Ordained and Lay Ministries
23 May 2023
Ordained parish ministry remains one of the last of the “jack of all trades” professions. It’s one of the things I enjoy about the role. Parish clergy have always led a varied life – expected to do everything from leadership and governance to teaching, preaching, counselling and liturgy. And of course there has always been at least some degree of admin… However in recent decades in many places the role has shifted. Increased compliance requirements are one of the big contributors, but there is something else: in many parishes the clergy seem to be expected to do pretty much everything. Tasks that used to be the preserve of churchwardens, parish administrators and a raft of volunteers land instead on the vicar’s desk. No wonder so many are overwhelmed.
One of the great enablers of parish growth can be for the clergy to be freed up from some of the less “clergy-specific roles”, by lay staff or lay volunteers undertaking the things that, over time, have come to crowd out the vicar’s diary at the expense of “core business.”
So who does these tasks in your parish: sets up the church for Sunday, prepares the Sunday pew sheet or powerpoint, updates the website, tends to the garden and grounds, takes hall bookings, deals with tradespeople, does the rosters, visits those unable to make it to church regularly, or those in nursing homes? This list is not exhaustive! And none of these tasks “requires” a clergy person. If the vicar is doing most (or all) of them, could your parish afford to employ someone other than a clergy person to lighten the load? Or, more realistically in many cases, are there people in your parish who could be asked to help? If so, how will you train them so that the roles are properly performed? And how will you supervise and review performance, so that when it is time to say “thanks for helping, but maybe it’s time to give someone else a go” everyone understands the parameters of the conversation?
To go one step further: how might we encourage every member of our congregations to have a “ministry”; something they do that contributes directly into the life of the church? In a previous parish I inherited a “ministry team” that was entirely clergy and paid laity. When I suggested that, actually, the whole congregation needed to think of itself as the “ministry team” I was met with blank faces. “But surely that’s what we pay you for?” It was almost as if the work of the baptized had become simply to pay for others to do the work of the church.
Enabling lay ministry is about more than having readers and servers, or a roster of people to count the collection. How might members of your congregation enable the clergy to be properly supported, so that they can concentrate their time and energy on their core work of mission, evangelism, ministry and liturgy? And how might you find ways for everyone to have a role as active members of your church community?
