the priorities of our calling a short guide priorities intopractice

The Priorities of Our Calling

a short guide

Prioritiesintopractice

Our Calling

Priorities into Practice: Team Focus

The calling of the Methodist Church is to respond to the

gospel of God’s love in Christ and to live out its discipleship in

worship and mission

We seek to do this through:

■ Worship ■ Learning & Caring ■ Service ■ Evangelism

Priorities for the Methodist Church


To proclaim and affirm our conviction of God’s love in Christ, for us and for all the world; and

renew confidence in God’s presence and action in the world and in the Church

The Priorities are a vision for change and

for hope in the Church. God is calling us

to pull together in developing the Priorities

In churches, districts and the

Connexional Team, with imagination and

courage

Underpinning everything we do with God-centred worship and prayer



Dynamic God, dancing through creation, you dare us to be

different. You grant us a glimpse of your kingdom: where creation is liberated, nations are healed and

people are reconciled to one another and to you.

Save us from making your vision a daydream. Lead us by your Spirit to do your will, that here and now your

earth and your people may know healing, wholeness and hope.

Amen

Caroline Ainger, Methodist Relief and Development Fund




The Methodist Conference offers a wide variety of experiences. Through its worship, debates and many informal contacts, the Conference seeks to

discern how God is at work.

It also seeks to help the Methodist people witness to God’s love in ways that make sense in today’s society.

The Conference therefore assesses proposals prayerfully against the Priorities agreed for the Methodist Church. These Priorities have to be put

into practice in every part of the Church.




The 2007 Conference has had to assess the results of the Team Focus process. This has sought to work out how the Connexional Team should change in order to support a Church that is changing in response to the

Priorities.

Are these proposals to the glory of God?

The Conference endorsed the aims and emphases proposed for the reconfigured Connexional Team, its ways of working and the outline of the

management patterns, which now move forward for implementation in September 2008.

This booklet invites you to look at the Team Focus decisions in the light of the Priorities. It also invites you to look at the opportunities they present

for your church, circuit and district.

Supporting community development and action for justice, especially among the most deprived and poor - in Britain and worldwide


What does your church do to promote justice?

■ Run a community project? ■ Organise Christian Aid Week collections? ■ Invest ethically? ■ Build a link with an overseas church? ■ Support a workplace chaplain?

‘The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.’ John Wesley

Supporting community development and action for justice, especially among the most deprived and poor - in Britain and worldwide


What do you need from the Connexional Team to further this Priority?

Effective lobbying of Government?

■ Public Issues staff will work in an ecumenical team ■ Major issues will be addressed by focused projects

Overseas contacts?

The World Church Relationships staff

will know ourpartner churches

Advice on best practice?

The Team will link up networks of experts

Developing confidence in evangelism and in the capacity to speak of God and faith in ways that make sense to all involved


Methodism expresses its evangelism in many different ways. The cutting edge of the work is done through personal relationships at local level, not by connexional staff in offices. But most churches feel they need more help to fulfil the task, as Our Calling put it, ‘to

make more followers of Jesus Christ’.

Evangelism enablers around the Connexion already help churches with this challenge and will continue to work in partnership with

Team members.

So how will the reconfigured Connexional Team provide extra help?



The Team will work to help churches understand the cultures within which

British Christians operate. The increased number of staff working on

evangelism will work closely with those who have made a particular

study of contemporary understandings of spirituality. An early project will focus on how to

reach the cultures of young people who are outside the Church.



The Team will put the latest skills in communication at the service of our

evangelism. Communication professionals will be promoting the Church’s communication of

its story and mission as well as ensuring effective internal communications.

The Team will learn from the evangelism of partner churches around the world. Staff working on our World Church

Relationships will be fully integrated with staff supporting the British Connexion.



The Team will structure and manage projects with an emphasis on evangelism. Project staff will draw in expert resources to develop

experimental work in response to requests from around the Church.

The Team will provide grants for local initiatives. A substantial amount of money each year will be reserved for innovative local

mission projects, especially where they could be pointers to ways forward for the wider Connexion.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28: 18-20 (NRSV)

Encouraging fresh ways of being the Church



Traditional ways of being the Church nourish and stimulate thousands of Methodists. But these patterns appeal less and less to the younger generations as the age profile of British Methodists

shows.




So we need what the Archbishop of Canterbury calls ‘a mixed economy’ with different ways of being the Church flourishing alongside each other.

The Connexional Team will have a particular role in helping to explore less established ways of expressing our faith. The Conference has asked the

Team to help the Church with creative, innovative, risk-taking.




The Team will help in several ways

■ A responsive Team: with fewer permanent staff posts, there will be more scope for time-limited projects and temporary contracts to respond to new opportunities.

■ Training officers: the resources available will include a network of training officers based in the regions and nations of the Connexion, to help equip the local church for local challenges.

■ District development enablers: these new posts, funded centrally, will give extra resources for districts as they work out new patterns of church life in response to this Priority and others.




