Update - a pdf version has been added on the downloads page.
Following on from the Anglican Evangelical Junior Clergy Conference in July, I have now published a booklet titled A Strategy that Changes the Denomination that brings together many of the ideas presented and developed at the Conference.
This is currently available as a free download for Kindle (and Kindle-reading applications for other platforms). Click on the 'Downloads' tab above (just below the blog title) or click here to go to the downloads page.
Please notify any problems, or typos, in the comments section below. I will post a corrected version to the same link if necessary.
Please give a full name and location when posting. Comments without this information may be deleted. Recommend:
The download button simply produced a screenful of 'rubbish' text.
ReplyDeleteEverything seems to be working OK regarding the booklet download. Can you be more specific? There are a number of 'download' links - which 'download button' are you referring to?
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, any chance it can be made available as a .pdf file though? Not as nice for Kindle reading, but great for compatibility out of the box on wider range of devices, and also much lower threshold for people to click through and read given that'll it'll open fine in their browser as opposed to having to download a file and have kindle software installed.
ReplyDeleteA pdf version has been added on the downloads page.
ReplyDeleteThe button to download from the download page (linked to from your article) also produced no more than a page of rubbish text for me.
ReplyDeletethe following is the errant page:
http://freespace.virgin.net/j.p.richardson/Strategy.prc
Regarding download problems, took me a while to work it out, but the 'rubbish text' is actually the book! The format is .prc file for Kindle readers, but it is basically .html which your browser may try to read.
ReplyDeleteTo get round this, use 'right click' and 'save as', then open the file in a Kindle reader. Either that, or use the .pdf version which your browser should handle.
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteThanks for producing this and putting so much of your wisdom into one place rather than scattered around different blog posts. I am part way through and finding it very encouraging and helpful, despite being from the Antipodes where some of the details of Anglican church life are different.
One point that struck me as I read through was your encouragement for some evagnelicals to join local non-evangelical parishes, in order to change them while still remaining attached in some way to their sending church. I thought a couple of case studies might serve as a warning to some before rushing down that path, which can lead to frustration, wasted effort and pain.
The first is my own family's experience with our mildly liberal catholic parish in the Diocese of Egypt. We stuck it out for 5 years, trying to participate as fully as we could, in the hope of bringing a more evangelical approach to the parish. The vicar was happy for us to do jobs he needed filling (Sunday School, Bible readings, etc), but not anything with any influence or spiritual leadership over adults (e.g. vestry, Bible study, lay reader). We finally gave up in frustration this year and went to the more evangelical parish in the city centre.
The second is some friends of ours in Melbourne, who left their thriving evangelical parish to join the struggling local parish down the road, who had just appointed a new evangelical (so they thought) minister. He turned out to be a control freak, who felt threatened by them and banned them from role after role in the church. They've just left after 5 years of hard slog as well.
I do know of many cases where your suggested model has worked, but it seems to me that you have to make a critical judgment early on about the vicar - Will they welcome our involvement or oppose it?
Andrew, thanks for your observations. I think they are a reminder of just how tough it can be out there.
ReplyDeleteOne thing about what I am proposing, though, is that rather than this sort of thing be the self-sacrifice of the few, it should be the conscious and deliberate policy of the constituency. It should be something as deliberate as 'church planting', and should get as many accolades.
Perhaps we could call it 'church transplanting', as it is like replacing vital organs.
If we did it this way, those who were involved would perhaps feel more supported.
John,
ReplyDeleteIs there a place in your schema for evangelical non-Anglican congregations? I am thinking in terms of mutual support in missional activities and joint ventures that promote evangelical solidarity.
Chris (Baptists are wet all over) Bishop
South Devon
John,
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in your comments on the charismatic movement and your "re-education"
Dave
David - read all about it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.btinternet.com/~j.p.richardson/charisma.html
Wrote it years ago, and can't edit or delete it as I no longer have a BT account!
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteSomething else that came to mind as I read your book was the issue of flagship parishes you touched on. I don't know if the situation is the same in the CofE, but evangelical clergy in Australia tend to chase appointments in these multi-staff parishes rather than spread themselves more evenly across the diocese. This has 2 effects:
1) It sustains the "evangelical pockets" mentality, where we are seen as a small minority huddling together in a few parishes.
2) It reduces our political clout in Synods and other bodies, because representation is by parish, whether that parish has 1000 or 1o attendees each Sunday.
It would seem to me a better strategy for new evangelical clergy to do their curacies in the flagship parishes to get good ministry training in their early years, but then to go to middle of the road parishes who would accept an evangelical. It would certainly mean a harder struggle for those ministers, but would increase our impact across the church more effectively.