Ordained Pioneer Ministers

Ordained Pioneer Ministers are people who are identified, trained and deployed to pioneer new initiatives and fresh expressions of church. The report Mission-Shaped Church, published in 2003, recommends that the initial training of all ministers should include a focus on cross-cultural evangelism, church planting and fresh expressions of church. (Recommendation 10). However it also recommends that Ordained Pioneer Ministry should be a particular focus within the one ordained ministry. OPM is designed for gifted individuals, many of them young adults, who are clear that their vocation is to serve and guide the whole church in developing fresh expressions of church life. Such candidates should either already have a proven record of effective pioneer ministry or the obvious potential to do so.

Requirements

• Particular experience and a strong track record in pioneering ministry
• Gifts in enabling in evangelism and concern for those outside the church
• Appropriate potential as an ordained pioneer minister

Ordained Pioneer Ministers may be stipendiary, non-stipendiary/self-supporting or OLM.

As pioneers they should be prepared to be flexible in their future ministry. Some may spend their whole ministry as a pioneer, for others it will be part of their ministry. Pioneer ministers ‘may well need to alternate between periods of stipendiary and self-supporting ministry throughout their working life’. For this reason candidates are advised to own their own home where possible and may be offered a housing allowance. Others may have housing provided by the diocese.

NSM/self-supporting candidates will normally be engaged already in pioneering ministry and will normally be ordained in their present context under supervision. 

Training

Training for Ordained Pioneer Ministers may be on a traditional ministerial course or college but with additional emphases covered through the learning programme and the placement. This may, in some cases, lengthen the time of training.  Alternatively OPM may train through mixed mode which is particularly appropriate as a result of the action-reflection methodology of the mixed mode approach.

As far as content is concerned,  OPM will cover the same subject areas as their more usual counterparts but will also be given specialist training in missiology including inculturation and cross cultural mission and ecclesiology.

Supervision during the first post is recommended to involve two supervisors, an established pioneer offering support and mentoring in this aspect of ministry and the training incumbent who will oversee other aspects of ministerial formation.