The roles;
·
Ministers
·
Local Preachers
·
Stewards
·
Pastoral Visitors
Features
·
Membership
·
Communion
Ministers
Methodist
ministers come in two flavours, presbyter and deacon. In the Methodist Church
Presbyters and Deacons have equal standing as ministers, but they exercise
their ministries in slightly different ways. With a presbyter the primary focus
is on the Church and with a Deacon the primary
focus is on the community, although there is obviously much scope for crossover
between those two areas. Nevertheless, this difference in focus can lead to
significantly different kinds of ministries. Presbyters are called to a
ministry of;
Word - as in
preaching and Biblical teaching;
Sacrament,
The Presbyter is the primary person responsible for Holy Communion and Baptism
but we'll come back to that a bit later because sacraments are not just about
the Presbyter.
Pastoral Responsibility
- note that it says responsibility; we'll come back to that both in comparison
to the Diaconal role and with some lay or non ministerial roles.
By
comparison, Deacons are called to a ministry of
Service,
Witness,
Pastoral
care, - note the distinction here that Deacons are not normally expected to
have pastoral oversight within the church but pastoral care is very much part
of their ministry.
Outreach
Worship.
There is an important distinction here between worship and preaching. Deacons
are not required to be preachers, and do not normally have dispensation to
preside over Holy Communion. Service witness outreach and worship are obviously
part of the Presbyter's work but are more of a primary emphasis for Deacons.
Whilst there
seems to be a rather loosely defined difference between the two roles on paper,
the difference of emphasis can be enormously significant in practice. Notably
in this time of decline, the emphasis that Presbyters have towards maintaining
the structures of the Church as they exist today means that Deacons are
essential for ensuring that the eyes of the Church are not always focussed
inwards and back towards the past but also outwards and towards the future. It
should also be noted that the Methodist Diaconate is a religious order.
Having
looked briefly at these differences, let's now have a quick look at some of the
more general things about ministers in the Methodist Church;
In the Deed of Union which is
included in early pages of Volume 2 of CPD it says that "Christ’s ministers in the church are stewards in the
household of God and shepherds of his flock. Some are called and ordained to
this occupation as presbyters or deacons."[1]
This statement emphasises that everyone in the church is at least to some
extent a minister. The ordained ministry is not different because those
ministers are special people, they are different because their calling has been
tested, their knowledge and understanding has been stretched and deepened
through training and experience, and because they have entered into a
relationship with the Methodist Church whereby they have agreed to come under
its discipline and to give themselves to the work of God's Church.
That
section in CPD goes on to say "Presbyters have a principal and directing
part in these great duties but they hold no priesthood differing in kind from
that which is common to all the Lord’s people and they have no exclusive title
to the preaching of the gospel or the care of souls. These ministries are
shared with them by others to whom also the Spirit divides his gifts severally
as he wills."
This
is what we call "the priesthood of all believers and consequently we
believe that no priesthood exists which belongs exclusively to a particular
order or class of persons but in the exercise of its corporate life and worship,
special qualifications for particular duties are required and so the principle
of representative selection is recognised."
It might
seem an odd thing to include here, but it is also useful to think about why
ministers are paid a stipend not a wage. Stipends are in no way unique to the
Methodist Church, but there are some variations on how the principle is applied,
but here we will explore the Methodist viewpoint. With normal employment there
is an employer and a contract, a defined number of hours and employees are paid
on the basis of those hours; there is usually a line manager who sets out the
parameters of the work, and if the work is done well there may be some
opportunities for promotion, and therefore a higher pay grade.
By contrast,
the payment of a stipend is to allow a minister to live and has no other
connection with their work. If you become a minister, you are a minister every
hour of every day regardless of whether you are preaching, praying, sleeping or
having a bath. There are no specific hours of ministerial work; neither is
there, as such, a boss who tells you what to do. Methodist Ministers are
responsible to the Methodist Church as a whole and the Methodist Church has a
responsibility to the Ministers. Crucially that means that whilst a minister
hopefully always wants to do what is best for their community, they are not
making decisions primarily on how to become more popular as a minister. They aren't
seeking promotion and greater pay on the basis of having a big and wealthy
congregation.
Jesus said “Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy,
and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break
in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."[2]
And perhaps the most important part of that is the last bit, for where your
treasure is there your heart will be also. A large and popular church is not
necessarily a holy place full of committed disciples. There will always be that
flawed part of our humanity which seeks the glory for ourselves, but at our
best, the treasure of Methodist ministry is in discipleship and in the building
of God's Kingdom, not our own.
One
last thing to point out about ministers is that just as Deacons and Presbyters
are of equal standing, so all Methodist ministers are just ministers. While we
have superintendants looking after the circuits and District chairs looking
after the districts, they have no higher or secondary ordination, they don't
become a different kind of minister there are no Bishops, they are still just
ministers.
