A “Future” of Rural Ministry

I want to offer something of a polemic and a dream and a pondering.

For some months I’ve been reflecting on a ministry issue that in my place of work is a huge issue - I’ve been trying to find the words to express my thoughts about this issue, and I think I’ve reached the appropriate place to be able to lay some words down.

From the outset, I must stress that I work in a single parish church: a single parish church with a multi-congregational Sunday model. (8am, 9:30am, 10:45am, 6pm, 7:15pm). While the object of my reflection is mainly related to the working of rural churches and multi parish benefices there is some overlap with particular aspects of this thought process.

Nantwich, where I minister, is a market town with an ever-increasing population, (roughly 20,000). It’s a single-parish town with a whopping great big old church in the middle. To the south, to the west, to the north, there are various benefices, etc (to the east there is Crewe). And all these churches are part of Nantwich Deanery. The joke goes that Nantwich St. Mary’s is the “cathedral of south Cheshire”.

Heading out into the rural villages we find one incumbent looking after up to three or four churches (which isn’t a rarity - in fact I recently saw a post advertised in a different diocese for a team rector for more than 12 churches! - to be supported by a retired clergy and a reader).

There is a constant struggle to pay for the exquisite but costly inherited church buildings, and there is a great set of challenges facing the ordained staff, with new churches being attached to benefices, with some posts turning from full-time to part-time.
I want to draw attention to two thoughts.

The first is about the number of services (and this is easily related to our church in Nantwich too). At chapter, in IME events, with general discussions with clergy I hear of incumbents and curates, rectors and vicars, who have an 8:00am service at St. Blah’s and a 9:30am service at St. Blurgh’s 5 miles away. Some even have an 11:00am at St. Flurp’s 7 miles further down the road.

Community is difficult to build, rural communities need the presence and being of a priest, not just the attendance and doing of a priest.

The story I’ve heard which saddens me most is the rural minister who has no chance to stay behind after the service for tea and coffee because they need to rush off to the next church and next service.

When that happens we’ve got it all wrong. All that happens in that instance is that we “service” our services. We don’t serve our communities. But with expectations of a parish Eucharist at each church, with expectations of what to get on a Sunday at morning at church. Something has to give in a minister’s time, and inevitably it’s the tea and coffee.

We couldn’t possibly disrupt the pattern of worship. Sure, we could change service times, or wow, crazy, have services on other suitable days, (rural communities, commuters and farmers, issues of when and where - I KNOW!).

But actually, I wonder, whether the most profound and prophetic thing we could do is to sack-off some of the service.

60 minutes of worship and 5 minutes of fellowship does not a church make.

How about: 35 minutes of worship and 30 minutes of fellowship.

Oh, but the liturgy! Oh, but the expectations! Oh, but the way we do things!

Without building a community around the act of worship, all we have is a stand-alone act of worship and that worshiping “community” will die.

That is the eventual outcome: certainly it may be slow, and take decades even, but the church will die in those places, unless the enacting of community is a priority, maybe even as much of a priority, or in some cases, more of a priority than the worship.

Certainly, the church is not the social services, but it is a social ethic. (Hauerwas and co). Thought must be given to this.

And this is the issue that affects the multi-congregational model too, if I have anything to do with the 10:45 service, I won’t get chance to stay behind and have coffee after the 9:30 service.

The second thought to share, is that perhaps we have too many churches in rural locations. Certainly, as I have outlined, community is essential, and people become very attached to their geographic community, and actually, no one ever wants to close a church, and remove the worshipping centre from a geographic situation.

But we need to widen our understandings of geographic community and hold them in tension with the challenges we face.

And yet, I meet many clergy in rural ministry who are stretched. Some have churches that were built by landowners many hundreds of years ago, and who kindly bequeathed the churches back to the Church of England, perhaps as finances or faith dictated.

Too much of a ministers time might be spent “servicing” the needs and expectations of communities, without ever engaging in creative and enriching mission.

I see a “future” in which a completely rural deanery will have a model by which there is one active church (like an abbey or minster), staffed by a minister who leads and organises worship and creative mission (perhaps with a pioneer minister [they exist] whose role might be to creatively engage with the local communities) and (depending on the size and population of the area) one or two (maybe even lots more) Occasional Office Priests who take the funerals (and perhaps baptisms and weddings) from the geographic area that makes up the deanery. (I am using deanary to frame this discussion, but it needn’t be a deanery).

Either the worshipping church is used for these services, or indeed, maybe in a busy area, there might be another parish church that becomes the “Funeral Chapel”.

