Please find details of all of the leadership team updates below.
Church Stewards Workshop June 17th 2011
What are attempting to do? We are building an empowered people of God in Cardiff and Caerphilly. We are restructuring for growth!
At the May Circuit Meeting approval was given to move to 3 clusters of churches from September 2011. It is the Leadership team’s vision that these clusters of churches should work together, share and celebrate their different character and activities and encourage and support each other to the benefit of the whole circuit.
We are redefining ourselves as a Missional, outreach - focused circuit.
Amalgamations and redefining circuit situations is happening all over the UK – we are not alone!
We must remember that there are now over a billion Christians worldwide and that this number is increasing rapidly. However, in Britain the major denominations are facing declining membership against a background of increasing secularism and a negative image of the established church. But people are still very keen to explore their spirituality and we need to be engaged in helping people in their search, even if that might not lead to bringing them in to regular worship on a Sunday.
We must also be aware of our rapidly changing communities. Cardiff is a growing multicultural city where over 30% of our schoolchildren do not have English/ Welsh as their first language. This percentage is increasing year on year. This means that we need to seek new ways of working with our very changed local population.
The Circuit is the primary unit of Methodist Church governance. We are a Connexional Church.
The concept of ‘Circuit ‘is very much part of our Methodist DNA, as is small groups (House or cell groups) and lay leadership in congregations. Wesley set up a system of ‘societies’ with travelling itinerant preachers. The ‘societies’ ran themselves and the Ministers travelled round. No ‘society’ had its own Minister – they were shared around and supported the activities of the ‘society’. The same applies today. Each congregation is not minister- led but they are supported by our circuit ministers and lay staff.
The Leadership Team are encouraging us all to hold a new view of Circuit – that we should regard the circuit as a single church based on numerous sites rather than a federation of separate churches. Hence our rebranding as The Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly. So we are promoting here the concept of a Single Church.
Single Church
Think about it for a moment – if each local church is no longer simply a church but just one expression of or a mission project of a bigger church – the circuit – then suddenly you begins to feel part of the much bigger whole and you are its local branch or expression. Take Marks &Spencer as an example – it’s traditional emphasis is based on selling clothes, but more recently it has branched out into food, home wear, furniture, banking, travel agency, motorway services, online shopping, etc. Yet its core values and reputation are based on providing good quality at fair prices and good customer service. Its core values remain the same whatever section you look at. So too should be our Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly.
This means that each church doesn’t have to be involved in every aspect of mission, excelling at everything. Instead it can focus on the things that the congregation feels called to do knowing that other areas may well be able to focus on different things.
Our job now is to challenge parochial thinking and live on the big map. How we are unique and what can we offer to the mix?
Clearly major activity will be needed to promote all these activities through the Website, publicity, prayer cycles, sharing good news stories regularly.
Organising ourselves so that we are focused on what we are good at
We need to be co-ordinated and organised, resources well managed and overseen. But our work needs a visionary lead.
We are now in a position to build a strong team of staff and leadership team made up of lay and ordained people working part time, full time and in a voluntary capacity.
Everyone can be supported through regular team meetings and improved communications.
Task and finish groups can be used to scope projects and to check whether what has been set up is working properly. This might be preferable to our normal pattern of committees which often talk a lot but actually do little!
We are not in the business of producing extra meetings but becoming more strategic which should free us from the burden of bureaucracy and allow us to concentrate on mission.
There are fewer ordained people available for ministry so we must think carefully about the kind of ministers we want and look to lay staff to help us fulfil our mission. Restructuring for growth means bringing in new people to help focus on the needs of the community
If we are to be “An Empowered People of God” then we need to become a Learning Circuit
If we are asking people to take on new roles then it essential that we provide training opportunities for them to learn the skills required.
We need to provide lots of different opportunities for everyone to people to deepen their faith. There has to be an involvement beyond attending a service once per week.
Other training opportunities include – student placements, cell and house groups, bible studies, sharing our faith, local preachers and worship leaders, prayer, Alpha – type activities etc..
Sharing the good news – Partnering with others
God was here before us and will be here after us ... we don’t have a sole claim on Him - so we should look to work with all who are attempting to disciple and mission in His name. We must be open to the work of other congregations and not compete with them.
