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Posted by: Andrew Wooding - 11 January 2010
You know about the Transition Movement. Its central aim is to help communities restructure the way they live in a way that uses very little oil, partly because our oil use is warming the planet too much, and partly because the oil is anyway running out. The whole pattern of modern life is centred around cheap and available oil, and we have become comfortably dependent on it. But we have passed 'peak oil' and we need to start thinking creatively about how we are going to live after it is gone. So the buzz words are resilience and sustainability.
Now I know we have eco congregations, although they are still largely about lightbulbs and churchyard gardens. You might fondly think that using a bit less electricity is doing your bit for turning the tide of global warming. It isn't – not even close. And it's great if Christians can get involved in the Transition agenda, not least because it calls for significant personal change in local communities, and the Christian faith has a lot of wisdom and power to bring to that.
But don't our churches themselves need a Transition agenda? Just as oil is running out, isn't Christendom running out too? Our churches have long been dependent on the power of Christendom, making all kinds of things possible that local Christian communities could not have done on their own. Christendom made church a very comfortable place to be. As Christendom runs out, many of the ways we are used to 'being church' are becoming unsustainable. We can improve our welcoming processes, we can take out the pews, we can use PowerPoint in the sermons, but these are lightbulb measures. We need to help our churches become resilient and sustainable Christian communities, not dependent on the structures and support of Christendom for their future.
The danger with the 'mixed economy' is that our existing church communities are being assured that they will continue to have a parallel existence much as they are. But if Christendom runs out, most of them won't; and they will run into the coming era ill-equipped to be resilient and sustainable church. In the present battle over resources within the mixed economy, fresh expressions are already beginning to feel the heat. Here in the Diocese of Exeter, out of the 40 or so 'mission posts' promised in our restructuring five years ago, only a handful have seen the light of day and now there is a moratorium on them because of lack of resources. The future of the church could fall between two stools.
David Muir is an Ordained Pioneer Minister in the Okehampton Deanery of Exeter Diocese. With a long background in adult Christian education, he is now supporting 24 largely rural parishes to create fresh expressions of church that will resonate with the increasingly diverse population of Devon. He is also course leader of The Pioneer Disciple, an Anglican/Methodist Devon adaptation of the mission shaped ministry course (see www.exeter.anglican.org/pioneer), and he writes a regular column on how to do church in a 'pioneer' way (see www.exeter.anglican.org/pioneerprimer).
If you have something burning to say and want to contribute to the Share weekly guest blog, please contact Karen Carter. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, Church Army, Fresh Expressions or any of its partners.
Comments
funding
Posted by Robert Harrison on 11 January 10 - 13:17
(written by a stipend receiving, freehold holding, vicarage dwelling - but increasingly uncomfortable about it - hypocrite!)
Posted by David Muir on 12 January 10 - 15:36
To that extent, it is the same as oil. If there were still oodles of it, and if it were not warming up the planet unduly, why not keep burning it? But these things are not true, so we need to adjust the way we go about life.
I think there are many practical reasons why the next generation of churches needs to be set up without a dependence on paid professional ministry. My concern is that we might set up fresh expressions of church that rely on an ongoing supply of such ministry, albeit for the kinds of people who don't usually come to church. When they get starved of this (as I am sure they will), they will simply collapse.
Posted by Pam Smith on 17 January 10 - 15:51
You should absolutely not classify yourself as hypocrite for having a stipend and living in a vicarage.
I'm sure that within your ministry you do many things that no-one else has the time to do, and also provide that all-important 'presence' that reminds us all that ministry is firstly about being there for people not doing things to them.
I am very much with David in his insistence that trying to set up 'stipendiary' fresh expressions is not sustainable. I also believe that the resources that are put into stipendiary ministry need to be used more rationally. But IMO the idea that the church can run *totally* on voluntary ministry is also untenable. We need to work out what exactly the 'mixed economy' is apart from a catchphrase because the current situation of 2 separate economies is not going to work for anyone in the longer term. That doesn't invalidate your current ministry though.
The future shape of ministry, like the whole kingdom of God, is 'now and not yet'. If you are being used by God then you are in the right place, and not a hypocrite at all.
Christian Stipends
Posted by Robert Harrison on 18 January 10 - 10:39
I did some research recently into the lives and practices of Jewish rabbis in the 1st century, and discovered that ALL rabbis were self-supporting financially, and that it was a matter of deep principle that Torah could never be taught for financial gain.
It made me reverse my previous assumption, which had been the same as David's, that Paul is the exception. The opposite is true: Paul is the norm, and it is most likely that Jesus continued to earn his own living as a builder while he was teaching; we know that his disciples continued to fish while they learned under Jesus. I think we picked up the professional priesthood habit from Western paganism as the Christian message settled into Graeco-Roman culture.
My strong instinct is that it is time for Christianity to become more Jesus-like, that that is what FE is all about, and that self-supporting, light-footed leadership is what we need.
It's good to 'chat' with you on this! Thank you.
Posted by Pam Smith on 18 January 10 - 13:02
You could say that these things are peripheral to the central role of teaching the Gospel but they do matter to a lot of people.
Personally I think until we stop treating parishes as missional outfits ande start seeing them more in terms of community chaplaincy, the demands of being a vicar are going to become more and more impossible to meet. There is too much rolled up into it, too many conflicting demands and agendas from different groups, all of whom have a claim to your time and attention.
I often try and work out if I'm doing the right thing by NOT being in a parish, maybe priesthood, like motherhood, is impossible to get right! :D
Posted by Gethin Rhys on 19 January 10 - 16:08