Over the last couple of weeks I’ve read two recently
published books from the SCM stable. Living in the Gaze of God by Helen D.
Cameron and Missional Conversations edited by Cathy Ross and Colin Smith.
At first glance these two books are very different and unconnected.
Yet, I want to argue that there is a connection between both and they each have
a place to play in vocational exploration as well as the development of good
practice.
In Living in the Gaze of God Helen D. Cameron begins by
talking about growth and how it is nurtured. She suggests the book relates to
both ordained and lay ministry. However, there is a clear bias in most of the
book towards talking about ordained ministry and using this to underline her
view that this is a covenant relationship not an employment status. I have to
be clear that I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive and disagree with
her (and the Methodist Church) position on this matter.
The core argument of the book, summed up in the final
chapter, relates to ministers needing appropriate supervision and why this is
important. I agree with her 100% on this key issue and believe strongly that it
should be mandatory for all in positions of leadership within the church, lay
and ordained, paid and unpaid. The lessons of the past must be learned and
whilst we should not put straight jackets on ministers we should ensure that they
have wise sounding boards and advice.
For me the book was useful in understanding something of my
husband’s call and experience. There is something fundamentally different
between the sacramental vocation of my husband and my missional one, yet we
both have callings which will be played out in the contexts where the church
sends him. Reading this book helped me to understand for the first time that
being a minister’s partner is in itself a vocation, not a term to distance
myself from. Before anybody starts to worry I am about to embark on a stereotypical
role I am clearly not suited to, let me explain. The marriage relationship is a
covenantal one, as is his with the church (assuming all goes well and he is
ordained into full Connexion in the summer). Whilst I am not in direct covenantal
relationship with the church my covenantal relationship with my husband means when
God calls him to a new context he also calls me. Whilst I may be called, as a
lay person, to a time specific role/ or roles in that local context it is still
God, through covenantal relationship who has placed me there. I have the flexibility
of being able to explore a range of missional lay ministry opportunities
because I am not being stationed directly by church into a direct context. As I
look at the church struggle to appropriately station married couples who are
both in ordained ministry I realise this freedom is a gift not the problem I
have thought it in the past.
Yet, whether lay or ordained and employed or not we are
both called to be attentive to the Gaze of God (as talked about in chapter 3 )
and ourselves and to the self and the other (which is the theme of chapter 4).
These chapters are useful for those seeking to engage in vocational exploration
and explore relationships, boundaries and risk taking. They also bring in the
importance of knowing your context(s).
These chapters are ones which resonated most strongly and
which I think bridge with Missional Conversations. This second book has the sub
title: A Dialogue between Theory and Praxis in World Mission. It pairs up
chapters in conversation and then gives questions for further discussion. Thus
it could be used by students in seminar situations or small groups looking to discuss
these issues.
The format generally works well, apart from a couple of
chapters where the academic theory sits awkwardly with the praxis. I don’t know
if it works better where the authors are familiar with working together or if
it is to do with what the prime academic fields of the writers are.
At the end of the book there is a deviation when you get
Jonny Baker and Ric Stott having an actual conversation with each other before
Ian Adams concludes. Within this they do talk, in a different language, about some
of the things Cameron does. Here the idea is put forward of a supervisor who is
also a buffer between the pioneer and the hierarchy of the institution. Again I
think the Baker and Stott chapter is a really good read for people exploring
vocation. Not for the first time I was struck by Baker talking about Grayson Perry’s
Hobbit and Punk characters and the way that we need to embrace both in
ministry. I also loved Ric talking about wandering about with the purpose of
just exploring and then knowing you’ve found the right thing, place or
opportunity when you see it. Again I think, whilst challenging, and sometimes
leading down the wrong paths, this is the freedom that most ordained ministers (Ric
being an exception) lack as they are placed in more traditional appointments
with a diary full of meetings and expectations cast upon them. Again I realise
my lay calling into a series of missional and/ or pioneering ministries (which
may take different forms) tends to give a freedom that others don’t get in
this.
Another particularly strong pair of essays were Kyama Mugambi’s
Audacity, Intentionality and Hope in the Churches of the Global South and Harvey
Kwiyani’s Mission in the Global South. This pair looking at Southern Mission
Movements were striking because they appeared to be coming from a black
theological perspective and traced the history of the change of missionary activity
over the last century. These chapters would be well paired reading with The
Desecularisation of the City, which I have reviewed on here previously.
Whilst I would recommend both books to practitioners and
those exploring vocation, I would say missional conversations is the less niche
of the two books. I’d recommend this to small groups who had the time to read
something meaty in preparation and who wanted to explore either modern apologetics
(ethics) or mission because it touches on both.
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