A New Mission Chapter for CommunityDan

Last week, I shared the picture below on my social media as a bit of a tease to something new that was brewing. Well it's time to tell you more!

I asked if people recognised where this was, and can tell you now that this is at the Eastern side of the Fair City of Perth, looking at the lovely River Tay with Moncreiffe Island in the centre of the photo. More specifically, it is the view from the office of the Presbytery of Perth for the Church of Scotland.

So why was I there? Quite simply, I've been successful in securing a part time employed role with the Church of Scotland, to be the Presbytery of Perth Mission Plan Implementation Officer. To explain slightly, a Presbytery is a region (diocese, division, etc) providing overseeing support for parishes of the Church of Scotland. Effectively, Presbytery is the gathered life of the Church of Scotland across a region. It brings together ministers, elders and church leaders from local congregations, chaplaincies and other ministries to support and guide the life of the Church. A few years ago, Presbytery's were made larger to reduce the number of them, and Perth is an amalgam of the legacy Presbytery's of Perth, Dundee, Angus, Stirling and Dunkeld & Meigle. This brought together various plans, types of support, and a collective vision to attempt to enhance the missional possibilities across the area. There are 103 congregations within the Presbytery and the staffing allocation for Ministers of Word and Sacrament and Ministries Development Staff is 78fte.

Many of the client churches I've worked with over the last few years have been going through the implications of the Presbytery Mission Plan in their area. For some this has meant the difficult choice to close buildings. For most it has been a joining of congregations, leadership, worship styles, and other similar things. For some, it has meant trying to understand the needs of a larger community. For all, it has meant some kind of change.

So from tomorrow (1 July), half of my week will be spent supporting various Parishes in a range of different ways, to help them navigate the proposed changes and see how this could open up new way of serving their communities and bringing more glory to God through it all.

Last week, I attended the Presbytery meeting to be introduced to the gathered crowd and to meet key people ahead of my formal start in the role. The meeting was held at St Matthew's Church, on the banks of the Tay in the centre of Perth.

It was helpful to understand the processes involved in these meetings, and how that connects with the areas I'm more aware of at ground level. Joining the dots will be a big part of the role, and I feel I will spend a lot of time listening, as well as helping people move forwards.

This is a very exciting opportunity for me to be at the heart of many new parishes, and as I have already been doing through CommunityDan, to be walking alongside people to help them be released into new way of doing ministry and outreach.

As I said, this will take up half my week, and for the other half, I continue to work with other clients either directly or through support provided by Community Enterprise, although not within the Presbytery of Perth boundary for obvious reasons. It will bring a bit of stability to my income as this is an employed role, while not detracting from what I do and why I do this.

So watch this space! There's lots to be getting on with.