By David Garner

We are a relatively fortunate church; we have enough money to fund a minister, a reasonable sized congregation and a reasonable amount of talent to draw on.

There should be no problem in getting someone suitable.

What we want is someone to do a reasonable Sunday Service, a bit of pastoral work and organisation, and that will do.

What else was it that people said they wanted in a minister? Third choice (equal with bible teacher) was Prayer and spiritual direction? Are you sure? It all depends on what direction. We need a strong leader – as long as I agree with where they want to go, of course.

As a group of people, we tend to do what we like. It is part of the nature of a voluntary organisation that if someone wants to go and do something, we generally let them get on with it. What is less usual is for us to help with something with which we disagree but with which most people want. We may pride ourselves on being democratic, but how deep is it really?

For example, we have a prominent noticeboard, which is our message to the world. It is usually bare or out of date. If someone wants to do a poster, we are all happy to let them. Otherwise, well, it doesn’t really matter; we all know we are here.

Much that is good and which builds up the inner and outer communities gets done, from food to flowers, soup to Sunday school. However if someone came in and suggested that the noticeboard was essential (just an example), and that the church should really get its act together and do something, would we get beyond three posters? There will perhaps be a consensus that something should be done, and that someone should do it, but if one or two people do not come forward to do it, it will remain as somebody else’s problem. And already in your mind the excuses are forming. I’m not artistic, I haven’t got time, it takes too long to agree on what to do. All true and reasonable. Yet the noticeboard will remain practically bare, an embarrassing wasted opportunity.

It used to be leprosy that people avoided. Lepers were to be pitied. Don’t get too close; you might catch something. Suggest remedies, suggest someone else who can help. It is no longer leprosy which we have to avoid but the job-you-can’t-get-rid-of. Don’t get involved if you don’t want to catch it. Once you’ve got it, it’s for life. This is the new fear. (Any volunteers to look after the noticeboard?)

Having a new minister is a great thing, but we need to look at how we operate as a church. My fear is that our new employee will just have a load of administration in their lap in the first week. Administrator was ranked quite low, but it is a job that can take over huge amounts of time.

We need to acknowledge that we do not have time to do everything, and that the noticeboard may have to stay bare forever. We would benefit from deciding our priorities, and knowing why we have chosen them.  It is important to do this before the new minister arrives, because it will clear our minds about what we are about. Deciding who we are and what we want to do or say is a process we go through every now and again, perhaps it is an exercise we should go through again in the next few months. If we can move ahead at least a bit on making priorities, we will be able to move onto stage two, deciding our role as a church in the world. Or is it the other way round?

                                                                                    David Garner

In the article left David refers to the results of the survey of the congregation in which they were asked to rank the skills a future minister should possess. Leading the way were: Leading worship, pastoral visitor, Bible Teacher and Prayer & spiritual direction. The full results and a discussion on them will take place during a forthcoming Church Meeting.