The Rector Writes – July 2009
Dear Friends
Investing In The Church’s Work
During Bishop John Davies’ time in the diocese he promoted an initiative to encourage giving by church members, which would be both informed and would be presented as part of their discipleship of Christ. It was entitled Investing in Mission and the intention was for those taking part to attend five study groups with up to a dozen others.
The basic idea was a sound one. So much of the time the church is struggling to meet its basic commitments that it has insufficient spare resources to consider any new initiatives. If, as we say at the offertory at every service of Holy Communion, ‘All things come of thee and of thine own do we give thee’ our attitude to ‘our’ possessions should be that they are held on trust from God, to be used at his direction. Jesus himself taught us to pray to him and to think of him as Our Father, who knows our needs and yet who also grants us the privilege of sharing in the work of extending his kingdom.
However, in practice the assumption that those taking part would belong to small study groups was very different from most church’s expectations and where these groups formed, they tended to involve only a small proportion of the membership. Of the parishes in this deanery Shotton has conformed most to the guidelines for using the material. The sessions were advertised, planned, organised and led by a small number of church members which did not include the vicar, but he presented an abbreviated version of the material on Sundays for those who did not attend the groups.
In most parishes which have made use of Investing In Mission the notes, Bible studies and CDs of interviews have been used as the basis for a Sunday sermon series culminating in a gift day when all members were asked to prayerfully reconsider their commitment in the light of what they had learnt together over the previous weeks.
Our Parochial Church Council has considered some of this material and has discussed its potential for this parish over the last year but we did not decide to commit ourselves until our June meeting. Our stimulus to look at it again was my meeting a clergyman friend recently who is responsible for a number of parishes to the east of Wrexham, who had a sufficiently fresh approach to this matter that I asked if we could discuss it, before he moves to take another group of parishes to the west of Mold.
One small but significant difference in his approach was to change the title to Investing In The Church’s Work. This was because it was felt, rightly or wrongly, that Mission is what happens over the horizon, perhaps in distant countries but it isn’t much to do with the life of a person’s own parish.
Another difference was that he gave his PCC the choice of addressing the material in small groups during the week or on a Sunday for five weeks as part of the regular services. There was a majority in favour of this last proposal, and it was agreed that the main services except family worship should be shortened to allow a presentation of about forty minutes which would include approximately five minutes opportunity for those attending to discuss one topic which had been introduced earlier.
My friend wondered if he wasn’t living dangerously by suggesting neighbours talking together for a while during a service, but he was relieved by how readily they did so and later continued their discussions with each other and with members of other groups. He told me that he felt that he could not have done this early in his time in the parish, but when the time came his people had sufficient confidence in him to attempt something different.
Our PCC decided that we would try one Sunday before the Summer in order to assess how well the approach was received, and if necessary modify it. We could then include the rest of the material on one or two Sundays in the month throughout the Autumn. The first of these services will be on Sunday 19th July so that people will have been given due notice but also that the school holidays will only just have begun.
I would not be surprised if the most effective form of communication will be in response to church members’ questions, since people are generally more open to answers to issues which they themselves have raised. I hope that we can count on your good will on this occasion.
Your Sincerely
Martin Snellgrove