Local preachers
As
was mentioned in the previous session, local preachers are a vital part of the
Methodist Church. Like the Presbyters and Deacons, local preachers essentially
make a life-long commitment to preaching in the Methodist Church, that is, as
long as they remain members of the Methodist Church. When local preachers are
accredited there is a circuit service and at that service they make several
promises that go beyond making themselves available to preach and continuing
their learning. The final promise they make in that service is to 'seek to
fashion their lives according to the way of Christ and in all things seek to
promote not their own glory, but the glory of the Lord.' This is illustrative
of how, throughout the Methodist Church there is an emphasis on discipleship. Most
of the roles we take on are not simply about getting a set of tasks done, they
are about how we go about 'being' in the body of Christ. That is to say
we don't just do work for the body of the church we are called to be the body,
to dwell within it in anticipation of our dwelling in the Kingdom of God.
Local preachers
are trained in the circuit and preach within the circuit but it's important to
note that all Methodist local preachers are trained through nationally agreed
courses and if they move to a different part of the country they are still
local preachers in that new place.
There
are also Worship leaders who perhaps ought to be to the local preachers, what Deacons
are to Presbyters - We have worked hard to remove any sense of inequality
between Presbyters and Deacons over the last few years and we are doing pretty
well with that, but we have a long way to go before we are in the same
situation with worship leaders.
Stewards
There are essentially two sides to
the role of the stewards. On the one side it is the role of the stewards to
implement decisions made by the Church council, and to make sure we are
prepared for the meetings, activities and services of worship we have planned
to do. In short, when the Methodist Church decides to do something it is our
stewards who are responsible for making sure it happens, that is not to say
that they have to do all of the work themselves, or indeed any of it if they
are really good at delegating.
On the other
side, they act as partners with the Minister in the leadership of the local
church. Now leadership is one of those wonderful words, which has a lot of
interpretations as we have already explored at the beginning of this session.
There are many styles of leadership, but perhaps the important distinction that
should be made here is that the implementing of decisions made by the church
council is primarily a matter of management, but being a steward is also about leadership.
Like all
appointed roles of the Methodist Church, stewards are appointed yearly, even if
they are the same stewards from last year. This is also true of the stationing
of ministers, although a minister is a minister for life, they are appointed by
Conference to a particular circuit each year, and although most appointments
are initially for five years - each of those appointments need to be confirmed
by Conference every year.
Pastoral visitors & class leaders
Every Methodist Church is meant to
have a Pastoral Committee, because every member of the Methodist Church is
meant have someone, other than the minister who can offer them pastoral care,
encouragement in their spiritual life, and to help keep the minister as well as
the pastoral committee up to date with any concerns or prayer needs. Every
member should have this, but in most churches those non members who are
connected in any significant way with the life of the church are also appointed
a pastoral visitor. This system means that we are not looking to ministers to
solve all the problems, and it helps to build a community where we look to each
other as the Church rather than coming as clients to receive from a service
provider.
Most
Methodist Churches these days have pastoral visitors rather than class leaders,
but there are still a few class leaders around. They are essentially the same
except that class leaders also meet in a group or a class with the people under
their pastoral care. There has been some encouragement in recent years to start
using the class system again, because although the pastoral visiting system has
proved excellent in providing care, particularly but by no means exclusively to
the elderly, it has not always proved to be the best mode for encouraging
discipleship. In the final session we may have some time to look at a group
within the Methodist Church called Inspire who are working on this idea.
Membership
Why do we
need membership particularly in one denomination? Why can't we just call
ourselves Christians and not have to define ourselves as a member of one
denomination or another? Surely in this day and age it is too prescriptive, too
exclusive, tying people down to one option. Well, at one level membership is
simply about saying I want to be part of this, I want to make a commitment to
this community, I want to stand up and be counted as one of God's people and I
like the way that Methodists go about being Church. But there is something
about Membership that runs far deeper in Methodism.
When you
enter into the Methodist church there is no definitive statement of faith that
you have to sign, that covers all the details and nuances of what it is to be a
Christian in the Methodist Church. And there is a very good reason for that. We
don't have one, because whilst there are many things that most Methodists agree
on, there is also room for discussion and disagreement. There are certain
things that we must agree to in the confirmation service, but much of the rest
is up for grabs. We are not encouraged as Methodists to unplug our brains as we
enter, and replace them with a pre set list of religious statements, but rather
to embark on a life long journey of learning about God, through exploration of
the Bible through the traditions of our own and of other denominations.
We are
encouraged to encounter the risen Christ through the Holy Spirit and we are
encouraged to reason for ourselves how to respond to what we have learned. Therefore
membership becomes all the more important in this environment because we need
to set limits to who can say and do things in a leadership capacity, within a
church with such a diverse expression of what it is to be Church. If you want
to be a minister, if you want to be a steward, if you want to be a local
preacher then you need to be prepared to accept the discipline of the Methodist
church.
The
relatively flat structure and the amount of lay leadership, along with the
freedom of worship and the encouragement to learn for yourself what it is to be
a disciple of Jesus Christ, comes with a cost in terms of how we maintain
integrity as a church. Teachers and parents alike will be familiar with that
constant need to balance the prescriptive 'because I say so' kind of teaching
with the 'go and find out for yourself kind'. 'Because I say so' is easier,
especially to start with, but it's not the best way of training children to
understand what they are learning and to take it to heart - not just copying
like parrots. The same is true of church and the way we learn about God.
