Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

57. The Fruitful Field Project
participative, rooted, pioneering and
contextual church communities.
16 We have asserted that a healthy
Connexion is properly a community
of learning where every disciple is
learning about their faith and telling
the story of their faith, where every
minister is both an educator and a
reflective learner, and where every
Circuit is a learning Circuit. We are
reminded of our calling as disciples to
be open to learning from a variety of
sources, opportunities and disciplines
within and beyond the life of the
Church. Becoming “more holy and
more knowing” is as much a priority
for today’s Methodist Church as it
was for Wesley’s movement 260
years ago. Our interdependence
as Christians, our emphasis on
“relatedness” as essential to the
concept of “Church,” and our societal
past rooted in mutual fellowship and
shared discipline – these elements
of our common life make manifest for
us the teaching about God’s people
as a body.
17 A recurrent theme and emphasis
of the Methodist Church in recent
times has been the importance of
the ministry of the whole people of
God within the corporate life of the
Church. “‘The ministry of the whole
people of God’ can be discerned
in the recurring insistence [in the
New Testament] that each has a gift
(Romans 12:3-5; Ephesians 4:7; 1
Peter 4:10). The interdependence of
all within the body of Christ issues in
corporate forms of leadership (eg 1
Peter 5:1-2); even strong individual
leaders such as Paul engaged
in collaborative ministry (as the
frequency of the word ‘fellow-worker’
in his letters shows, eg Romans
16:3, 9, 21)... The ministry of the
people of God in the world is both the
primary and the normative ministry
of the Church... But the ministry of
all Christians within the corporate
life of the Church is also important.
By their various gifts the members of
Christ’s Body contribute to the health
and growth of the Church. Indeed,
the ministry of laypeople has been
essential to the very functioning of
Methodism from its earliest days.
Far more Methodist services of
worship are led by Local Preachers
than by ordained ministers [and
much pastoral work is conducted by
class leaders and pastoral visitors].
The partnership of ordained and lay
ministers remains vital to the work
and well-being of the Church, even
though this truth has often been lost
sight of in the history of the Church.” 6
18 In light of this it is unsurprising that
another of the priorities identified by
the Conference in 2008, when it last
reviewed its strategy in the fields of
formation, learning and development,
was to emphasise the need to offer
to “all learners opportunities to
develop in godly knowledge, practice
and character within the Christian
community. Acquisition of knowledge
6 Called to Love and Praise, Agenda 1999, 2.3.17 and 4.5.4
Conference Agenda 2012 649