What a rocking day it's been. I knew it was going to be a bit busy so I got it rolling early to fit it all in. But it worked and I managed to stick a few visits, a Bishops Certificate, lunch with a friend, and preparation for three of the nine services next week will see happen - and get newspaper item finished along with Easter Services page and do a music practice too. Mega!
Fun bit was a colleague from another denomination, after hearing how many services Holy Week attracted, commenting, "That's why I'm not an Anglican!" Each to their own I guess - reckon I'll be high church in another few years as I'd love to not only keep the feasts and festivals but do Communion every day too; and yet I'm still a charismatic (how odd)!
So looking forward to Good Friday, I love the witness and the watch and this year I'm privileged to be with St Editha's choir for a choral reflection too. Holy Week brings many great services as we do stations of the cross the first couple of nights followed by the splendid tenebrae service on the Wednesday. Thursday brings the Seder meal into our experience and we relive that last supper and light the blue touchpaper for arrest, trial and eventual execution that is Good Friday.
Is it any surprise that 'holy Saturday' sees us lying in the floor mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually done in?
Of course this Sunday (Palm Sunday) complete with waving bits of palm tress (£10.50 for fifty of them. They certainly don't grow on trees at that price!!) starts the thing off, but it's the liturgy of the passion - a real marathon reading that breaks the heart for the first time on our journey to the cross.
But of today - one of my friends is struggling and I have to admit, taking him Communion was sad today as he's not doing as well as he has been. Another (who I need to include in my visits) is in pain. Another is needy and another couple even more up against it. This is a battle and we need to know we are not alone - sadly don't think I always help there as other stuff creeps in and distracts.
Lord, either give me more hours in a day or help me to stick all the unnecessary tosh in the bin!
I've analysed the first quarter and will be sharing them with a few people. I'll stick a pretty pie chat on some time soon, interesting to see where the time goes.
Bishops Certificate was brilliant - as seem the case, the material offered with thin and tenuous in extremes, but with the aid of a few interlinears and the Greek, we really had fun. Tow men down at the moment, so prayers for them and four us as we deal with some of the total tosh we use as a firefighter as we fan the flames of learning into something great. No charcoal was harmed in the making of this session! The person leading it did a great job with it all - got to play naughty schoolboy (no change there).
So a day of being broken and educated, blessed and grateful for my Christian family, challenged and tested by my own calling and passions as a believer.
Lord for those I find it easy to love, I thank You.
For those I sometimes struggle to love, I praise you, for life without those broccoli and cabbage moments -feasting only on the sweets - would be unbalanced and unhealthy.
For the people I visited today - and for those I didn't manage to visit - bring healing and a real sense of your presence.
Help me to turn my life into one of people, the word and prayer - thank you for the people in church who worry about money, strategies and structures - give me Christ and a true faith with sound liturgy and living stones. I'll leave the skeletons and dryness to others if You don't mind: Make me a man of the Word and of the People I pray.
And so, another day has crept into mine, so I guess I'll thank You for what's gone and praise You what what's now already here.
Yes Lord, I agape You!
Showing posts with label people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label people. Show all posts
Thursday, 6 April 2017
Friday, 18 December 2015
Church: It's all about sound management skills!
Or is it?
There I was discussing a situation facing a group of churches with a colleague who told me of the different family members in their patch. Starting at the top (according to my companion's rating that is) we had:
+ The 'comfortable' church: one of those picturesque places with the lytchgate, the nicely kept graveyard and the financially comfortable members. Adored by the diocese as a 'good giver' and desired by the wedding couples as a suitable backdrop for their big day, this was the jewel in the crown that was the parish.
+ The 'Mother' church - representing Christian witness in the area since Christianity first hit our shores this was the church building from which all others in the area owed their existence. Wonderfully ancient building containing almost equally ancient members and an astounding inability to raise enough to pay their parish share and yet manage to pay it thanks to monies saved and invested 'back in the day' when it was standing room only!
+ The 'Zombie' church - as pretty as the comfortable church and almost as old as the 'Mother' this place boasted a congregation of six (if all them turned up at the same time and an inability to pay what was needed, for income inversely matched the average age of the congregation!
+ The 'Estate' church - boasting a stable attendance with a moderately young congregation and a much reduced ability to raise income. Not surprising when you consider the profile of the people coming in terms of income. Few had jobs and yet here growth and engagement was to be found.
+ The 'Mission' church - built to serve a community who had long since moved away, this once community church had become very much a gathered church and the numbers were small and decreasing.
