17th
April 2015
Dear Member of St. Mark’s,
I am writing to you concerning
the re-structuring of the leadership at St. Mark’s. Some of you will know that
the leadership team have been attending a national leadership training course
(Lead Academy). One of the objectives is to see how churches might restructure
their church leadership to enable growth, spiritually and numerically.
This dovetails into St. Mark's taking on pastoral oversight of St. Peter's, and
the need for my role to develop into one that delegates some responsibility to
others.
The PCC has now agreed that we can start the process of re-structuring our
Leadership. This will take time, as we begin to communicate the various changes
that will enable this to happen. I do need to emphasise this is only the
beginning of a process. This is what is proposed.
The Church Wardens and PCC
Church Wardens are officers of
the Bishop and elected by the Meeting of the Parishioners. The PCC is the
elected body responsible for governance of the church including finance, church
maintenance, safe-guarding, risk management and policy making, and members are
appointed at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting by those on the Electoral
Roll.
Leadership Team
One step we have now taken is to
delegate responsibility to the leadership team who will have oversight of
particular ministries at St. Mark’s offering support, encouragement,
communication and prayer. These persons are:
Administration - church centre and user groups
- Maggie Wilson
Administration
- clergy support
and Sunday worship - Jo Lucas
Children
and Family work - Nikki
Smith
Evangelism
and Mission - Jonathan
Phillips
Pastoral
Care - Heather
Carty
Worship, preaching, teaching & occasional offices - Hennie Johnston
Youth
Work - Pippa
Douglas
Joshua Group
This Group will be those who lead
the very many different ministries at St. Mark’s, including Fellowship Group
Leaders. It will exist to support, encourage, communicate and pray as a group.
Many of you will know the story
of Joshua and Caleb (Numbers Ch. 13 & 14), when Moses sent spies into
Canaan to seek out the land. Caleb and Joshua returned from having seen the
Promised Land full of optimism and excitement in contrast to the others who
returned full of negativity, focussing on the giants, rather than the land
which was flowing with milk and honey! Joshua and Caleb recognised the gift
from God, the others did not, and the consequence was they remained in the
wilderness another 40 years!
This story translates to us at
St. Mark’s by those group leaders coming together with the leadership team every
other month, (alternate months to the PCC meetings) to share vision, blessings,
ideas, and concerns, and to clarify questions or confusion that their teams/groups
might have raised. It will also be a forum for the leadership team to have an
opportunity to share new ideas, visions and projects with the larger group. The
Joshua Group will be a place where people can feel safe to share what is on
their heart, returning to their groups united, and in support of the church’s
bigger vision.
I am aware that there may be a
few teams/groups of people in church that will not naturally come under the
oversight of those on the leadership team, and this will probably be because
they will come under the overall responsibility of the PCC. As I have said,
this re-structuring of leadership roles is a work in process and we would value
your prayers and patience.
I am excited how the Holy Spirit
is moving us on, though I am also aware that change is hard, and I do
appreciate that it will be difficult for some. However, I do believe that this
is the way forward for us at St. Mark's and, as we read in Isaiah 54:2-3, ‘enlarge the
site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitation be stretched out; do
not hold back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will
spread out to the right and to the left and your descendants will possess the
nations and will settle the desolate towns’.
I shall be saying a little bit
more about the re-structuring of our leadership at St. Mark’s on Sunday 26th
April at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, joint service at 10 am, but I wanted you all to have time to reflect
on this before that meeting and time of worship.
Yours in Christ,
Hennie
Vicar
