Church of the Brethren Ministerial Leadership Paper, 2012 Revision Study Guide This study guide is offered as a resource to all kinds of groups interested and involved in the process of studying the draft of new polity for ministerial leadership in the Church of the Brethren: congregational Sunday school classes, area pastors groups, district ministry commissions, seminary students, and anyone else invested in the processes of calling and sustaining ministerial leaders for our life together as the Church of the Brethren. The draft of a new Ministerial Leadership Paper comes as the result of a lengthy process of review and conversation with diverse groups within the denomination. Staff in the Church of the Brethren Office of Ministry, District Executives, pastors, congregations and district commissions tasked with credentialing ministers have all had input into the writing process. The paper comes under advisement of the Ministry Advisory Council, a group created by Annual Conference to pay attention to issues related to the setapart ministry in the denomination. The paper of proposed revisions is available online, here: http://www.brethren.org/ministryoffice/polity-revision.html The new polity draft puts greater emphasis on the calling and discernment processes than previous polity. It puts into place new expectations to guard against the isolation and loneliness experienced by so many ministerial leaders, and offers multiple circles of set-apart ministry to better meet the needs of our diverse congregational settings. This study guide is organized into six stand-alone sessions. The first session asks participants to begin thinking about calling in general: what it is and how we ve been practicing it. The second and third sessions invite participants to spend intentional time with biblical texts that shape our ideas of what calling is and ought to be. The fourth session offers time for reflection on a particularly Brethren theology of calling and leadership, and the fifth and sixth sessions ask participants to bring all this reflection to bear on the proposed polity changes. Ideally, groups would spend six sessions and study each element in this guide. Each piece context, scripture, theology and practice is important for understanding the polity and its underlying convictions. If, however, your time is shortened, you may want to choose one of these alternatives: Alternative A (for a three or four session study): Combine sessions 1 and 4, moving from personal reflections on call to the Brethren belief in the priesthood of all believers. Discuss together how your personal experiences of call have or have not been in line with the idea that baptism is enrollment into ministry. Combine sessions 2 and 3, reflecting together on both the biblical call stories and the account of the early church in Acts. Alternative B (for a one or two session study): Ask two or three of the questions on calling in Session 1. Choose one scriptural story from Session 2 and reflect together on it. Define together priesthood of all believers and discuss how you have seen it in action. Study together the polity paper sections on Calling Cohort and Ministry Circles. Discuss together several questions listed under each of the respective study guide sessions.
Session 1: Contextual with you as you discuss calling. Start by asking what does it mean to be called? Share together what images, ideas, or stories come to mind when you hear the word. The word vocation is often used to talk about our life s work and purpose. It comes from the Latin word, vocare, which means to call. Explain this definition to the group. If you have access to the internet, watch together this video, Revealing Vocation from the Fund for Theological Education: http://vimeo.com/11661110 Ask what, if anything, from the video struck the group as true or questionable. Did they hear anything new? Begin to talk about your own experiences of being called. Ask and talk together about these questions: How have you experienced being called in your own life? How have you seen others around you being called? Can you think of anyone you know who has fully lived out her or his vocation in life? What is the role of community in calling people into their vocations? What is the role of the church community in calling people specifically into church leadership? Are there people in your own congregation who have been called into leadership? How did that happen? Who invited them to consider a call to ministry? How did the invitation come? End the session with prayer, giving thanks for God s call in each person s life. Session 2: Biblical with you as you discuss the ways God calls people to leadership in the Bible. Start by brainstorming together: what biblical stories can you think of that include an element of people being called to do God s work in their communities? Here s a partial list of stories you might name: Abraham (Genesis 12:1-5) Moses (Exodus 3:1-12) Ruth (Ruth 1:15-18) Samuel (I Samuel 3:1-10) David (I Samuel 16:6-13) Esther (Esther 4:9-17) Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:4-19) Jesus Ministry (Matthew 3:13 4:25) Mary Magdalene and the Other Mary (Matthew 28:1-10) Mary (Luke 1:26-38) The Samaritan Woman (John 4:1-30)
