Ministers Desk 31st August 2014

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13).  The biblical basis for forming a Ministry Team in a church is that the people of God may be equipped for the work and ministry that God has called them to. 

The vacancies caused by Harlee leaving and Matt finishing at the end of the year have created the opportunity for us to think creatively about the shape of the Ministry Team.  The Church Council started to think about this in June.  Our recent consultation also provided input into options regarding the ministry team.  The Church Council then gave further consideration to the shape of the ministry team at its July meeting.  A structure has been arrived at that considers the following:

· the Consultation’s recommendation and our own Church Council thinking that we proceed with part-time specialist pastor roles, rather than a full-time Minister of the Word;

· the need to effectively resource each area of our Purpose (worship, small groups, service and evangelism) to maintain momentum and facilitate growth;

· the critical next step for our congregation of moving into the mission quadrant to meet and serve the people of our neighbourhoods;

· responding to emerging understandings of faith development in the home;

· maintaining the existing church organisations and meeting realistic and agreed expectations.

Having considered these, the Church Council has approved a Ministry Team that consists of one full time Minister of the Word, three part time Pastors and one part time office administrator.  Each role described below has elements of the following:

· equipping and training of lay workers for ministry

· development of ministry possibilities to enhance what we are currently doing

· outreach beyond the congregation

· hands on ministry

Lead Minister (full time) currently David

· Leadership and overall responsibility for developing ongoing missional and practical operations of the church (taken from existing position description)

· Add to this responsibility for embody and engage, particularly:

· Oversight/mentoring/development of existing outreach activities eg, Playgroup, RE and KHA, Friendship Group

· Interface with mission partners eg Solomons, Chaplains, Frontier Services, Samaritan’s Purse

· Community Helping Hand

· Moving into mission

· Research of needs

· Connecting to community

· Implementation of plans

· Mobilising congregation

· Promoting and supporting individuals in their current mission

Families Pastor (25 hours per week)

· Discipleship pathway for children from birth to young adults, including transitions and connections between existing groups

· Leadership and development of Kidzone

· Oversight of Brigades and youth groups, including leadership development and mentoring

· Faith in the Family

· Youth mentoring

Community Life Pastor (19 hours per week)

· Oversight of Explore Groups, including resourcing of groups and creation of new ones

· Small group leadership training

· Integration of new members

· Development of congregational pastoral care

· Pastoral Visitation

· Adult Discipleship

Worship Pastor (15 hours per week)

· Coordination of worship teams and worship leaders

· Coordination of rehearsals

· Leadership and participation in worship

· Conducting and/or arranging training for those involved in worship services

· Preparation of special invitational services

· Ongoing development of our worship services

It has also decided that these will be fixed term appointments for a maximum of three years.  At that time we will have the opportunity to again review our needs and priorities and determine an appropriate structure for our next phase of ministry and growth.

The Church Council has prayed and sought God’s leading on the best way.  Action is now being taken to advertise and appoint people to these roles so that they can get on with helping us shape God’s mission at Emmanuel.  Please speak to me or a member of the Church Council if you’d like any further information.

Grace and peace

David Fender

Ministers Desk 24th August 2014

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13).  The biblical basis for forming a Ministry Team in a church is that the people of God may be equipped for the work and ministry that God has called them to. 

The vacancies caused by Harlee leaving and Matt finishing at the end of the year have created the opportunity for us to think creatively about the shape of the Ministry Team.  The Church Council started to think about this in June.  Our recent consultation also provided input into options regarding the ministry team.  The Church Council then gave further consideration to the shape of the ministry team at its July meeting.  A structure has been arrived at that considers the following:

· the Consultation’s recommendation and our own Church Council thinking that we proceed with part-time specialist pastor roles, rather than a full-time Minister of the Word;

· the need to effectively resource each area of our Purpose (worship, small groups, service and evangelism) to maintain momentum and facilitate growth;

· the critical next step for our congregation of moving into the mission quadrant to meet and serve the people of our neighbourhoods;

· responding to emerging understandings of faith development in the home;

· maintaining the existing church organisations and meeting realistic and agreed expectations.

Having considered these, the Church Council has approved a Ministry Team that consists of one full time Minister of the Word, three part time Pastors and one part time office administrator.  Each role described below has elements of the following:

· equipping and training of lay workers for ministry

· development of ministry possibilities to enhance what we are currently doing

· outreach beyond the congregation

· hands on ministry

Lead Minister (full time) currently David

· Leadership and overall responsibility for developing ongoing missional and practical operations of the church (taken from existing position description)

· Add to this responsibility for embody and engage, particularly:

· Oversight/mentoring/development of existing outreach activities eg, Playgroup, RE and KHA, Friendship Group

· Interface with mission partners eg Solomons, Chaplains, Frontier Services, Samaritan’s Purse

· Community Helping Hand

· Moving into mission

· Research of needs

· Connecting to community

· Implementation of plans

· Mobilising congregation

· Promoting and supporting individuals in their current mission

Families Pastor (25 hours per week)

· Discipleship pathway for children from birth to young adults, including transitions and connections between existing groups

