Mission Resourcing: A Reflection

I suppose the important word in the mandate statement is “contemporary”. I’m so delighted to see this word on the Mission Resourcing mandate because it’s so important for the wider Connexion to realize that the staff of Mission Resourcing have carried out their responsibilities of resourcing parishes, synods, and leaders in connection with our “contemporary context”. Our contemporary context reminds the Connexion that we are a very diverse church in terms of culture, theology, style of worship, language, ethnicity, etc. Therefore, we shape and align the way of resourcing the Connexion with the understanding of this context. There is no one way of resourcing the Connexion, but are multiple ways to do so that fit with our contemporary context. Mission Resourcing staff carried out their work in the light of this understanding. I would like to highlight four important components of our work that we have done in previous years to resource our church for contemporary mission and ministry.

One of the issues that is so paramount in our church agenda in our contemporary context is climate change. We passed in our Conference 2022 a decision to have a vision on the Decade of Climate Justice, “Rekindle the Vā of Papatūānuku”. Mission Resourcing responds actively to this important current issue by involvement through one of its Directors participating as the chairperson of the Climate Justice Working Group. Through his engagement Mission Resourcing is taking part in resourcing the wider Connexion in the matter of the climate crisis. There are two written resources that are going to assist synods, parishes, leaders on this important issue, which are the book on Rekindle the Vā of Papatuanuku and the Climate Justice Calendar 2024.

Leadership is always a prominent matter that our church is carefully dealing with to ensure that we have the right people to resource synods and parishes. Mission Resourcing and its staff has engaged diligently in our processes of candidacy and stationing to make sure that we have quality leaders who have gifts and skills to resource our church. This year we started a new programme, which was passed at the Conference 2022 that is known as the Year of Discernment (YoD). This new programme is not designed to replace the candidating process but a prerequisite for those who feel a sense of call to serve in our church. The whole purpose of the programme is not only to assist the participants to identify their sense of call but also to expose them to the reality of the contemporary context of our church in terms of culture, theology, worship, decision making, structure, etc.

Because we are so diverse, the staff of Mission Resourcing have made the effort in the last three years to have a roadshow around the synods. The are two main purposes for this engagement. Firstly, to inform synods and parishes about the works of Mission Resourcing. It’s important for synods and parishes to understand the breadth of Mission Resourcing responsibilities. But, secondly, to consult with synods and parishes of how to resource their people effectively. We believe that there are resourceful people around synods and parishes who have developed resources that can be utilized for the benefit of the whole Connexion. Most recently, Mission Resourcing had a meeting with two representatives from the Methodist Lay Preachers Association to find a way of resourcing lay preachers and worship leaders. Mission Resourcing is happy to continue on this conversation because local people know best their contexts and the type resources that meet those contexts.

Finally, is our engagement with the children and young people of our church. Through Michael Lemanu as Tauiwi Co-ordinator for Children, Young people, and Family ministries, we have reached out through many ways to resource the church. Michael has been responsible to organize Youth Conferences, Youth Rallies, Youth services (online and face to face), workshops on human sexuality and suicide prevention, just to name a few. As well as this important work, we are hopeful that the church will continue to work towards honoring the decisions of Conference made at Conference 2022 around long-term funding of this work and will continue to work towards to holding the Conference accountable to ensuring this happens. Michael is going to finish from this role this year and he is moving into parish ministry next year. I would like to acknowledge the tremendous works that Michael has done in the last eight years for the children and young people of our church. We wish him all the best and God’s blessing in the next chapter of his ministry.