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Winchester Deanery. Looking to the Future. Why are we together this morning. We need to discern and begin to articulate a vision for the Winchester Deanery. What is God saying to our churches today? Where does this lead us? What do we need to do to get there?
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Winchester Deanery Looking to the Future
Why are we together this morning.. • We need to discern and begin to articulate a vision for the Winchester Deanery. • What is God saying to our churches today? • Where does this lead us? • What do we need to do to get there? • Does it have the capacity to excite and energise those who belong to our church communities? • In the light of that, and the realities we face, we need to develop a Plan which will begin to address how we would like to deploy our resources and work together.
The Process Outlined • Meeting today – to identify the key themes and issues that need to form part of the Plan • The Deanery Mission & Pastoral Committee (DMPC) meets to reflect on today and puts together a draft Plan. • The Draft Plan is then discussed at Deanery Synod and then voted upon. • If a Plan is agreed, it then is presented to the Northern Area Committee to comment and approval (or not!) • The DMPC continues to meet regularly so that a full and comprehensive Plan can be developed; reviewed and updated. This Plan is a process, not a one off activity.
What we won’t be covering today… • The role of the Cathedral • The calculation of the Parish Share system • Which parishes should or should not be in the Deanery
The role of the Deanery • Provides a structure for support and working out resourcing • We learn from each other and grow as a result • Increasingly it is challenging to sustain local Christian communities • There is a greater need for ‘joined up thinking’ about how to address the future • Parish units can be too small to make viable plans that impact beyond their boundaries
The role of the Deanery (cont’d) • The Diocese is too remote a unit to respond effectively to the variety of local contexts and needs • Deaneries need to be seen as an important part of the church and more than an administrative unit of convenience • Deaneries can be more effective in building local capacity – training and equipping locally for our context.
Foundational Thought • our christology shapes our missiology which determines our ecclesiology
Foundational Thought • our understanding of God must unpack itself through our understanding of mission which then shapes the church
Our Understanding of God • God is a missionary God • The redemptive activity of God, his relationship to the world, and his dealing with mankind is described in Scripture by the word “sending.” • God the Father sends the Son, and God the Father and the Son sends the Spirit, and God the Father and the Son and the Spirit sends the church. • In the Gospel of John alone, nearly forty times we read about Jesus being sent – either from the evangelist or from Jesus’ own lips. In the final climatic sending passage in John’s Gospel, Jesus sees himself not only as one sent but also as one who is sending: • “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).
Our understanding of God: Jesus • Our connection to God is through Jesus. This is what makes us distinctly Christ-ian. “At its very heart, Christianity is therefore a messianic movement, one that seeks to consistently embody the life, spirituality, and mission of its Founder.” • There can be no non-God areas in our lives. By committing all of our lives under Jesus, we live out true holiness. • “‘Jesus is Lord’ is a radical claim, one that is ultimately rooted in questions of allegiance, of ultimate authority, of the ultimate norm and standard for human life.” Quotes from Alan Hirsch
Our understanding of Mission • The Missio Dei, or Mission of God, is God’s mission to reconcile all things to Jesus. • This is ‘good news’ for all peoples and the created order • Restoration • Redemption • Reconciliation • Renewal
The Five Marks of Mission • proclaim the good news of the kingdom • teach, baptise & nurture new believers • respond to human need by loving acts of service • seek to transform unjust structures of society • strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth
Our understanding of church • "Becoming a Christian is not just learning about the Christian faith: it is about becoming a member of the Christian community, and it is about relationship with a God who is himself a community of persons. Therefore, right at the beginning of the journey, people need to experience what it means to be part of a pilgrim church. Before people can become pilgrims themselves they need to feel happy to travel with us and be open to experiencing life from a Christian perspective." • Have we got things the right way round? • Do we want to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple? • Is discipleship the core activity of the church? • We embody the ‘missional – incarnational response’
The Landscape “In Christendom Christians felt at home in a culture shaped by their story, but in post-Christendom we are aliens, exiles, and pilgrims in a culture where we no longer feel at home. In Christendom, the churches operated mainly in institutional mode, but in post-Christendom we must become again a Christian movement.” Stuart Murray
