by Will Fletcher.
Our son is 8 months old. He is a superb disrupter of rhythms of life. We are thinking about what ministry looks like alongside this changed family life. I recently received wisdom from a friend that being a father and a husband are vocations every bit as important as being a minister. Honouring that calling, I have sought to create space each day for us as a family to read the Bible and pray together. It ties in nicely with reflections I’ve been having about ministry, especially in an age of acute pressure put on ministers due to smaller and older congregations, and increased bureaucracy in society.
I recently read the ‘Liverpool Minutes’ of 1820 that appear in Volume 1 of the Constitutional Practice and Discipline of The Methodist Church. Apologies to any of my college tutors who may have gone through this with us, but I don’t recall reading them before. What has been particularly interesting is discovering that they came from the Conference when the Wesleyan Methodists were digesting statistics showing the first fall in membership. They give a glimpse of how our ancestors sought to address this issue.
I should begin by saying that there is much that is different in the contexts – in church and society – so this isn’t a plea to return to some supposed glory day. These are also only initial thoughts having read through the Minutes and not a formulated plan!
Its first point is for ministers to ‘be more than ever attentive to personal religion, and to the Christian instruction and government of our families.’ We don’t have to accept the idea of the (male) minister having government over their families to recognise the first response to declining membership isn’t on strategies or increased workload, but being focused on the spiritual wellbeing of the minister, and, where applicable, for them to be enabled to model what a Christian family life may look like by caring for and worshipping with their families.
The next area of focus is on worship. Ministers were encouraged to spend more time in their study reading and praying seeking that ‘anointing for our office’ which ‘would yield what most of all we ourselves need and desire: a large increase of ardent piety and of vigorous faith; holy importunity in prayer, and irresistible persuasiveness in preaching.’
Whilst we would rightly want to add in creativity and interactivity to our leading of worship, these Minutes encourage us not to lose sight of our core message, which should be delivered with ‘plainness of speech’ that there is the possibility of a present experience of the forgiving love of God, and a call to respond by living lives of holiness.
The final big section of these Minutes urged ministers not to forget their call to be ‘under-shepherds of the flock of God – Jesus Christ Himself being the “Chief Shepherd”.’ There is encouragement to focus on supporting the Pastoral Visitors in their ministry. Also to regularly hear from them about who the people are who needed a visit from the minister – not so that they felt that ‘the Church’ had visited them, but that would build them up or reconnect them with the fellowship.
The focus of pastoral ministry should be on those on the edges, those who have stopped coming, teenagers and young adults, and meeting regularly with those who are working with children.
Ministers were exhorted not to forget the villages where they didn’t live, but where there were members who had pastoral needs. How easy it can become for ministers to focus only on the large church, or the community where the manse is. This is ministry that isn’t necessarily about big numbers or ‘success’ but the faithful journeying alongside people.
This pastoral mindset is not just for visiting. When leading business meetings ‘we are under an obligation to act on such occasions, not merely as the Chairmen [sic.] of Public Meetings, but also as the Pastors of Christian Societies.’ Sometimes it can be the members of the meeting who would rather we were limited to only being the Chair of the meeting, but I wonder how we might chair them differently with that mindset.
I don’t want this to add to anyone else’s burdensome to-do list. Instead, as someone in their 11th year in ministry who isn’t despondent about the tasks of ministry, but often frustrated about the lack of time for carrying out the work for which I believe I have been called and formed, these Minutes have given me a boost, but also left the question – Is it possible in the Methodist Church today for ministers to fulfil this calling?
Theology Everywhere 