The costs of the buildings are reduced.

The effectiveness of the ministers is increased.

Sadly the current pattern of worshipping community is also lost (but looking at some of the attendance trends: if the current model stays the same, this may happen naturally in a short-time anyway - and in many places is already happening, and has happened).

We need the mental, emotional and spiritual space to engage communities by mission.

Yes the occasional offices are mission -I do not deny it. Looking at the five marks of mission this is obvious, - serving, baptising, but I wonder whether we place too much emphasis on them as our unwritten evangelistic policy.

Yes, we all know people who regularly started to come to church as a response to occasional office ministry. I’d like to see some stats, but I wonder if the number who come to church and stay at church is hugely significant.

This new way of doing church stills wouldn’t necessarily stop this happening (though it might be a different minister leading the “Sunday service” so the personal connection might be lost).

But what it would do, is challenge us to think creatively about mission and not just rely on the occasional offices.

This carries with it pastoral costs, but these might need to be borne.

These words are just the ramblings of a thought in process. Which is the wonder of blogging.

Peace.

The High Street Is Not Broken - It's A Symptom

On a recent day off I visited a little town not far from me. It was a town with a sizable high street: plenty of space for shops, lots of units that in prior visits had lots of retailers in place. But those visits were about 15 months ago and things have most definitely changed in the locale.

This is an experience many probably encounter frequently. Going to a town or village that appeared to be thriving, only to return a year or so further into an economic downturn to see it becoming ever increasingly boarded up.

More and more units for let.

And as we encounter these things, a number of reactions might come to mind: what has happened to the shop? What about the owners? What about the employees?

And also: why has this happened?

No doubt many businesses close because of competition from bigger brands, or indeed the dreaded online competition. Many may struggle due to a lack of diversification, many may struggle because of bad market research, many may struggle because many customers want a bargain, and will go the extra mile to get one.

And yet we have an idyll of the old fashioned high street full of independent retailers.

A few years ago, Alnwick in Northumberland, won a US competition about the best high street, and one of the major factors why it won, was the diversity of independent retailers.

In this little town I visited, there was a Blockbuster which was closing down.

I didn't know Blockbuster still existed.

With Sky, NetFlixs, LoveFilm, any other amount streaming (illegal and legal) and online options, I can understand why this business model is struggling.

Recently we witnessed the struggles of Jessops. I always had the impression that Jessops had become something of a unofficial "try before you buy online place". Test the camera you want, source it online and save yourself a packet.

And then there was HMV, who seem to have been plucked from the claws of retail death. There were whimsical comments about the end of music shops on the high street. With out any kind of irony, or reference to the emergence of the High Street Music Chains (HMV, Virgin Megastores, Our Price) that were themselves the death bell for so many independent record shops.

So what are we to make of all this?

I think the first thing, is to feel genuinely gutted for those affected, those whose income and dreams have been affected, those who are now looking for work, or, like Katie in the Blockbusters I visited - waiting to find out when the shop will close / leaving date, so she can apply for a new job to start after Blockbusters has closed.

The second thing: surely is to recognise that while online businesses use whatever means of avoiding taxes, the "playing field" will be even more uneven.

The third thing to realise is that rather than seeing the demise of the high street as a cultural catastrophe, we must start to accept that it is the end result of the endemic culture of consumerist capitalism in which we live. We want cheaper and we want better and we want it now.

That's something many small retailers will struggle to do: compete with the online or high street giant who buys products more cheaply and sells them more cheaply.

It seems that one way around this dilemma is to establish the activity of shopping as a lifestyle choice. Make the shopping experience pleasant, "boutique-y" and desirable. But even that will only get a business so far.

Ultimately, the decline of independent high street retailers, (and indeed slow moving high street chains, and indeed, out-moded high street chains) will continue. And it will continue to happen in a culture which wants more for less.

Now I'm not saying we should abandon capitalism or even consumerism. All I'm advocating (in this post at least), is the recognition that it is us, we the consumer who have a major stake in controlling the destiny of the high street. But that with that comes a caveat: the destiny of the high street will not be radically changed by the few: it will need a mass-movement of retail-habit-change.

A small number of people may be able to sustain the local organic grocer, or record shop but more must be done if we want to save the high street.

Which leads us to the heart of the matter: do we want to save the high street?

I do. I've lived in a community where the local shop, the post office, the pubs and the other amenities have closed, and its down heartening, it dissolves social cohesion, it paints a picture of "broken window syndrome" and it widens the emotional gap between people and the places that they live.

