| End the Week with CME - April 24, 2009 | 24th Apr 2009 | Download | Email to a Friend |
Welcome to End the Week with CME! This weekly email is sent automatically to Clergy and Readers in the diocese (if you don't want to receive it, please send an email to CovEW-unsubscribe@lists.covlec.org) but anyone is welcome to subscribe to the list, and we are especially keen to pass it on to any interested lay people, especially those who may have responsibility for preaching. To subscribe they simply need to email CovEW-subscribe@lists.covlec.org.
Diocesan CME Events Coming Up
May 18, 2009 - The Meaning of Mark
A Bible Reflection evening with Paula Gooder and Richard Cooke. Monday 18 May at Red Hill Christian Centre, 10am-3pm (limited places available) with an abbreviated repeat from 7.30-9.30pm. Cost: £15 (including tea/coffee and cakes). Grants of half the cost are available for clergy and Readers. Book through cme@covcofe.org.
June 18, 2009 - Under the Wings of Refuge - Exploring the book of Ruth
A Ministry Reflection Day with David Runcorn, Thursday 18 June at Offa House, 10am-3pm with an abbreviated repeat from 7.30-9.30pm. Cost: £30 (including lunch) for the daytime course, £12.50 (including coffee and cakes) for the evening. Grants of half the cost are available for clergy and Readers. Book through cme@covcofe.org.
September 22, 2009 - Spanish Mystics
A Spirituality Reflection Day with Ruth Tuschling, Tuesday 22 September at Offa House, 10am-3pm with an abbreviated repeat from 7.30-9.30pm. Cost: £30 (including lunch) for the daytime course, £12.50 (including coffee and cakes) for the evening. Grants of half the cost are available for clergy and Readers. Book through cme@covcofe.org.
Other Events Coming Up
Reader AGM and Conference
A reminder for Readers that you can claim from your yearly CME Discretionary Grant (£120) for up to half of the cost of the conference. A grant application form can be downloaded at http://www.coventry.anglican.org/ministry/learning/grants/.
DBE Courses
The Diocesan Board of Education (DBE) runs a number of courses which will be useful for clergy colleagues, and also for teachers and governors in your congregations. Do pass the relevant information onto those concerned, and maybe suggest that you attend the courses together. Clergy are charged at CME rates. More details can be found on the Diocesan website at http://www.covdioc.org.uk/courses%20and%20conferences.htm.
Booking is through Joanne Evans at the DBE via joanne.evans@covcofe.org
06/05/09 4.00-5.30pm Berkswell CofE Primary School, Church Lane, Berkswell Coventry CV7 7BJ
Introducing “Bible Explorer”
19/05/09 9.30am-3.30pm Nettle Hill Training and Conference Centre, Brinklow Road, Ansty, Coventry CV7 9JL
Face to Face and Side by Side. Church schools as agents for Community Cohesion
03/06/09 9.30am-1.00pm Foleshill CofE Primary School, Old Church Road, Coventry CV6 7ED
Raising Your Game – Moving your school from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’
04/06/09 4-6pm Wilmcote CofE Primary School, Church Road, Wilmcote, Stratford upon Avon CV37 9XD
10/06/09 4-6pm Queens CofE Primary School, Bentley Road, Nuneaton CV11 5LR
Gospel Workshop – come and experience being part of a Choir!
18/06/09 9.30am-3.30pm Red Hill Christian Centre, Snitterfield, Stratford upon Avon CV37 0PQ
Space for Worship – Creating and using areas for worship, outside in the school grounds and inside the classroom
St John's Extension Studies - Summer Conferences 2009
13–17 July ‘The Quirkier Side of the OT’
Explore books like Ecclesiastes, Jonah and Ruth with Dr Doug Ingram and get a feel for the range of Old Testament material and the implications for spirituality, particularly in a postmodern society.
17–19 July ‘Myers Briggs’ Weekend
Gain better insight into yourself and others, and explore the links between the MBTI, leadership and spirituality. Led by Denise Owen, qualified MBTI practitioner. Price includes on-line testing.
20–24 July ‘The Sermon on the Mount’
Read Matthew chapters 5 to 7 in Greek with Dr Mark Bredin & Mrs Sheila Butcher. A chance to develop your translation skills for anyone who know a little Greek and wants to read the Bible more!
27–31 July ‘Christians in the Workplace’
Think about how to live out your Christian faith through your ‘secular’ occupation (paid employment, homemaking or voluntary work). Led by Rev Alison Maddocks, City Centre Chaplain.
Monday-Friday £250, weekends £150. Accommodation in single rooms with broadband access and shared bathroom facilities. All conferences start in the early evening and finish after lunch on the final day.