We could Covenant together – e.g. joint services, other denominations, ecumenical partnerships, mission links abroad, etc
Explore activities with ‘Para church’ organisations such as environment, political groups, etc. who have some common aims with ours
Clusters and Team Ministry as a new way of working
In Cardiff we will now have 3 clusters of congregations and staff teams to work out how best to do things in their patch and to use the circuit structure to support and enable each cluster to flourish.
This is not another tier of bureaucracy but an arrangement to permit a freeing up of the administration and organisational aspects of traditional church life to allow us to focus on mission and discipleship, support and training.
Our Ministers have already held a number of ‘away days’ and ‘meditational sessions’ to start to work through what it means to be in ‘team ministry’ – a new way of working for Methodists but is common in both Anglican and Roman Catholic churches and many larger Baptist and URC churches.
But the team ministry also includes lay people – with the prospect of employing others..... the world is our oyster....... Go forth and tell, the door is open wide....
Rev . Darren Middleton to outline some of the detail of the staff ‘awaydays’.
We will now go into our new clusters and think about what all this means for us as church stewards.
To download this article as a PDF file, please click here: Church Stewards Workshop June 17th 2011
23rd May
In its meeting of 23rd May 2011 the Circuit leadership discussed the following:
- · the terms of reference and membership for the circuit assessment sub-group
- · the work of the visioning and worship groups
- · planned for the church stewards training afternoon on 19th June
May 2011 Leadership Team document
Please find the May 2011 Leadership Team document here: May 2011 Leadership Team document
May 2011 Worship Subgroup report
Please find the May 2011 Worship Subgroup report here: May 2011 Worship Subgroup report
4th May
The leadership team agreed papers to be distributed to Circuit Meeting
April 2011
Please find the interim Leadership Team report here: Interim Leadership Team Report
28th March
The Leadership Team met on Monday 28th March. During this meeting we brought together our individual reflections after the open consultation meetings and contributions made by congregations and individuals.
We spent the evening allowing this feedback to inform our conversation on the original proposals.
We then drew up an interim paper to be distributed to all congregations this week, seeking any final comments by April 10th.
After this a report will be distributed to Circuit Meeting members in preparation for the May Circuit Meeting.
17th March
As many of you will know, we’ve just had 3 open consultation meetings around the Circuit. We want to say a big thank you to all those who attended and contributed and to remind you that further comments and questions are welcomed up until 27th March. These can be via email or telephone or letter and can be to any member of the Leadership Team, through the Circuit Office or to Martin Rees (07774 491 372) / martin@martinrees.freeserve.co.uk.
As a result of this consultation and further contributions, a summary document will be circulated to all congregations in early April. Final comments to that document need to be received by 10th April. The Leadership Team will then publish the final details of the restructuring of the Circuit for Circulation to Circuit Meeting members in advance of the Circuit Meeting on May 18th.
28th February
The Leadership Team considered the process for receiving further feedback on the propsals for restructing the Circuit and deploying the Ministerial Staff following the three cluster consultation meetings to be held on 14th, 15th and 16th March. Further comments regarding the proposals can be submitted up to the 27th March and will be collated into a summary document. This document will be circulated to the congregations and any final comments are to be received by 10th April. The Leadership Team will then publish the final details of the restructuring of the Circuit for circulation to Circuit Meeting members in advance of the Circuit Meeting on May 18th.
14th February 2011
The Circuit Stewards joined with the Leadership Team for their meeting on Monday 14th February.
The meeting considered and discussed:
- the interim feedback from both the Visioning and Inspirational Worship sub-groups
- the feedback from the staff awayday held on Wednesday 9th February
- the feedback from the combined staff/circuit stewards and leadership team meeting held on the evening of Wednesday 9th February
As a result of the discussions the meeting finalised the Leadership Team’s proposals on the Circuit Review to take to the Circuit Meeting on Wednesday 23rd February at Cyncoed and the timescale for consultation meetings to be held afterwards in order to discuss the proposals with congregations.
31st January 2011
The leadership team meeting held on 31st January started to look at the Circuit assessment commencing with:
- The role or purpose
- The spirituality
- The methodology
To be continued . . . .
17th January 2011
The Leadership team continued looking at the reconfiguration of the Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly including:
- the potential for grouping of congregations/churches through geography, shared vision, community, mission and outreach,
- the role and location of the Superintendent,
- the role of the ecumenical churches.