Membership
is a way of saying to each other, we agree that we are in this together; we are
free to explore and to consider many responses to the scriptures, to question
the status quo and to suggest new ways of moving forward. What we don't do is
to go off into our small corner and try to build a separate part of the
Methodist church that only thinks the way we do. Sometimes people come up with
ideas that are not consistent with the Christian faith as seen through the eyes
of the Methodist Connexion, sometimes people want to speak about God, but are
not prepared to put in the effort of learning that is required. Sometimes
people want to take a congregation in a direction that perhaps it should not be
going. We collectively hold the responsibility of discipline as through the
roles and structures of the Methodist Church.
But even if
you have no interest in any kind of leadership, or have no intention of moving
the congregation in any direction either good or bad, membership is a useful
way of saying 'my faith in God is not just about me, it is about how we
function together as the body of Christ.' This is reflected in the way that whilst a
person's membership is held in the local church, so that we know who it is we
are caring for in this place, each member is a member of the whole Methodist
Connexion - not the local church.
From the website;
The Service of Confirmation and Reception into Membership
includes two questions asked as an Affirmation of Faith: 'Do you turn away from
evil and all that denies God?' and 'Do you turn to God, trusting in Jesus
Christ as Lord and Saviour, and in the Holy Spirit as Helper and Guide?' The
answer to both questions is 'By the grace of God I do.'[3]
Everyone present is then
asked to affirm their belief and trust in God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, as members of the universal Church which has expressed its
faith in the one God through such as the Apostles' Creed over the centuries.
After confirmation and the
reception, the newly-confirmed are asked to make three promises: 'Will you
commit yourself to the Christian life of worship and service, and be open to
the renewing power of God?', 'Will you seek the strength of God's Spirit as you
accept the cost of following Jesus Christ in your daily life?' and 'Will you
witness, by word and deed, to the good news of God in Christ, and so bring
glory to God?'. The response to each of these is 'With God's help I will.'
From the membership card or ticket;
As a member of the Methodist Church I am called to:
·
worship within the
local church, including regular sharing in Holy Communion, and through personal
prayer
·
learning and caring,
through Bible study and meeting for fellowship, so that I may grow in faith and
support others in their discipleship
·
service, by being a
good neighbour in the community, challenging injustice and using my resources
to support the Church in its mission in the world
·
evangelism, through
working out my faith in daily life and sharing Christ with others.
Communion & Communion
Stewards
Communion is one of those tricky
subjects that even in this age of renewed ecumenical relations, is still a
cause of division and pain. There are disagreements across the whole of the
Christian Church about the nature, content and meaning of communion. Disagreements
range from whether or not each act of communion connects across all space and
time with the moment of crucifixion, to what kind of cups to use. Some of the
disagreements are amicable and just a matter of choice, others are felt deeply
and painfully by significant numbers of people. There are a wide range of
theologies and feelings towards communion even within the Methodist Church but
there are some key points to our collective Methodist theology. It is an area
that we could spend several hours talking about, but perhaps here we might pick
up on just a few points that are significant in terms of how Methodist theology
affects how we think about communion.
We have
already mentioned the priesthood of all believers. It is interesting that the
Methodist Church doesn't let everyone preside over or lead communion, even
though the 'priesthood of all believers' idea might suggest that we ought to.
Normally it is the minister who presides over communion, but if there are not
enough ministers to offer sufficient communion services in a circuit then
Conference can give permission for specific people to lead communion. This
happens quite often and includes many probationer ministers. The permission to
preside over communion is not given because ministers are special people with
special powers, there are other denominations that hold the belief that
ministers are 'priests' and only they have the right to call the Holy Spirit
into the elements of the bread and wine.
In the
Methodist Church the limited permission to preside over communion is about
keeping church order. It links with the issue of membership and also with the
ideas of training and discernment for ministers. Communion is a big deal for
many people and there are serious issues to consider. When you receive
communion it is unlikely that you are thinking about all the theological,
ecclesiological, political and historical issues that connect with communion;
you will have your own reason for receiving. Though it is good to be challenged
and it's good to explore other people's viewpoints, it's probably best that you
are not distracted by all those questions as you receive the elements. However,
it is useful to know that the person offering the elements to you and presiding
over this act of worship has at least done some reflection on these issues and
is not approaching this sacrament lightly.
One of the
really subtle but powerful symbols of Methodist Communion services is the role
of the communion steward. In a way they are in management, they have a set of
tasks to do to physically help the minister, to ensure the bread and wine are
prepared and to help with the distribution of the bread and wine. But they are
also in a role of leadership, and it is the kind of role that is both the
easiest and the hardest to perform because it is simply about being, being
present, being representative. The communion Steward is representative of the
lay involvement in communion, the priesthood of all believers, the minister and
the communion steward stand side by side as the bread and wine are shared.
There are many roles within the
Methodist Church that we haven't covered in this session, but the ones we have
covered will hopefully give you a sense of how things work.
[1]
The Constitutional Practice and Discipline of the Methodist Church, Volume 2
(London: Methodist Publishing, 2013) 213
[2]
Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)
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