Having fun with figures

I’ve been working this week on a directed learning pack for new Church Treasurers. The aim is to help with the preparation of the annual accounts needed for PCC meetings and APCMs.  The case study is set in January and you are the new Treasurer inheriting some papers and a set of activities and costs. The task is to produce a receipts and payments account and a statement of assets and liabilities for the year just ended.

Working through the exercise, testing it out with others, making sure the question is framed in such a way that those completing it can work out the answer and get the figures in the right place, is what I have been doing.

Hardly ever has life been such fun! Seriously there is something delightful when the figures balance!

Being ourselves given to the community

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.

Ever been bored by a lecture?

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

Church development planning

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.

Learning networks

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

Managing time – Are lay people volunteers?

I ran a managing time course yesterday for curates in another diocese. Delegation came up as an issue and the term volunteer was used for lay people. I have come across and indeed used it myself often. This time it jarred. Thinking about it on the spot with the curates, I also linked it to my other work on helping Churches develop plans.

I ventured that if a Church sees itself as either helping the priest with his or her work or sees planning in a business model, involving forming vision, developing strategy, writing project or action plans, then it often ends up looking for people to volunteer to do the work.

However if a Church sees itself as first growing members relationship with God and each other, and looks for how God has already gifted members and spots what people feel  passionate about or are called towards, the vision and plans that emerge are qualitatively different, and committed Christians step forward in love and service.

Of course sometimes clergy and church leaders do need to look for people to volunteer for gaps that unexpectedly have arisen. Gap filling and volunteer seeking does not however feel the best strategy in the long run.

Investing more time in relationship building, and gifts and vocation discernment that mobilises lay people seems more in keeping with what it means to be Church.

Volunteers may walk away when the going gets tough. Committed Christians living out their calling and vocation are more likely to continue.

Time spent growing commitment rather than searching for volunteers seems time well spent to me.

Sermons are conversations

Last Tuesday, the first of the Cathedral Lent evenings took place. The title was  Interpreting Scripture for Sermons: how to make the most of sermons. I was invited to be part of this with the Reader training team. On the evening we had a conversation, with the audience listening first and they then had the opportunity to ask questions. We often forget that a sermon is in fact a conversation – a conversation, which involves us in listening as well as responding to God’s word. The Reader training course is based on the four fold action of the Eucharist. It involves taking the Word, giving thanks for the Word, breaking the Word and sharing the Word.  At the Lent evening the audience had the opportunity to ask questions.

How do we engage in this conversation when we listen to a sermon? Does the conversation continue beyond Sunday morning?

Jennifer

On the road with Easter People

We’ve been down on keeping the website up to date recently, partly through being on the road so much – it’s been a very busy period and partly because we had a couple of computer problems. Nevertheless we’re back and up again. Just finished the Easter People course at Taunton, which I really enjoyed teaching. Jennifer took the first session with Madeleine a Reader in the Cathedral, then I was involved. The people from the lmg were delightful and the course seemed to go well. Looking forward to Easter, in Lent, but through Easter eyes was really interesting

Easter People

We’re holding a lent course at Worle at the moment called Easter people – It’s not the Methodist course by the same name, but one which explores the resurrection appearances of Jesus (see this blog Jan 8). We piloted it in locking last year. The interesting thing is that here we are in the season of preparation, self denial and moving towards the cross and the theme is the resurrection! It begs the question how much we can concentrate on the Easter experience from the ‘other side’ of the cross in the lead up to the Easter weekend. It’ll be interesting to see.

Making ethical decisions

I just got back from my weekend at STETS in Salisbury. The focus of the weekend was ethics and after hearing about the different theories such as moral relativism and realism, deontological, consequentialist and virtue ethics we had an opportunity to understand the theories through practical application. For the Saturday, three of our group brought case studies of ethical issues they experienced in their workplace – what is the connection between Jersey being a tax haven and third world poverty, a decision making process when considering withdrawing  intensive care and the dilemma of a solicitor arguing a case which conflicted with their integrity.

There are no easy answers but working with real life examples gave us some insight into some of the processes we go through when we have difficult decisions to make.