Distinct Reflections

Associate Minister: aiming for success

Life as a minister is one long learning curve. These last few weeks have included adjusting to a new ministerial colleague. She is only the second person to join the staff since I came five years ago and is the first to arrive only having had the search process to get to know the church.

So what have I noticed, which might be of use to others?

1. While the search process involves lots of questions, by all sides, getting down to work involves navigating all those assumptions you have about each other but never thought either to ask or to articulate. This matters because expectations are often based on the unsaid things. The successful minister is someone who is alert to this and adjusts quickly. 

2. Joining a staff team as an Associate rather than Team leader has an added dimension because the church isn’t going, in the short term, to mould itself around you but rather expects you to mould to it. By contrast, when you arrive as a sole minister or as the new ‘senior’ minister the church anticipates you will want to establish your own patterns, vision and way of working. The successful associate is one who manages to lead from the middle (as an insider) rather than from the front (or as an outsider).

3. Having responsibility for areas which have been under resourced creates a reservoir of goodwill; people look forward and are genuinely welcoming. Perhaps this relaxed attitude is because they are not expecting significant change, though in turn it creates opportunity and openness to change! The successful associate uses this goodwill to get alongside people and get stuck in.

4. Someone new brings a fresh perspective on things. But since many things in church life are the way they are as result of compromise or a history events combining the benefits of new perspective without unhelpfully rehearsing the reasons why ‘we do it this way here’ takes some skill. The successful minister logs these early perspectives before they get used to the new environment but then waits long enough to make sure they understand the background before seeking change.

5. A new team member affects everyone in the team. All of us have to adjust so we blend our relative strengths for maximum benefit. The successful team will be one which can adapt best and build good relationships in the early days. In my particular case one change seems to be the freedom to be more pro-risk (releasing the inner charismatic?) knowing that someone else is also handling the day to day stuff; so it will be fascinating to see how the next few months develop.

Fortunately our new team member is really good and is navigating these challenges with skill, including working out how to cope with me.

5 P's of #leadership

A blog post caught my eye earlier this week where Rob Petrini suggested the two things a Christian leader needed to remember were process and perception. I’d not come across this before but it got me thinking; and so here are my 5 key elements of church leadership (leaving the question of the relation of ministry to leadership for another day).

Process: It’s not what you do but the way that you do it. Integrity requires you do things properly and don’t cut corners. In Baptist life this often means allowing ideas to be birthed in church meetings where the church can discern together not trying to avoid them.

Perception: It is not just doing the right thing but what people understand that you are doing. I’ve often been surprised by how people accuse me of doing something I have no intention of. Whilst I don’t run the thought police it is important to try and communicate; and it is what people hear that matters not what you say.

Principle: People trust you if they know that you are someone with principles who is doing their best. This applies to your ethics but also to your theology. It is easier to promote change when you can show why it is good Biblically, theologically and historically.

Persuasion: Directing the affairs of the church, bearing the word of God both require you to set out a vision for what God is calling his people to become. Sometimes this means sticking your neck out, usually it means repeating and explaining a few core messages. Being able to explain what the future should look like is vital.

Plural: Leadership in church life is always plural; it is grounded in the Spirit working in the whole church and it is not a role for prima donnas. As a minister you may have a particular role in the life of the church by your relationship with the congregation and with God but leadership isn’t about you it is about working with others in service of Christ.

BU Council meets again

As BUGB Council convenes again it strikes me that one question lurks behind many of the items on the agenda. Who leads the Union? Or more correctly where does leadership in the Union come from?

Do we need to split the governance and management of the BUGB charity from the leadership of the wider Union?

Do we need to release translocal ministers in our Union, particularly those who have oversight of areas of Union or Association life, to cast vision by the exercise of their ministry?

Do we need to reform Council so that it is better able to be the place for corporate discernment of God’s will for our life as Baptists?

If the answer to these questions is ‘yes’ then we need to do some quick work on what it means to be representative. Nigel Wright’s notion of ministry as ‘inclusive representation’ maybe helpful here but we need to think further about what it means for some ministers to exercise that representation in the wider church and for what it means for some people to gather in Council as representative of the wider church where representation isn’t simply about being there on behalf of another institution.  A better theology of representation might just help us develop a new way forward.

Connecting ministers and churches

The BU has a system, led by the National Settlement Team, which seeks to help ministers find churches to settle in and churches find a new minister. Recently the church here has been looking for a new Associate Minister; a process which I’ve found far more stressful than I expected. And it is not over yet!

I suspect that some of the reasons for the stress include:

1. The time the process takes. I wrote a blog entry in November last year when we started noting it was stressful then. One year later we may be getting to the end but we are still at it.

2. The dynamics of team. I suspect that finding an Associate is harder work than finding a sole pastor because in addition to the dynamics of the church congregation and the character of the potential minister there is the complication this person needs to work with and complement me.

