Breaking New Ground

Reflections on our recent Conference

At our recent conference Breaking New Ground in Birmingham we enjoyed time together over food, conversations, a brilliant talk by Richard Tiplady and for some of us, zoom breakout rooms. Here’s a summary of the talk from Jonathan who is part of our steering group and at the bottom of this post there’s a chance to listen to the talk if you’ve missed it or would like to listen again.

The keynote speaker, Dr Richard Tiplady, of the Scottish Episcopal Institute, argued that the ministry of the distinctive or vocational deacon can be described by the terms ‘pioneer’ or ‘entrepreneur’. These characterise a ministry which is dynamic and relational, which involves accepting risk and being prepared to fail, but which crucially enables others to play their part in God’s kingdom. In contrast to a manager, whose job it is to make people feel secure, a leader of mission often makes people feel insecure.

He noted how Acts 6-11 charts the many paths which the fledgling church finds itself going down, starting with the appointment of “the Seven diakonoi” to look after the needs of the Greek speaking Jewish widows and Stephen’s speech about how God is at work everywhere in the mission of the church. Moreover, the ministries of Paul and Barnabas suggests that mission might involve “breaking up ground before you can sow the crop” in order to plant new ways of being church. This is in tune with the aspiration of the Church of England to be “simpler, bolder, more hopeful”. In discerning the needs of the church, deacons are best equipped to respond to the needs of the moment. In Acts 8-11, for example, Peter endorses the work of Philip in Samaria (8:14-17) but also gets involved himself, with Cornelius (10:1-48). Entrepreneurial leaders are role-models for mission, whilst creating space for others to flourish. Peter’s speech, in which he appears to lose authority, might suggest that leaders need to be willing to lose authority for the sake of the gospel.
Drawing on his own practical experience in industry, Tiplady pointed out that creativity does not always mean creating something new. Indeed, it was encouraging to hear that new combinations occur through interaction with others (“the space in between”) and that scarcity often drives innovation. The metaphor of bricolage (DIY) describes how resources can be cobbled together in a way that reveals God’s abundance.

One of the purposes of this conference was to raise awareness of what’s going on at “grass-roots” level. A range of distinctive deacons brought to light the rich diversity of ministries, and mostly self-supporting, which deacons exercise. In some way or another, most of them involve building community, whether that be growing a group of “Friday Mums” from the school gate, or offering to share a table in the coffee shop of a busy town centre.

For recent research exploring parallels between the pioneer ministry literature and the selection and training criteria for Vocational/Distinctive Deacons in the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Church of England, see Richard Tiplady, “The Vocational Diaconate as a Vehicle for Pioneer Ministry in the Scottish Episcopal Church, in SEI Journal, Vol 4.4, Winter 2020. (Available at https://sei.scot/resources/sei-journal/).