An assessment of the member-care offered by Urban Expression Glasgow, in comparison to other Agencies and Orders committed to church-planting in western,

deprived, urban contexts.

By: Paul Ede BA Theology Spring Term 2007 Course: M231 Date: 5th March 2007 Tutor: David Miller Word Count: 1,379

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This essay seeks to evaluate the member-care offered by Urban Expression Glasgow (UEG)1 in comparison to two other urban mission agencies: Urban Neighbours Of Hope (UNOH)2 based in Springvale, Australia, and EDEN3 - part of the Message Trust based in Manchester, England. Although their methodologies differ,4 all three organisations are committed to deploying bi-vocational cross-cultural teams into deprived western inner-city contexts, and to seeing indigenous leaders emerge to lead local expressions of church life. All three have arisen since the mid-nineties and draw team members from a broad spectrum of denominational backgrounds. Urban Expression Glasgow is a small agency according to the criteria of the ReMAP survey. ReMAP suggests that small agencies (with less than 25 missionaries) suffer an attrition rate six times higher than the largest mission agencies.5 ReMAPs recommendation is that such agencies actively build constructive partnerships in order to reduce the likelihood of attrition. This particularly applies to pre-field training and orientation programs and joint continuing education programs6 but also administrative tasks. Each of the three agencies in question have implemented such a partnership strategy.7 UEG is less secure than either EDEN or UNOH in regard to partnerships that could release the longer-term financial support essential to a sustainable member-care policy. priority. According to one set of research highlighted by the ReMAP survey, the top four causes of missionary attrition for western cross-cultural workers are: (i) Background issues in cross-cultural contexts, (ii) Unrealistic expectations, (iii) Conflicts in relationships, and (iv) Destructive symptomatic responses (i.e. destructive coping strategies). 8 How does Urban Expression currently seek to address these factors, and is there any room for improvement? Creating such partnerships is therefore a strategic

1 See the Urban Expression Glasgow Strategy Document available online: http://www.urbanexpression.org.uk/files/Strategy_Document.pdf 2 See the Urban Neighbours of Hope Constitution, online: http://www.urbanexpression.org.uk/files/UNOH_Constitution_2004.pdf 3 See Wilson, Matt Called to the Streets, USA, 2005 and online, http://www.message.org.uk 4 UNOH considers itself a mission order, with its rigorous membership requirements, while EDEN is focussed specifically on reaching y 5 ReMAP I survey results (PowerPoint file). Online: http://www.generatingchange.co.uk/html/memc.html 6 ReMAP I survey 7 UEG has partnerships with several local churches, the Church of Scotland and ICC. Its finances are handles by the Baptist Union of Scotland and supplied (at least initially) by the Church of Scotland. 8 Link Care Centres US Agencies Top 4 see ReMAP survey PowerPoint

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(i) Background issues in cross-cultural contexts

This category refers, in part, to attrition caused by the daily experience of cross-cultural life in the field, which affects the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of the missionary. As Marjory Foyle has written, a major cause of culture shock stems from the vast amount that we have to learn about the fables, myths, fairy stories, legendary heroes, and the religious content of the people we serve.9 Such negative effects can be mitigated by provision of on-field orientation and ongoing cultural training: UEG is committed to the provision of such training10, but have not yet begun to implement such a program. Attrition in this area will also be reduced by the implementation of a communal rhythm of life. We see in Jesus and his disciples a highly committed regime of spiritual discipline (Mt. 26:36, Lk. 11:1), which enabled them to sustain their ministry in the midst of all its myriad pressures. Balancing priorities of family, work, rest and sacred space in the midst of incarnational urban mission is not easy. Although Urban Expression has created a monthly liturgy of daily offices that teams can use to structure their daily routine, UEG has no specific policy to help recruits negotiate the issue of time management. UNOH, taking its cue from catholic mission orders, has instigated a clear regime for its members.11 Marge Jones has written that Protestant organisations could do well to emulate Roman Catholic policy, which has strictly limited responsibilities for each missionary and compulsory daily and periodic rest periods for spiritual renewal in their own cultural milieu.12 UNOH restricts bi-vocational work to a maximum of 20 hrs a week, insists on a weekly Sabbath and daily communion, and expects its members to ring-fence a specific amount of time each week to neighbourhood transformation. This ensures that a healthy balance Setting between mission, internal team tasks, and personal and communal spirituality. by the temptation to suppress personal well-being in the face of overwhelming need.

corporate boundaries on individual time can bring peace of mind to the conscience plagued

(ii) Unrealistic expectations

UE Glasgow seeks to address the danger of unrealistic expectations throughout its recruitment process. Recruitment happens mainly through personal relationships and great

Marjory Foyle, Honourably Wounded London, 2001 p72 we will encourage all new team members to embark on induction training using appropriate links with existing courses Urban Expression Glasgow Strategy Document p6 11 Ashley Barker, Collective Witness, South Victoria, 2000 p57 12 Marge Jones, Psychology of Missionary Adjustment, USA, 2000p113
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care is taken to stress the risks involved.13

