Directions - 2002 - 2005

(Operational priorities - Assembly spending and work priorities for the Assembly Service Team and Task Groups)

Background

Purpose

Set out below are priorities to help undergird decisions about what the church will do nationally, to support regional and local action. We believe the situation is one that requires radical and systemic change. This sets the priorities for action and for resourcing nationally over the next three years.

These priorities will significantly direct the content and development of the Service Team - all the employees of the General Assembly - as well as the other aspects of work undertaken nationally including through Task Groups.

Process to date

Through the late nineties the Presbyterian Church clarified its direction. It adopted a mission statement and the goal of developing "healthy congregations". It emphasised the importance of leadership and structures to support congregations.

In 2000 we put in place a structure to support our direction and goal - the Council of Assembly with Policy Groups and the Assembly Service Team.

Since, the Council of the Assembly has had Policy Groups working on specific aspects. Their work has informed the priorities set out below.

An early draft of the priorities from the Service Team was circulated. Submissions received from Presbyteries and Sessions/ Parish Councils also informed this stage of this document called Directions.

We have also consulted with the Pacific Islanders Synod through meeting delegated members of their Executive, with Te Aka Puaho through meeting some of their Committee conveners, and the Council of Asian Congregations.

Directions represents work in progress - and indeed such work is only ever in progress. We look forward to continuing debate and reflection on the directions indicated here, and how they might best be undertaken to progress our mission.

Strategic Plan

Mission

The mission of the Presbyterian Church is to make Jesus Christ known:

• in nurturing and teaching
• in loving service
• in proclaiming the gospel
• in transforming society
• in caring for creation

Imperatives for Mission

1. Renewing our spiritual life in mission
2. Growing our theology of mission
3. Developing our resources for mission
4. Providing for our cultures and listening to our partners in mission

Commentary - Our current reality

Society is experiencing generational changes in world-view, living patterns, technology, and economy. Time is now the scarcest commodity for many people, and there are many competing calls on that commodity.

Our population is increasingly diverse, and those diverse groups are increasingly clear they require their specific needs to be met in order for them to engage with any organisation.

The Presbyterian Church has a pattern of rapidly declining participation. There has been a 30% decline in attendance over the last ten years - regions varying in rate of decline. (e.g. Southland with 50%).

Younger adults are tending not to participate. 46% of Presbyterian members are over 65 years of age.

Approximately 3.5 million New Zealanders have little or no significant engagement with the Church.

New initiatives are required to engage emerging generations.

Our congregations

A number of congregations are in significant decline, and marginal. We do not have criteria for considering when a congregation is unsustainable, or a range of alternative models or processes which may enable that congregation to regenerate in another form.

Other congregations are thriving-but we do not have processes for analysing the reasons, using that information to assist others, and enabling their vitality to influence others.

Some new models of "being church" are emerging within other denominations, networks, Christian organisations, and the Presbyterian Church, but we do not have a system for gathering and assessing these models, providing them as options, and resourcing their development.

Congregations are looking for regional and national support to respond to local opportunities.

Our Presbyteries

Our Presbyteries are of variable strength and quality. It is not clear how they need to go about fulfilling their roles of mission resourcing and personnel support. They may require resource reallocation, but it is difficult to do that given some of the current structures and constraints.

Our skills and abilities

Reforming and recreating ourselves to meet the changing needs of our communities requires many new skills and abilities. We do not have an abundance of people with these skills. We are not resourced to fill key positions.

Our resources

We have substantial financial and property resources. However, many of our resources are within a variety of Trusts, local regional and national arrangements which make it difficult to apply resources for the mission of Jesus Christ. Constraints include the legal obligation on trustees, the policy of General Assembly in regard to capital released from property, and the fact that much of the church's assets are in the control of local church communities who may not consider wider opportunities. Many resources are held pending 'a rainy day'. It could be argued that the rainy day has arrived.

Our information resources are fragmented. We have statistics, data, and various pieces of research, but these have not been systematically analysed to provide information on where the needs of our potential congregations are, why people are choosing to leave the church, what creates success in mission leadership, or provide answers to many of the questions we are asking ourselves.

Our structures

Aspects of our structures are too limiting, and often there is a need for a wider perspective and wider initiatives than what is possible in congregations.

Feedback through the regional meetings - tutahi tatou - and to the Council's Presbyteries Task Group highlighted initiatives being taken to share resources beyond Presbytery bounds and to concerns about Presbyteries. Regional functions need to be more clearly identified and performed.

At the same time a culture where congregations alone take initiatives stalls sensible wider co-operation which is needed when the Church is called to change. Often a wider pool of resources is needed to meet new opportunities.

Over-arching Goal

"To create and sustain healthy congregations for mission."

We have described indicators of what healthy congregations would be and do. It involves developing positive relationships including with the wider context. (see appendix 1)

We believe, given the environment, this requires us to expand our view of "congregation". It will include the traditional self-sufficient local parish with the full-time trained Minister, and many other possible configurations. Many of these new configurations are developing already, and it will be important to intentionally re-think the traditional model and experiment with moving towards new ways of functioning.

This requires us to

• develop new and diverse ways and models of "being church" (ReforM)
• enable this level of change through
• being aware of what is already being developed (ReforM)
• creating a new range of possibilities(ReforM)
• putting our resources where they can be most useful to accomplish this (A&F)
• increasing our skills and ability (EtheL)
• creating a supportive structure (CofA)
• engaging with social issues (CASI)
• building overseas partnerships (OMP)
• identify and support the key emphases and priorities of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand (CofA)

Strategic Response

The Council of Assembly, March 1999 articulated as key strategies

1. Develop Leadership for Mission (then called servant mission leadership) (which led to the initiatives of the Equipping the Leadership Policy Group)
2. Develop supportive structures (which led to the Assembly restructuring and consideration of regional functions)
3. Implement Mission Project Funding (in the pilot phase)

The Policy Groups have been working in the areas of

Resourcing for Mission - where they have identified five challenges:

• Connecting faith with everyday life;
• Meeting a diversity of spiritual needs and yearnings;
• Encouraging and developing new ways of being church in mission;
• Strengthening our multicultural identity;
• Strengthening relationships with other churches.

