Self Supporting Ministers

Gaynor

My name is Gaynor and I am a wife, a mother to three grown-up children, a grandmother, nurse. and since last June a Self-Supporting Ordained Minister (SSM) in Thurstaston and Irby on the Wirral.

As a child I felt a strong call to caring for others and I have been a qualified nurse for forty years working in various settings including busy medical wards, end of life care and accident and emergency. I currently work in a busy fracture and orthopaedic unit caring for those with acute injuries and long-term orthopaedic conditions. I love my job working alongside a great team of nurses and doctors and I love meeting patients and caring for their needs.

Alongside caring for others I have always had a passion for evangelism and volunteering at my local church. In 2007 I felt called to ministry within the church and became a pastoral worker in 2009. In 2020 I felt God calling me to ordained ministry but also still felt very committed to my calling to be a nurse.  Becoming an SSM allows me to continue as a nurse and still follow my calling to ordained ministry.

I feel God is using me in both roles and they complement each other. My years as a nurse have given me skills and experiences which help equip me for ministry and since I have become ordained I have had many opportunities to chat to my colleagues about my faith and ministry.

Tony

I am part of a ministry team in rural Suffolk, with pastoral responsibility for four small village communities.  I am also a consultant historic buildings specialist, a conservation accredited chartered building surveyor, and a bit of an artist. 

I trained as a reader when I was young, and was ordained priest in 2003. I trained on the Cambridge based EAMTC, and also achieved a Masters degree in pastoral theology.

Self supporting ministry is a vital link between the church and the world beyond. I cherish the ability to work within the church to bring about much needed change and to engage with the community in ways which an incumbent might find difficult. I am also passionate about the role of buildings in mission, and work with parishes, deaneries and dioceses in trying to solve building issues.

Lisa

Lisa is a doctor and a self supporting minister: "A typical working week involves dealing with difficult medical situations, decisions about how best to use resources and employ people’s skill, helping to shape and train new doctors, working collaboratively with nurses and other professionals and helping others develop their skills.  My service in the church is different but it is still collaborative – helping to lead worship, preaching, administering the sacraments. I often feel that my life has given me an insight into the real pressures many Christians face in the workplace and so helps to shape the messages that I draw from scripture.

Weekends generally finds me spending some time in ministry, primarily on Sunday – that might be preaching, taking a service by myself or co leading All Age Worship.

Training for the ministry was a juggling act – at the time my children were at junior and high school – but achievable due to sessions based a the evening and weekends. Looking back, some of the residentials were transformative times and if there is one thing I would change, I would take up the opportunity to spend more time resident

If you are thinking about ministry my advice is go and have a chat with your minister or a licensed lay leader. Find out as much as you can. Our church vitally needs people from all walks of life in Ministry, who can make Christianity relevant to everyone.

Julie

Being an ordained minister in secular employment requires surrendering my own agenda in order to be enfolded and invested further into God’s agenda. Whilst the cost of such is high, the blessings remain greater!

Rather than being called out of the life I was living, I believe I’ve been called deeper, to inhabit life more faithfully for God’s glory. Like mine, any ordained life is lived out in response to an invitation centred on Christ. Yet unlike other ordained ministries, mine was not a call focused on inviting others to come to the church. Rather a self-supporting ministry, carrying the essence of the gospel out into the workplace.

My workplace is a school where I’d been employed for several years, prior to my licensing as Reader and later ordination - a primary school, in the parish where I live and worship, led by people who fully supported me becoming a minister in secular employment. I’m in good company as Jesus, Paul, Lydia and many others faithfully ministered from their workplace too. Despite being less familiar, it’s soundly biblical.

Through my employed role as a teaching assistant, bonds between church and school prayerfully continue to strengthen. I’m thankful to share in such a ministry; one which incorporates pastoral care, teaching, reconciliation and a bountiful supply of joy, peace and hope. It’s a ministry characterised by genuine care and compassion, through which God’s glory is glimpsed in new and exciting ways.

Rebecca

Recently I have been asked, “when do you plan to become a ‘proper’ vicar?” This maybe because the Vicar in my parish has retired and I’m holding the reigns in the vacancy, with a fantastic and supportive PCC. So many questions from the community nearly had me convinced this was the voice of God and these were his nudges.

But then I stopped, and asked what is my calling?

Part of my calling is to my community and my church - to be a blessing to them, support them and to use my skillset to further the work of the church. While in vacancy this is a lot of parish priest work, this is just for a season and will soon return to a supportive and missional work. This part of my calling is vital as it gives stability to the church and grounds me in a loving and supportive family, letting me use my entrepreneurial gifts to try new things and see where God wants to take the church.

I believe I am also called to be a Priest in my local business community. As a lawyer, I go to business network meetings with non-churchgoers. While my registration for the meeting is as a lawyer, I regularly bring my faith in. The members are always respectful with the odd holy joke or the need for confession comment. If there is a death of a family member, I’m told because they know I’ll step in and support. I’m asked for prayer regularly and even asked to do the wedding of one member because, in his words, “you’re our vicar”. He doesn’t live near me; he’s never been to church but by being present in this community they see me as their ‘vicar’. I’ve never said this or offered this. Will I start a Bible group for this community? Will I run a Alpha Group for them? Probably not but I do invite them to special events and I sow the seeds slowly but surely. So, I might not fit the vicar role in a parish but I am called to be a Priest in the workplace and in the business community where God called me to be.