Point Something posts and Work Quantification

A quick splurge which might just damage your brains:

This week has been one of those where, as I sit down and drink my tea before the day outside of the Vicar's palace begins, I realise has gone before I've managed to get through Monday's work! One of those weeks where the days have vanished and I can't recall what on earth I've done. And this fits in with a conversation I have had regarding looking at a parish (or district) with regard to workload and posts; and another relating to 'how much of a vicar' a post demands.

At the heart of the discussions were two strands of thinking. The first being:

'The church doesn't merit a full minister, it should be a point five post whereas another, bigger church, warrants a whole post.'

The second was this:

'If they can't pay for a full post then they need to realise that they can only have a 'point something' post!'

Now I'm going to be contentious in that I am of the opinion that some places will never be able to pay for a whole minister and yet the area in which the congregation is placed demands such; a situation where generosity, casting bread on the water and missional thinking converge and demand a right response.

I'm going to be inflammatory and say that some places, whilst they look like full post places (and can pay for same) don't always appear to have full-time ministers; big or flourishing does not necessarily mean an engaged and active minister (or even clergy).

Now I'm not saying that some of our clergy aren't pulling their weight but what I am saying is that when it comes to House For Duty (HfD) and 0.5 posts there reality is that they never are!

When we discussed this during the week I found that whilst I can't find enough hours in the week to get everything in that I need to do. Between schools, home communions and visits, meetings, services, funerals, drop-ins, sermons and all the other stuff, life is an exciting event.

One of the clerics I was chatting to came up with the solution, 'You're doing too much!'

Now we've thus far, managed to grow from within a Pastoral Worker, Pioneer Minister and Reader plus other active members of the congregation. We find some 85% of the congregation engaged in something and we really live out an all-member ministry (and it's growing) and we are engaged in the community around us. Not a success story in terms of numbers but we are adding (slowly) to the numbers and the relationships in the community are developing and my feeling is that we're doing too little - for we live in a place with needs and problems galore.

So I asked what I should stop. The answer was that we could have a healthy church and a knackered cleric or a cleric who took time away and came before God and took care of their own spiritual and recreational life and was healthy and had a church that was 'middle of the road'; and of course 'via media' is what we Anglicans do so well.

Now I haven't got an answer to this.

Perhaps I am a workaholic but I am also keen to see people take up tasks and roles in the church so that I can do, not less, but more in different places. Whatever I do I would love to pass over but the journey from pew to pulpit is long and happens in the timing of God and the individual - I will never push people but then again I will never say 'No' to those who wish to try something. The problem is to see it from through their eyes and they from mine!

Previous ministers in one of our HfD congregations have given as much as many full-post clergy and this has led to wrong expectations from the congregations when they have gone. They ask for HfD and expect seven days a week!. Not only that but we need to realise that even a relatively small congregation takes time to care for pastorally and more time to engage with the community and develop the relationship that might bring them into membership as believers; yet cutting according to the cloth we have is also real need.

The Church used to view it's missionary effectiveness in the shape of church plants and the many 'daughter churches' out there are a testimony to the commitment of others to bring the Gospel, and the presence of God's active people, into places where He was not perhaps to be found. These need to be managed and supported and end now, thought Fresh Expressions, continued with and this will take generosity from congregations who have (prayer, vision, people and money) and from diocesan staff whose job is not just to balance the books but to support a missional and engaged church.

I'll leave you with a thought from a colleague: 'I don't want to be Jesus for my parishioners  I'll leave that to Him - my job is to be right with God and after that comes the Church and the work it calls me to do. We must each look after ourselves first - even if it leave others struggling.'

Not sure I agree - and yet others in the conversation did - perhaps I'm just getting it wrong (I know there is a balance and yet I feel it tips towards those I pastor but  . . . . :-(  )

Discuss

Carling don't do church . . . .

But if they did, this would be one of them!



The churches of St. Mary's and St. Andrew's in Essex need a new House for Duty (HfD) Priest and whoever get to love and be part of this amazing bunch of people looks set to be blessed indeed!