Equipping the Leadership - have identified a number of specific initiatives to strengthen congregational leadership and create resources and leadership capability for the changes which ReforM is identifying. These initiatives include:

• exploring paths to generate a more diverse clergy,
• resourcing lay leadership,
• developing a parish leadership development system,
• supporting lay ministries,
• increasing the pool of people involved in transition ministry.

Connecting with Society is principally carried out through the Presbyterian Church's participation in the Churches Agency on Social Issues. While continuing to make submissions to Government on public questions the Agency is emphasising:

• Encouragement to engage at the flax roots level, through providing resources and visits
• Raising awareness of issues and providing resources for comment and action on these

Overseas mission and partnerships - which is

• providing resources and support to enable congregations make international connections,
• strengthening ecumenical relationships including with Pacific churches, and
• researching opportunities to make thoughtful responses on international affairs.

Administration and Finance - which is focusing on

• Simplifying and reducing compliance costs and improving compliance
• Investigating Trusts, to see what may be able to be applied to new initiatives
• Considering which programmes (for example from the ReforM priorities) should be funded nationally, and which could be funded locally
• Investigating the financial management information system
• Developing criteria and processes for evaluating the future of marginal congregations and enabling action if required
• Developing policy on released capital from the sale of assets
• Reviewing how national operations are financed
• Developing options for increasing e-communication

Key focuses

In response to the context and trends, the work of the Policy Groups, and to further the over-arching goal, the Service Team Leaders have identified five key focuses for operations.

1. Creating and building our ability to respond to the changed environment and build healthy congregations

We will do this by

a)  identifying and making known where people and congregations are effectively responding to opportunities;

b)  developing and making known new ways of responding to opportunities;

c)  improving our leadership skills, support structures, and resources;

d)  identifying, piloting and resourcing new expressions of church.

Attention will be paid to leadership at all levels, local, regional and national - a priority being regional leadership, and to supporting and equipping 'voluntary' leaders and elders and ministers;

Abilities needed will include

• innovative and strategic thinking;
• working with cultural diversity and releasing cultural expressions of church, in partnership;
• developing networks and alliances with other Churches and Christian organisations;
• understanding and managing change.

Some strategies for strengthening our capabilities include approaches to ministerial training, ministerial in-service training/retraining, lay leadership projects such as Equip5000, and strengthening the role of the School of Ministry and the Mission Resource Team.

2. Providing an information base to help equip and resource mission and growth

Information will be gathered to identify

• Opportunities for our mission. What are the aspects of contemporary life which offer opportunities for the mission and ministry of the Presbyterian Church and will attract new and particularly younger adults to create our healthy congregations?
• Models and styles of effective mission, healthy congregations and leadership. We need to know what is working and why, and what is not working and why, so we can attend to focus one above.
• An updated theology of mission in relation to the opportunities, emerging models and styles, and other initiatives identified in this document. A key imperative is growing our theology of mission to inform and guide our strategy.
• Church statistics. We need more detailed and more comprehensive data on the church population. Particular gaps include data on ethnicity, activity other than Sunday morning worship, thinner age bands and comparability. The effect of the age structure of the church needs to be properly assessed.
• Reasons for leaving. We need to actively enquire of and learn from the experience of those who are leaving the church by choice, and develop ways to retain those people to maintain healthy congregations.

The methodology will be developed in conjunction with people experienced in the work. Information will be obtained by surveying and collating research already undertaken as well as undertaking new research. The information will, among other things, help identify what new expressions of church need to be encouraged. The research will be made available to congregations.

3. Revitalising the key qualities which exist at the heart of the Presbyterian Church, for mission.

The initiatives needed to enable us to be more effective in mission will involve changes to accepted processes and practices. We need to distinguish what can be changed from what should be retained because they are integral to our identity.

As we seek to be more engaging of our communities and contexts, and as we develop new forms of healthy congregation, we need to remain clear about the key qualities that identify us. They help describe our particular contribution to New Zealand society.

4. Strengthening regional structures to support the strategic direction

Regional bodies are crucial to our effectiveness in mission and the achievement of Directions.

We need regional initiatives among other things to develop and support fresh expressions of being church, new ventures in mission, and to encourage leadership. Many of the opportunities identified need resources and support which can primarily be provided from a regional body or bodies.

We will identify regional functions and identify how they are best performed and resourced.

We will strengthen the youth regional structures.

5. Identifying financial resources that may be available to support the new initiatives needed

Policies will be developed for recommendation to the General Assembly which, within legal constraints, enable the Church to channel financial resources to areas which support the mission and overarching goal.

Three areas for strategic work include:

• The Church Property Trustees. The Trustees, in order to honour their responsibilities, need to have a clear signal from the church as to its direction and needs.
• Fund 'owners'. The church needs to review a schedule of those funds that are available for the national church as to their designated purpose and any possible legal change of purpose. There also needs to be a review of locally 'owned' funds and assets as to ways in which some might be able to be used for more strategic purposes.
• Donors. Over the next few years there is opportunity to attract bequest money. This needs to be managed well in terms of promotion and the disposition of funds received. Some money may not need to be capitalised and could be therefore held in ways that are available in more flexible and immediate ways.

Appendix 1 - Healthy Congregations

Appendix 2 - Leadership for Mission

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