Discerning and developing congregational ministries
Last month, I wrote of ministry development and what it might look like. But I left out one part of that picture – the ministry developer. Ministry developers are hard at work in many dioceses across this country and Canada.
In February, the Diocese of Spokane hosted the annual meeting of Living Stones. Living Stones is a partnership of dioceses and faith communities in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada who are engaged in ministry development.
The ministry developers come in varied incarnations. Ministry developers are teachers, consultants, listeners, and facilitators. Ministry developers work with individual congregations or groups of congregations to help them discern who they are called to be and how they might go about a different path of becoming. And all along that journey, the ministry developers are consulting and teaching.
Ministry developers grow in relationship with the congregations with which they minister. That one word “with” is important. Ministry developers do not minister to congregations, but with congregations. They are not “in charge” of a congregation. Their leadership is in the form of listening and of helping a congregation to clarify its discussions and decisions. However, they do not form those decisions. The congregations do that hard work.
Formation is a key component of the work of a ministry developer. Ministry developers can work with a congregation to lay a solid foundation of formation congregation-wide. As formation progresses, discernment can be ongoing. During the journey, members of a congregation may be discerned for varieties of leadership ministries: education, music, finances, administration, pastoral care, the various worship ministries, deacon, priest.
This is not an exhaustive or even a required list of ministries. Each congregation requires and discerns its own leadership needs. The ministry developer’s call is to walk through the discernment process with a congregation and to develop, teach and/or recommend the formation opportunities for these congregational ministries…all the while remaining sensitive to the culture of the congregation and the requirements of both the diocese and the Episcopal Church.
There are those who believe that ministry developers only work with small struggling congregations. The reason for that is found in the origins of ministry development. The seminal work of ministry development was done in dioceses and congregations that could not sustain the one priest-one parish model of ministry. Nevertheless, as the emphasis on the ministry of all the baptized gains wider visibility and acceptance, it is becoming clear that ministry development can occur in large congregations. One large congregation in the Midwest has four ministry teams and the rector is transitioning into the ministry developer of that congregation. This is a bold new experiment, but one that bears watching as alternative models of ministry are explored.
When all is said and done, the call of the ministry developer is to walk the journey with a congregation as a congregation explores who God is calling them to be in the contexts that are theirs: Anglican, Episcopal, diocesan, and local. As in all things in our life in Christ, there is no end to the gifts and possibilities that God has in store for us.
