Pioneer Ministry - 1

Mention this and you usually get the question, "What is it?" or perhaps, "Who does it?"

The most common definitions appears to be that a 'Pioneer Minister' is 'a person who is among those who first enter or settle a region, thus opening it for occupation and development by others' and so pioneer ministry is 'doing and being Church where no Church is to be found'.

The reality is that once this country knew the Bible stories, understood the times and seasons and was the physical embodiment of the Christian message. Then, following a couple of World Wars, this situation started to change and secularism and its servant consumerism began to rise up. The situation now is that amongst the indigenous british citizen (and they are white multi-generational british not immigrants as many seem to assume) the situation is the many have no idea what Christmas of Easter is truly about and the stories some assume as being commonplace are untold and thus unknown!

The problem is that some, not all, of those in the organised church assumes that anything new must look like it and must bring people into it (and quickly!) whilst others in the pioneer church assume that whatever it is it must not look like organised church and thus they are free from the constraints and demands of the former. This causes some to sneer when dog-collars in 'organised church' say that all are pioneers, because, "If they were, where are the new members, where are the new congregations!" Some claim that the organised church dog-collars are merely archaic protectionists who are frightened by the new breed of bright young (and not so young) things that are coming to do Church in a new and 'real' way!

In return, there are many established dog-collars who see the unstructured, 'let's do coffee', abstract efforts of some of the pioneers as unproductive, elitist and separatist. "They want Church on their terms and set themselves us as something different and better that us," whined one cleric recently. The reason for this being that they'd tried to embrace (not physically) someone doing 'pioneering' and been totally blown off by them!

The aim of pioneer ministry is to create congregations (gatherings) of people who know Christ, accept that He died for them and live within all the traditional tenets of the Christian faith but perhaps in ways that are not traditional or within traditional buildings. The hope is that at some stage the two will coalesce - but in partnership not ownership! The work of pioneering is carried out in people that are wild and separate from God (just like the open prairies of the Wester US). The desire is to see them 'become Church' not 'Come to Church' and you know when a pioneer settlement has become Church because it will possess within it it the two Anglican sacraments (oooh, using the term sacrament often throws some into a flat spin - too possessive, too controlling, 'not what we are about man!') of baptism and communion.

Pioneer ministry is about doing what Church has always done, meeting the people where they are and helping them to recognise the hand of God on their lives and come to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is not the panacea for that formidable parish share, neither is it a declaration of independence from the rest of the (tired, old and irrelevant) Church - it is yet another facet of the ministry of the Church and, as per Eph 4:11, gives us:

Apostles (ἀπόστολος)
Prophets (προφήτης)
Evangelists (εὐαγγελιστής)
Pastors (ποιμήν), and
Teachers (διδάσκαλος)

Not in isolation but in partnership. In an army you need bayonets (infantry), bridges (engineers), communications (signallers), medics, people who can 'soften' up the enemy and their positions before the bayonets go in (artillery), understanding of the enemy, their strength and tactics (Intelligence) and some AFvs too (why walk to war when you can ride?). Some of these are regular, some of these are volunteer reserves - but we need to have a 'one army' approach if we are to fight well and work together.

Seems this is a lesson some within Church circles could do with learning!

Pax