+ The 'rural' church - picturesque and historic to the extent that it was a real treasure and something all in the community agreed valued and loved. Sadly though, this love affair had no influence on attendance or income and it was now open on a monthly basis to cater for the handful who faithfully came when the doors were unlocked and the bell rung!
Nothing remarkable thus far, I am sure that many reading this will recognise one or more of the churches described here. Many might have suspected, and some will understand, that some in the diocesan organisation were looking to get rid of some of the buildings to save the endless outlays on maintenance and upkeep. The demise of a time which saw 'a priest in every parish' meant that now, where there was once five clergy there were now but two and 'sound management principles' and good ecclesial practice indicated that the key was to develop a 'Minster' model whereby the 'mother' became the place everyone else retreated in to.
Sorry, did I say, "Retreat?" No what I meant (if there are any bishops reading this) was establish Church (meaning the universal collective of living stones) in the oldest building as a means of 'taking the parish forward' by reliving the past and removing some of the distractions and dissipation that was to be found across the parish. "This," a bishop's staff member told me, "Is the 'consolidation' that sound business practice demands when a weakening customer base and diminishing finances become an organisational reality."
I recall that the ILO 'Introduction to Work Study' there were two 'must remember' elements:
1. Other that in the case of a 'sole trader, one-man' business the work of balancing the use
of one resource against another is the job of the manager.
If the manager fails to do what is necessary, then the whole enterprise will fall.
2. Any organisation consists of four 'resources':
i. Land and buildings - Buildings portfolios, their maintenance and upkeep
ii. Material - in this context this is the means to make the desired product
iii. People - to create, market and support the customer base (i.e. communicants and community
iv. Plant - in this case the organ, sound equipment, audio visual, heating. light, offices, etc.
Now what we are seeing here is nothing more than good business practice. Look at the five churches my colleague spoke of. If we were to regard them using the criteria of resource, customer base and balance sheets then it it obvious that the rural church needs to be closed as it is presents a low yield (in terms of 'customers' and income) and a high outlay (in terms of staffing and running costs).
The same is true in the Zombie church, another high outlay and low income and attendance entity that needs to be closed as soon as possible.
Of course, we wouldn't leave the people who went to those churches as orphans, because we are providing services for them in the Mother church so all they need to do is get themselves from where they live - and it might come as no surprise to hear that both these churches were in a rural setting which means that unless private transport is essential - and nothing will have changed. Church will continue with nary a blip!
One of the series of lectures on downsizing and contraction as means of organisational survival I had to attend during my management days talked of the fact that should a company remove itself from a community, the likelihood of return under the same branding was minimal. Not only that but, if the product was something valued, the closing of a branch was seen as an act against the people and the global product recognition and approval declined such that in other places customer base transferred to a competitor. But hey, we are Church and that means we are happy to see people leave us for another Christian denomination or grouping. We just want to see Church flourish and at the end of the day aren't bothered where people go as long as they go, right?
And of course, that's a load of tosh for we care deeply about numbers in terms of money, attendance, market share and the like. I can prove this because when asked how our church was doing I replied that the people were growing, we were seeing vocations and things were generally very positive. "Oh that's great," said the bishop, "But I meant in terms of numbers!' Says it all, doesn't it? And things will get no better as we find senior staff engaging in SWOT, costflow analysis. It will see us consider the use of 'sessional' clergy (and if a 0.3 post isn't that already, tell me what it is!) and the 'contracting out' of services in one direction and the increase of multiple beneficed entities (seen one this week for a ten church vacancy - which my lectures would have listed as little more than 'nominalism').
Here's a little homework for you and you church councils and congregations: Management theory and practice are great, but where is the Gospel in all this? Where will the 'can't pay - can't have' policy some diocesan staff bleat on about take us?)
The next to come under the hammer will probably be the mission church,after all the customer base has moved away and so better to start drawing up plans to bring them back in to the Minister now so that we can go forward from a position of strength. Now I don't know what those who run things read but as I understand it, once the troops have retreated into a central base, the nest thing is that they either fight to the death or are withdrawn by a friendly Chinook out of there.
The comfortable church remains comfortable and since the weddings and the well-off keep the money coming it the Archdeacon and the diocesan staff with all nod fondly towards them and thank God for their successes. Mind you, like many churches whose attendance is static and their parish share is paid, no one looks at the missional element regarding that place do they?
And of the Mother church, a place filled with the dwindling numbers (attendance and income) and increasing age of the congregation. Will we see them active and engaged? Will they be pleased at the increase caused by the closures elsewhere - which to be brutally honest won't happen - of course they won't! I rarely see a welcome for the intruders from the other places, even when the fact that the daughters have returned is satisfying to them.
Those in the closed churches will merely fade into the distance that separates their communities from the town centre Minister - the final nail in the coffin of our rural communities will have been banged home and the opportunity for the Gospel will be effectively gone forever where the C of E is concerned.
But at least the management models will be sound, won't they?
*International Labour Organisation - Introduction to Work Study, second edition 1969
There I was discussing a situation facing a group of churches with a colleague who told me of the different family members in their patch. Starting at the top (according to my companion's rating that is) we had:
+ The 'comfortable' church: one of those picturesque places with the lytchgate, the nicely kept graveyard and the financially comfortable members. Adored by the diocese as a 'good giver' and desired by the wedding couples as a suitable backdrop for their big day, this was the jewel in the crown that was the parish.
+ The 'Mother' church - representing Christian witness in the area since Christianity first hit our shores this was the church building from which all others in the area owed their existence. Wonderfully ancient building containing almost equally ancient members and an astounding inability to raise enough to pay their parish share and yet manage to pay it thanks to monies saved and invested 'back in the day' when it was standing room only!
+ The 'Zombie' church - as pretty as the comfortable church and almost as old as the 'Mother' this place boasted a congregation of six (if all them turned up at the same time and an inability to pay what was needed, for income inversely matched the average age of the congregation!
+ The 'Estate' church - boasting a stable attendance with a moderately young congregation and a much reduced ability to raise income. Not surprising when you consider the profile of the people coming in terms of income. Few had jobs and yet here growth and engagement was to be found.
+ The 'Mission' church - built to serve a community who had long since moved away, this once community church had become very much a gathered church and the numbers were small and decreasing.
+ The 'rural' church - picturesque and historic to the extent that it was a real treasure and something all in the community agreed valued and loved. Sadly though, this love affair had no influence on attendance or income and it was now open on a monthly basis to cater for the handful who faithfully came when the doors were unlocked and the bell rung!
Nothing remarkable thus far, I am sure that many reading this will recognise one or more of the churches described here. Many might have suspected, and some will understand, that some in the diocesan organisation were looking to get rid of some of the buildings to save the endless outlays on maintenance and upkeep. The demise of a time which saw 'a priest in every parish' meant that now, where there was once five clergy there were now but two and 'sound management principles' and good ecclesial practice indicated that the key was to develop a 'Minster' model whereby the 'mother' became the place everyone else retreated in to.
Sorry, did I say, "Retreat?" No what I meant (if there are any bishops reading this) was establish Church (meaning the universal collective of living stones) in the oldest building as a means of 'taking the parish forward' by reliving the past and removing some of the distractions and dissipation that was to be found across the parish. "This," a bishop's staff member told me, "Is the 'consolidation' that sound business practice demands when a weakening customer base and diminishing finances become an organisational reality."
I recall that the ILO 'Introduction to Work Study' there were two 'must remember' elements:
1. Other that in the case of a 'sole trader, one-man' business the work of balancing the use
of one resource against another is the job of the manager.
If the manager fails to do what is necessary, then the whole enterprise will fall.
2. Any organisation consists of four 'resources':
i. Land and buildings - Buildings portfolios, their maintenance and upkeep
ii. Material - in this context this is the means to make the desired product
iii. People - to create, market and support the customer base (i.e. communicants and community
iv. Plant - in this case the organ, sound equipment, audio visual, heating. light, offices, etc.
Now what we are seeing here is nothing more than good business practice. Look at the five churches my colleague spoke of. If we were to regard them using the criteria of resource, customer base and balance sheets then it it obvious that the rural church needs to be closed as it is presents a low yield (in terms of 'customers' and income) and a high outlay (in terms of staffing and running costs).
The same is true in the Zombie church, another high outlay and low income and attendance entity that needs to be closed as soon as possible.
Of course, we wouldn't leave the people who went to those churches as orphans, because we are providing services for them in the Mother church so all they need to do is get themselves from where they live - and it might come as no surprise to hear that both these churches were in a rural setting which means that unless private transport is essential - and nothing will have changed. Church will continue with nary a blip!
One of the series of lectures on downsizing and contraction as means of organisational survival I had to attend during my management days talked of the fact that should a company remove itself from a community, the likelihood of return under the same branding was minimal. Not only that but, if the product was something valued, the closing of a branch was seen as an act against the people and the global product recognition and approval declined such that in other places customer base transferred to a competitor. But hey, we are Church and that means we are happy to see people leave us for another Christian denomination or grouping. We just want to see Church flourish and at the end of the day aren't bothered where people go as long as they go, right?
