Posted on 11/26/2005 10:14:47 AM PST by sionnsar
The ideal vicar is a woman under the age of 45 who plans to stay in the same parish for at least 10 years, according to church growth guru Bob Jackson.
His new research sharply contradicts the recent ‘wisdom’ of the Church which in recent years has been fiercely debating the rightness of women’s ordination, sending prospective ordinands away to get more experience and encouraging short-term contracts and shorter incumbencies.
Bob Jackson claims that many of the reasons for the Church of England’s decline can be explained by detrimental church policies favouring team ministries above single incumbencies, leaving parishes vacant for longer, and penalising growth through unfair systems of church quota.
He also suggests that many dioceses have got it wrong by cutting frontline parish posts when they run short of money, pointing out that financial shortfalls are best met by having church growth.
He suggests cutting bureaucracy, including diocesan boards and committees, pointing out that the most successful growing diocese, London, abolished its Board for Social Responsibility as an unnecessary ‘talking shop’ and its loss has barely been commented on.
Mr Jackson, formerly a member of Springboard and now Lichfield’s Growth Officer, says that the small amount of research which has been done on women clergy shows that they are, on average, “leading growing churches and being rather more successful in this than men.”
He acknowledges that growth of itself does not affect the theological arguments on the ordination of women, but points out that the practical worries that women would not be accepted in the parishes is now confounded by the evidence.
In his latest major book on church growth and decline, ‘The Road to Growth’, Mr Jackson maintains that, although decline continued throughout the 1990s, there are now signs of a trend towards growth. He warns that the “dragon of decline has not yet been slain,” but looking closely at evidence from the Church of England’s success story -- London diocese -- he says that it is clear that the internal church policies have contributed as much to the loss of church members as have trends in wider society.
He says that the reasons for growth in London go as far back as 1993 when the then diocesan bishop, Lord Hope, launched ‘Agenda for Action. This was followed by ‘London Bridges’ in 1998 and now ‘London Challenge’.
He said the key to growth was the recruitment of younger mission-minded clergy, pointing to an average age of 46 among clergy in London compared to 51 nationally.
In the 1980s, he claims that London experienced a loss of 40 per cent, followed by growth of 33 per cent since 1990 and estimated that year on year rises since 2000 were of the order of about three or four per cent each year.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Just a respectful question.. do Protestant church have any heterosexual male ministers anymore? I haven't run into one for a while. They all seem to be very intense females.
Seems like the emphasis is misplaced. Jesus said go and preach the gospel, not grow chruches. That comes because of preaching the gospel.
Many Protestant churches have two pastors - one is the chief pastor (husband) the other is the second (the wife). Many Baptist, Persbyterian and Lutheran churches are still presided over by heterosexual men - in fact, a great majority. Women get all the attention because they are breaking the stronghold of TRADITION.
I'm just going to the wrong churches but don't have a choice when it's a family funeral. LOL
The basic answer is: Yes, and I suspect overwhelmingly so. What churches have you been attending?
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