But the challenge is there and it is real: yes, it is fantastic to "go indie" when buying coffee, or books, or vinyl, but the real cost of saving the high street (let alone an indie high street)  is not only moral and ethical: but monetary as well.

If we are to save the high street we will need to spend more on products than we probably do at present. And in hard financial times, with people from all walks of life struggling, that is a hard challenge.

It's not enough for one segment of society to go indie. The challenge is for every consumer in the country.

And no, I do not write as one who only shops local and independent: I do when it comes to certain things, but actually given what I am trained to expect to get back from the money I receive in my bank each month: this would mean a huge re-evaluation of those things. And that's hard to do with an overdraft. (This maybe a cop-out, I do my "bit", but actually, deep down, I recognise that it's not enough).

So really, is the high street broken? No in and of its self. The high street is a symptom of a bigger problem, and its a problem deeply entrenched in our consumer-psyche's. While we live with the expectations we have: I'm not sure we can expect to see the high street recover.

Glocal consumerism and the immediacy of the online experience has meant that I can be involved with the making of an album by one of my favourite independent artistes by crowd funding. But it's also meant that my mangoes imported from a far away land can be delivered to my door by someone in a van with a recognisable uniform.

Before we look for a solution: we must see the scope of the problem for what it is.

But I do believe in resurrection. Resurrection of communities, resurrection from death, resurrection for high streets, resurrection for societal ethics.

And resurrection is what we're looking at here. Not resuscitation: this old system can have life blown back into it time and time again, but in so many ways it is not sustainable with the ethic that many of us carry.

Let's look to resurrection and see what might happen.

Leading when you feel sad.

While I've titled this post "Leading when you feel sad", I'm really getting at something deeper.
How about this instead,

"Leading when you're stressed"
"Leading when you are depressed"
"Leading when you have doubts"
"Leading when you have no sense of hope."

It's a common notion that has been handed down through generations of pastors and preachers and vicars and bishops and people with little white plastic slip-in collars.



When leading worship - smile.

Let the congregation know you are enjoying it.

Let the congregation see that everything is rosy with you.

Let the people see how well you bask in the halonic light of the messiah as you draw people forward in their profound journeys with God.

Don't let the congregation know if you're not happy.



This little list of aphorisms were in one wording or another given to me as a helpful inheritance by a former supervisor.

The purpose of these little flatulent sayings are on the face of it quite reasonable.

If I went to a concert and the lead guitarist was looking a little jaded I might question their commitment to the cause, or they're belief in the band's lyrics.

But even then I'm not sure I'd prefer them to smile flatly and falsely.

But within churches - when push comes to shove, this is an unwritten rule - look happy when leading.

I get the feeling R.S. Thomas would have had an answer to any who dared suggest such a thing to him.

But genuinely, how do we respond to such ideas?

How should we act if quite frankly we feel terrible, or actually can think of no worse place, than stood at the front of church?

Maybe one answer might be given, "yeah but it's your job/hobby/idea of a cracking Sunday morning, so just get on with it yeah?"

To which I would respond, but who can honestly say they've felt their best everyday they've been to work, or have some salesmen and women actually been fed up of trying to sell used cars and looked tired? Or maybe they're not sleeping, or are ill?

But someone at the church, speaking, well lets wheel out 1 Peter 3:15b,

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you.

Take that - depressive types!

It's because it's all about hope isn't it?

Yes.... and no....

Because a life in leadership is just that, a life. And a life is full of ups and downs. Clergy types who spend years baptising, marrying and burying should know this.

"But just keep smiling."

The horrific catchphrase of some ridiculous parody of a church at worship.

Cutting to the chase I have two things I really want to say at this point (and I may blog more at another time).

THE FIRST: In the late 90's and throughout the 00's I think much of youth work and evangelistic ministry within the church was about big event, showy event. It's all about the zapp and the boom and the pow. We're going to impress these people into the kingdom with mediocre Christian rap, bleached hair and an OTT event.

And these things were (and still are) great at many things.

But something has happened in the last ten years.

Teenagers discovered the internet.

And then they grew up to be mid-twenties, and are now going on 30.

If they want a zapp, a boom, or a pow, the internet can provide a bigger and better one than the Church can.

Rather than mourning over this, I rejoice. Because a thread that has emerged in youth work, and mission theory is that, wait for it, .............. what really matters is relationships.