5th January 2011
At the meeting held on 5th January 2011 the Leadership team's discussion included:
- The next staff away day on the 9 th February and agreed that 'pastoral charge', 'working together' and the 'configuration of the circuit' be the main focus of the day.
- A feasible long term financial plan was discussed.
- Encouraging joint congregational working together for mission.
- At the next meeting we will visualise the Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly from a geographical viewpoint to help inform possible ways of reconfiguring.
29th November 2010
At the meeting held on 29th November 2011 the Leadership team commenced a discussion on:
- The role and expectations of Ministers within the Methodist Church
- The role of the Superintendent Minister
- The nature and meaning of 'Pastoral Charge' of the churches in a circuit.
- The implications and opportunities of Team Ministry and the ministry of the whole people of God within a circuit.
This is an ongoing discussion and will continue to be explored with congregations in due course.
15th November 2010
- The Leadership team commenced a discussion on developing strategies for helping people to gain confidence in sharing their faith stories both within the local congregation and in the workplace.
- The Leadership team discussed the need to look at the long-term finance issues of the circuit, recognising that this needs to be driven by a long-term vision for the Circuit.
- It was noted that the Circuit staff were having an “Away Day” to discover how their skills and interests might be more fully engaged within the Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly.
2nd November 2010
- Helen Tyler, a member at St Andrew’s, Birchgrove, has now joined the Leadership Team.
- Rev. Mark Rowland is the convener of the ‘Inspirational Worship’ subgroup and Deacon Liz Rowe the convenor of the ‘Vision, Mission and Readiness for Change’ sub group. They will now establish the membership of their respective groups.
- The Leadership team has established the Terms of Reference for each of the sub groups, so the work of the groups can now commence.
- Congregations are encouraged to fully participate in the meetings and activities required to enable to sub groups to undertake their business.
Please listen out for important dates and times for meetings in the coming weeks and make every effort to attend.
- The Leadership Team will be meeting fortnightly for the foreseeable future and the outcomes of the meetings regularly reported in Church notices and on the website: www.cardiffmethodist.org.uk
8th October 2010
At Circuit Meetings held on September 16th and 23rd and subsequent activity the following were agreed:
1 The Circuit Review Document was received. It was noted it was a work in progress rather than a finished complete action plan. As such it would evolve through the action of the Leadership team and decisions of the Circuit Meeting.
2 A Leadership Team was appointed. The names so far agreed are:
Superintendent Minister as Chairman
Ian Walton as a lay representative Vacancy as a lay representative
Martin Rees as senior circuit steward Dave Jordan as a circuit steward
Rev Susan McIvor as staff member Rev John Rowe as staff member
3 The task of the Leadership Team is to:
- engage and implement the Circuit Review
- engage directly with the role of the Circuit (The Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly)
- long term financial planning
- establish sub groups as required and link with those sub groups
- liaise with the Circuit Stewards.
4 Sub groups planned at this time are a:
- Visioning group – to support each congregation as they explore and engage with the review proposals especially as laid out in section 1
- Worship group – to work out the proposals in section 2 and 3.
5 The Circuit Stewards in liaison with the Leadership Team will oversee issues relating to Connexional and Circuit governance, stationing, employment, manses, treasury and in-year financial accounting and management.
6 The Circuit will not be entering stationing this year and the Rev Philip Drake will be moving in August 2011. This will involve engaging with all churches over pastoral oversight and the configuration of the Circuit.
7 The Rev Susan McIvor has been invited for a further three years from 2011.
As you can see there are changes that will effect each congregation within the Methodist Church in Cardiff and Caerphilly. As a result of the Review it is clear relationships between congregations will need to be strengthened, and in some cases new connections developed.
Through this process our hope is that:
- We may re-discover the treasures and resources that we have within our midst;
- We may be encouraged to engage in prayer and meeting together;
Our confidence in knowing and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ might be reinforced
- The newly formed Leadership Team met for the first time on Monday 11th October
- Each member outlined their own personal perspective and vision for the group
- Dates for the next 6 months of fortnightly meetings were established
- The membership composition of the two sub groups on Vision and Inspirational Worship was discussed
- The main focus for the next meeting on 2nd November will be to draw up the precise remit and terms of reference for the two sub-groups in order that they can commence their work at once.
August 2010 Circuit Review document
For anybody who is interested, the August 2010 Circuit Review document is still available here.
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