Study Leave Report Summer 2011 Ian Manson This is the first time I ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

not a real minister, accusing him of destroying the church. Strangely he also reported that she isstill there and is now very supportive. Yet another colleague, whose experiences appear to beextreme, now has his wife open his mail from members of the congregation in order to filter out themore hurtful ones.I had many conversations about how we had assumed that the big challenge in ministry would betaking to gospel to those outside the church who might be actively hostile to it. In fact the almostuniversal experience is the opposite, that we find a level of respect or at least indifference in thewider community but have to spend by far the majority of our time doing what one man describedas “fire fighting”, dealing with problems and conflicts and bad relationships within thecongregation.Part of this problem may indeed be that churches exist to reflect the concern of Christ to reach outto the hurting and the broken of society, and in some contexts the minister can feel as if he or she isone of the few well balanced people around, a bit like Dawn French in television's Vicar of Dibley.Another part comes from issues of power, either where people have little influence in their work lifeand want to compensate by getting their way in the church, or where people are used to givingorders at work assume the same authority in the church. It may also be that Ministers have abroader perspective on the work of the church that is not shared by congregations, and may want towork in ways that are not what the congregation expect or assume.Quite apart from individuals we have to deal with, congregations in general start to look like strangeanimals when you form a composite picture from ministers' descriptions of them. A retiredcolleague came up with a comical illustration of his experience. “A congregation is a bit like afaithful old dog. Usually it will stand or sit when you ask it to, but as soon as it sees a rabbit it isoff”. There is no doubt that the deepest hurts which ministers spoke of came from theircongregations, and often from people they trusted, assuming the sense of trust and goodwill weremutual before discovering that it wasn't.None of this is to suggest that problems which ministers face with congregations are all one sided.I've no doubt that ministerial incompetence, arrogance, and weariness all play their part, but thisreport is merely about how ministers have experienced things and frustration with aspects of theircongregations is clearly a common feature. While everyone would have spoken about great peoplewhose service and witness is inspirational, they would also speak about people who make theopposite impact. The stories were not only of people being objectionable, but also of people whoappear frustratingly apathetic. One minister in a high status congregation simply said that hishighly capable members seem to leave their professional abilities at the church door when theyenter it.Impotence to change.Tied in with this issue is a sense of frustration about not being able to bring about the changeswhich ministers believe to be necessary. It is clear to many that their congregation cannot have along term future by simply following existing patterns. They may be confident that new peoplecould be attracted to the church but cannot be sure that there would be enough to replace the currentmembers who would walk away if things changed. It is significant that the only minister who toldof rapid and substantial growth in the membership of his church is one who went into a newsituation with only a few hand picked elders to help him get things going. Without the pressure ofcongregational administration and the weight of years of tradition he enjoyed his freedom to buildpatterns of mission and worship that are simple and direct and focussed on the gospel. It may bethat many of my other colleagues would not have had the vision and the appropriate gifts to do thiseven if they were given the opportunity, but the contrast between this one story and most of the
others was striking.I know that any posts which are advertised for ministers which do not involve parish ministry willget far most applications than for any parish post. Almost everyone I spoke to had as much faith inthe gospel as ever, and in some cases more, but have little belief that the decline in theircongregations can be turned around. One said that over the years his faith in God had increasedwhile his faith in human beings had decreased. That was said with some sadness but reflected a lotof what I was hearing.BreakdownAnother strong memory that I have from the conference I attended for those five years into ministryis of one colleague telling of a serious breakdown in his health. This didn't surprise any of us andother stories emerged of marital breakdown and enforced time off. One man asked us to be honestand put our hands up if we felt our personal lives had been badly affected by the stress of our work.Every hand went up – including mine. The man who asked the question drew the logicalconclusion – either there just happens to be something wrong with every one of us or there issomething wrong with the job we are being asked do.The subject of ministerial breakdown has since become a big issue, with terms like “burn out”coming in and out of fashion. The latest emphasis is on what it termed “life-work balance” withministers being pushed towards operating office hours and take appropriate time to rest andrecuperate. One of the reasons for this new emphasis is simply financial, a recognition that thechurch cannot go on losing so many men and woman in whom time and training has been invested.Naturally I wanted to ask people how they had been affected over a longer term, and whether or notthey had ever come close to giving up. It is fair to say that this is not a good sample group as thosewho had left ministry were by definition not on my list.First of all I should say that not every minister had experienced anything they would describe as abreakdown. Nonetheless most had been humbled and had some of their confidence broken downover the years. One in this category said that he now felt less prepared for ministry than he hadwhen he left university, having less assurance and confidence than when he had started out. That isnot necessarily a bad thing of course and can simply be a description of the natural process ofmaturing.More significantly some did speak of reaching a point of real crisis that did require medicalintervention. One spoke of taking panic attacks which came to head when he was taking funerals,forcing him into the vestry several times in each Service to regain his composure. Another foundhimself on a Saturday night walking round in a figure of eight feeling unable to stop. For him itwas symbolic of feeling trapped, stuck in a pattern that he couldn't control or escape from. Thatissue of feeling trapped seems to be a common one. Quite apart from feeling the weight ofexpectations placed upon them, many ministers are also aware that being of a certain age with littleexperience outside of the church there are few other places where we could find employment, andliving in a tied house certainly adds to the limitations on our alternative options.Among those who had not had such a dramatic crisis were many who had come to a point ofrealisation that they could not carry on as before and had to make some changes in the way theyoperate. One in particular spoke at length about that moment, saying that the danger was knowingthat he could simply limp on, having picked up enough experience and professionalism to enablehim to keep performing his duties even if his heart wasn't in it. “My sermons weren't exciting me soI knew they wouldn't be exciting anyone else, but I also knew that I could keep producing them”.He knew that no one was ever going to come along and force him to change and that if he were to
Page 1 and 2: Study Leave ReportSummer 2011Ian Ma
Page 3 and 4: certainly spare you the endless pag
Page 5 and 6: 4. The loss of the influence of chu
Page 10 and 11: improve the way he worked he would
Page 12 and 13: ut I don't think there are any othe
Page 14 and 15: overwhelmed with demands, or becaus
Page 16: student. Having been Moderator of t

Study Leave Report Summer 2011 Ian Manson This is the first time I ...

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?