This contrasts with the faster-paced and

(overly?)-glamourised multi-media recruitment presentations of EDEN, although the sobering content of Matt Wilsons recent book redresses this balance somewhat.14 In light of the severity of Jesus teaching on this matter (Lk. 14:28; Mt. 10:38), good practice would suggest allocating specific time during the enquiry process to enable the applicant to reflect on their expectations and consider the depth of the commitment they are making. Matt Wilson writes that its amazing really, considering the lengthy application process, that any of the teams ever formed at all.15 UNOH requires a three year probationary period before an initiate can be considered a full member of a UNOH Chapter. In light of this, UE Glasgow must beware any temptation to shorten the process of discernment for applicants. Perhaps the best strategy for making sure that applicants formulate correct expectations is to create a short-term mission experience with UE teams. Jesus allowed his disciples to experience ministry alongside him before he sent them off on their own (Mk. 3:14). The ReMAP survey suggests that agencies provide in-house short-term experience as recruitment and screening tool,16 allowing candidates to test their call and experience firsthand what commitment might entail: EDEN runs the Xcelerate evangelist training school, while UNOH has a Mission Exposure Course. It is for the purpose of creating an orientation course of high quality that UEG might do well to build constructive partnerships.

(iii) Conflicts in relationships

Marjory Foyle has emphasised that in practical terms, it has been found better to recruit teams, or to train for working in teams.17 Jesus did not work alone, but instead formed a team around himself (Mt. 11:1). There is scope within UE Glasgow to better prepare the expectations of applicants for team ministry, to analyse more thoroughly the past experiences of team-working during the interview process, and to provide better training in order to increase self-awareness and team-working skills. Sally Folger-Dye has emphasised that: group orientation sessions are valuable for preparing people even before they go into stressful situations.18 Relational tension must be quickly but carefully dealt with. Perhaps UE Glasgow would

benefit from a specific policy on this, such as UNOHs conflict resolution and grievance
we regard ourselves as an anti-hype mission agency that does not promise success or offer inducements to potential recruits. Urban Expression Strategy Document p3 14 Wilson, Called to the Streets p31 15 Wilson, Called to the Streets p41 16 ReMAP survey PowerPoint 17 Foyle, Honourably Wounded p21 18 Sally Folger-Dye, Decreasing fatigue and illness in field work in ODonnel, K and M (eds.) Helping Missionaries Grow, Pasadena, CA, 1988 p375
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procedure, based on Mt. 18:15-20.19 UEGs structure of having team-leaders meet together on a monthly basis for support and training is a pivotal: not only does it facilitate peermentoring for the leaders, but it also provides a forum for receiving wisdom and prayer for specific relational tensions on a team. The provision of quality mentoring support for individuals and teams, reinforced by communal retreat time, is essential to help sustain team-cohesion and resolve conflict. Peter Neilson provides mentoring for team-leaders in UE Glasgow, and his wife Dorothy is a qualified Enneagram trainer. There is an annual retreat weekend for UE Associates and a proposal to provide further UK-wide team-training events each year. UNOH, however, also insists that each individual team commit to two further annual retreats just for themselves.20

(iv) Destructive symptomatic responses (i.e. destructive coping strategies).

Jesus highest commission to Peter was to feed my lambs (Jn. 21:16), and UEG has a responsibility to provide pastoral care for all its team members. The most effective way of preventing attrition through destructive coping strategies is early prevention, alongside regular interviews. At the moment, UEG is committed to providing independent and external pastoral counselling support to individual team members whenever it is required.21 But there is no specific policy on psychological assessment during the interview stages, nor is there specific policy to encourage every team-members to have regular one-on-one assessment interviews. This latter should be the responsibility of the team-leaders, but it would be Furthermore, an helpful for them to receive training as to best practice in this area. desirable.

assessment of mental health (and possibly physical health) during the interview stages is These issues are currently left to the candidate to disclose on the interview questionnaire, but a regime in which candidates are accepted subject to a psychological profile being done by the Edinburgh International Health Centre (EIHC) might be prudent.22 There are a number of areas where Urban Expression Glasgow can increase the quality of its member care. Supporting team-leaders in the provision of orientation programs, mentoring, pastoral care and the setting of team culture seems to be the key issue, but the necessity to make the interview process more rigorous cannot be over-looked.

UNOH Constitution p24 Barker, Collective Witness p57 21 Urban Expression Strategy Document p6 22 Costs are 100 for a half-day interview, which could be met either by the applicant or by UE itself. Online: http://www.eihc.org/
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Bibliography Books and Booklets Barker, Ashley Collective Witness (A theology and praxis for a missionary order), South Victoria, 2000 Folger-Dye, Sally Decreasing fatigue and illness in field work in ODonnel, K and M (eds.) Helping Missionaries Grow, Pasadena, CA, 1988 Foyle, Marjory Honourably Wounded London, 2001 Jones, Marge Psychology of Missionary Adjustment, USA, 2000 Rollinson, Andrew (ed.) Models of Good Practice for the Pastoral Care of Pastors, BUS, 2005 Wilson, Matt Called to the Streets, USA, 2005

Reports Global Connections Short Term Missions Good-practice Guide available at online: http://www.globalconnections.co.uk/

Websites Urban Expression Urban Neighbours of Hope Eden Edinburgh International Health Centre Richard Tiplady Consulting Generating Change (ReMAP) Global Connections http://www.urbanexpression.org.uk http://www.unoh.org/ http://www.message.org.uk http://www.eihc.org/services.htm http://www.tiplady.org.uk/ http://www.generatingchange.co.uk/ http://www.globalconnections.co.uk/

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