The Team will help in several ways

■ Missing Generation Project: one of the first major projects for the Team will be to explore how we can best reconnect with younger adults.

■ Under-19s Project: another early project will address how to build bridges to that large majority of young people and children who nowadays have no contact with the Christian community.

■ Ecumenical commitment: tackling the fresh expressions agenda is a task for the churches praying and working together. The Team will seek to work ecumenically wherever possible.

Nurturing a culture in the Church which is people-centred and flexible



..means processes should be simplified

■ Property processes are being simplified and paper reduced.

■ The many connexional committees and reference groups are all to be reviewed.




...means giving the Team a human face

■ A friendly Help Desk will answer your questions.

...means supporting lay people as much as the ministers

■ Work on discipleship will support the whole people of God.




...means respecting all people

■ The Team will continue to give specific energy to work promoting equalities and diversity.




Being flexible...

...means recognising the diversity of local situations

...means shaping the Team’s leadership and management structures to maximise collaborative and

co-ordinated working




Being flexible...

...means promoting projects suggested from any part of the Connexion

...means having a responsive and flexible Team structure capable of adapting without major upheaval

It’s a New Day – New Ways of Working


A newly configured Connexional Team means….

Values to underpin Ways of Working

■ Centrality of the gospel

■ Incarnational theology

■ Love, value, care and esteem of self and others




Values to underpin Ways of Working

■ Trust, honesty and openness

■ Personal and professional integrity

■ Equality, fairness and justice

■ Characteristics of Methodist discipleship




Many Church members see the Church lagging behind the ways of working which are taken for granted in other places. As part of reconfiguring the Connexional Team, the intention is to introduce the best of those practices, adapted for the work of the Church.

The working style will emphasise a collaborative culture which stimulates new ideas. The Team needs to be known for its innovation, bold risk-taking and ability to grasp unexpected

opportunities.

An opportunity to really appreciate the skills of colleagues and be energised.

Unsolicited comment from a current Team member




The Team will make much more use of networks than in the past. Much more of its work will be delivered

through projects, with clear objectives, timetables, budgets and management. The Team will also develop further its partnerships with many other organisations

and agencies.

A leaner, fitter Team... more for less.

Building Rapport



Support for districts

As well as serving circuits and churches, the reconfigured Team will improve its services to districts in a number of ways. It will

always recognise that the districts are themselves very different from each other.

■ Additional resources will be made available to update and improve communications between the districts and other parts of the Connexion.

■ Direct support will come from the district development enablers, paid for from the connexional budget. They will complement the new regional training officers, and the existing district evangelism enablers.

...the whole body, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love

Ephesians 4:16 (NRSV)

Building Rapport



Support for districts

■ Work continues on how to simplify the property regulations so that sponsors of projects and their districts have clear and manageable roles. Similarly, work has begun on how to draw into one simplified process the very many different ways in which connexional grants are agreed at present. Wherever possible, decision-making will be devolved to the districts with their better knowledge of the mission possibilities in a particular place. Specialist staff support from the Connexional Team will continue to be available, albeit sometimes funded by those who choose to use this service.

...the whole body, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love

Ephesians 4:16 (NRSV)

Rediscovering Hidden Treasure



Using financial resources creatively

The aspirations for the reconfigured Team have to be within a responsible financial framework. In fact there is much good news

in this area.

■ The real value of the Assessment contribution required from local churches towards connexional costs will be reduced over the period 2008-11.

■ The Assessment request of each local church will be clearly divided between the shares needed for circuit, district and connexional expenditure.

■ Within the connexional budget, there will be income streams reserved for supporting local mission projects in line with Priorities.

Rediscovering Hidden Treasure



Using financial resources creatively

■ There will also be some income set aside for promoting innovative mission. For the medium term this can be supplemented by spending some reserves.

■ The Gift Aid Recovery Service for local churches will continue.

■ The basic costs of running the Connexional Team will be reduced by the 30% requested by the 2005 Conference

Making Connections – Getting help from the Connexional Team



On some subjects, the Team will assist the work of local churches by reinforcing local efforts with action at a national or international level. An example would be when the Church joins its ecumenical partners to lobby Government. On other subjects, the help will be more direct...

Help Desk

■ accessible to all

■ personal approach

■ handles e-mails,

■ phone and letters

■ service ethos

■ aims for excellence





Personnel advice

■ help with lay

■ employment terms

■ best practice advice

■ support if problems arise

■ knowledge of Church law





Website online resources 24/7

■ complements Help Desk

■ supports local church office holders

■ helps general public understand Methodism

■ updated regularly

■ easy to navigate





Ecumenical complexities

■ best practice advice

■ legal expertise

■ encouraging local initiatives

■ providing grants

the priorities of our calling a short guide priorities intopractice

Documents

methodist church priorities

team focus priorities

calling priorities

prayer priorities

worldwide priorities

methodist church dynamic

methodist conference

overseas church