And of course, that's a load of tosh for we care deeply about numbers in terms of money, attendance, market share and the like. I can prove this because when asked how our church was doing I replied that the people were growing, we were seeing vocations and things were generally very positive. "Oh that's great," said the bishop, "But I meant in terms of numbers!' Says it all, doesn't it? And things will get no better as we find senior staff engaging in SWOT, costflow analysis. It will see us consider the use of 'sessional' clergy (and if a 0.3 post isn't that already, tell me what it is!) and the 'contracting out' of services in one direction and the increase of multiple beneficed entities (seen one this week for a ten church vacancy - which my lectures would have listed as little more than 'nominalism').
Here's a little homework for you and you church councils and congregations: Management theory and practice are great, but where is the Gospel in all this? Where will the 'can't pay - can't have' policy some diocesan staff bleat on about take us?)
The next to come under the hammer will probably be the mission church,after all the customer base has moved away and so better to start drawing up plans to bring them back in to the Minister now so that we can go forward from a position of strength. Now I don't know what those who run things read but as I understand it, once the troops have retreated into a central base, the nest thing is that they either fight to the death or are withdrawn by a friendly Chinook out of there.
The comfortable church remains comfortable and since the weddings and the well-off keep the money coming it the Archdeacon and the diocesan staff with all nod fondly towards them and thank God for their successes. Mind you, like many churches whose attendance is static and their parish share is paid, no one looks at the missional element regarding that place do they?
And of the Mother church, a place filled with the dwindling numbers (attendance and income) and increasing age of the congregation. Will we see them active and engaged? Will they be pleased at the increase caused by the closures elsewhere - which to be brutally honest won't happen - of course they won't! I rarely see a welcome for the intruders from the other places, even when the fact that the daughters have returned is satisfying to them.
Those in the closed churches will merely fade into the distance that separates their communities from the town centre Minister - the final nail in the coffin of our rural communities will have been banged home and the opportunity for the Gospel will be effectively gone forever where the C of E is concerned.
But at least the management models will be sound, won't they?
 |
| How will they hear is there are none to tell them? |
*International Labour Organisation - Introduction to Work Study, second edition 1969
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Parochial - what we don't want it to mean!
Just had a rather splendid conversation with a colleague about the word 'parochial' which has two meanings and my colleague managed to use both when discussing those they minister too in the same sentence - boy was I impressed!
And then they explained how both definitions fitted and my goodness me, was I depressed!
The sentence was this,
"Gosh, the parochial church council was really worked up by some of the goings on around them this week but when we started to scratch the surface they were so parochial I understood why some had rung their bell and got them going!"
The first use of the word 'parochial' in which it relates to the Parish (a geographical area served by a church) and the word 'parochial' which in this sense means being in possession of a rather limited or narrow outlook or understanding.
The big problem when we are parochial (in the limited sense) is that we can become rather myopic and limited in our understanding and engagement as Church (which means universal or much bigger than the limited geographic parish entity). This manifests itself in a number of ways:
Sometimes, where a parish consists of more than one church there is an attitude that is one church is preeminent or predominant and that all, and any, others within the geographic patch are much less than them. This is sometimes found where there is one historic church from which the others in the area have come about (in this case the preeminent church is called the patron or 'Mother' church) and this church, being the eldest or the biggest or being in possession of some attribute considered to make it of worth to those within in, decides that it is therefore also the most important. This is sometimes found where, being a team, there is one church that is home to the 'Team rector' and the attitude that says. "We must be important because we have the senior cleric in our church," applies.
Sometimes it occurs when one church in the parish is well off, pretty or in possession of some other trait which those who attend it consider to be enough to make them the star.
The bottom line is that regardless of the reason for the attitude the attitude is ALWAYS wrong! From the youngest to the oldest church building, the richest to the poorest, the nicest to the most awful patch served these truths apply:
There is ONE Church and this is the Church of Jesus Christ!
In a parochial system there are many parishes but regardless of how many buildings, or how rich (or poor, they are - each is equal and and equally important!
'Daughter church' is not, and must never become, a negative! Neither is it a statement of rank and never is it a putdown - it just means that it was planted from another (which we call 'Mother') church. Regardless we must never regard the 'Mother' church as the preeminent or most important church in the patch either to the detriment of any of the others in the locality - they are just different and that's all there is too it.
The same applies to those churches that abut our parishes or reside within our Deaneries (a collection of parishes within a geographic area such as a town) or dioceses (a collection of parishes across an even wider geographic area) - regardless of where they are: posh, poor, urban, rural, suburban, estate church or cathedral - each has it value and its merits and is to be considered of equal merit but different!
