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Resourcing for Mission Policy Group

<typohead type="2">Report</typohead>

 

<typohead type="3">1.Introduction</typohead>

1.1 The model of "Healthy Congregations", adopted by the church at General Assembly in 1998, highlights the characteristics of congregations which are certain of their purpose and are deliberate in living their faith. At the time it was intended that this model would help congregations with their own mission action (strategic) plans. While this has occurred in a number of congregations, it would be fair to say that many congregations have not engaged with the implications of the model.

1.2 Much of the work that Resourcing for Mission (ReforM) has been involved with over the past two years has been aimed at putting the model into practice. We have addressed the questions: "what things help strengthen a local church as a worshipping community and what helps the congregation grow in faith and in an outward expression of this faith? How can we, as a church, help individual congregations become the church God wants them to be?"

1.3 Meeting up to four times a year the policy group has worked on a number of policy areas, some of which are now finding their way into the Assembly decision-making process. Some are at a trial stage while others are still in development

1.4 Further to this, the Policy Group has received reports from a wide range of committees and other bodies, as relevant to our Terms of Reference.

<typohead type="3">2. Membership Regulations</typohead>

2.1 Arising out of last Assembly the policy group has made comment on the new membership regulations that went under the Barrier Act for this Assembly, clarifying the intention of the original policy through one or two grammatical changes that will come as notices of motion if the regulations are passed.

<typohead type="3">3.Congregational Planning</typohead>

3.1 Working closely with the Mission Resource Team we are beginning to trial, in selected parishes, a new model of Congregational Appraisal with the intention that this will replace Quinquennial Visitations in due course.

3.2 Every three years each congregation would work with a trained facilitator to assess where they are and discuss what they would like to do over the following three years. The facilitator will help the congregation to put together an initial planning document, which then helps them identify the next steps. It would take into account the congregation´s strengths, needs and local opportunities and include a commitment to act. These plans will be communicated to Presbytery, so that all contributes to regional planning, in order that congregations can support and encourage each other.

3.3 The final policy will also include Presbytery Appraisals with the emphasis being on Presbyteries knowing what is occurring in their parishes and having a vision and plan for mission in a regional way so that resources, assistance and care can be best utilized. We believe that having Healthy Presbyteries is a key to more effective mission.

3.4 Interleaved with Congregational Appraisals will be Ministerial Appraisals, which are being developed by the Equipping the Leadership Policy Group. The full policy in regulatory form, with the experience of the trials being conducted, will be brought to the 2006 Assembly.

3.5 It is worth noting that experience to date has been that the new model has been well received and is helping parishes be clear about what they are called to do, with whom, how and when.

3.6 Still under development is the process by which Congregations might work from the Appraisal to create a Congregational Mission Plan. This may involve providing access to expertise, resources and personnel. It may well be that this is provided from a regional base; so that local initiatives can be better supported. The intent is to find a way to encourage congregations to "be salt and light in the world".

<typohead type="3">4.The Multicultural Church</typohead>

4.1 The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa is truly a multicultural Church. We have discovered, as a Policy Group, the challenge of formulating policy that is generic but will also be translatable and effective across cultures. It is not always an easy task. As a beginning point, we have recommended to Council of Assembly that significant Church statements, documents and communications be translated into as many of the languages used in our Church as are practical and effective. As a general policy we believe this will greatly improve understanding across the Presbyterian Church and also send the signal that all people are important in our life as a Church.

<typohead type="3">5.Deliberate Focus of Resources</typohead>

5.1 We have considered how to encourage Congregations to use God´s resources for God´s purpose. What prevents us from releasing resources for ? What should we focus on doing locally and what should we do together? Although the annual national budget of the Presbyterian Church has become problematic for the efficient running of national mission, it is a fact that the capital in plant and cash reserves held by parishes continues to increase. We are a wealthy Church but we are good at hiding the family silver.

5.2 We have come to the conclusion that releasing these resources is not something that can be done by regulation or coercion. We believe the only approach is through a sense of ownership and goodwill by individual parishes towards mission projects within their Presbytery or nationally, or indeed internationally.

5.3 The policy group needs more time to consult on a number of issues and barriers before it can bring definitive policy before Assembly. We would, however, like to indicate that the policy is likely to be radical and may indeed completely change the way we fund the mission of the Presbyterian Church. It is for this reason that we have termed this policy area "Deliberate Focus of Resources Policy".

<typohead type="3">6. Recommendations for External Agency Grants</typohead>

6.1 ReforM makes recommendations to the Council of Assembly on annual grants to external para-church organizations. Our policy has been to look at each grant in light of the Church´s agreed strategic direction and to ask to what degree each need is core to the Mission of the Presbyterian Church. In the 2003/04 year ReforM recommended grants worth $185,000. The allocations were as follows:

 

Inter Chaplaincy – ICHC	130,000
Churches Education Committee – CEC	20,000
Tertiary Chaplaincy	20,000
Spiritual Growth Ministry – SGM	10,000
Asian Liaison Officer	5,000
	$185,000

 

6.2 At the 2002 Assembly it was recommended that the grant to ICHC be reduced to $70,000. Assembly in its wisdom instructed, however, that the grant level be increased. ReforM put the case to Council of Assembly and, at a cost to other areas of the budget, it was agreed that ICHC be funded at the current level until June 2005. Because of the current financial restraints on Assembly this amount cannot be guaranteed beyond this date.

