Willa M. Goodfellow, Missioner for Ministry Development

What has been happening in the Ministry Development Team Process?

In 2007, the Basic Unit of the Iowa Curriculum was completed.  Curriculum revision is now underway.  Several processes have been developed and tried, including the congregational forums for candidacy and the candidacy interviews with the Commission on Ministry.  The COM has completed an outline of all ordination processes, including the MDT process.  The Standing Committee has interviewed one team for candidacy.  An Ordination Exam for teams is in draft form.  Teams continue their development.  Several teams attended the anti-racism training offered at the Ministries Retreat in the summer.  Teams are working on the various canonically required trainings.   New coaches were trained in November 2007, either to replace retiring coaches or to be prepared for future teams.

What are the current Ministry Development Teams in Iowa doing?

As of November, 2007 there are nine MDT’s in various stages of formation:

The first team at New Song, Coralville are candidates, with three team members identified for priesthood, one administrator, and two general team members.  They are nearing the completion of the forty session basic unit of the curriculum, and will be making their individualized continuing education plans.  Willa Goodfellow and Anne Williams are coaches. 

St. Luke’s, Fort Madison has completed their congregational forums for candidacy, with three identified as priest, two as deacon, and one as administrator.  They are nearing the end of the curriculum, and preparing for their candidacy interviews. Willa Goodfellow and Pat Genereux are coaches.  Bruce Blois retired as coach in October, 2007.

Grace, Decorah is half-way through the curriculum, and doing individualized discernment sessions before beginning the congregational forum process for candidacy.  Ellen Bruckner is coach; Maureen Doherty has resigned as coach; Sean Burke is a priest on the faculty of Luther College and provides theological resourcing.

Calvary, Sioux City approaches the end of the third unit, and will begin preparing for candidacy forums in 2008.  Ernie Caltvedt is their coach.

St. John’s, Glenwood are postulants, also beginning to look at candidacy forums.  Tim Vann will be retiring as coach at the end of 2007.  Charles Kunene will become their coach.

St. Paul’s, Creston has Alan Scarfe and Margaret Weiner as coaches.  St. John’s, Shenandoah has Tim Vann retiring from coaching, with Charles Kunene replacing.  Tim Vann will continue to coach St. Paul’s, Council Bluff.  A second team at New Song, Coralville has begun the first unit, with Willa Goodfellow and John Harper as coaches. These teams are not yet postulants.

Each team studies scripture (reading the bible from cover to cover), the traditions of the Church, and the Book of Common Prayer.  They develop skills in listening, preaching and congregational development.  They cultivate attitudes of servant leadership.  They grow in their identity as baptized members of Christ’s Body and discern their particular gifts and calls to service.

What are these “candidacy forums”?

The candidacy forums are part of how the MDT process interfaces with the canonical process for ordination.  In the national canons, candidacy is a time of formal preparation for the role to be fulfilled by the ordained person.  In the MDT process, people are formed to exercise spiritual leadership within a specific congregation.  The roles are ascertained according to the specific ministries of the congregation.  The MDT in formation leads the congregation through a process designed to clarify the mission of the congregation, the specific ministries required to fulfill that mission, the kinds of leaders required to assist the congregation in carrying out those ministries, and finally, the persons whom the congregation believes to be called to be those leaders.  These forums lead to a confirmation and increased clarity (or not) of the original discernment that called the team, evaluates the current needs of the congregation, and calls a second set of leaders out of the congregation to begin their own formation, in response to the growth or reassessment of the ministry of the congregation since the discerning of the first team.  The forums establish the habit of periodic reassessment of mission, ministry, and leadership needs, so that ministry development does not stop once a priest has been identified and put in place.

Where is this process headed in Iowa?

The first priority for 2008 is the continued communication with the diocese about the nature and progress of this form of ministry.  The first weekend in April is the tentative date for a discussion for leaders of congregations interested to know more about how the concept of teams developed and how the process works in Iowa.

Curriculum revision will continue in 2008, evaluating the current curriculum for its adequacy in addressing the competencies to be expected in teams at the time of commissioning.  The bibliography will be expanded, and evaluation processes examined.

Continuing education is expected of team members after commissioning and ordinations, as it is required in the canons of all the ordained.  In 2007, directors of the MDT process, E-seminary and the Ministries Retreat began to coordinate their programs.  This coordination and corporate curriculum design will continue and develop further in 2008, to meet the variety of formation and education for ministry needs of the diocese.

The congregations pursuing this new structure of ministry are doing so in order to address ministry needs within their congregations and their communities.  Teams will expand their abilities to reach out to other, with the first ordinations under this process taking place in 2008.  One issue to be addressed in the coming year is representation at diocesan convention.  Our current canons, which assume that all ordained persons will have seat, voice and vote at convention, were designed with a different model in place.  The addition of numbers of clergy from teams would disrupt the current balance of lay and ordained, seminary-trained and alternatively-trained, large church and small church.  Various perspectives and proposals for canonical changes are being discussed, in anticipation of a resolution to be presented at the 2008 diocesan convention.

We continue to consult with Living Stones dioceses, including places that are engaged in similar ministry development, some for many years more than Iowa.  We have our own vision and adapt their learnings to our context.  Conversations are taking place in chapters and clergy gatherings about adaptations that may be needed to strengthen and support all the different kinds of congregations within one diocese, those led by rectors or vicars, those led by teams, and those led by wardens.  The Living Stones case study to be presented in 2008 will be on a different pattern, the ministry teams that Christ Church, Cedar Rapids is developing to work in particular areas of ministry, senior and families with young children.