Chapter 7: Responsibility in Church Ministry

Having just submitted a mountain of forms, and wrestled with various angels in the area of coordinating my supervised ministry placement schedule, I know how Jacob felt!

Scheduling sufficient study and travel time in a sprawling urban environment is made possible by having a notebook computer, but coordinating multiple supervised ministry rosters with busy lay coordinators is another kettle of fish. So far my student ministry placement involves juggling six rosters by keeping in contact with six patient and forbearing lay coordinators - hospital / nursing home visitor, hospitality assistant, parish networker, chorister, reader, and intercessor, and after Easter, server will be added. Adequate how-to procedure manuals are seldom supplied, so it is often necessary to source one from the net, or research and purchase an authoritative text, or write one's own on the job. Needless to say, every parish should have an easily accessible, up to date set of these.

The area of ministry coordination and scheduling is a nuts and bolts area of Church ministry seldom aired in the media, but it is fundamental to efficient and effective Church ministry. As a workplace, the Anglican Church environment is quite different from any corporate business environment, in that it is committed to provide highly responsible pastoral care of its lay and clerical ministers. For any student minister, treading the line between learning professional ministry practice, and receiving ongoing ministry counselling while training, is a difficult act, reliably supported by committed supervisors. In Anglican parishes, destructive competition for dominance between ministers, although it may raise its ugly head, is generally tactfully ameliorated by clear communication and responsible pastoral oversight. However, few Anglican writings express or discuss the differences between secular corporate practice and Christian business practice, and the unavoidable conflicts these produce.

Our new Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Portal Welby has no hesitation in articulating the major differences between pastorally oriented Christian business practice, and profit oriented secular corporate business practice, as a means of upholding the Christian faith. The Anglican Church's pastoral care of its ministers and people is aligned not with any secular gospel, but with specifically Christian values, ethics and standards. Good pastoral care of assistant ministers by those charged with authority in a parish, together with responsible self-care by the ministers and their families, enables supervised ministers to extend excellent pastoral care and effective ministry to parishioners, and engage in outreach ministries without risk of burnout. Thank God for good ministry supervisors!

For student ministers, getting to know and keeping in touch with the local Church teams you are assigned to is a priority. This means keeping accurate, up to date, secure electronic and written records of contact details, and contacting / meeting with your ministry supervisor and roster coordinators regularly. Sometimes this contact is formal, as in a supervision meeting, but usually it's an informal phone call, or a brief SMS or email message. Various electronic calendars and email / contact list systems / liturgical planning systems can be used to keep track of this process. Theological colleges help student ministers by providing these resources as part of online ministry courses, and by teaching them how to link faith to supervised ministry practice through PTR (pastoral theological reflection).

Readers, please pray for all student ministers and their supervisors - they are doing great work in the Church.