St John’s Nottingham also offer Vocations weekends (Sept 2009 & April 2010), distance learning courses in theology and part-time counselling training, commencing September 2009. Further details can be obtained from St John’s Extension Studies, Bramcote, Nottingham NG9 3RL. Telephone 0115 925 1117 or email ext.studies@stjohns-nottm.ac.uk. You can visit the website at www.stjohns-nottm.ac.uk
For details of all the events coming up, which have been advertised in recent editions of End the Week, please go to http://www.coventry.anglican.org/ministry/learning/trainingstudy/
Notes on the Gospel Readings for Sunday 3 May (Easter 4)
John 10. 11-18
The Noble Shepherd
What makes a good leader? I’ve been wondering in the last few weeks whether the ‘Leadership’ bubble might have burst. In recent years it has been the theme of the moment, both within and without the Church. Ask people what they wanted, and usually the answer would be ‘leadership’. But the collapse of the global economy and the jolting aftershocks which we are still only just recognising raises a big question-mark over what we have celebrated as success in the last decade or so. It’s one thing to lead in a growing economy, another to do so in a shrinking one. As someone said of Kevin Pietersen, at the successful beginning of his short run as England cricket captain, it’s quite easy to be captain when you’re winning: the hard part is to do it when you’re losing.
So far as there is any consensus in the study of leadership, it seems to me that it clusters around the idea that leadership is contextual – different styles apply to different situations. The trick is to find the right style for the situation you are in. Good leadership is leadership that adapts to context. What makes a football manager who succeeds with one club fail badly with another? Usually it’s down to a change in context and personnel and an unwillingness to do things differently. (The recent film The Damned United about Brian Clough, a fictional study is a fascinating example of this.)
So the study of leadership has tended in recent years to begin to switch from the application of techniques to the recognition that it is the character of the leader which matters most. Someone who is able to listen to others, to build and hold together a team, to take hard but fair decisions, based on a bedrock of integrity and principle, will almost always be a good leader, whatever their circumstances. Those who seek status and short-term profit and arrogantly assume that they’ve done it before and so can easily do it again are much more likely to come unstuck. In a world which is painfully readjusting its idea of what matters and the value of the long-term over the short-term there may be good news for what Christians have discerned over the centuries makes for good leadership.
Questions of leadership, bad and good, lie in the background of John’s gospel and John’s letters (especially the third). In this sense the description of the Good Shepherd (John 10.1-18) presents an ideal of Christian leadership.
We’re used to the phrase ‘Good Shepherd’ but a better translation might be the ‘Noble Shepherd’, because the opposite which is in view is ‘not so much “bad” or “evil” but...”shameful” or “disgraceful”’ (A.T.Lincoln The Gospel According to St John Continuum, 2005, p.296). In this sense bad leaders feather their own nest at the expense of those they lead – as in fact Ezekiel 34.1-7 accuses the leaders of Israel of doing. Their behaviour is not evil as such, but on a lesser scale it is disgraceful shameful and deeply disappointing. They are simply not up to the job to which God has called them.
The Good Shepherd is up to the job, and his nobility comes not out of some innate moral quality but out of his ability to dwell within the call God has given him. In other words, from the quality of his obedience. This is important, because we tend to think of leaders being the ones out in front, but the shepherd imagery helps us to recognise that part of true leadership is recognizing and following a higher power. Shepherds are stewards not owners of their flocks. The ‘hired hand’ (v.13) is just a time-server who has not recognised the responsibility of the position.
The Good Shepherd knows his own sheep intimately (v.14). He cares for them to the extent of laying down his life for them (v.15). Again, this quality of leadership comes from his own relationship with the Father (v.15).
Shepherding in ancient Israel was not an easy job. It was a dangerous and physically demanding calling. It involved brave decisions about where to take the flock to pasture, intimate knowledge of the flock and their needs and capacities, and an eye for long-term security over short-term gain. As such the nobility of character required meant accepting these responsibilities of leadership.
Are the same qualities required today in political, business and church leadership? And if they are, how do we encourage their development in ourselves and others? What makes a good leader?
And Finally...
Once upon a time there was a shepherd tending his sheep at the edge of a country road. A brand new Range Rover drove up and a well-dressed young man got out and asked the shepherd: “If I guess how many sheep you have, will you give me one of them?”
The shepherd looked at the young man, then looked at the sprawling field of sheep and said: “Okay.”
The young man connected his notebook and wireless modem, scanned the ground using his GPS, opened a database and 60 Excel tables filled with algorithms, then printed a report on his high tech mini printer. He then turned to the shepherd and said: “You have exactly 1,586 sheep here.”
The shepherd answered: “That’s correct, you can have the sheep of your choice.”
The young man took one of the animals and put it in the back of his Range Rover.
The shepherd looked at him and asked: “Now, if I guess your profession, will you pay me back in kind?”
The young man answered: “Fine.”
The shepherd said: “You are a consultant.”
“Exactly! How did you know?” asked the young man.
Very simple, answered the shepherd. “First, you came here without being called. Second, you charged me a fee to tell me something I already knew. Third, you do not understand anything about my business and I’d really like to have my dog back.”
That's all, folks!
Richard
Richard Cooke
Coventry CME
Richard.Cooke@CovCofE.org