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40) Lydia (Acts 16:11-15) Timothy (I Timothy 4:6-16) After you make a list of biblical stories of calling, discuss together: What kinds of people are being called in our list? Who does God call? Is there anything that all these stories have in common? Choose one or two stories on which to focus the rest of your time together. Read the stories together, and then ask: Who is being called in this story? Where did the sense of a call come from? God? Other people? A church community? How did the person being called respond to the call? If you read more than one story, how are the calls similar? How are they different? Which person being called do you identify most with? Which story of call seems the most like how people in your own congregation or community have been called? End the session with prayer, giving thanks for the biblical witness to God s call throughout the ages. Session 3: Biblical with you as you discuss the ways the early church ordered their own leadership. Start by reading together Acts 6:1-7. Try reading the passage in the style of lectio divina. Lectio Divina is an ancient way of reading biblical texts. The passage is read three times aloud, with silence in between each reading. During the first reading, listeners simply hear the passage for the first time. During the second time, listen for a particular word or phrase from the passage that strikes you differently than the rest, that stands out. During the third reading, spend time reflecting on why that particular word or phrase struck you, how it connects with your own life, and what God might be saying to you through it. Lectio Divina works best when readers speak the verses slowly and clearly. Your group can choose whether they d like the same person to read the passage all three times or if hearing from different readers would be beneficial. After you ve listened to the passage three times, ask which words or phrases resonated with the group. If participants are comfortable sharing, ask them why those particular phrases struck them, and what they hear God speaking in them. Continue discussing what you heard in the passage. Ask: Why did the church need to change the way they structured their leadership? What was the problem? How did they decide to address their leadership crisis? What was the difference between the twelve disciples and the leaders appointed to serve the community? Were they different in character or in job description or in some other way? How did the community mark the occasion of calling these leaders? What other models for calling church leadership does this story call to mind?
How does the Church of the Brethren practice of calling out leaders follow in or diverge from the pattern of the early church presented here in Acts? End the session with prayer, giving thanks for the way the Church has called out leaders. Pray for the Church of the Brethren as we continue to develop practices for calling out leaders. Session 4: Theological In preparation for this session, you may want to read section III in the draft of the Ministerial Leadership Paper, History and Theology of Ordination in the Church of the Brethren, paying particular attention to section B, Historical Theological Perspective. with you as you discuss the ways Brethren have historically called out leadership. In the tradition of the Brethren movement, ministerial leaders have always been set-forth or called out from the gathered community of the church. In the early life of the Brethren, this meant that ministers were not professionally trained or specially ordained. Instead, minister was a rather informal designation of the church members chosen by the community and tasked with the responsibilities of preaching or ministering to the congregation. As our life together has evolved, Brethren have come to appreciate the gifts of both informal ministerial leadership and professional clergy. This practice of calling leadership from the midst of the congregation is grounded in a theological belief of the priesthood of all believers, meaning that all who have been called to God in Christ are priests, participating through baptism in Jesus calling to minister to the world. Membership in Jesus Christ is enrollment into the priesthood of all believers. Ask the group: What does priesthood of all believers mean? How have you experienced it in your own congregation or community? How is being a set-apart minister different from being a member of the priesthood of all believers? As you continue discussing what it is like to call leadership from the priesthood of all believers, begin to move the discussion toward particular lines from the draft of the Ministerial Leadership Paper, such as: Special callings in ministry were regarded not as something forever given by God, but as a particular discernment and designation by the church. What does it mean that a calling to ministry might not be forever given by God? What is different about a calling to ministry being a designation by the church? Ministry is not simply a task or job narrowly defined in current organizational terms. Involved is the call rightly to divide the word of truth, to provide pastoral care, to proclaim the gospel, to be engaged in church discipline and administration, and, by one s being as well as one s doing, to represent the corporate heritage, identity, and witness of the faith community to the world for which Christ died. Is ministry more about being a representative and witness of a faith community or more about doing the tasks of preaching, pastoral care, administration and teaching?
