ministry

Liturgy for a missional church

by

Last week, it happened. Half way through Holy Week, I finally got fed up with reciting the opening prayer in Common Worship. The offending text is as follows: Blessed are you, Lord God of our salvation, to you be praise and glory for ever. As a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief your only … Continue Reading

Is the future of leadership lay or ordained?

by

It is arguable that the greatest challenge currently facing the C of E is not to do with sexuality, not related to changes in culture and moral values, and unconnected with Church-State relations. It actually arises from a decision made around the time I started ordination training in 1989, that candidates needed ‘more experience of … Continue Reading

Is Archbishops’ Council too powerful?

by

I spent most of the last two days in my first meeting of Archbishops’ Council. I think I am still processing the experience, not least because to what one person called ‘institutional vertigo’—it feels a little surreal to be considering questions of national and strategic importance, when there are few other places to experience this. … Continue Reading

The Language of Leadership

by

It is often commented that ‘leadership’ is not a very biblical word, and this should be a concern not just to evangelicals (who particularly want to root their understanding in the biblical texts) but to anyone who is in a reformed or Protestant church for which Scripture is a key locus of authority. The first … Continue Reading

How to sustain long-term ministry

by

The latest Grove Pastoral booklet is P 144 on Long-term Ministry by Paul Rosier, a Baptist minister. It is a fascinating exploration of the advantages and challenges of both long-term and short-term ministry in the same place. It starts with some rather startling statistics about the frequency of change in jobs in general and ministry in … Continue Reading

Coherence and variety in ordained ministry

by

One of the many fascinating debates at Synod this week was on the proposals for Resourcing Ministerial Education (RME) on which I have written a couple of times before. I had put down one of four amendments to the motion from Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield, and I was asking for work to be done to check that RME was not undermining ‘our shared, catholic understanding of ordination as expressed in the Ordinal’ prior to implementation in September 2017.

What is the future of ministerial training?

by

One of the important issues coming up in this session of Synod is the reconfiguration of ministerial training as part of the Renewal and Reform programme, under the title ‘Resourcing Ministerial Education.’ I commented on it last year, and had an exchange with Steven Croft, Bishop of Sheffield, who is leading on this. In view … Continue Reading

I’m still not busy

by

Three times in the last week or so, I have received a communication from someone which says ‘I know you are very busy…’ and these have stuck in my mind. One of these said ‘I am sure you are very busy—I know that I am.’ A couple of things struck me immediately. The first, and … Continue Reading

Can you be an effective leader without destroying your family?

by

It is a poignant week to consider this question—which quite separately a friend raised with me yesterday by email. I’m leading a workshop on ‘Living in the love of God at home and with family’. As I’ve prepared for it I’ve found very little theological and pastoral reflection (in print) on a theology of pastors/leaders as … Continue Reading