Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 May 2012 10:13:44
This weeks Methodist Recorder makes depressing reading - talking as it does about the ongoing hard decisions being made in terms of budget cuts within the denomination. I'm not going to into the ins and outs of a lot of the decisions on here - sufficient to say that there is a recession on and the church is facing the financial impact of secularisation. What I want to give in this post is a snapshot of a few things to show how complex and difficult it all is at different levels.
Snapshot 1: An pioneer missioner arrives in a South Eastern town charged with developing work amongst young people. His desire to share the love of God to the whole community. He begins networking inside and outside the church. In early May he posts this about where his work is up to. What is going on with Venture:MK is exciting; it's taking church outside the walls of the traditional building and seeking to work with the unchurched. But it goes deeper than that; there is an empowering and a pouring of water on dry discipleship to some of those churched people he is working with too. One example is the Pride stuff he is talking about - it's in the planning stages but it is a project which is allowing people who often feel dis-empowered by institutional church types of evangelism to do mission amongst their own community in a form which is low level and culturally appropriate. We don't know what God will do with this one but we ask for prayers with all stages. Yes, it has changed from 3rd to 1st person because I am one of the team working on this one - a straight pioneer worker has caught the vision and is working with us rather than doing the usual patting us on the head and leaving me/ TOH/ a friend supportive of a mad adventure/idea to pick up the tab.
The problem with this type of thing, though, is that the results may end up being more easy to measure qualitatively than quantitatively and the impact may not be something that is ever easily measurable. And that's the thing with Venture:FX projects generally - the overall impact is difficult to measure and the benefits to the denomination are going to be smaller than to the overall "church" in the broadest sense. So the reduction of the budget for this type of thing becomes understandable because how do you justify it to the people effectively funding it; members of "ordinary congregations" who are seeing their churches struggling and are desperate to see quantitative growth of their congregations. How do you sell the long term effects to people feeling more despair than hope? A letter in this weeks Recorder showing the local impact on a project which was set to get a Venture:FX pioneer and now seems unlikely to is particularly sad though because it highlights the way the Venture:FX vision had been caught by a rural circuit and people have locally moved from the mindset just described into a place of hope and now it is likely to be back to the same old sense of hopelessness for them.
The second snapshot I want to share relates to a room full of people at an academic conference listening to the Warden of the Methodist Diaconal Order talking in a seminar. She is saying how the Order - which is the fastest growing area of Methodist ministry - has restructured itself and particularly the leadership team. She is explaining how the risk of burnout for individuals has been reduced and how the members of the order are benefiting. Eight months later the front page of the Recorder tells me that the reduction in funding the Order will receive from the Methodist Church is being absorbed in various ways, through the dissolving of the leadership team; the stopping of overnight stays at the MDO's centre - including for Exploring Vocation weekends and the reduction of the Orders Convocation by a day. The cuts are therefore being absorbed by the Order itself and those seeking to join it rather than impacting the people the Deacons are working with. This is admirable but I am worried of the impact of this because it is the Deacons themselves who are more likely to suffer - and this must in some way have a knock on effect. Again though how do "justify" this to people who may not have a MDO Deacon locally and may not understand about the work of Deacons - which like that of the pioneers is sometimes difficult to describe and measure in quantitative terms.
The third and final snapshot I want to give relates to the Youth Participation strategy. I want you to imagine a 16 year old who has effectively dropped out of senior school because of bullying and is suffering from severe anxiety. She leaves the house only to go to church, where she sits in the corner, and to go to the shops. A year on and the same young person has started her A Levels at college and is doing much better but still has a lack of confidence. She decides after a curious set of co-incidences (the sort often called God incidences) to apply for a One Programme project. When you ask her she will say either she only applied for the crack or because she realised she could use the money; but her mother who has closely observed what's been going on realises that there is a lot of "God stuff" going on here. As the year progresses she has ups and downs but this person who about 18 months before struggled to leave home has been involved in a range of activities which have involved a lot of people work both nationally and locally. Along side her time as an OPP has come an interesting period related to uni applications and deciding where she wants to go in the future, particularly as the anxiety is impacting her ability to do exams. The conclusion comes with a decision to go back to her original choice of theology but to mix it with a more vocational course which she thinks may see her becoming a lay worker - working with children and young people. The course and college she chooses to apply to are Methodist based and can be seen as a direct development of what she has been doing with her year as an OPP - the experience gained during this year have been duly noted by the admissions tutor she is interviewed by. Where it will lead nobody knows? God is doing something in that young ladies life and whilst still having some issues she is being healed and getting out of her comfort box, partially her mother thinks through what the One Project is getting her to. As for her impact on others? That is difficult to measure and it could be argued lovely as the story is that heavy investment in the self development of 16 young people each year is an extravagance. Indeed how much could the same money achieve if it were spent differently? Are these effectively a bunch of middle class kids getting pampered by being given these jobs? And why should people who may never come into contact with an OP be asked to help finance? It's difficult.
There are no easy answers and all I can say is I am left praying for the church as a whole, for those who are having to recommend and implement budget cuts and for those who will be impacted by those cuts. If you are a person of faith who wishes to I invite you to pray the following with me:
Lord the axe is falling within and outside of the church,
Your people are faced with difficult decisions
Which impact jobs, lives and aspirations
Give wisdom to those making difficult decisions.
For those communities whose minds and lives are disturbed
As funding dries up or becomes uncertain
We pray you will give them peace, creative vision and hope.
For those who have benefitted from these projects and opportunities we thank you
For those who would have we ask you will enable and guide them in new directions.
Lord for faith in the time of doubt
Hope in the time of worry and
Love in a time of conflicting desires and demands
We pray in your holy name.
Amen.