Birmingham Methodist District Mission Priorities
Report for Synod, April 2008

In September 2007, Synod members were asked 'What should be the District's main priority for mission as we plan and allocate resources of people and finance?'
The Mission Priorities identified at Synod were then presented to the District Policy Committee, the Superintendents' meeting and the Circuit Stewards' meeting, each of whom did a ranking exercise. The results of this were presented to the District Policy Committee in March. The paper is available on request from the District Office.
This report is written for Synod on behalf of the DPC. It records the key priorities identified by this consultation process, outlines District responses, and proposes some specific actions.

What are key mission priorities for the work and resources of the District?
Eight key priorities were identified. The overarching mission priority is

1. To facilitate local mission or community outreach in fulfilment of local (church, circuit, community) mission

priorities. No group saw the District to have a mission role or objective apart from this. The words 'enable', 'resource', 'support', 'encourage', 'energise', 'nurture' and 'facilitate' were often used.
           

Three particular mission opportunities were highlighted as priorities:
          

2. Supporting, enabling, resourcing, inspiring, funding local examples of
Fresh Expressions of church.
       

3. Engaging with children and young people. The groups recognised this will involve going outside existing church places and wanted help to do so.
              

4. Places of extreme need, on the edge, work and projects that would be difficult to sustain without outside resources

        
The other four priorities are primarily about resourcing mission:
        

5. Providing training to build confidence and develop skills, including evangelism, sharing faith and talking of God, and also training trainers.
        

6. Providing property/finance/employment expertise - pooling resources and offering expert help and support including for lay employment.
           

7. Providing expertise to facilitate or enable churches and circuits to undertake evaluation and reviews of work with a view to developing that work recognising limited resources
            

8. Communication and networking, particularly to exchange skills and experience

In addition to these, other priorities included:

Setting out a prophetic challenge in our lifestyle; sharing ways to respond to climate change; involvement with Hope08; help with developing local ecumenical work, particularly in villages; support for chaplaincy. Interfaith work and rural issues have also been discussed by the Policy Committee.

How is the District responding to these priorities?
*   Funding a full-time District Evangelism Enabler (Priorities 1, 2, 5)
*   Matching Connexional funding to employ a full-time District Development Enabler from September (1, 7, 8)
*   Supporting the work of a half-time Training Officer within the newly formed Midlands Regional Training

    forum (Connexionally funded) from September (1, 3, 5)

*  Offering professional expertise in property, finance and employment through the work of District officers and

    committees (6)

*   Using a range of communication methods - mailings, email, leaflets, website, synods, leadership meetings (8)

What additional actions now need to be taken to complement what is already being done?
         

1. Invite a group of people with appropriate expertise and experience from across the District to explore how we can engage with children and young people, and how the District can best resource this (3)
         

2. Develop a clear District Grants Policy which will reflect these mission priorities (4, 6)
        

3. As our District Lay Employment Secretary, David Mills, whose advice and guidance has been so essential, is standing down, identify an appropriate successor for this role as soon as possible (6)
          

4. Ask the incoming District Development Enabler to initiate a review of the effectiveness of the existing channels of communication in the District (8)
     

5. Develop appropriate ways of working to ensure effective team-working among the District Staff (1-8)

Synod is asked to
     

1. Approve the eight mission priorities for the work and resources of the District
        

2. Approve the five action points for immediate implementation

Charles Worth and Helen Woodall, on behalf of the District Policy Committee