· Leadership and development of Kidzone

· Oversight of Brigades and youth groups, including leadership development and mentoring

· Faith in the Family

· Youth mentoring

Community Life Pastor (19 hours per week)

· Oversight of Explore Groups, including resourcing of groups and creation of new ones

· Small group leadership training

· Integration of new members

· Development of congregational pastoral care

· Pastoral Visitation

· Adult Discipleship

Worship Pastor (15 hours per week)

· Coordination of worship teams and worship leaders

· Coordination of rehearsals

· Leadership and participation in worship

· Conducting and/or arranging training for those involved in worship services

· Preparation of special invitational services

· Ongoing development of our worship services

It has also decided that these will be fixed term appointments for a maximum of three years.  At that time we will have the opportunity to again review our needs and priorities and determine an appropriate structure for our next phase of ministry and growth.

The Church Council has prayed and sought God’s leading on the best way.  Action is now being taken to advertise and appoint people to these roles so that they can get on with helping us shape God’s mission at Emmanuel.  Please speak to me or a member of the Church Council if you’d like any further information.

Grace and peace

David Fender

  

Ministers Desk 17th August 2014

Our recent consultation report encouraged our congregation to move into the mission quadrant.  This recommendation comes from a number of people’s input that they believe that this is the next step that God is calling our congregation to take.  For a number of years we have deliberately gone deep by developing our Explore Groups as places to study the bible and apply it.  Now the time has come to scatter into our communities and put our faith into action through service and evangelism.

As I’ve been thinking and praying about this for the past couple of weeks I’ve realised that this will primarily happen through two ways.  Both of these recognise that we are already a congregation that is heavily involved in outreach and have been for many years.  We love our communities and the people in them.  We love our God.  And our love of God causes us to serve the people that we love.

The first is that we already are people on mission in local communities.  We are part of school communities, sporting clubs and community groups.  We have neighbours and workmates, people that we encounter when walking or catching public transport.  I wonder if for some of us the problem is not that we don’t have enough outreach opportunities, but that we have too many?  I would like to know how our congregation can support, encourage and release you to be a missionary in these places where we already are.  Along these lines we might want to join others in the community in what they are already doing.  For instance the Brigades take part in clean up Australia day each year, maybe next year more of us would like to join the Brigades as though join with people from all across Australia.

The second is that we again already have a number of effective outreach programmes as part of our church.  Playgroup, Brigades, youth groups, Friendship Group, Young at Heart, Community Helping Hand and the Open Table Community dinner all have as part of their DNA a component that reaches out to serve others.  It may be that we don’t need to create new outreach programmes, we can just find ways to work with these existing groups and support them and add to what they are doing.

To quote from two church theologians: “The church exists by mission, just as fire exists by burning” (Emil Brunner) and “the church can only really be understood in the context of mission” (Jurgen Moltmann).  The very nature of the church is that we are part of God’s mission as people who are sent to serve in the name of Christ and show the transformed reality of his kingdom.

Grace and peace

David Fender

Ministers desk 10th August 2014

REPEATED

Last Sunday our congregation received the report of the Consultation conducted by Carolyn Kitto on behalf of the Moreton Rivers Presbytery.  A written copy of this report was given to every person who attended last Sunday and Carolyn spoke to the report during our services.  If you didn’t get a copy of the report there are more copies available in the church foyer or you can contact the church office and a copy will be provided.  This is a report that is available for the whole congregation.

On Monday night the church council held an extra meeting to discuss the report and our response to it.  As we discussed it we held in mind the comments that had been made at the discussions following the morning and evening services last week.  The church council values this report and thinks that it provides us with some key directions to move into in the future.  The church council has identified the following priorities from the report.

Staffing – to not replace Harlee with another full time Minister of the Word, but to appoint specialist part time pastors to build up specific areas of our church life.

Faith development pathway for children, youth and young adults – we have a number of excellent activities for children and youth and parents do a fantastic job nurturing faith in the home.  This pathway will seek to coordinate and complement these efforts and provide resources for all involved with the hope that our children will come to an owned faith.

Organisational culture – recent research indicates that the most effective element in nurturing faith in young people is for them to be surrounded by a multitude of faithful Christians who express a vibrant and engaging faith.  Our purpose of being a disciple forming community is growing this further within us.  We want to continue this push, with particular emphasis on how we express faith consistently, how we interact with each other and resolve conflict and how we communicate within and outside our congregation the exciting work that we are doing.

A Mission Focus/Mindset – for the past couple of years we have intentionally gone deeper into faith by putting emphasis on our explore groups.  It is now time to release that faith into action as we emphasis the embody (service) and engage (evangelism) areas of our purpose.

Property refurbishment – the group will continue to meet to make plans so that the building is suitable for the future ministry of our congregation.

Child Safe Church and welcoming and including – these are important areas of our church life that need structure and systems to support them.  Having strong systems to integrate newcomers is especially important as we reach out into the community to draw people into the life of God as it’s expressed through this congregation.

This work is not going to be done in a short time.  Some of it will, but most of it will take time to plan and for us to adapt our way of doing discipleship.

Grace and peace

David Fender