasurer etc
I wonder what new lay ministries God is calling people into and what they are called?
Electronic contact is a key feature of a network, though this does not preclude face to face meetings once in a while, indeed gathering to found a learning network will surely help with giving one life. I’d be really pleased to hear about experiences of being in Christian learning networks/communities of practice and tips of what gives them life would be gratefully received
We are thinking through what it means to be the learning communities team in the School of Formation and what part communities of practice may play in our support to parishes and benefices.
There is much on the web about communities of practice in industry and the public sector but nothing about their contribution to Church development. Any examples of Christian communities of practice would be gratefully received.
Steve’s back with some news from his hols traveling the world to find other Annandales!
Joe Annandale is the matai or chief of a district, which includes Poutasi, a village in Samoa. It is a responsibility he takes very seriously indeed, looking after his entire extended family of hundreds, by developing employment opportunities and supporting those in need. I spent much of August in the South Pacific visiting family, (yes
I’m really lucky!) and Joe and I were talking about the challenges facing Samoa. Samoa seeks to develop
economically and to maintain its culture and values focused on the family, and serving one another and the community.
The Samoan archipelago is situated in the Polynesian part of the Pacific. At the beginning of the 20th century, the island group was divided in two by the USA and Germany. The western part was attributed to Germany and came under the control of New Zealand in 1914. Western Samoa became the first independent Pacific nation in 1962.
It changed its name to Samoa in 1997. Samoa consists of two large and four small islands. Land tenure is communal, according to Samoan custom. The economy is based on agriculture, fishing, growing tourism and some processing industry.
There are churches everywhere in Samoa, almost every mile or so it seemed to me and come Sunday they are filled to the brim by families. There are Protestant churches, Congregational and Methodist, the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church and several smaller Pentecostal and other churches. ‘If we can continue to learn and live by Christian values’, continued Joe, ‘ it will help us benefit from economic development and preserve community life and our traditions.’ Joe is a man of enormous integrity and commitment. May God continue to sustain him and others like him in Samoa as they grapple both to change and sustain their communities.
I have been reading ‘Mission-shaped and rural’ by Sally Gaze (Church House publishing 2006). I think it is inspiring and challenging. It taught me to see in a new light, and more clearly, what it means to be called to grow into the likeness of Christ.
God sent Jesus to become a human being ‘one of us’ –so this means I’m called to become like those to whom I’m sent. This means sharing in the everyday lives of those I live and work alongside. It does not need adopting the culture of those to whom I’m sent uncritically. Rather I’m asked to identify with it lovingly and at the same time where need be to stand against it. I’m not just an individual here but I’m also part of the church and the church needs to do this more also.
I’m challenged and reminded that the ‘Great Commission,’ ‘Matthew 28:1820, is about going. (The gospel begins with Go!). So we as churches need to go where people are and listen and engage.
In following Jesus’ way of ministering I/we/churches must to be prepared to sacrifice and to die. Sally Gaze refers to churches ‘dying to live’ and sees one aspect of this as those mature in faith making sacrifices rather than sacrifices being made by those just beginning to explore the Christian faith.
For me this asks me to move out of my comfort zone.
Perhaps it means I need to be willing to give up some of the services I have always liked so others newer to faith may have what helps them find God. I’m sure it also means greater sacrifice too.
What might ‘dying to live’ mean to you and the church you attend?
In my local church we had our annual meeting immediately following parish communion at which the gospel reading had been the Emmaus Road
Jesus’ encounter with the two disciples was a transforming encounter for them. He comes up and walks beside them. He talks with them as they walk. He opens their eyes. They see him anew, they see themselves anew, and the world anew. They turn around and go back to Jerusalem
This was a transformation as Jesus walked, talked, and helped them see.
A question asked at our meeting was ‘ What is it that we as a church have to turnaround to face and to go back to rather than pressing ahead in our direction?’
For us we have to face
- difficult numbers; the high average age of the congregation, the relative paucity people keen to take up leadership positions, and our perilous finances
- the perception in our wider community about the lack of relevance of the church
We pray as we face these we will find Jesus walking with us, talking with us and showing us the path he would have us follow. Whatever it is it will a path of transformation for the whole church.
Jennifer
Graham
Steve
Yvonne
Dawn