3. Nuances of debate. Because I’m part of the church I’m aware of all the ups and downs of conversations not just the edited highlights that you get to hear if you are the minister.

4. Congregational involvement. It is a necessary part of the process that early discussions are held in confidence but there is a tension. The church leadership team do not want to put someone forward until they are confident the person is right but this means the congregation have to make up their minds after a couple of short meetings. Church size is undoubtedly a factor, the smaller the church the easier it is for everyone to be involved in the process and the larger the church the more important it is for the congregation to trust a group to discern what is right. The complication is getting the right balance.

I know that the National Settlement Team work hard to make appropriate nominations (and by and large do a good job) but is it possible to create a better system? And while papal decree by the BUGB head of ministry might produce quick (and knowing Paul good) decisions it is a non starter.  So here are some suggestions:

i) As well as the current vacancies list there should be a similar list of ministers where those who wish can write a short 150 word extract about themselves, so that churches can look at a wider range of names.

ii) The possibility of informal conversation days where a church could invite a number of potential ministers to visit to learn more about the church. After these informal conversations ministers could indicate if they wish their name to be considered by the church and the church could then pursue any they felt were right for the church.

iii) Clearer expectations by everyone. I suspect I’ve been my own worst enemy in the process but clarity of expectations in the church, clarity about the process and its speed and clarity about the sort of person best suited to the role all make for fewer problems. It would help if every church conducted the process in a similar way and in a similar time frame but I doubt the idea would catch on!

Most changes have some potential downsides but perhaps it is time to revisit the settlement process.

Learning by preaching

Life continues to be busy with lots of things that it isn’t appropriate to blog about; not least the church’s search for an associate minister. But in the midst of the routine I’ve spotted something I’d not noticed before.

Preaching thematically this term about putting God first, I thought it would be appropriate to start by looking at some passages where God reveals something about who God is. (Exodus 3:1-15, 6:2-12 & 34:4-7).

In Exodus 6 Yahweh claims that the patriarchs only know God through his appearing at God Almighty (El-shaddai). So what’s shaddai mean? Whilst many commentators seem to suggest it is related to mountains, thus the God of the mountains, with connotations of might, power etc. But there is also another stream of thought that suggests it is related to breasts suggesting and different image of protection, nurture and provision.

In Exodus 34 Yahweh speaks as the God who is full of mercy, grace, love etc. Here the suggestion is that merciful is related to the noun womb and therefore speaks about the inclination a mother has towards her child.

Not being a Biblical Scholar, and having a dire ability to read Hebrew (despite Debra Reid’s best endeavours) I find it hard to critically evaluate these claims. Nevertheless they point to the way that Yahweh’s nature and character needs to be understood in a manner more deliberately positive about the way male and female are both in the image of God.

They also show that preparing sermons sometimes teaches you things you hadn't expected.

The light ahead is....

It is now a month since the summer holiday and, so far, there has been little time for blogging. Truth is I’ve been so busy and too exhausted to blog; which raises the question why? Is it that I’m disorganised or do I have unreal expectations of myself? Perhaps I’ve simply got a death wish or some distorted view of myself as indispensable? Then again it may be because I like playing God and want to be needed?

When I look at my diary it has been full but not overwhelming. I’ve prepared and preached five sermons, taken two funerals, visited people close to death, had in depth conversations with people about things going on in their lives, interred ashes, written several hundred emails (and read many more) and attended numerous meetings. All in all a fairly typical ministerial life! In addition we’ve also had a new youth worker start and I’ve spent one day in Didcot.

As I reflect on all this I wonder if I under rate two important elements of ministerial life:

1. The weight of responsibility. Even if it can’t be easily quantified in a church where several people are having tests and treatment for life threatening conditions, on average one person a week is bereaved and others deal with issues of redundancy or financial pressure there is a sense of pastoral responsibility which doesn’t go away even when most of the front line pastoral care is provided by others.

2. Emotional energy. Just because I enjoy doing something such as preaching doesn’t mean that it doesn’t require reserves of emotional energy. Likewise funerals and such like can be draining, not because they are difficult but because they are emotionally charged occasions.

If I had cracked a good way of balancing all these things I’d write a book and go on a speaking tour to share my five steps to ministerial success– but I haven’t. So like most other ministers I will just have to continue to make the best fist of it I can whilst reminding myself I am called to be rather than to do.

Reflections on Study Leave 1

I’ve been on study leave for a few weeks now and am making progress, albeit more slowly than I hoped, but enough to make me envious of anyone who gets to do this full time.  

