Ministry Leadership Today

By Anne Weekley

The 'Licensed Lay Ministers Conference' & 'Clergy Ministry School' were held in Grafton on 10th – 11th September & in Ballina on the 12th – 14th of September

Agroup of LLMs and clergy from across the Diocese were blessed to sit under the ministry of Bishop Stephen Pickard and Dr Carlos Raimundo. Bishop Stephen expounded Scripture to develop our concept of ministry, while Dr Carlos used practical, tactile ways of helping us make pictures of what we are like and how we can move forward in ministry.

The sessions covered three interconnected aspects of who we are and how we operate, helping us to consider how we can embrace working as a team and how we can grow in Christ, keeping in mind Romans 12:3-5:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.

Ministry

As members of one body, we are called to work collaboratively. Our calling is to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, avoiding the misuse of power in autocratic or manipulative behavior or in unhealthy submissiveness. Intuitively we know we are members one of another, creatures of one God, and our hearts are restless until we find life in God and in each other. Dr Carlos challenged us to make a picture of the body of Christ, the Church.

Self

Who am I in this ministry? I am a person bearing the image of God, whose image can be enhanced in us as we grow in grace. However, we are created for one another, to live in relation to others – in community. The image of God expands and deepens as the ministering community pursues love, compassion, care and justice, peace, freedom and truth. In this way we, as persons and communities, grow into our destiny in God. We learn to say to others: the image of God is in you, you are beautiful. Dr Carlos asked us to consider changing habits by thinking on the good times in our lives. God created us to become closer to Jesus, but because of pain & suffering we have become something different. We can cling to who we are in Christ, like Velcro. Then we can allow the pain to slide off, like Teflon.

Personal Growth

Collaborative ministry requires spiritual maturity. We are to be always learning, getting new depth in our calling, challenged to move from the known to the unknown; to continually renew our minds; and to awaken the image of God in us and in others.

Questions to continue pondering:

• What does it mean to be a person in the image of God?

• What activates and awakens the Image of God in (a) oneself and (b) others?

• How can the ministry I exercise activate the image of God in others, the church and society?

• What can I do to enable me to do this better?

• What impact can this have personally, in families, in work and in the Church?

• What does the journey of self-dispossession look like so far for me?