A Book!!

 Many years ago when on a sabbatical I undertook the writing of a book about ministry, and while it was completed it has remained in many ways an exercise in getting my thoughts on paper.

So I thought it about time to publish it via my blog. So if you are a regular reader or not, you will be able to read the various chapters as I proceed to update and publish the chapters.

Nothing new under the Son

(Or the pain of ministry)

By

Revd Mark Goodhand

Preface

Pebble on window sill

1. Knowing the history not a blank sheet of paper

Early poems

Preface

This book was written primarily with those in training for ordination or in their first few years in ministry in mind. It is based on thirty one years of one individual’s everyday ministry spent in local churches. It is the reflection of the GP who has, year in and year out, to deliver leadership, pastoral care and vision to the local church. The thirty eight years have been spent in four very different geographical, social and political settings, but they in no sense cover the whole range of possibilities that people face. 

       It is important to state that the formation of becoming a minister never stops. The book was written to address in the view of the author, the need to know before starting in Methodist circuit life how to cope with the onslaught of meetings, pastoral situations, finance, property, all the things never conveyed in my training. 

     I hope people will find this to be a practical book which results from the many mistakes I have made. The content will I hope be of interest not just to ministers, but lay people alike, after all, it’s with and alongside them that we exercise our ministry. It is clearly a subjective book in the sense it comes out of one persons view on ministry but I hope it still has objectivity to enable the reader to benefit from it.

      If however you wonder, ‘Who does he think he is to write in this way? I have added a final chapter that gives a potted history of my life, its background and experiences. If as minister the book makes you stop to ask ‘Why am I doing this visit/meeting/ service’? Then I will have succeeded. If as a lay person it makes you ask ‘Why do I expect so much of our minister? Then that too will mean I have succeeded. 

     My thanks go to my own church whose gift of a sabbatical created the space to get most of my thoughts on paper.

Pebble on window sill - sign or stone?

Large smooth pebble sitting on study window ledge

from a bay that once had no name.

Needing no name, 

already known by one who brought it into being.

For years,

hundreds of years,

thousands of years

incoming waves rolled the pebble,

made it smooth and clean.

Daily sea water washed over to cleanse,

retreating leaving to be bleached by warming sun.

Daily occurrence, thousands of years.

Daily occurrence racking stones back

into the vast sea 

only to relinquish them again

upon the beach.

No longer washed by the ocean,

though still receiving the sun.

Motionless on a window shelf,

miles from the bay

bears in ink.

Iona June 1993,

plucked 

brought away to another place. 

Sign of that other place sitting in another.

That place of encounter,

That place of decision making

That place of eternal presence

just a pebble sitting lifeless?

Will it one day find its way back?

Back to the bay that bears a name

Columba

but needs no name

to one who brought it into being.

Sitting in the study

A life formed from life itself.

Daily washed by the ocean of eternal love.

Relinquished on the beach of life,

bleached and purified by the Son’s light

Like a water mark 

‘God’s own’ 

is written on this soul,

a pebble picked up

moved from resting place, 

to another place,

a sign of another place.

That place of encounter

That place of decision making

That place of eternal presence.

Can this soul find its way back?

to the well spring of life needing no name                

who brought this life into being.

May 2006

Chapter 1 

Knowing the history - not a blank sheet of paper

Chairing the church council the conversation was determining the future of the mini bus. I had no particular view being new to the church. No one appeared willing to maintain the vehicle or be responsible for its booking and general maintenance. It was proposed, as it was infrequently used and costing the church money to run, to dispose of the vehicle. A voice of a forty year old piped up ‘You don’t understand the history of it’. It was decided to dispose of the minibus, but he was right, I didn’t realise its significance for him and others because I was new. The mini bus had been originally purchased by a young adults group and it had a history. The young adults now in their forties, all very busy people working in the city, had a common history and it was rooted in their young adult group. The Mini bus was a symbol of that exciting time and they sought as group to continue to influence church life.

         Ministers suddenly one day appear having been parachuted into an existing context. Ministers, vicars, priests, pastors, whatever we are called, have to be willing to acknowledge that strangely enough, things don’t just start happening when we arrive in a community’s life. I know these words to be true. Yet I recall how time and time again I lost perspective as the role I undertook deluded me into thinking I now make the difference, and things are starting with my arrival. Big mistake number one.

     I originally began writing this book at a time when the latest trend in church life was ‘Fresh Expressions of being church’. I do understand what it means. However, I find after forty one years of ministry I am cynical about such claims. I have passed through the decade of evangelism and many other ‘isms’. The most recent attempt to reinvent ourselves was “A Methodist way of Life”  which now seems to be fading like all the others into the past. I sought to implement new initiatives from on high as well as from below. I currently remain to be convinced that the latest trend is anything more than giving a title to what the church has always through the centuries worked out. I suspect a church which is panicking about its future will cling to any apparently new idea that may give it a chance. In this apparent diversity of being church, I perceive a re-entrenchment of hardening theological positions. 

      A confident church that trusts in God does not need to become fundamental in its dealings. A confident church does not need in its great prayer gatherings to tell God what to do i.e. ‘bring revival’ and by that it is meant like it used to be. 

