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A Rector’s Perspective
One benefit of Church21 is that it can affirm leaders as people with a team around them. Here, Rev. Pat Storey, rector, St. Augustine’s, Derry, speaks of what the process meant to her personally.
Five of us who represented the parish in the Church21 programme, signed up with a mixture of excitement and apprehension. We were an ordinary Parish, nothing exceptional, but we were determined to develop and grow. Church 21 was the ideal vehicle to help kickstart that process.
The choice of facilitator is very important and ours gave us confidence from the beginning. My greatest fear was that there would be lots of ideas, but that the already exhausted rector would be left to carry these through! However, it was made clear at every point that the key to parish development could be summed up in one word – TEAM. I began the Church21 process feeling very much on my own as a leader, and that it was up to me to make initiatives happen. But as the process draws to a close we have five teams in place, each with a co-ordinator and an action plan, and much has already been achieved. The Church 21 process certainly takes commitment and determination but it is utterly worthwhile.
Much has happened in St. Augustine’s in the last 18 months, and there are further development plans afoot. There are more people involved, and I have a key team to whom I can relate. The burden of work is shared. Church 21 started us down a demanding but very rewarding road with no end in sight, but for me it was a no-brainer – our parish had to develop or die. My hopes are rising that it will do the former.
Posted by John Ryan on 10 Dec 08
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