6.3 Council of Assembly received a report from a survey into community attitudes to the Church conducted by ACNielsen (NZ) Ltd. It highlighted the positive and on-going impact of Religious Education in Schools (Bible in Schools) as an important point of contact with the unchurched community.

6.4 ReforM has been made aware that Tertiary Chaplaincy as a national organization is not functioning at an effective level.

6.5 Spiritual Growth Ministries has strong links with the Presbyterian Church, and without indicating any cut in the Presbyterian Church´s grant, ReforM will be asking SGM to put a case for the grant year by year.

6.6 ReforM notes that the Asian section of the Presbyterian Church is growing rapidly and is under resourced.

6.7 ReforM is also aware that the national budget of the Presbyterian Church is not able to support what we are presently funding. In these circumstances and in consultation with the Council of Assembly and thereby to ICHC, ReforM has reached the reluctant conclusion that supporting ICHC is no longer affordable after 2005. We have therefore recommended to Council of Assembly that the Presbyterian Church does not provide a grant for ICHC after 30 June 2005.

6.8 ReforM is also recommending that the grant to Tertiary Chaplaincy be reduced by half for the 2004/05 financial year and cease as 30 June 2005.

6.9 ReforM would also like to indicate that over the next two financial years it would like to increase funding to CEC and to Asian Ministries.

6.10 The resulting recommended grants for the budget 2004/05 are as follows:

 

Inter Chaplaincy – ICHC	130,000
Churches Education Committee – CEC	20,000
Tertiary Chaplaincy	10,000
Spiritual Growth Ministry - SGM	10,000
Asian Liaison Officer	15,000
	$185,000

 

 

 

<typohead type="3">7.Models for Mission Enabling</typohead>

7.1 For a number of years, the Mission Resource Team, consisting of four Regional Co-Directors, a Youth Co-Director and a Pacific Island Co-Director, have provided guidance, support and encouragement to Congregations within their regions. The consultative ability of the team has been extended to include a contractor specializing in Child and Family Ministry on a short term project funded by Council for World Mission.

7.2 In the light of the forecast Budget for the 2004/05 year, we consider that such a structure and staff resource is not sustainable. Therefore we support a model of Mission Enabling that is derived from the grass-roots, and structured around clusters of parishes who form partnerships, which may have regional or national parameters, focused on common areas of interest such as ethnic groupings, Youth ministry, Mission Planning, Spiritual Development, Discipling, Worship models etc.

7.3 We register our concern that the Budget brought to General Assembly has removed the Mission Resource Team without consideration of such action on vulnerable policy.

7.4 If any decentralized model of Mission Enabling is to be successful, it is vital that a National Mission Director be appointed with management responsibility for the function, which will include a mixture of paid, stipended and voluntary Enablers, based around the country.

<typohead type="3">8.Safety and Protection Policy – Ministry with Children and Families</typohead>

8.1 It is recommended that all Congregations adopt a Safety and Protection Policy as required by current government legislation. Mary Peterson, the National Co-ordinator of Ministry with Children and Families, has prepared a model policy. This has been forwarded to the Council of Assembly and will be brought to Assembly by the Equipping the Leadership Policy Group.

<typohead type="3">9.Final Comment</typohead>

9.1 Our brief is wide and the potential is great.

9.2 General Assembly has accepted the Healthy Congregations model as a framework for analysis and planning. At the core of this model is the acceptance that the local congregation is the agent of mission. Much of our policy work and strategic direction is predicated on the need to encourage each congregation to discover its mission and then do it.

9.3 What this means is that we are dealing with the growing understanding that it is counterproductive to ask congregations to forgo local mission initiatives and give those funds (and more) to the General Assembly office for institutional support.

9.4 It is therefore understandable that increasing numbers of parishes either cannot or will not pay Mission and Ministry Fund contributions.

9.5 This fact has impacted dramatically and exponentially on the finances of the General Assembly. It is clear that we cannot say one thing with our mission policy and strategy and insist on something else with our financial requirements. If we expect congregations to identify and live their mission; then nationally, we should also model this in our planning.

9.6 It is not acceptable for the policy of the Church to be driven by financial imperatives, however earnest or prudent. This is a time for us to respond faithfully to the new ways of being church that are before us. They are new ways of being church locally, regionally and nationally.

9.7 ReforM welcomes the current financial impasse as the opportunity to look at what binds us together as a church, to consider what constrains us from being an effective force and to make plans that are God-filled, trusting, consuming and startling.

9.8 What is stopping us from doing this is that we are looking for a solution that doesn´t really change things. We want to change the church, but we don´t want to change our part of the church!

9.9 Such a strategy requires General Assembly to look past itself and to see the call that is being placed on the Presbyterian Church. To recognise that the "new thing" that God will do has far more power than the structure and functions we are so careful to protect today. This strategy will demand much from us.

9.10 Let´s be serious about "healthy congregations" and "new models of church". Let´s start doing the work we are here to do. This strategy will require outstanding leadership. Will it come from General Assembly?

 

Lisa Wells
Peter Dunn
Co-Convenors

The following reports are derived independently of Resourcing for Mission Policy Group, however they come under our general brief.

Appendices

• F1: Appendix 1 - Report of the Uniting Congregations of Aotearoa New Zealand
• F1: Appendix 2 - The Conference of Churches in Aotearoa New Zealand

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