30/01/2020
written by Rt Rev Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester
Our big learning in Leicester over the past couple of years has been about succession planning. In the early years, we saw a good number of fresh expressions of church birthed but then die at a young age. It was only as we gathered the statistics that we realised the size of the problem, and then as we reflected on the statistics, we realised the issue was leadership – or more particularly, pioneers who wanted to go on pioneering and when they moved on, there was no leadership to sustain the fresh expression.
So we asked our Pioneer Development Workers to help our pioneers start succession planning from day one. The work of discerning the ‘pioneer settlers’ has to start early because it often takes time to affirm them and train them in this specific calling. They often start out thinking they should be like the pioneer who founded their fresh expression, and it takes time to grow the confidence to say, ‘I have different gifts, and that’s what our church needs at this time.’
As a diocese, we’re learning how to cherish all our pioneers with all the variety of their skills and experience. It’s so easy to find our eye drawn to the creative and the innovative and overlook the steady pastoral work needed to sustain a community over the long-term.