The vision, initiative and energy of this bunch of believers leaves me green with the gift of envy.

So, looking for a HfD post? Then get your finger out and contact the pointyhat now - think it's going to be a post in demand.

And for those who aren't looking to move - please pray for them as they seek a new priest to partner them.

Pax

(so excited now I might just go and frighten my son by jumping into his bedroom and singing ;-)  )

postscript: so I did (will have to go and make him a hot chocolate with bailey's now ;-) )

House for Duty

The subject of 'House for Duty' (HfD) raised it's head again during a discussion this week and I have a few, fuzzy, thoughts developing.

The first is that they should surely be something of a temporary nature rather than a long-term strategy. My reason for thinking this is that many of those so engaged in such a work are generally engaged in keeping lights on and a dogcollar in the vicarage. This isn't meant to denigrate the work of the HfD priest and in fact I am a great supporter of them, but I haven't come across many missional members of this fraternity, they are generally very much a maintenance model. Considering that the role asks for Sunday and two other days what more could be expected. That many give as much as a full-time minister is a mark of their commitment and their call(God bless them richly).

My next area of thinking is who should be doing the role? This question came to the fore after I met a really lovely vicar type who was in an HfD role and during our conversation told me of their 'own home' and how they'd rented it out until the licence ended and they 'retired properly'. You see I've always thought of HfD being something that enabled those clergy without their own home to continue in a less strenuous place and in return find themselves in a home. My thinking here is that perhaps HfD should be restricted to those who don't have their own home (mind you I know of a minister whose other half had a home and this goes to show that there's always additional considerations). I guess I'd also struggle with NSM ministers who have a home and yet see this as a ministry opportunity or an opportunity to have cake and eat it in terms of housing provision and possession of a home too. Not sure if this is a reality but it is a potential happening.

The next thought is that of wondering how many? How many HfD vacancies / posts are there and how many are offering themselves for such a role? If you can't get such a post filled what's the alternative? Where I am we have an absolutely great minister covering the HfD post and the lightness of touch and the joy that they bring, coupled with the fact that they live in their own home makes the issue of losing such a post a real possibility, especially in the light of 'sustainability' discussions and the prospect of relieving deaneries of 0.2 of a post cheaply (and then of course, how long before some smart person realises that this releases housing stock and brings in much needed cash as another silver spoon is sold from the set?

Of course the retired but in HfD post clergy are able to claim the fees for themselves (with some diocesan types thinking how nice it would be to retain some percentage for the coffers) but the Non-stipendiary clergy cannot do this, which makes an NSM appointment more attractive.

So, a number of questions and considerations and within it the problematic area whereby so many NSMs tell me that they feel unloved and might see this as adding to the lack of love. I applaud and respect the NSM role but stop short at the delineation made by one who (with a straight face and seriously) that they (NSMs), "Loved the church more than stipendiaries because they gave their time to the church for free whilst stipendiaries took money." I had to reply, "And work whether they choose to or not, which is not the case for the NSM." (this was just after the comment had been passed that, "Evening meetings were OK for the stipendiaries but NSMs had to work during the day as well!" Suicidal tendencies or what? :-) )

So please don't see this as a knock at NSM, Stipendiary, retired or whatever - it is an honest attempt to dialogue with an issue that needs to be grappled with for leaving a church as a perennial HfD post is missionally wrong and yet the HfD role is a fantastic opportunity for a time to catch breath, consider centres of residence (and rural imperatives) and imagine the church of the future facilitated and touching where it needs to be with the realisation that a church in every Parish will always be a reality, but it will be of living stones and may not have a vicar in a vicarage.

Clear challenges and obvious opportunities in something that is a high inertial load.

Please read this for what is written and do not assume that I am looking to deny or pull down any minister or type of ministry (unless you want a discussion on Locally Ordained Ministers that is!!)

Pax

As Mrs Vicarage went to blow out the gas lamp

she thought that this wasn't quite what he thought the bishop meant

when he said that their new HfD post was intense!