Time Wisdom

I am indebted to Bishop John for drawing my attention to an excellent little book called Beyond Busyness; Time Wisdom for Ministry.  It's by Stephen Cherry and it's the best thing I've read on dealing with the busyness, complexity and irregularity of ministry. What's more, it's not one of those time management books which add to your stress levels by requiring an extra three study days to read them! Each section is short and easily readable but the value of the book comes in thinking about the content and putting it into practice - or at least trying some quite simple things out to see if they make a difference.

If, like me, you have read books on time management and even been on courses, yet have felt that they don't quite get to the heart of the issue, this may be for you! Ministry is very complex and there is no such thing as a normal week. It has to be, at times, reactive and, at others, measured and well planned. Cherry's thesis is that living with all this in a creative way that encourages and enables others (rather than accrues all the work and all the glory or failure to oneself) takes 'time wisdom' and a certain sort of strength of character which is, itself, developed over time. I particularly liked the chapter in which he debunks 'White Rabbit' behaviour, 'I'm late, I'm late!' and asks  what 'not busy' looks like. How can we adopt 'not busy' behaviours which slowly begin to change us? Chapter headings like 'Stop the Clock', 'Don't Do it', 'Make Haste Slowly', 'Let Less be More' have all stayed in my mind. He gives many hints about how we can get the most out of our energy and the time available.

Before you start thinking all this sounds unattainable, this is in fact one of the most theological and practical books I have read on the question of how to understand and work with time. He tackles the fundamental questions like 'what is time anyway?' He uses metaphors like music to get us to the heart of a contemplative approach to life. And he gives the extraordinary example of a clock (at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) which challenges the concept of objective time because the hands only show the correct time once every five minutes....think about it! He also deals with some of the old chestnuts. When is procrastination creative and useful and when is it destructive? How can we ensure that we get the big projects that take deep concentraton and forward planning done while also responding to the little things we know make all the difference to pastoral ministry?

If you are struggling with feeling a bit overwhelmed by the demands of ministry, this is the book for you. It's published by Sacristy Press 2012. Parts of it are applicable to any kind of slightly irregular life style - ministry, parenting, 'portfolios' of work, researching, writing and teaching, some kinds of business also come to mind.

The Revd Canon Dr Stephen Cherry is a residentiary canon of Durham cathedral and Director of Ministerial Development and Parish Support in the Diocese of Durham.

An Unusual Read

I've just been reading an unusual novel. Called A Perfectly Good Man, it's a new novel (published this year) by Patrick Gale and it tells the story of a parish priest in Cornwall. That was the reason I picked it off the bookshelf in Ripon's Little Bookshop. It appeared to be about rural parish life in a mining community which is gradually losing its mining industry.  In fact, it's about much more than that. The narrative is very ingenious, moving through time, but not always chronologically, telling the story from the perspective of different characters at different stages of their lives over a whole life span. As I read, I reflected that this is the way parish priests who stay awhile come to know their communities - they come to understand the different view point of each generation and also how things that have happened a long time in the past shape the future for good or ill and mean that certain relationships are bound to be special whilst others will always struggle to thrive.

The book is about the life and ministry of a very ordinary priest and his family. While revealing to us something of the inner joys and struggles of life in a clergy household, it also deals with the ways in which our birth families shape how we relate to spouses, children and those with whom our children make relationships. It shows what being a partly public figure throughout a lifetime does to family relationships for good and ill and it explores faithfulness, doubt, duty and that illusive sense of transcendence pervading the ordinary.

At one level this is a book about the faithful but unexciting life of a priest and yet it deals with themes which bring us to the edge of some of the greatest and deepest dramas of life and death. This is its brilliance - Gale somehow manages to show what difference a perfectly ordinary priest can make in the tangle of human life. Sometimes his actions make very little difference, occasionally his actions or his presence make a great deal of difference, sometimes the very little he does (maybe simply praying) make all the world of difference. Every priest will identify with this. And this unexceptional man encounters on his way still birth, adoption of a child from another culture, the suicide of a disabled person, illegitimacy, political action, drug abuse, disinheritance, retirement, bereavement, civil marriage, his own arrest, media pressure and issues to do with the way in which people with criminal records and inadequacies look to the local church for support and inclusion.

