Loyal radical

I am currently on my 4th and last intensive teaching week at Cliff. It is the Leadership Renewal and Mission module 2 focussing on Renewal: Spirituality and Discipleship. I have just returned from two lectures given by Phil Meadows the last one being Wesleyan Approaches to Discipleship. If only we could rediscover authentic community within the life of the ministry. The bureaucracy and appraisals mentioned in my last post would be unnecessary if we were true community with each other. Accountability to one another was key to early Methodist practice. Where have we gone wrong in the practice of mutual accountability and the striving for holistic discipleship?

I believe in circuits, despite what follows! Change is already happening as we manage decline and are forced to amalgamate smaller circuits which become unviable. However, I suggest the Spirit is prompting us to be more creative in our response to decline. We have a God given opportunity to make some changes that will help develop real circuit teams. I want to affirm David Clark's message about becoming a truly servant church with the leadership empowering the laity to be the mission leaders in the kingdom community However, I believe there are some practical things we can do to help facilitate a healthier environment in which churches can flourish. This is not new thinking and in this simplistic form raises more issues than it addresses. Some of the changes are:- A dedicated (without pastoral charge of a congregation) superintendent(bishop by another name!) and paid administrator (Chief Executive if you want to use the language of business). This would mean getting rid of District...

Martyn Atkins, principal at Cliff and president designate of the Methodist conference gave an inspiring overview of Historic Models of Church and Leadership. While reflecting on the way the bottom has and is dropping out of denominational structures he talked about the dissatisfaction experienced by many Methodist ministers. He put forward the view that maintaining the circuits as they are currently configured with their emphasis on personal chaplaincy to its members, was disaffecting many ministers. He suggested that when 50% of ministers stood up to their disbelief in this system of organising church it would set in process an unstoppable chain of events. Superintendents would be unable to chide ministers back to their roles as half of them would be among those who believe the system has to change. The recently published book of statistics about what ministers think about things like itinerancy and connected issues would suggest that we are not so far from realising this 50% level o...