In 2002, I moved from being a University Chaplain at the heart of a multi-cultural city to take up a job-share incumbency in three small rural villages on the geographic edge of another Diocese. It soon became apparent that I was under-prepared for the significant changes that awaited me. Some of these arose out of a new context, style of ministry and expectations. Others were to do with trying to job-share and work out roles and identities. It was certainly one of the most demanding ministry transitions that I have lived through. What I could have done with was having Sally Nash’s excellent new book on Stickability in Ministry to hand!
The book encapsulates so much of what St Luke’s as a charity stands for and what we try to offer to the Church. The 12 lessons emerge from the honest lived experience of over 100 ministers who have contributed their learning. This includes Sally’s own lived experience which gives the book a deeply rooted feel. The 12 lessons cover themes to do with our identity in Christ and our spiritual practices, through making wise choices, managing good boundaries to holding fast and knowing how to start and finish well.
I had the chance to talk to Sally about the resonances between her work and that which we are learning as a charity particularly from our community of pastoral supervisors. Five have struck me.
The first comes from the word stickability which Sally chose partly because of her sense that “resilience” places too much of a burden on an individual for their well-being without naming the cultural and structural factors which militate against well-being. The book beautifully holds these responsibilities together in a way that does not duck the rawness of some experiences but seeks not to descend into an easy institutional blame.
The second resonance is with the wider research that has been undertaken within Living Ministry on the reasons why clergy flourish. Sally’s work amplifies the evidence of that research with a particularly helpful focus on what she sees as a primary task of establishing a rhythm of life.
“If you get the Rhythm of life right, patterns of sabbath, holidays and retreats, then stickability follows” Sally Nash
This intentional focus on the scaffolding of your day, your week and your month lies for her at the heart of well-being. I particularly found her comments on building “margins” into each day very helpful by which she means time for the unexpected, time to be available rather than to succumb to the pressure of full diaries. “It is hard to pull back when unhealthy patterns of work are established,” she commented to me.
The third resonance is that Stickability emerges from a Benedictine spirituality of stability. That is to say of holding fast in the ups and downs of life and having a sense of God’s call through those ups and downs. She illustrates this through stories drawn from a wide range of lay and ordained ministry from across the denominations which adds a depth to the work. In particular, chapters on lament and loss and on vulnerabilities explore the times when such stability is harder. We hear stories from our beneficiaries of pastoral supervision offering that space to discern and renew vocational direction.
Fourthly, there is a resonance between the 12 lessons and the safe space which pastoral supervision offers to reflect on ministerial experience. Sally notes that this is especially useful in terms of starting a new role well, learning from habits and mistakes in the past but using those to be hopeful into the future. Our experience at St Luke’s in the offer we are making to clergy beneficiaries is that supervision at transition times is really useful. I eventually worked the value of that out back in 2002 and was grateful for a diocesan led accompaniment in ministry programme which was transformative.
Lastly, this is a book as we celebrate Pentecost that is imbibed with the life of the Holy Spirit. Sally has been asked as to what a 13th lesson might be and her response is “not to quench the work of the Holy Spirit”. Having the space each day to hear what the Spirit is saying is both about recognising what God is doing and going with it but also offers a chance to say “this is what is right for today” and in turn helping to maintain healthy boundaries.
With questions to reflect on dotted throughout the book, I commend it for us as a community to drink from its wells and to be thankful for the gift of a lifetime’s reflection on ministerial practice which it represents.
Blog written by Ian McIntosh, Associate Director of Wellbeing.