You can have all the special effects you want but if you don't know the person whose sharing this story with you it's all worthless.

Relationships, friendships, mentoring, these ways of communicating and sharing life are essential.

It's through these ways of communicating (whether in physical personal contact, or via an interface like the internet) that people really share their lives and stories.

And here's a newsflash. When you share people's lives - you realise that sometimes things aren't all rosy.

There might be something wrong.
OR difficult.
OR challenging.
OR stressful.
OR depressing.
OR sleep depriving.



THE SECOND: In Chester diocese we're really getting into supporting the campaigns that say 1 in 4 people suffer from some form of mental health concern in their life-time. I have a mate who works in front-line Mental Health nursing who tells me that the statistics they base their work on say 1 in 3.

Depression: stress: medically recognised conditions.

Medical conditions.

It needs to be understood that telling a depressed leader to "smile when leading services" is an affront to a person's dignity and an unfair challenge.

Could you imagine the backlash if a service leader with a broken leg was told, "try not to hobble so much".

Or if a person in a wheelchair was told to stand up when reading the gospel.

It just wouldn't happen.

So I'm therefore left with a picture of clergy, and the like, who because they've never experienced profound sadness, can't accept it when someone has - and shock horror, is experiencing it.

Either that or they're disregarding someones health and limitations that result from it...... again, I don't think that would go down too well.


All in all, I want to encourage those of you who currently feel a bit fed up, and those of you who feel significantly more than a bit fed-up.

I want to encourage you to not smile (if you don't want to) when leading worship.

I want you to know that Christ has called you, as you are. To grow into his likeness, yes.

But to encounter healing and wholeness.

He's called the WHOLE of you.

I try to take as my role model from the New Testament, the Apostle Thomas.

A figure whose great faith and incredible insight has been white-washed with the word "doubting".

This man who says, "come on you lot, let's go to Jerusalem so we might die with him".

This man who says, "how will we know the way?" Which gifts Jesus the opportunity to say, "I am the way, the truth and the life."

So, let us walk to Jerusalem with Jesus and Thomas. Even if we feel like lagging behind. Even if our eyes are fixed into the middle-distance. Even if we can't quite dare to meet the eye of Jesus on that walk.

Let us take the walk with him, and in our own time, in God's own time, perhaps then, we might well encounter something we feel we can smile about.

The Christ Will Not Let Us Fall - a litany

The Christ will not let us fall

 

When the darkness comes

And all is cast in shadow

The Christ will not let us fall

 

As the evening sky turns black

And the streets turn cold with menace

The Christ will not let us fall

 

When fear strikes

And hearts grow cold in terror

The Christ will not let us fall

 

At times when worries overburden

And stress freezes the inner warmth

The Christ will not let us fall

 

When the weight of dread fills and blinds the eyes

And wonder has been banished

The Christ will not let us fall

 

While the world turns ever onward

And no stillness can be found

The Christ will not let us fall

 

In places where death lingers in the air

And all hope is lost

The Christ will not let us fall

 

Where the callous laughing of enemies rings in the ears

And every moment is too fragile

The Christ will not let us fall

 

When the night comes

And washes away all sense of colour

The Christ will not let us fall

 

For the Christ knows the dark,

But the dark cannot smother the light.

AMEN.

Encounter

Encounter begins this evening. Something I've been praying through for over a year. Something that as a leadership team, we've taken ownership of. My simple prayer is that tonight, in the birthing of this new community, something will catch.

Something will hold.

Something will grab at the imagination and the heart.

That God might go beyond our meagre means and gifts and talents, and create something beautiful. A poured out offering of nard for Christ. That's my prayer.

www.encounter-nantwich.org

have you got a word?

New Year springs out from beneath the cellophane of the 2013 calendar. It is right here and will be here for whole year!

And with the arrival of a new year comes the arrival of that annual tradition...

The New Year's Resolution.

Except that this year people (lots of whom like Jesus) are subverting this cultural behemoth.

I keep hearing of different approaches people take. In 2012 a number of folk know had a hashtag #yearofthankfulness

And this was great.
People uploading photos everyday, of something they were thankful for.

Really loved that.

But then read I @sarahbessey 's blog. I'm not even sure how I came to know aout her.

But her blog had a great suggestion. One which there is a whole online movement about.

There's a website dedicated to this idea.

Rather than choosing a resolution. The principle is to choose a word.

It could be a word you know you struggle with. Or something you lack.

But you choose the word and go with it.

Bessey chose "fearless" and for a year whenever she encountered her fears, she faced up to them.

