What is collaborative ministry? How might it be identified and nurtured in a local Anglican parish context?

This thesis presents an account of the exploration of the concept of collaborative ministry in a local Church of England urban parish, undertaken as part of a theological action research project by me as parish rector and researcher. Despite helpful academic writing, widely published on this topic, there still exist more questions than answers for practitioners entrusted with parish leadership at local level.

The research methodology is empirical, qualitative and inductive, investigating church members’ experiences of ministry, received and given, as they participated in a theological action research programme undertaken over four years. The research paradigm is the concept of priesthood of both the ordained and all the baptised. Participants were interviewed about their engagement in a variety of opportunities for ministry within the parish and neighbourhood community alongside personal experiences of ministry both given and received. The complementary properties of the Pastoral Cycle (Green, 2009) and the Reflection Action Cycle (Cameron et al, 2010) were drawn upon, together with ARCH (Rooms and Keifert) to generate participation and reflection as key aspects of the research project. An Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider et al) approach was found to be helpful in framing the gifts afforded by ministry for analysis. The data was analysed in dialogue with appropriate academic theological literature.

This thesis presents an argument that effective ministry is naturally collaborative as revealed by common thematic concepts from transcribed, coded and analysed interviews with participants. A shared understanding of ministry shows it to be reflective and intentional in nature, demanding situational awareness and attentive listening to both God and people. All examples of ministry analysed had in common the thematic concepts of relationships, listening, learning and sacrificial, costly giving. It was seen to be relational, growing from mutual trust, and attentiveness rooted in the Gospel not dependant on the permission of the institutional church.

Analysis of research data shows all examples of ministry analysed to be collaborative and suggests how knowledge of this might be effectively nurtured as part of professional practice of church leadership.