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The Guide contains how-to-do-it advice on starting, developing and sustaining fresh expressions of church based on shared experiences.
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Posted by: Andrew Wooding - 23 November 2009
as a result of the recommendations of the church of england report mission shaped church two changes were introduced around leadership. one was that a new criteria for selection around mission was introduced (phew - how was that not there before?!). and secondly a new designation for ordination was introduced - ordained pioneer ministry. this was to recognise that the current challenges in the church and encouragement for newness would require different kinds of leadership. the pastor/teacher sort of leader is probably the one that has been recognised the most with people trained to lead parish churches. but starting something from nothing, reaching new communities, developing new projects, working beyond the edges of the church and so on is something that requires a different kind of person and gift/skill set. pioneer is the term that has been settled on. it's been in place 3 or 4 years now and colleges and regional courses have got in the mix to varying degrees offering training to ordained pioneers. there is currently a review of how that is going. i think it's not news to say that it has been mixed - institutions that have been geared to training parish priests for years and years have not found it easy to rethink how training might work for pioneers. and there is also a challenge around recruiting and recognising this sort of a person/potential. it's early days of course and it's amazing that an institution that has as much history and weight as the church of england has adapted so quickly.
i guess you can see where i am leading with all this. cms has been involved for 200 years or so training pioneers in mission (who in years gone by have helped birth two thirds of what is now the anglican communion! and in recent years are connected with lots of indigenous mission movements round the world). so we have been speaking with ministry division of the church of england about the possibility of getting involved in the mix of training pioneers. this has been met with great enthusiasm - so much so that i confess i have been completely amazed. they are now working with us to help us become a normative pathway for training ordained pioneers along with other colleges and courses. and yes yours truly has the lead at the cms end on this. it's a big task ahead and i am both daunted and excited at the prospect.
the training for pioneers will actually not be solely focused on ordained pioneers which i personally think is really healthy. we train people in mission anyway and have pieces like resource in place that we will use as modules of the training. so ordained pioneers will be in the mix with other mission leaders.
the other piece that is pretty interesting is selection. again we are working with ministry division to see how we can work with them to develop processes of selection. we already have good and thorough processes for selecting people in mission so adding the pioneer selection in the mix is part of the new challenge and then integrating how that works with the church of england. because we are an ecclesial community with a visiting bishop it means we can engage in this in new ways we think/hope/expect!
lots to be worked out, huge challenges ahead, plenty of change and opportunity. i can't give you the exact shape of the training, a curriculum, a prospectus or even a full process yet. i don't want to nail it down too quickly as i think we need to be as creative and imaginative as possible at this stage. but i can promise that the training we do will be totally geared to pioneering in mission with creativity and imagination and will be shaped with and by pioneers rather than pioneering as an add on to existing training for being a parish priest (priest plus as it's been called in certain circles). if you have thoughts, ideas, interest, wisdom, connections let me know. if you are a pioneer or thinking of doing that be a guinea pig with us!
This extract has been taken with permission from Jonny Baker's blog. The full entry can be read here.
You may also be interested to read about Church Army's training of pioneers (Mission-based Training) and the Methodist Church's venture FX initiative for pioneer mission leaders and projects. The 'on the edge' DVD about Ordained Pioneer Ministry in the Church of England can be ordered here.
Jonny Baker works for CMS developing pioneer leadership training – watch this space. He blogs at jonnybaker.blogs.com
Comments
Exciting stuff
Posted by Pam Smith on 25 November 09 - 12:12
However there are a couple of elephants in the OPM that have come up time and time again when I've talked to people in training on the pioneer track - deployment and the whole issue of why they're getting ordained.
Sadly as money is tight there is less and less investment into new forms of ministry, so funding and deployment is a big issue. It seems characteristic of the C of E to set people off on a track that is 'exciting' and 'innovative' without being too sure where they're going or how they will fit into existing structures in the future.
So while investing more effort and expertise into selection and training is a very good thing indeed, without some forward planning the pioneer track still looks a bit like the railway track in The Wrong Trousers - it is being laid at great speed just in front of the train.
And a lot of the push to ordain pioneers seems to come from a particular ecclesiology which says church = communion = vicar. It isn't so much a pioneer being seen as 'parish priest plus' as a priest being seen as 'lay leader plus'. Which devalues lay ministry by putting it in a hierarchy below ordained ministry - and undermines the concept of collaborative ministry completely.
I think a lot of Dioceses still operate on the basis of 'If you like it, put a collar on it' - ie that someone's ministry can only be validated by ordaining them. Which of course is self fulfilling.
So I hope that you will also have an opportunity to point out that lay ministry is not 'ordained ministry minus' but has distinctives which are vital to the mix.
Posted by Beth Keith on 25 November 09 - 18:04
oh dear
Posted by Laurence Keith on 26 November 09 - 16:30
Posted by Pam Smith on 28 November 09 - 16:36
I think we still operate on the underlying principle that evangelism is one process which delivers the convert to the church and then another distinctive process called discipleship is delivered by the church. This model is really a product of modernism - not so much making disciples as manufacturing them. And I know so many Christians, myself included, who've gone straight from being new Christians to PCC, youth group leading etc without any opportunity to develop or grow in the faith.
Unfortunately they way mission outcomes are measured are all about 'indrag'. the only measure of success is did people start coming to church. What we really want to know is were lives changed? Did a relationship with Christ start or deepen?
Posted by Steve Martin on 11 December 09 - 12:29
The Mixed Economy
As a Pionner Priest I can relate whole hartedly with all your comments on deleivering training, Identity, and where will we fit in the future?
The way it has been presented to me however is that as an ordained pionner I can not just get involved with the emerging community at the expense of the inherited Church.
At the last Conference for Poineers Graham Cray suggested that we do this at our peril. I have just come back from a Leading Your Church into Growth Conference and came away making connections with what I am doing on a housing estate and a Parish Church.
Training that enables a Pionner Priest to both lead a church into Growth as well as working within a community of non churched people within that Parish is I think essential.
There is an area of great concern to me, and that is the one of Further training for curates after ordination.
In my diocese there seems to be no thought out way of enabling and developing the Ministry of Ordained Pionners.It still feels like a one size fits all Programme. This is something that needs to be addressed and soon.
Shalom Steve