I like the sound of this way of doing things.

So I have chosen my word.

And when you hear my word you may think it is a cop-out.

But it isn't.

My word is "prayer".

Because realise that I have in the last 18 months lost my hunger for prayer.

I have lost the emphasis of prayer in my life.

For too many reasons I have let my relationship with God fizzle out.

But this word "prayer" is my way of claiming it back.

I will seek to pray everyday. And I mean really pray.

Talk and listen.

I will write "prayer" on my heart and on my hands.

I will turn to prayer before I turn to moaning and before I head towards

Anger and
Frustration and
Sadness.

Instead will pray.

Do you have a word?

What might your word be?

Everybody

Here's a quick poem. Couldn't just put up an audio file so had to make a little photo montage. Words to the poem are below.

 

Everybody

There’s no dance I would rather do.

There’s no hope I’d rather kindle.

Than the one I want to bring.

But the one I wonder about is broken beyond my dreams.

Another broken dream.

Everybody dreams sometimes.

Everybody hopes for these things to come true.

Everybody longs for it to be “me and you”.

Everybody has a dream to fly.

To soar up so so so high.

And everybody knows the sky goes blind.

Once you’re up above the highest heights.

Everybody has a time to cry.

Just as everybody has a time to die.

A time to drift and scratch.

A time to miss and match.

It’s always too soon to glide.

Never know just how far to try.

Always one thing or more holding us back.

But.

But everybody has a care in the world.

Everybody’s world is so so so absurd.

Everybody needs to try.

To respect what must be respected and reject what needs to be rejected.

There’s no way back from the other side.

And there’s no place for bravado and macho male pride.

Everybody hopes they’ll never need to cry.

And everybody speaks too much from their deepest insides.

And almost everybody has that feeling within.

Everybody wants to die sometimes.

Everybody hopes to never have to try again and

Everybody feels claustrophobic.

Everybody has a hunch that’s worth risk.

Always the same to never be sure and ready until.

Until everybody realises it’s high time to try.

Everybody quotes somebody sometimes.

And everybody longs for release and besides,

Everybody is too torn up by the people on either side.

Instead of just reaching out and putting a hand on their shoulder.

Everybody says the world feels colder.

But everybody knows its heating up.

Everybody wants to be bolder and live right.

Yet everybody’s pockets are too tight, too shut, too locked down,

And there’s no hope they’d rather kindle.

And there’s no dance they’d rather do.

There’s nothing left to bring but,

But broken dreams and tired, clapped out but inventive schemes.

Everybody’s dream at some point dies.

Unless that dream is breathed upon and held tight.

Everybody works their best to seize the day.

And everybody waves their hands to scare the crows away.

But everybody’s love is there on display.

And everybody’s whispered hopes disappear someday.

And all of everybody one day someday dies.

And everybody’s hopes won’t stay alive,

Unless,

Unless everybody tries to live beyond the lies,

To look square and straight at the true horizon,

Usually just out of view.

And everybody’s purpose is somewhere over on that point,

Everybody’s compass is muddied with loss,

Caked in dust and a veneer of false aspiration,

But everybody has a chance to refresh the stale heart,

And everybody is not alone, eternally forgotten.

And everybody doesn’t need to cry by themselves,

Dreams torn and tattered on the shelf.

Everybody has a hope that even they might not know.

Or might not see.

But everybody’s heart has strength in reserve.

But the tap can be shut too tight, too dry and rusted solid.

Everybody stares into space and hopes to see something twinkling in the stars.

Everybody glances in the mirror and sees something,

Everybody turns inwards once too often.

Everybody has a dream that died.

Everybody has a scheme they wish they’d tried.

Everybody has a hope that’s broken.

And everybody has a hope unopened.

Everybody has boxes scattered around their lives.

Everybody draws shutters tight on the inside.

Everybody dreams they’ll live before they’ll die.

And everybody sees through tired eyes.

And shattered sighs,

And broken cries.

Everybody knows disgrace at some point.

And embarrassment does the same.

And in time the moon and sun still do their revolve,

Problems solve,

Hopes remain unopened,

Hours pass by.

And for everybody, there’s a time to try.

For everybody there’s a time to catch the sky.

And for everybody there’s a time to clutch at why.

For everybody there’s a point too far.

For all the points of it all can seem so small sometimes.

And everybody has a hope before they die.

Everybody has a hope they might not try.

Everybody has a hope.

Everybody has hope.

Everybody hopes.

Everybody.