Collaborative Ministry

by David Robertson

It's not often that I find a book that I think other people must read, but this is one of them. David Robertson has written a classic, which explains in very simple and straightforward ways what collaborative ministry is, why it's important and how you might develop it in an ordinary church.

He begins by exploring some of the theory behind collaboration contrasting the classic pyramid approach to leadership with the "Jesus model" which puts Christ at the centre of a circle. He says, "If Jesus is replaced with the minister, then the church is proclaiming, in effect, that Jesus died on the cross but never rose from the dead."

This is one of the finest critiques of current leadership thinking that I have yet seen and challenges the current habit of viewing incumbent clergy as CEOs, leading the church in mission. The minister is one amongst many disciples gathered around the risen Christ, sometimes s/he leads, sometimes s/he follows... This is a view of leadership that emphasises faith, gifts and community.

Having established what he thinks CM is, Robertson then takes us on a journey through Acts, demonstrating how God always act collaboratively. One example of this involved Peter (appropriate for this weekend) who was involved in a collaborative journey with God and Cornelius as the Church opened its doors to the Gentiles...

Robertson also looks at images of priesthood, marriage, temple, body and covenant, demonstrating how our misunderstanding of scripture has tended to warp our concepts of leadership and church.

The final section explores how collaborative ministry might evolve in practice. He takes us through the development of CM in a classic Anglican parish (which can be extrapolated to other contexts). The journey to CM begins when the minister takes the lead (since only the minister has the power to do so). This is followed by a period of learning, moaning, and collaborative leadership - which eventually morphs into true all member collaborative ministry. The end result of the process is usually a minister with more time but less prestige... A lot of this was fairly familiar, but good to see in print.

As I say this is a book that should be read. Every member of the All Saints' Servant Leadership Team should own a copy, and the St Frideswide leadership team, and the Watling Valley Ministry Team, etc, etc...

There is a danger that Collaborative Ministry is just another cheap phrase that is dropped into mission plans without being thought through properly. It can easily be confused with delegation, or shared ministry, but it is more dynamic and more challenging. David Robertson's book sets this out very clearly.

My one criticism of this book is that it doesn't go far enough in thinking about how churches might be structured and ministry developed when there is not one vicar per church. He assumes a fairly traditional inherited model of church - which is backed up by Anglican rules and regs. Unfortunatley we are already moving into an age when this can no longer be assumed, and may infact need to be challenged. How many rural churches have a resident vicar? How should a fresh expression or emerging church model collaborative leadership?

David Robertson has written a really super book which will be invaluable to anyone who really wants to get stuck in to collaborative ministry, but further thought is probably needed if small and emergent communities are to reap the benefits...