Agenda Volume 2 - Methodist Conference

42. Ministries Committee
the work formerly undertaken
by the FWWG has now passed
to the Ministries Committee, the
Ministries Committee’s report to
the Conference is now the most
appropriate place to include
reference to VentureFX.
2.10 There are currently 14 pioneers
and this, rather than the original
complement of 20, is the maximum
number that can be supported by
the scheme in accordance with
the Conference’s own decisions.
The scheme is overseen by a
full-time coordinator, who is a
member of the Connexional Team,
and is accountable to a project
management group.
2.11 Pioneers are deployed in England,
Scotland and Wales and represent a
diversity of backgrounds, interests
and theologies. Within the pioneer
team there is also a mixture of lay
and ordained people, both men and
women. Although the pioneers are
centrally overseen and supported,
they are individually appointed to a
local circuit or district where a local
management group offers another
form of oversight and support.
2.12 Pioneers are charged with enabling
those with minimal or no church
background to engage with the good
news of Jesus. Their objective is to
help form disciples of Jesus among
those who are not currently being
reached by existing forms of church,
and then to enable appropriate
ecclesial communities to develop.
It is an important guiding principle
for pioneers that their starting point
is the community rather than the
church, and that those who come
to faith will often need a fresh form
of church to which they can relate,
rather than being fed back into
existing congregations. At the same
time they are conscious of the need
to ensure that these new ecclesial
communities are connected to
and in a healthy relationship with
the wider Church. All pioneers are
actively engaged in an exploration
of how Methodist identity may most
appropriately be expressed in these
emerging communities of faith.
2.13 Pioneers tend to be highly creative
and innovative individuals who are
able to make effective connections
between the Christian faith and
those whose world is shaped by
interests and passions such as
art, music, sport, politics and
concern for social justice or who
are part of a distinctive culture
or network. They sometimes
speak in terms of “opening up a
space” in which people are able to
explore spirituality in a way which
connects with their whole life
experience and in which encounter
with God and transformation of
life becomes possible. They also
talk of their aspiration to be an
authentic presence of Jesus in their
community, embodying the gospel
in such a way that the possibility of
Christian discipleship is opened up
for those who are drawn to Christ but
find it difficult to engage with more
Conference Agenda 2013
475