View from the pulpit

The Rev Peter Johnston reflects on the journey to team ministry at Devana Parish Church in Aberdeen.

DISTANCE, folks say, helps bring some perspective.

A recent visit to the imposing Palace of Minos in Knossos, Crete was a vivid reminder that change is all around us. In its heyday it must have felt that this huge building would be forever a thriving hub of religion, commerce, entertainment, and leadership. But after earthquakes and fire damage it was abandoned over three millennia ago, literally buried beneath the earth. The community memory residing in Greek myths of King Minos, Daedalus, Theseus, the Minotaur and a ball of string…

It is natural amidst the flux within the Kirk (and beyond) to feel like something extraordinary is happening. A little perspective reminds us that it has ever been thus. Moments of stability are perhaps more remarkable for breaking up the inevitability of change and movement. When coping with rapid changes around us it can be challenging to keep this positive perspective, but I find it helpful.

At Pentecost 2023 the congregation of which I was parish minister, Ferryhill in Aberdeen, united with two other congregations, South Holburn and St Mark’s. Our new congregation is Devana Parish Church, utilising the old Roman name for the area, and is served by a team ministry. After many years of talking about team ministry it is now a reality. Our team comprises two ministers and currently a mission development worker.

We are at an early stage and still finding our feet on this new journey. What gives us an advantage is that the Rev David Stewart, my fellow team minister, and I have known each other for all of our ministries, being in the same cohort of probationers. Prior to the union we had already been working together on various aspects of ministry. While our faith journeys have been different, there is a mutual understanding of where we are at personally and a trust in each other. In our regular meetings together along with the practical matters of co-ordinating and planning, we have been spending time reflecting on how we work as a team. Inevitably, how we model good team working will spill over into the new teams within the congregation.

I feel blessed in my ministry to have been part of wonderful teams in both of the parishes I have served, some that grew naturally and now one formalised in church law.

While there are inevitable differences between members of a team ministry, part of the joy of a team is exploring our aptitudes and gifts, and finding ways through which we can deploy these to benefit the whole ministry while letting one another flourish. To do so means ensuring that there is agreement on the overall mission priorities. Getting to that point requires work. It needs good communication with each other and an honesty when we start to feel uncomfortable about a possible decision. A question that has been in my mind for the rest of the Kirk as we increasingly consider team ministry for the future, is what we can learn from what one might call ‘natural’ teams and teams that are ‘artificially’ created to meet, for instance, the needs of a Presbytery Mission Plan. How do we nurture them and learn from them across the Kirk, and when change inevitably comes, how are congregations equipped to consider the team in their call?