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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.
More about The Guide
Posted by Andrew Wooding on 22 March 2010
Since the publication of the Mission-shaped Church report in 2004, the church in the UK has gradually begun to recognise that as well as continuing to support and build up inherited forms of church, the advancement of God's kingdom requires the training, deployment and support of Ordained Pioneers who might serve as catalysts for the emergence of Christian communities in the midst of culture.
Here at Cranmer Hall in Durham I have been given responsibility for designing and delivering a training pathway for Ordained Pioneer Ministry. This task has inevitably led to many discussions with pioneers, bishops, and DDOs about how pioneers relate to the institutions that are creating space for them.
As with any new venture, there are bound to be all sorts of complex teething (and ongoing) issues – especially since the rationale for Ordained Pioneer Ministry has involved the church recognising the need to ordain and utilise the gifts of those who may see the relationship between culture and church in fresh and potentially challenging ways.
Many pioneers have an entrepreneurial flare that is being harnessed for the sake of the gospel and used to gather and nurture new communities of faith. But if the whole church is going to grasp the mixed economy vision, Ordained Pioneer Ministers must be ambassadors who are present at the centre of the church, as well as entrepreneurs operating at the edges.
In order to be ambassadors for a ministry with a particular focus on creativity and fresh thinking, the lives of Ordained Pioneers must also be marked by highly visible levels of maturity and humility. If the concept and practice of Ordained Pioneer Ministry is to gain widespread and genuinely heartfelt support, then those engaged in such a ministry must demonstrate a genuine willingness to listen and learn as well to speak and teach. Innovations will be owned and shared within a wider church that feels it is in conversation with pioneer ministers.
There is no doubt that new times call for new ways of being church. The new country stands before us, but the whole church must make the journey into it. For those whose understanding of the times gives them a sense that perhaps they can see a little further ahead, there is always the temptation to rush on alone or with a few others in tow.
But what seems to be required at this point is patient endurance that is held in tension with prophetic creativity. If pioneers catch glimpses of the new country, then they must speak of it wisely. People can only hear so much in one go. Pioneers must tread gently but firmly and they must keep moving forward at a pace that honours the whole church.
Rev Michael Volland, Director of Mission and Pioneer Ministry at Cranmer Hall, St John's College, Durham.
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
With these Ferrero Rocher you are truly spoiling us!
Posted by Pam Smith on 27 March 2010 - 11:57
That's what I think of when I hear the word ambassador. And while it may be *slightly* inaccurate picture :D, I think there is enough truth in it to make me think hard about whether I as a pioneer minister am in the best position to be ambassadorial. It's high level stuff.
David said:
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I can see that Pioneer Ministry needs ambassadors at the centre of mainstream church life in the present country. Some of our bishops and other senior figures are doing well on this, and I thank God for them. But we mustn’t burden every Ordained Pioneer Minister with the additional task of sustaining the confidence of the wider church. It will wear them out, and they have a hard enough job on as it is. Most of them are very good at listening (I’m afraid that it is mainstream church which is not very good at THAT…), but they need to keep tuning in to our wider and evolving society in a more focused way than pastoral clergy are able to – precisely because our pastoral clergy are tasked with centring their work on the inherited church and its sensibilities.
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:thumbs up: to that.
Bishops are the focus of unity in the C of E - it might not appear so but that is actually what they are there for - so anything ambassadorial really has to happen at Bishop level IMO.
Whatever form or mode of ministry you pursue in the C of E, IMO you need a Bishop in the background somewhere who values and understands what you are doing, otherwise what you're doing will not be understood.
We have a whole FX structure, a lot of Bishops and Dioceses who do understand the need for new forms of ministry, and a lot of people in non C of E settings who are also being called to pioneer. Do we really need each OPM individually to find the time and energy to plead the case for pioneering ministry as well?
As for the whole church going anywhere together at the same time - has that ever happened?
The most striking thing I heard ++ Rowan say at the recent FX day in Lincoln was
'For all we know, we are still the early church'.
Hopefully the tension between inherited and new forms of church is creative - but it is a tension. Let's not burden OPMs with the responsibility of resolving it.
