Help with Design and Facilitation
A Mutual Ministry Agreement or Review is a process by which a congregation and its Rector or Vicar discern or assess the mutual work they have done in ministry together and set concrete goals for future mutual work. Our Bishop requests that this process be conducted annually within all congregations in the Diocese of Olympia, beginning soon after a priest is called to a congregation. There are a number of ways a Mutual Ministry process can be conducted, and a CCN consultant can help you discern which path is the best fit for your particular congregation, leadership, and Rector or Vicar. The process can include parish wide data gathering and take place over several weeks or it can be done in an afternoon with just the priest and key leadership present. The Mutual Ministry Agreement or Review that is best for you is depends on the particular circumstances of your congregation! However you conduct your MMA or MMR, however, it is a good idea to have a consultant on board to help with design and facilitation so that all parties can be fully present to the mutual discernment work involved.
Here are some examples of how a Mutual Ministry Process can be done:
- A few months after a new Rector is called, at a half-day meeting with Vestry and Rector with a focus on establishing mutual expectations and generating three to five concrete goals for the mutual work of Rector and Vestry over the next year.
- A parish-wide data collection process focused on the congregation’s sense of identity and corporate purpose that is then workshopped by a leadership team that includes Rector, Vestry and other key lay leadership in order to discern a direction and concrete goals for mutual ministry work over the next year.
- Two 2 hour meetings with a Bishop’s Committee and Vicar: one meeting to look back at the past year and assess what happened with the prior year’s MMA goals, to celebrate success and analyze what did not happen, and a second meeting a month later after prayerful discernment on all parts to brainstorm and prioritize new Mutual Ministry goals for the year to come.
However you choose to approach Mutual Ministry Agreements and Reviews in your congregation, we’re here to help the process be productive and life giving!