Mini manifesto part two!

I have edited this post as it was posted in haste and grammatically a bit rough in places! I hope it now scans in the brain better and the ideas expressed are not clouded, but more clear. Thank you for reading it.

HBT 30/10/14
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Just a brief word on the previous posting where I suggested rekindling the title of Provost, simply because after scratching my head for several years now I can not think of another title for the overseer's  that has both historic pedigree and gives a clean break with other current "job titles".  Ministers need saving from themselves and the expectations which local oversight of multiple faith communities engenders. A break gives permission for a faith community, in this case in my church tradition, to stop kidding itself that the overseers role is simply a form of "business as usual", but with extra responsibilities. It is not. As I have posted earlier, no one man or woman can fulfill the traditional role, a role which in many communities is as redundant as the now disappeared society that created it...... There mini soap-box session concluded. On with the next bit, which begins with wasps!

Cuboid wasps nest! Care to guess why?

My parents live in the countryside in central England. Earlier this Summer they had a wasp problem. The source was identified and dealt with, but amazingly the wasps HQ is as square as a shoe-box! Why have the wasps, who usually build such beautiful rounded nests chosen this new cuboid form? Have they discovered a branch of 20th C art?! The truth is that the wasps started building their nest in a bird's nesting box and after filling the box just kept on building outside following the same pattern and scaffolding structure they had started with, corners and all!

Faith communities can be a bit like this, building with the same pattern over and over again, despite the context in which construction takes place changing.

2. Developing "healthy" faith communities: a new tool kit!

So on one hand I have made my pitch for the emerging role of "Provost" (or Benefice  Dean, whatever else you might call it) to be recognised. On the other hand local faith communities themselves, at least in my tradition, need reforming in ways that reflect the "intimacy" circles and will therefore aid community growth, both in the quality and quantity of relationships.

My own tradition, English Anglicanism and to my observation many of my Free church brothers and sisters are struggling in a rural and in many cases urban context. Fewer people practice an active faith and those that do have many pressures in life if young (under 50!) and many options for their time if older (over 50). This means resources of money, time and people hours are often stretched very thin. There is still life in the churches and commitment and a dogged determination to keep the show on the road. There is also a tiredness and a yearning for that other country, just a generation ago when there was more connection between in my case Christian faith communities and the wider community as a whole.

As it is things are as they are. Many programmes for renewal and new "fresh expressions" are available and some are helpful in maintaining the life of faith communities and act as good yeast in the dough of community life, especially where life is tough and marginal.

But I ask myself if in the midst of such plans faith communities are equipped to look at themselves in order to discern if they are functioning as a healthy community, be their faith community a small cell, a gathering of the 12 to 20 committed souls or a larger, wider congregation that reaches out into the local community at many levels.

I also ask if church institutions equip communities and leaders to function with a healthy understanding of what is needful and expected in a situation where multi-centre units are grouped under one overseer. Experience suggests not.

Some interesting work has been done in Australia by the R.C. church (see Rural Theology, Vol 11.1, 2013 p 3-14). Faced with distant outposts a three point strategy has been evolved from the lessons learned through trying to minister with fewer priests. The points are:

1. Lay people take responsibility for administration, planning social events, repairing the church etc.
2. There is a local discernment process to decide who will coordinate the liturgy, pastoral care etc. with candidates being appointed for a set period of time to the roles.
3. Mentoring these individuals and the congregations as a whole is a priority for the priests, covering as they do huge areas.

Some of these ideas are common in many churches; however my suggestion is that in my own tradition the articles of inquiry for the health of a local church are focused on the factors which build up the people side of the church's life. My own tradition places great emphasis on a church having "Wardens" who often carry all these responsibilities and especially if there is not a resident minister/priest, when the priests roles can be added to the "Wardenly" ones. Strangely enough it gets difficult to recruit people to these maxed out roles. 

Could it be that if local faith communities are re-framed in effect as small religious communities the roles of liturgy, admin and pastoral care, maybe a role "bridging" with the wider community be recognised as requirements for a sustainable faith community as a primary matter of course? This might lead to an audit on community life that allows clusters of faith communities to be helped to build structures that encourage the life of the faith community and build conduits for growth into the life of the community.

This could be a tall order for some faith communities, who through serving a small rural community or being within an urban environment that does not recognise the connection between faith and location findpeople  resources are scarce. For example, one of  the parishes in my charge only has a population of 235, quite high compared to some I know, but unable as a community to support any public amenities except a church building and a small village hall. New twin strategies are needed to either help faith communities in a palliative way if they have reached the end of their current mission or encourage them to have a positive ministry as networkers of community life and the keepers of the "local shrine" in a stable yet simple existence.