Please don't cripple OPM's
Posted by Dot Gosling on 24 March 2010 - 21:55
'There is no doubt that new times call for new ways of being church. The new country stands before us, but the whole church must make the journey into it'
this comment worries me. Not everyone wants to be part of this new country and it is dangerous I think to say that everyone must be part of the journey. There is an arrogance in that statement that anyone involved in training really can't afford to have or be showing. OPM's need to be listening and I think that some of the OPM's are good at listening, but I have met one or two who do have an arrogance that this is THE way to go, but as there is no one way of doing stuff, how can anyone be arrogant!
Collaborative and collegial ministry is perhaps a better way to go - unfortunately because of fear or lack of respect because of old ways of working, that is not an option at the moment. When some ordained people will not work with other ordained people because of different theologies, how can this happen. The whole church is in not united now, so it will not be united through OPM!
The whole church or just the CofE?
Posted by Andrew Wooding on 24 March 2010 - 13:24
I'm struggling here with phrases like 'the whole church', 'the church', 'the wider church' and so on.
I'm excited by the part Michael is playing in making Ordained Pioneer Ministry happen, but surely this is happening in the Church of England part of the church. The Church of England is NOT 'the church', 'the wider church' or 'the whole church' ... thank God.
I grew up Baptist and Pentecostal. What is God doing in these and other parts of 'the whole church'?
Posted by Michael Volland on 24 March 2010 - 15:16
sorry Andrew, didn't see your full name on the first post hence the use of your username!! apologies.
Posted by Michael Volland on 24 March 2010 - 15:14
Thanks for this staplingmachine - I grew up in a Baptist church. Doubtless the God who is always and everywhere active is doing something new there too. The Church of England is not the whole church but it is the part of it that is struggling with these questions in a very public way. Prayers and suggestions from other parts of the body always welcome...!
Please don't cripple the OPMs!
Posted by David Muir on 24 March 2010 - 12:42
The whole church isn’t going to make this journey into the new country. Really it isn’t. Hoping that it will is going seriously to deter Pioneers from initiating new communities around a creative and radical application of the teachings of Christ to today’s word. Much of the present church will be like Moses, wonderfully faithful in the past in many ways but also failing in others, and as a result only seeing the new country from a distance and never entering into it. I always feel for Moses, but I am sure that the settlement of the new country got on a lot better without him.
I can see that Pioneer Ministry needs ambassadors at the centre of mainstream church life in the present country. Some of our bishops and other senior figures are doing well on this, and I thank God for them. But we mustn’t burden every Ordained Pioneer Minister with the additional task of sustaining the confidence of the wider church. It will wear them out, and they have a hard enough job on as it is. Most of them are very good at listening (I’m afraid that it is mainstream church which is not very good at THAT…), but they need to keep tuning in to our wider and evolving society in a more focused way than pastoral clergy are able to – precisely because our pastoral clergy are tasked with centring their work on the inherited church and its sensibilities.
If you ask the impossible of OPMs, you will cripple their work. St Paul did not establish new believing communities in Europe by ‘treading gently but firmly’. He acted first, and then genuinely tried to engage with the Jerusalem apostles afterwards about the issues raised. Don’t we need more like him today?
Posted by Michael Volland on 24 March 2010 - 15:23
Thanks for this David,
Lots I agree with. But the whole church has to make the journey. Something about the fact of being a body thumps in my heart here. Moses may not have gone into the promised land but he knew that he had to lead the people of Israel right up to the boarder! He was promised-land focused - which is what OPMs need to be. And if they are then perhaps the whole people of God (in all denominations) will catch the vision and come along too. I don't think this principle is debatable (although in practice it may prove to be massively frustrating - just as it was for Moses).
The church may act like lots of little units deciding how it will be for us in our corner but the truth is that we are one body with all the mess and annoyance that comes with that. We have to go into the new country together - with some running ahead, sure, but nevertheless we've all got to go.
Posted by David Muir on 24 March 2010 - 15:32
Michael: I don't think you have really taken Andrew's point on board. The CofE and the Methodist churches have gone ahead with Fresh Expressions without waiting for the other denominations to come on board. Are you saying they were mistaken in this? Should we take a step back from the whole OPM business until we get everyone (including the RCs etc.) on board for it? This is not what we're doing. I think Andrew has sussed you -- you are really talking about the CofE, because the OPMs you are talking about will all be CofE priests. You then run into difficulties with ecclesiology. What you are talking about here is an impossible ideal. Again I appeal to you not to burden your trainee OPMs with it.