The delight of the book is that each character contributes to our understanding of the community and of the priest's ministry - it is not priest-centric. We also see how prayer and the intangible things that priests do are of value - a value that many will never appreciate but, nevertheless, at the heart of a life lived with and for God. We see how the sharing of brief moments of gentle or profound spiritual insight help to shape the lives of some of the people he encounters as well as his own life.

It is a book about a human father and son, their relationship, their deepening knowledge of one another and their suffering. It is a book about God and His relationship with all  human life, our deepening knowledge of God through the heights and depths of our existence and the way God both withdraws and meets us in our suffering. But you could just read it as simply a story about people finding their way towards truth and a priest who doesn't think he is achieving much. The book is, at the same time, both modest and profound.

A Perfectly Good Man Patrick Gale, Fourth Estate, Harper Collins 2012.

Proclaim the Faith Afresh in Each Generation

Every time the bishop welcomes a new priest and gives them a license to minister, we hear those words, ''to proclaim the faith afresh to this generation'. Here is a book that argues that 'fresh expressions of church' (ie. doing things differently yet in ways that resonate with the traditions of Christianity) are a normal part of the church's DNA. There have always been new shapes of church emerging. What makes them authentic? And what makes them different from the shapes we already have? This newly published book, written by two of the staff of Cranmer Hall theological college in Durham and the Director of Training for the national Fresh Expressions Team, is an introduction to fresh expressions of church and pioneer ministry in today's society. It is written as a study guide for churches who might be thinking about doing something differently.  It also explodes some myths and misunderstandings about what constitutes a 'fresh expression'. The final chapter tackles the thorny question of how a fresh expression becomes part of the ongoing life of the church without becoming a stale or  directionless expression!  The book is conceived as a boat to take you on a voyage. David Goodhew provides the rudder - a look at how fresh expressions are central to the Christian tradition - part of the life blood of the body of Christ - and he gives a rationale for their appropriateness in 'such a time as this'. (Interesting that this should come from Durham where I recently heard Mark Bryant, the suffragan bishop, preach an eloquent sermon on the need for the church in the north east to recapture the understanding of 'fresh expressions' which it so clearly and enthusiastically showed in the nineteenth century under the challenge to respond to the new urbanisation of the country.) Andrew Roberts builds the hull, looking at the issue of what so-called fresh expressions are and what they aren't and examining some examples of good practice. Michalel Volland hoists the sails with a chapter on God's call to pioneer ministry and a look at what the long haul means. The book provides scholarly analysis while also drawing on practical experience and is well worth a read if you are thinking about new directions in your own living out of your faith, particularly  if you are doing this with others and feel a call to something new.

There will be a book launch at Cranmer Hall (Tristram Room) on Tuesday 25th April at 5.45pm. You can go along and meet the authors. Or contact them at  

enquiries@cranmerhall.com

http://www.durham.ac.uk/cranmerhall/ 

A Useful Read

An thought-provoking book by Peter Brierley has just appeared. Peter is known to many of us through the Brierley Consultancy which provides statical data on religious trends. Focusing on questions asked by God in scripture, it helps the reader think about the nature of vision, strategy and growth in church life and reflect on the kinds of ministry and leadership needed in today's church. What sorts of questions does God ask?  'Adam, where are you?' 'Moses, what's that in your hand?' 'Elijah, what are you doing here?' 'Amos, what can you see?' 'Ezekiel, can these dry bones live?' What kind of question might God ask you?

The book helps the reader to identify his or her place in the bigger picture, to clarify prioirities, understand strengths and, perhaps most importantly, to have the faith to believe that things can change. In his forward, John Drane describes the author as someone who writes 'always in the context of encouragement' and who 'understands the realities of the church.' The book is rather episodic but it did give me insights which helped me to think differently about church growth in the UK context. It contains ideas that you may be able to develop for yourself rather than a systematically argued approach.