Upon a time of  vacancy or if there is "pastoral reorganisation" the current processes to explore the way ahead, in my CofE case, need expanding greatly to support, inform and mentor faith communities through the period of transition. Any new overseeing leader also needs training, mentoring and support in their new role from the point of being appointed, as they take up their new post and get established so that expectations of the role of the leader is clear and well understood.

Such a training package needs formulating so that it helps overseeing leaders them reorient their gifts to the new situation they will find themselves in. It might be prudent to consider such training a pre-requisite to applying for such posts; something analogous to the course teachers have to undergo in order to be ready to be appointed headteachers.. To see their ministry through the lens of what is possible due to the dynamics of community life and life as a part of many different and distinct communities. Mentoring and coaching will be an important part of this.

This is a bit wild I suppose and such a people based plan would require institutional churches to set aside resources to invest in such a growth strategy. At a time of reducing human resources there is a nervousness to do this. However I would make it a plea that experimental areas be set up in different contexts, rural, suburban, inner city, in both provinces of my own church (Canterbury and York). This could give evidence to gauge if there are longer term positive effects on the life of faith communities by such a person shaped approach and their impact for the common good in the wider communities they serve. The budget for such a centrally funded strategy I am sure could be found if it can be seen that the signs of some success in terms of a healthy local church are possible.

Intimate, faithful, outward looking, people shaped community life: life in all its fullness.

So come on Bishops & Co. how about it? 

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Well there you are. My Sabbatical finishes now, back to the whirling madness of normal life tomorrow!

I might not post again for some time, until the ever filing "in tray" of life is empty of "urgent and important" stuff. But please, if you want to catch the next posting sign up as a follower (it just means you get an email/tweet/facebook notification etc. when a new post is added). If you have found these Sabbatical ramblings interesting or provocative please tell your friends and colleagues and get them to have a look for themselves. God's blessing be with us all, wherever we might find ourselves to be.... TTFN, Hayboxtheologian aka Simon.

A mini manifesto, part 1... "with only four days of Sabbatical time remaining!

Yes, Time is almost up on the Sabbatical of 21014. It has been a great time, rounded up by a weekend at Greenbelt Festival (a Christian arts and justice festival). John Bell and Owen Jones spoke well, Scargill House provided the anchor for our worship and theater, dance, music, foraging expeditions and a tea ceremony were among the delights experienced.

Holy Communion with a few other people at Greenbelt Festival!

Now on to following up on my thoughts.

I think it is clear that in my faith community, the Church of England, we have for a long time - possibly 400 years or so sought out "Vicars", a fairly uniform brand of leader as the mainstay of the "professional workforce". Since the 1970's volunteer and local ministries have developed to such a great degree that in my own area (Deanery) for example over half the "collars" and way over half those licensed to minister belong to this amazing movement of locally grown faith and ministry. 

It has been customary to consider the "paid" and "volunteer" ministries as distinct in some way. However with the emergence of multi-centre ministries a new dynamic has been added to how people might be selected and trained for the expression of their God given gifts in ministry. A new dynamic is also being experienced by local parish based faith communities as well. To my mind the "instruments of inquiry" that my church uses to access the health of the life of local faith communities has not caught up with these changes.

With a broad brush my instinct suggests that the following directions could be explored as possible avenues for development.

1. How we think of faith community leaders. Recognising the role.

By now, if you have been following this blog for a bit you will have gathered that I believe that those in charge of many centres of faith have a distinct ministry and relate to the communities in a different way to those who work and minister to only one centre.

It follows that in selection, training and at stages of new deployment (i.e. when being placed in a context of multi-centre ministry) the distinct needs, demands and training for this be explicitly stated and budgeted for "up front". Those called to a traditional single centre ministry and those called to pioneer new ventures are beginning to be recognised. To this I would add those who emerge from these two strands or hands of leadership as being called to oversight of many communities in an ongoing collegiate context with other locally based leaders.

Such leaders, especially those with oversight for several centres, three and above seeming to be the point at which the very different dynamics of relationship/intimacy really take effect{ see Francis and Brewster R.T. Vol 10.2 , 2010, p74-5}, have a different role to the traditional "vicar". To help distinguish this different role in the minds of both leaders and those engaged in such ministry it is time for a new job title.

