Minister’s Monthly Message

BARTON ON SEA

METHODIST CHURCH

Dear Friends,

Recently in a Circuit Leadership Team meeting, a comment was made about the need to explain to the ordinary people in the pews more about how circuits work and how they are financed. My initial response was that I have been trying to do this from time to time, but on reflection perhaps I need to “try harder”.

 

I hope that readers of this newsletter realise that Barton Methodist Church is part of a group of Churches called the Christchurch and Lymington Circuit which is made up of 7 churches, as listed on the quarterly circuit preaching plan. Although these churches often look upon the minister with pastoral charge as “their own minister” this is in fact not quite correct. Ministers are appointed by the Methodist Conference (the national governing body) and invited by the circuit to work in the circuit. Normally these ministers have particular pastoral responsibility delegated to them by the Superintendent Minister, who retains certain legal responsibilities for the whole circuit and is empowered to change the deployment of ministers within the circuit if necessary. Normally careful consultation would precede such a move.

 

Ministers are not only invited by the circuit but are supported by the circuit through the provision of a Manse, a stipend and necessary expenses. To achieve this there is a system of “circuit assessment” by which local churches accept their responsibility as constituent parts of the circuit, and in recognition of this each church sends voting representatives to the Circuit Meeting, which is the governing body of the Circuit. Legally our constitution is quite clear: circuit assessment has the first claim on church finances. Although it is sometimes a contentious issue when the method of apportioning the assessment between churches is discussed, when individuals in local church councils start suggesting that assessment be withheld (as happens very occasionally) this merely serves to illustrate how little the speaker knows about our system. Obviously the Circuit Meeting decides how many ministers are invited to a circuit, and each local church is able to influence this decision and so must accept its part of the responsibility to meet the costs involved, which form the bulk of circuit expenditure.

 

But circuits are much more than this. Our constitution states that they are the primary unit for mission. A brilliant example of how this can work was the recent service of dedication at the new church hall and ancillary rooms at Christchurch Mudeford Lane. This was achieved after a huge amount of prayer and work by the small congregation there, but was made possible also by the generosity not only of the local people and charitable trusts, but also by the vital help given by the Circuit, Methodist District and Connexion (national structure). Highcliffe and Barton churches gave extra help to Mudeford Lane when they faced problems. We did so not out of a sense of duty but out of a sense of Christian solidarity. It is that sense of solidarity that defines Methodist Circuits. Indeed, without it we would be sunk.

 

 

 

Keith C. Beckingham