One of the things I find hard to adjust to is the lack of adrenalin. Most of normal working life is punctuated by doing meetings, preaching and the like which take emotional energy and so on which can be further stressed by the need to beat the deadline. Many weeks I cram more into the week by just working faster and seeking to up the tempo. But studying isn’t like this requiring a more methodical brick by brick approach and I’ve yet to work out how do work faster rather than longer.  

It is premature to say there is a lesson in here for my normal ministry but perhaps it might be possible to build a better life balance, after all the church doesn’t seem to have missed me yet!

Leading a river

In an odd moment the other day it occurred to me that leadership in a church is like trying to use stones to change the course of a river.  

First, in order to use the stones effectively you have to put them in the river. But if you simply pile them up like a dam it is highly likely that the river will either wash round them or push them over leaving you with some turbulence but nothing to show for it.  

The most effective way to use the stones is to know the river course well and to pick your spot with care, to line up a few stones so that the water is pushed towards a bank to gently erode the side and allow the other side to silt up; gradually adding more stones until the energy in the river pushes out a new route. It might take some time to make the change permanent but it will work.  

Perhaps ministers should think of their influence like a set of stones. Each month you get a new stone – what do you do with it?

Women in leadership 2

Following the letter to the BT I’ve been approached by some who are less certain that women in ministry is a good thing. I can’t easily blog all the reasons why I believe it is important we recognise the call of God on women but I do think that those who disagree need to consider how we hold a number of related issues together.  

1. The trajectory that is established in Genesis 1:26-28 is that male and female are created in God’s image, created for interdependence (2:18-25). We see this developed further in Acts 2:17-18 where the Spirit is poured out on men and women and in Galatians 3:26-29 where we see that in Christ there is no longer male and female.  

2. The impact of the fall was considered the responsibility of both Adam and Eve and this led to antagonism between the sexes and male domination as seen in Genesis 3:16. This male domination was tempered by the law but not eradicated until the coming of the kingdom with Christ.  

3. In considering the verses in 1 Corinthians we need to consider what Paul is trying to teach when he appears to suggest in 11:5 that women can pray and prophesy in worship gatherings but can’t speak in 14:34. In addition with 1 Timothy 2:11-15 we need to consider what it means by ‘authority’ since it is the only time the word is used in the NT and basis for this instruction is v15 where it states that women will be saved through childbearing; we also need to consider why certain men were not allowed to teach and whether this points to there being particular problems in Ephesus which required such a response in order to maintain purity of doctrine and the public reputation of the church.

Women in leadership

There is a letter in the Baptist Times this week signed by myself, Simon Woodman, Andy Goodliff and Craig Gardiner. For those who don’t read the BT there has been some correspondence following BUGB Council’s recent discussion about women in leadership.  

As can be seen I’m wholly committed to women in ministry believing that this is an outworking of the gospel. I’m entirely unsympathetic to those who say Council has no right to consider this subject (and graciously suggest people should read the BUGB Constitution before writing such letters to the BT). However, I do have some sympathy with those who have argued that the Baptist Assembly ought to have space to consider this; readers of this blog will be aware that I think Assembly ought to include more deliberation. I also have some sympathy with those who wonder how we handle dissent, though as I have blogged before there are questions here about who plays the price for dissent.

Here is the letter:

We have been interested, but not surprised, by some of the recent correspondence in the Baptist Times following the BU Council debate on women in leadership. Whilst the basis of the BUGB is the Declaration of Principle the Union’s constitution, which is agreed by Assembly, makes Council the body responsible for the general policy of the Union. The policy of accrediting women ministers has been settled for over forty years. On the basis of this policy ministers are ordained and commissioned for ministry within the Union, accredited and in due course recognised and affirmed each year at Assembly. The difficulty arises when churches decline to accept a particular group of people whose ministry has been affirmed and accredited in their name and the recent March Council reflected on the continuing struggle for acceptance that many women still experience in our churches. Historically we have handled diversity though a commitment to one another and dissent by encouraging each other to look afresh at what the Spirit is saying to us through Scripture and the wider Baptist Community. Council was not seeking to threaten anyone but rather to call us to discern how we proceed with integrity, grace and gospel conviction.

Council seeks, as part of its remit and through its deliberations, to discern the mind of Christ for the Union. This process of discernment by those gathered is profoundly Baptist, as is the subsequent offering of these reflections to Churches on behalf of the Union. It is surely not un-Baptist for the Union to say to its member churches that it affirms the leadership of women: we have been doing this since the 1920s. It is surely not un-Baptist for the Union to challenge those churches who disagree to reconsider their reading of scripture: without this, we might still be supporting slavery as a legitimate reading of scripture. It is surely not un-Baptist for the Union to actively seek to promote, facilitate and encourage the leadership of women: it is part of our calling to welcome those whom God has gifted among us. In fact, this is surely all very Baptist; it is an expression of the covenant relationship we have with one another in Christ.