The nature of oversight in multi-centre ministry is both Episcopal and Archidiaconal in nature and as such needs a title that can be grasped by ministers and communities as a whole as being different. This difference helps to decouple traditional "vicar" like expectations from the role and those filling it. Expectations and the understanding of a Bishop, Archdeacon or Rural Dean are broadly understood by those with experience of what in my tradition we call "parish life". All the top contenders for names are taken already, however I would suggest one that has a good historic pedigree and fits the bill as being a role that is both under authority (of Bishop and Archdeacon) and also has a gravity of oversight within a collegiate gathering of those engaged in ministry attached to it. My stellar suggestion, if "Area or Benefice Dean" is a bit of a mouthful is that we drag out of the ecclesiastical loft of discarded and half forgotten stuff the title of Provost.

This might seem startling, but if there is to be a bold, honest adopting of the emerging new patterns of organisation and oversight the role of overseer needs to be recognised as distinct. With a historic pedigree from the earliest days of the church that describes one who has local oversight under the authority of Abbot or Bishop such a title has the weighting that goes with the role. The term is very little used now and historically has been used in my own tradition for new positions of oversight that don't have an immediately obvious choice attached to them.

Such recognition as Provost, one under, but expressing oversight would liberate those in oversight from the often expressed and felt pressure of still bring considered, or trying themselves, to be "vicar" or "minister" to the whole people of the communities they serve and allow them to concentrate on the collegiate faith community support and creative encouragement that growing flourishing faith communities demands. 

Right enough for today! Part two, concentrating on changes in the way local faith communities are structured will follow.

Horses for courses?

Just a quick follow up on the mustard front, the nice French lady who was in charge of the "degustation" of twenty different mustards - and has a stonemason son working on Gloucester Cathedral - told us on the quiet that the four main mustards that "Fallot" produce can be bought at Waitrose cheaper than at the tasting bar!

So, personality types and ministry. I will be a bit "churchy" here, so apologies for those who do not share such an outlook, I hope you still find these thoughts stimulating.

Readers of the Journal "Rural Theology" will have been following the published studies of Leslie Francis and collaborators on this topic right back into the 1990's. Working primarily with surveys of Anglican clergy from the UK and "pioneering" countries, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand results have been distilled using modified Myers-Briggs matrices to see if there is any matching between personality type and facets of rural ministry. In Vol 12:1 (2014) Keith Littler et al. published a paper "Are Rural Clergy Different?", based on a study of Church of Wales clergy that summarised much of this research. The results are as always surprising on one hand and reinforce ones preconceptions on the other. So here is my distilled distillation.... concentrated stuff, but not 100% proof you might say.

Firstly, clergy working in a rural setting are not any different in personality type from clergy in general (including suburban and urban). This is an important fact to grasp as it means that the present cohort of clergy are broadly similar in their profile.

Following this, you are aching to know what that profile is! Well here it is; Anglican clergy twice as likely to be introverts, twice as likely to be sensing types and four times more likely to be judging types than the population as a whole. Conversely this means that they are far less likely to be extrovert, inuitive, perceiving types. Regarding thinking/feeling traits, the balance is more even, just tipped towards the feeling approach to life.

So to sum up a caricature "collar" who sums up the dominant character traits would be an ISFJ. Such characters exist no doubt, but it would be easy to be simplistic about all this. What it does indicate however is the general character of the "workforce" and their strengths; in essence the the leadership the Holy Spirit has equipped the churches with at this moment in time. The skills and abilities of this gift, distinctive from the population as a whole is to my mind possibly a clue to the way the institutional churches in the "West" are to develop at this time. Work with what you have, start where you are, be thankful for God's resourcing.

So what are the indicators? Well it seems that as a body the clergy of our day are very good at small group work and one to one ministry. They are very reliable, a body who value continuity and tradition, appreciate and work for good relationships and are particularly good at organisation and scheduling tasks. In musical terms we might call this the "major" chord of leadership profile.

The flip side to this, the "minor" chord, strongly present but not dominant, is with those who have a pioneering spirit, who grasp the bigger picture, formulating, implementing and promoting change, who are prepared to challenge and resolve structural issues that stand in the way of development and are flexible and nimble in day to day response.

Reflecting on this I can see that it has bearing in a time of great sociological and demographic change when the churches are struggling to adapt to a new social order in which their traditional role a main hubs of community life and identity are sliding away in a societal movement which is effecting all local facilities including corner shops and pubs ("bars" to my transatlantic viewers and the Polish one!).

Across my national church, the Church of England, initiatives such as "Fresh Expressions" and "Pioneer Ministries" have been greatly celebrated and supported as the way to go. Without a doubt they are making a great impact for good; however if the research is right and my hunch is that it is not far off, most of the "workforce" are not of that pioneering world, equipped as they are for a different style of ministry. This can lead to feeling of being outmoded and somehow lacking something in the face of enthusiasm and encouragement to initiate projects that would be draining to their energies, rather than boosting them.