Good news story - The Message Trust • We work long-term, year-round, filling the gaps often left by traditional educational and youth work systems. Many of our people choose to live on deprived estates, electing to share the problems faced by the young people there. • We are unashamed about our motivation – the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our faith is our reason why. But we work with people of all faiths or none to achieve the transformation we all seek. • From among the most hopeless and the most broken we are raising up leaders, change agents, activists, contributors, taxpayers, mothers and fathers. ‘Successive governments have tried and failed to achieve what The Message is doing locally’ Manchester Evening News, July 20th2008
Church during the Christendom period Baptism Education Marriage Festivals Sunday Sickness Crisis Bereavement Death The mission task: Draw the people who come from the door to font to the altar
The situation today – post-Christendom • The mission task becomes: • Go to where people are • Form communities • Make disciples there
Cultural distance • Cultural barriers include: social class, history, language, race, world view, etc
a definition • a fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church • it will come into being through principles of listening, service, incarnational mission and making disciples • it will have the potential to become a mature expression of church shaped by the gospel and the enduring marks of the church and for its cultural context
every church mission-shaped • serving • welcoming • learning • worshipping • discipling • transforming
changing times changing Sundays church at different times church for different networks changing relationships church in different cultures changing cultures church for beginners less knowledge of faith deeper spiritual hunger church for explorers fresh expressions
mixed economy – both/and • BOTHcontinue to grow and develop the church as it is • ANDestablish freshexpressions ofchurch
The Mixed Economy church a midweek all-age after school service a Sunday Evening Deanery Youth congregation Parish Communion A network of midweek cells assembling monthly A small community in a new housing area
What would our vision be for Winchester Deanery? • By working together: • We are growing • Numerically • In our discipleship – becoming more like Jesus and ‘inhabiting the world’ distinctively • In our influence and impact • We are united, but not uniform • We have a flourishing ‘mixed economy’ of church communities • Every person who lives or works in the Deanery • Can hear the gospel in a language they understand • Experience the Gospel in a way which is relevant to them.
Bible Reflection • Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.Ephesians 3.20-21
We must be a transforming and transformative church that looks outwards to the community and to the world in which we are set. The mission of God is not only a higher calling than the maintenance of the church. It is the very reason for which God brought the church into being. Practically speaking we need to stop starting with the church and focus instead on God’s mission.
Discussion Time • Do you have a BHAG for the Deanery? • Is there anything here that is missing? • Is there anything here that you want to affirm?
Our context • It varies across the Deanery and within Parishes
The role of clergy • Often considered the religious professional, the expert, not the equipper and catalyst. He / She is expected to do the work for the “laity,” not the one who transforms the “laity” into ministers. • How many roles are expected of ‘the Vicar’ which does not meet with their sacramental and equipping / enabling ministry? • Is it the case that in each parish/cluster of parishes we need to think this through. • Leadership is shared
…..we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.
Licensed Ministers • Ordained clergy • Those receiving a stipend (with housing and pension) • Those who are provided with housing in return for typically two days plus Sunday services • Self Supporting – clergy who support themselves financially but offer a certain number of hours per week e.g. 25 hours • Licensed Lay Ministers • Readers – theologically educated, self supporting • Specialist workers e.g. Youth Workers, Pastoral Visitors, etc
Stipendiary Clergy • The numbers of available stipendiary ministers continues to decline • There are multiple reasons for this, but there are more clergy retiring than are being licensed to parishes. • We need to plan for fewer stipendiary posts in the future • Our current ways of managing this will not work • Not only a problem, but an opportunity
Peter Hill – Archdeacon of Nottingham30th October 2011 “I’m involved in the deployment strategy for the diocese and looking at where we put vicars, clergy and mission leaders in the diocese for 2020, and just for your prayers, at the moment there are roughly 150 clergy in the diocese… but by 2020, unless there is a serious miracle of ordination and vocation, there will only be 100 available to us. That’s a third less.And so, unless something changes we will be placing lay people in charge of parishes before too long.”
Deployment • Some questions: • Are we making the best use of our licensed ministers? • If not, what are the barriers? • Could we identify within each worshipping community a present leader - ‘a face in the place’ who understands and is deeply embedded in their local church. • Do we then develop the oversight/enabling/support role of stipendiary clergy, in particular, to support these leaders.
How do we build mutuality & accountability? • Not on our own, but together • Developing clusters/partnerships which work and are not overwhelming • Mission Action Planning • Assessing viability and capacity to grow
I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH YOU GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES
