Four years ago I started working in a team ministry, the team had been employed to work collaboratively. There are four of us, two part- time Lay Workers, and two full time Ministers, we work amongst 10 Chapels, one in a small Market Town with a congregation of 150-200, the rest in smaller villages with congregations of 8- 30 people each.
Collaborative working is not easy, we need to be able to utilise the strengths of each staff member to their fullest, and to encourage the congregations to join in with the pastoral, practical and administrative work of the Circuit.
In practise this means that Pastoral Charge is unclear, it is a shared responsibility, sometimes this means that people have turned to the staff member who is in favour at that moment in time! As anyone in ministry will know this is an ever changing phenomena!
Communication has played a key role in this work, and there have been times when we have not been particularly good at this. Sticking with it has been worth it though, the Chapel members have with encouragement sought out a vision for their particular situation, and then followed it through. Often this has meant stepping back and taking a good look at their community, and prayerfully considering their gifts, talents and focus as a group ( sometimes this has meant re-imagining their goals- one Chapel closed it's children's after-school club, but now hosts a thriving Toddler and Parent group).
One important aspect of collaborative ministry for Churches wishing to try it is to get away from the one "man" band style ministry, staff work as equipper's and releaser's, pastoral work is certainly a part of this picture, but with a broader focus there is room for members to be encouraged to develop and use their gifts.
This has been risky, and exciting and messy... we have made mistakes... It is an ongoing process, just this morning I received a letter asking which staff member was going to do something- my reply that if if you see the need than maybe this is something you are called to may not go down too well with more traditional folk, but with fewer and fewer people offering for Ordained Ministry- it is time to re-embrace the every member model. A Model that will encourage growth and bring surprises!
