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Ministry of the Future

Tuesday October 13 2015

The Rev Neil Glover, Convener of the Ministries Council of the Church of Scotland, outlines plans and progress in the Church's drive to attract new ministers.

Sometimes it is the biggest surprises that lead you on your biggest adventures. That applies whether it be the brochure for a rock climbing holiday in Nethy Bridge that led me to Christian Faith, or working in a French-owned bank in London, which gave me more transferable skills than I would ever have realised for Church of Scotland ministry.

In 2014 myself and some members of the Ministries Council found ourselves at the table at the General Assembly, looking over a sketchy proposal from Doug Gay for a thing called Decade for Ministry. Contrary to what some have suggested to me we liked the idea, but just weren’t sure to what we were being asked to agree. However Doug spoke with characteristic panache, the General Assembly caught the excitement of the vision, and suddenly the 30 staff and 40 Council members realised we had been given a challenge that has occupied us constantly for the last year and a half, and will continue to do so for much longer.

There were three parts to Doug’s original proposal. The first part, which got the headlines, was that we were to aim to recruit 30 new ministers a year into the Church, to talk more about why we are passionate about Parish Ministry, the difference that Ministry can make to people’s lives and to tell stories of people who had made the momentous choice to apply. This led to the launch of Tomorrow’s Calling – a recruitment initiative emerging from a film exploring the ministry of five of our younger ministers. It went viral, has amassed over 60,000 hits on Facebook, and led to a host of press coverage.

I’m delighted to report that we have seen an upturn in the number of people considering ministry, and large numbers more signed up for the Vocations Conference in Aberdeen in June. The next two of these will be held on November 14 in Coatbridge and on February 6 2016 in Dunfermline.

We’re continuing to try more new things and the excitement of this is that we get to experiment, always seeking to learn what works, trying to discern where God might be leading us.

Secondly, Doug called on us as a Church to train more people who want to equip themselves better for local service, without applying for a recognised ministry, through, for example, Mission Shaped Ministry courses. Once again we have seen lots of interest in this – though it will serve as a challenge to the Church of Scotland that many of the attendees come from other denominations.

Thirdly, Doug advocated what some in the Church have talked about for years – more work on Pioneer Ministry. Pioneer Ministries are about starting new forms of Church, which may look very different from a classic Church of Scotland – they might meet in living rooms, or coffee shops; they may involve smaller numbers; there may be the use of art or of symbol; it may be messy Church; it may not even meet on a Sunday. Experience from England suggests that setting up these sorts of Churches is hard, and yet research indicates that over 60% of Pioneer or Fresh Expression Churches are still growing after five years.

There are a few Pioneer Churches in the Church of Scotland; there are some who say that the Church of Scotland is a difficult place to start a new Church. This is something in which we are feeling our way. So we have done two things: begun work on the shape of a Pioneer Ministry course; and invited presbyteries to nominate potential Pioneer Ministry ideas. Five of these will be funded and underway very shortly.

These Pioneer ministries challenge the Church of the 21st century – what are the things that we currently do which we need to let go? What are the calculated risks that we have to take? How often are we prepared to fail at things so that we fulfil our calling to share the gospel in ways that communicate with the people of 21st century Scotland?

There are two other things to which we are going to give our energies which weren’t mentioned in Doug’s proposals, but which have to be got right if all the rest is going to succeed. First of all, we have to keep getting better at supporting those in ministry. Research amongst ministers reveals that many experience a very high degree of satisfaction in their work but also extremely high levels of stress. We are working with some of the best thinkers in the world at helping us address this challenge. There is little value in having great films and websites to attract new ministers, if existing ministers are finding it hard to keep going.

We need also to do work on the structures of the Church, so that our Presbyteries and Councils are places of life which inspire the Church, rather than sometimes (and we include Ministries Council here) being places that appear to crush good ideas, or fail to support struggling ministers.

And finally, we will probably stop calling all this the Decade for Ministry. Tomorrow’s Calling is what we are calling the challenge to recruit more ministers. Other names will emerge which fit the current emphasis. The adventure, however, is going to last much longer than 10 years.