Sadly the person I have been speaking to has had their fill of the one true church and its battle with the poorer, and of much less merit than them, other churches and has decided that they are going to throw in the towel and seek pastures new (apparently they've seen it and applied already). This is a shame because they've been doing (if what they tell me is true) some really good stuff where they have been. It is a shame because those they are leaving will probably never change their views regarding their ancient pile with its diminishing numbers and increasing financials demands and will never support the younger upstarts who are doing the stuff and being effective where they are monumentally ineffective.
Sadder still is the fact that they aren't moving sticks to somewhere near me (would have loved to have them nearer) and that they are wounded and broken by their experience thus far.
So here is a plea:
PLEASE pray for those clergy who struggle in divided parishes.
PLEASE pray for unity in parishes and between all churches in our towns and cities praying, as Jesus' prayed in John 17, that this might be seen and made real in each and every church and between each and every church:
"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
As someone who is out there trying hard to get people to do stuff together I struggle with churches (meaning the building) and those who inhabit them who seek to pull down others and exalt their pile of bricks to the detriment of the Gospel.
Can I just say:
And then they explained how both definitions fitted and my goodness me, was I depressed!
The sentence was this,
"Gosh, the parochial church council was really worked up by some of the goings on around them this week but when we started to scratch the surface they were so parochial I understood why some had rung their bell and got them going!"
The first use of the word 'parochial' in which it relates to the Parish (a geographical area served by a church) and the word 'parochial' which in this sense means being in possession of a rather limited or narrow outlook or understanding.
The big problem when we are parochial (in the limited sense) is that we can become rather myopic and limited in our understanding and engagement as Church (which means universal or much bigger than the limited geographic parish entity). This manifests itself in a number of ways:
Sometimes, where a parish consists of more than one church there is an attitude that is one church is preeminent or predominant and that all, and any, others within the geographic patch are much less than them. This is sometimes found where there is one historic church from which the others in the area have come about (in this case the preeminent church is called the patron or 'Mother' church) and this church, being the eldest or the biggest or being in possession of some attribute considered to make it of worth to those within in, decides that it is therefore also the most important. This is sometimes found where, being a team, there is one church that is home to the 'Team rector' and the attitude that says. "We must be important because we have the senior cleric in our church," applies.
Sometimes it occurs when one church in the parish is well off, pretty or in possession of some other trait which those who attend it consider to be enough to make them the star.
The bottom line is that regardless of the reason for the attitude the attitude is ALWAYS wrong! From the youngest to the oldest church building, the richest to the poorest, the nicest to the most awful patch served these truths apply:
There is ONE Church and this is the Church of Jesus Christ!
In a parochial system there are many parishes but regardless of how many buildings, or how rich (or poor, they are - each is equal and and equally important!
'Daughter church' is not, and must never become, a negative! Neither is it a statement of rank and never is it a putdown - it just means that it was planted from another (which we call 'Mother') church. Regardless we must never regard the 'Mother' church as the preeminent or most important church in the patch either to the detriment of any of the others in the locality - they are just different and that's all there is too it.
The same applies to those churches that abut our parishes or reside within our Deaneries (a collection of parishes within a geographic area such as a town) or dioceses (a collection of parishes across an even wider geographic area) - regardless of where they are: posh, poor, urban, rural, suburban, estate church or cathedral - each has it value and its merits and is to be considered of equal merit but different!
Sadly the person I have been speaking to has had their fill of the one true church and its battle with the poorer, and of much less merit than them, other churches and has decided that they are going to throw in the towel and seek pastures new (apparently they've seen it and applied already). This is a shame because they've been doing (if what they tell me is true) some really good stuff where they have been. It is a shame because those they are leaving will probably never change their views regarding their ancient pile with its diminishing numbers and increasing financials demands and will never support the younger upstarts who are doing the stuff and being effective where they are monumentally ineffective.
Sadder still is the fact that they aren't moving sticks to somewhere near me (would have loved to have them nearer) and that they are wounded and broken by their experience thus far.
So here is a plea:
PLEASE pray for those clergy who struggle in divided parishes.
PLEASE pray for unity in parishes and between all churches in our towns and cities praying, as Jesus' prayed in John 17, that this might be seen and made real in each and every church and between each and every church:
"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me - so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
As someone who is out there trying hard to get people to do stuff together I struggle with churches (meaning the building) and those who inhabit them who seek to pull down others and exalt their pile of bricks to the detriment of the Gospel.
Can I just say:
STOP IT!
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