Following on from my post yesterday on the issue of Pioneer Ministry, I received this response:
"Too many clergy assume that they can do the work of a pioneer minister because they have done church but this isnt the case. Pioneering is church at the cutting edge rather than the dull edge of declining church."
Wow! 'Church at the 'cutting edge', now that's a challenge to all those poor souls who merely manage things at the dull edge I guess. I 've been thinking and praying a lot about this topic because the church I go to have a Pioneer Minister and wonder what she does and why we have one and she tells me and shows me areas of engagement and considers things like accessibility and opportunity and the like where others talk of 'services' and 'ministry'.
During a moment of reflection and prayer I realised that of course the world we occupy is a tardis-like creation that is, minute by minute, hour by hour, taking us through time. The result of this is that some of the congregation of my local big church tells me of days when everyone knew the Lord's Prayer and how they were packed every Sunday evening for Evensnog! The problem is that ministry in this established church (been there in some form for around 1,500 years) is to the older, established, folk and the newer, don't actually know about church or come in, folk. This means that even in the established and ordered churches there is an element of pioneering!
The scenery doesn't change but the people within it does and rather than 'settle a region' the minister needs to 'settle a people' and this, whether my correspondent likes it or not, is pioneering. So let us have a go at modifying the Pioneer Minister definition:
A 'Parish Minister' (PM) is 'a person who is among those who first engages or settles a people, thus opening them up to the inspiration and acceptance of God through Jesus, His Son. Therefore, Parish Ministry is 'doing and being Church where no Church is to be found'.
Now some PMs are engaged and effective in evangelistic zeal and practice. Some are content to live in a parish that neither grows or declines and maintain the status quo (and oddly they are applauded because they pay their Parish Share and never post negative numbers). Other still are ?????? [insert label from: lazy, incompetent, overworked, under-equipped, unlucky, disengaged, battle-weary or (add your own label here) and they sit within their dwindling numbers and await retirement with the same hope that others have for the parousia!
Pioneer ministry cannot exist without established church and established church cannot exist without pioneer minister who bring expertise, evangelistic zeal and a desire to build the kingdom. BUT - some of those who would be Pioneers wish to do so on their own terms and in isolation from the established or settled church. Some of those who wish to be Pioneer ministers have the zeal but lack the understanding and the tools and abilities, the experience of ministry and the theological sense that is required.
Both groups have their weaknesses, but in partnership we are strong. Can the eye say to the hand I have no need of you? if it does we will never dry our tears will we?
Pax
2 comments:
Great post - as usual.
Linked to it.
Nothing to add.
I don't know enough about Pioneer Ministry comment thoughtfully, but your drawing together both streams, which both point towards God seems to me to answer my questions.
In some ways, this conversation seems to echo others such as between Stipendiary and Self-Supporting ministry, both are individual, but complementary ministries.
Somewhere I sense that the whole is as great as its parts, but the part is broken without its whole.
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