End the session with prayer for those sensing a call toward ministry in the church. Session 5: Practical This session focuses specifically on the new proposed polity paper. It will be helpful to read the entire paper before discussing it, paying special attention to Section IV, Calling Circle. with you as you discuss the concepts in the new draft of the Ministerial Leadership Paper. The draft of the Ministerial Leadership Paper has a new emphasis on calling, enhancing and deepening the calling and discernment process for ministerial leaders. The hope is to engage congregations, districts, and a new group called the calling cohort in the conversations around an individual s discerning of a call to ministry. Read together the first three paragraphs under Section IV, Calling Circle. Ask if anyone has any immediate impressions, suggestions, or questions about what you ve read. Ask: What does it mean that a sense of call to ministry can come in several ways: personal initiative, congregational initiative, or initiative by the church at large? Have you witnessed calls to ministry coming in one or more of these ways? What role does a congregation or gathered community have in calling people to ministerial leadership? Who ought to take the initiative individuals or congregations? Does your congregation have a particular group tasked with calling out gifts in particular people? Read together the next section, through letter A, The Calling Cohort. Ask if anyone has immediate impressions about the value of a calling cohort walking with an individual as they do the hard work of discernment. Why might a calling cohort be an important part of a minister s discernment process? Continue reading together through letter C, Covenant of Accountability. Ask how participants think each group (discerner, congregation, district, and calling cohort) might work best together to ensure a thorough and healthy period of discernment. How might a Covenant of Accountability help those groups hear God s call clearly? End the session with prayer, with gratitude for those open to receiving God s call and for those with a heart to see God s call in others. Session 6: Practical This session focuses specifically on the new proposed polity paper. It will be helpful to read the entire paper before discussing it, paying special attention to Section V, Ministry Circle. with you as you discuss the concepts in the new draft of the Ministerial Leadership Paper. In the new polity draft, the set-apart ministry is split into two Ministry Circles: Commissioned Ministry and Ordained Ministry. Each circle carries with it particular expectations for training and formation and particular responsibilities and contexts for ministry. The Commissioned Ministry circle is designed for
those ministers called to intentional ministry in a particular local congregation. The Ordained Ministry circle is for those called to serve the church in capacities that extend beyond a specific congregation both the local and the trans-local church. In addition to these fully credentialed circles of ministry, the Inquiring Minister circle is for individuals who have been affirmed in their continuation of training and discernment toward one of the two other ministry circles. Read together Section V, letter B. The Set-Apart Ministry. Talk together about these questions: Why does the list of expectations for ministerial leaders include the ability to express a clear commitment to Jesus Christ demonstrated by a vibrant spiritual life, the practice of regular spiritual disciplines, a healthy physical and emotional lifestyle, a commitment to Church of the Brethren faith heritage and values, ongoing study of biblical texts, history and theology, and a commitment to actively upholding the Covenant of Accountability? Why is each of these commitments an important part of what is expected of a ministerial leader? What does it mean that a Commissioned Minister is called to a specific ministry in a particular congregation? The Commissioned Minister credential is not transferable from one congregation to another or from one district to another. What might the benefits be of calling a minister for a long-term pastorate in a single congregation? In contrast, an Ordained Minister s leadership is carried out within a particular district and across the denomination. What might it mean that the Church of the Brethren needs leaders trained and formed in the larger, trans-local church? Can you imagine a context where Ordained and Commissioned Ministers might work together? Do you think your own congregation s leadership needs would be best met by a minister from the Commissioned Circle or the Ordained Circle? Why? Can you imagine another congregation who might benefit from a minister in the other circle? What is different about the context? End the session with prayer, in gratitude for the many different contexts and opportunities for mission and ministry in the life of the church. Church of the Brethren Office of Ministry 1451 Dundee Avenue Elgin, IL 60120