     The title for this book ‘Nothing new under the Son’ seemed right. Being church has always been about making community, Christ’s community. It’s never tidy, nor is it easy. For having been accepted by Jesus, to become part of that community, you find yourself alongside annoying, delightful, irritating, loving, selfish, caring people, yes just like you. When people stop realising that and put their own image of church above it, then divisions soon follow.         

       We are called to a discipleship of Love which overflows in the fruits of the spirit. It is this love that holds community together. It is the same Love that holds the unity of the Godhead Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It has always been so and always will be. This book then is an anthology of material reflecting on ministry to encourage discipleship and being community.

      I chose the sub title for this book ‘The Pain of Ministry’ because I want the reader, be they ordained or lay, to be aware that there is a price to be paid, not just in being a disciple of Jesus, but specifically in fulfilment of a given vocation. For me that has been as an itinerant minister in a mainstream Christian denomination. Please do not see this book as a cry of despondency, but rather as a truthful statement of reality as I have experienced it. To wax lyrical about how wonderful God’s people are would be to fail to write honestly. Unlike the psalmist ‘my greatest delight is’ not ‘being with God’s people’ if being with God’s people means the ‘chosen few’ the church. 

        Perhaps training anyone fully for ministry will always be an impossibility! The clear necessity for a sound knowledge of Old and New Testament, dogmatics, systematics, pastoral theology, contextual theology, liberation theology etc,   I would never dispute. In fact the reduced time we now make for training people, particularly college based, before sending them out into ordained ministry has had a damaging effect on the quality of leadership our churches experience. Such studies indicated above can give an intellectual grounding essential for sustaining 40+ years working in the church in leadership. It is my opinion that many of those now coming into ministry later in life, while bringing experiences of a different working world, have not accumulated the basic skills of everyday ministry to provide the necessary leadership throughout the church.     

      It is true however, that when I reflect on my own period of college training, three years full time, I am forced to ask the question ‘Where was the time spent equipping us for the day to day stuff of ministry?’ By that I mean the things that hit you when you go into church life. The plodding boring stuff

• how to lead meetings, 
• how to visit, 
• how to deal with people who  carry out acts of love and generosity, alongside folk who are rude, manipulative, disruptive and sometimes positively evil in their thinking and actions. 

This book seeks then to share practical insights into everyday ministry. It will be interspersed with material written in given contexts which may be of use to others.  

       As the forty year old pointed out ‘you don’t know the history’. So it’s always necessary to find out the context and history of your new situation. We never start with a blank sheet of paper when we go and work in a church. Places, people, institutions all have a history, a tradition which has formed them. Patterns of thinking and behaviour seem hard wired into them. Dismantling all of that means you are either very brave or a fool or perhaps both. So my starting place in this book has to be pastoral care and getting to know the people.

In my early days of ministry at St Ives, Cambridgeshire my first appointment when I had five churches to care for, I tried in poetry to express what it felt like and the words below were written back then.

Expectations

Morning office

Two hours studying

No interruptions!

Afternoon visiting

to listen 

to learn

to lead 

to pray

to care

perfection.

Relaxed quiet dinner with understanding wife

no interventions!

Evening meetings

Finance

Property

Church councils

Committees

Money

Talk

Air

MINISTRY?

Interfere – counteract

Outsiders

Looking in 

Spokesman

Vicar

Holier

Than what?

Intermediary

Vicar- church

Unspoken needs

Perform cultic rites

Inter-MISSION

Standing 

Beside a box

Watching faces

Emotions

Tears

Theirs

Mine.

What am I am doing?

It’s cold

Hard to convey

Resurrection.

Be Professional

Interfusion

Joy,

Sadness and hope.

But do they believe?

Five churches

Intermittent

Juggler

Chapel

Crisis

Intercessor

Committee

Church business

Interloper

Church group

Bible

Interpreter

Problem group

Conflict

Interdict

Fellowship

Welcoming

Intercommunion- bond.

Internal

Members

Old young

Interchange – role

Minister

Authority

Oracle

Answers

Pastor

Care

Listen

Understanding

Prophet

Questioning

Uncomfortable

Priest

Sacrament

Intercede

Who do you say that I am?

Intermixture

What do I think I am ?

Confused!

Marriage 

Open mind!

Christian principles

Closed mind!

Evangelical opportunity

Open mind!

INTERVIEW

Why?

When?

Where?

What do you believe?

INTERROGATION

In a church

Date

Place

What’s that to do with it?

Interim – lull.

A death

Painful reality.

Bedside vigil

Not just any-BODY

Elizabeth

Christian

Member

Steward

Lady

Friend

Interpellation – questions

Why God?

Deep Loss

Internment.

Sitting

Holding her hand

Not just any-BODY

Elizabeth.

Surprisingly

No fears

I was her minister

The hymns

The prayers

The sermon

Internment

That would come later

Only presence

Was called for now.

Making time

Why?

For God

For wife

For self

Interjection

Demands

Attention

Preparation

Needs

Priorities

Theirs

MINE!

Interests.

Viewpoints

theirs and mine.

I’m the juggler

Five churches!

Conflict in the chapel

Call in the intercessor

Church committee

We control church business

Interloper

We don’t understand this book

Interpreter

All the time

Role

Interchange

Who do you say that I am?

Intermixture

What do I think I am?

Confused?

Chapter 2 to follow.....