The question I am pondering, is how can we nurture the different gifts of those in leadership, allowing the pioneers to break into new territory, the "overseers" to encourage and enable mission across a district of faith communities and those inclined to use their gifts in pastoral growth and mission to all flourish. After all, people of faith would hold that God gives what is needed, perhaps we don't always look hard enough at what has been given to see how we can foster people appropriate growth and encouragement?

A strategy and structure that is based on fostering personal growth through a one to one and small group dynamic seems to suggest itself as an alternative route to pioneer initiatives. Such work is well documented as providing fertile ground for enquiry and growth in faith community life. Many of those in leadership at the moment are more than well equipped for this, although their gifting is, as we have suggested, under pressure in multi-centre/community settings facing resource shortages, energy being expended in administration and "fire-fighting, or "time related over extension" (a L J Francis & C E Brewster phrase, {R.T. Vol 10:2 2010}) rather than active development.

I'll leave you in this posting with a picture from the ancient Cistercian powerhouse of Fontanay, St Bernard's favourite. Sensitively restored, including the first industrial scale industrial forge in Europe! Work being important to the order they were not afraid of new technology, developing agriculture, mining, water management and metalurgy and putting them into the service of God, establishing centres all over Europe and beyond..

Delightful 14thC Bergundian madonna and child from Fontanay Abbey: just look at the faces.

Cutting the mustard!

Hello Sabbatical page viewers and follower!

After a holiday I am back for the last two weeks of Sabbatical, after which, who knows...

Holioday destinatins ranged far and wide, from the Hadron Collider in Geneva, midday prayers at Taize, sites of pilgrimage old and new.

Two things come to mind, one a visit to the last family run mustard factory in Southern Burgundy and a visit closer to home to George Herbert's parish church, St Andrew's Bemerton, Salisbury.

Fallot Mustard delivery van from the 1930's.

 First the mustard. Mustard is well, mustard, possibly French or English, German (dark that one for some reason) or American (useful for "hot dogs") you might think. Well no. The Fallot family works in Beaune produce over twenty different types (we tried them all in the most unusual and enjoyable tasting I have ever undertaken). What is surprising is how upon a common foundation of mustard seed, a little salt and vinegar so many varied flavours can be produced, to accompany fish, meats, cheese and even ice cream! The latter being a rather grown up "Nutella" flavour.. delicious.

This culinary preamble, as well as being in the spirit of Slow-cook theology is a good reminder of the infinite varieties that can develop from a common base. Faith communities in the same way are all unique; even those of the new "franchise" connexions, although similar will differ due to the mix of people involved, their history and local factors. This variety is a precious gift on one hand and a complication on the other. Unlike branches of a store chain where we expect the same thing to be on the shelves when we walk in, faith communities respond, or not, in unique ways to initiatives and strategies that come from "above" in their "mother church" structure. In all such strategies and initiatives it might lead to a deeper and stronger commitment at grass roots levels if the local flavour is appreciated and can be matched to the common base that is being rolled out.

The scale and size of the community will be a factor in this. George Herbert the 17th C poet/priest lived and ministered during his last years (he died relatively young) At Bemerton, near Salisbury. (Bemerton is now a suburb of Salisbury. The church however is in a quiet backwater these days, despite the church/rectory straddling the old Roman road from Salisbury Westwards to Wilton and beyond.)

What is surprising, given Herbert's influence on the Anglican spirit over the succeeding centuries is the small size of the church. Seating only thirty, it was the spiritual home for the Herbert household, who went across to the church twice a day for Morning and Evening Prayer. This pattern, along with Herbert's leaning towards the spiritual feeding he received from Nicholas Ferrar's community at Little Gidding strongly suggests a pattern of Anglican spiritual life based on small communities or cells of members meeting together for regular prayer, scripture reading, reflection and fellowship. In this sense we can see a small but intimate community at work and prayer.

This pattern might have much to commend it in our current century, where knowledge and experience of faith practice is increasingly sub-cultural. While inherited models of relationship between a faith communities and the wider geographical community are dissolving restructuring, in my case, church practice to support such community life has both historic pedigree and might well serve as a missiological base from which engagement with contemporary culture can be undertaken and developed in new directions.

George Herbert's parish church (left) and Rectory (right)

There is more to say, on the selection and training of faith community leaders, social and spiritual capital and stating the obvious conundrum!  (That's whetted your appetite!).