The PCC Member's Essential Guide

By Mark Tanner

This accessible and informative guide sets out in the simplest and most direct terms what being a PCC member entails. Although focused on responsible business, it keeps the focus throughout on mission and Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Church House Publishing
• Release date: Feb 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9780715110959

Mark Tanner

The Revd Mark Tanner is Warden of Cranmer Hall, Durham University. He has been Area Dean of Ripon, Chaplain to 21 Engineer Regiment, and vicar of a church in the red light district of Doncaster. He is a leader in the North and East network for New Wine, and has written various Grove Booklets.

Book preview

The PCC Member’s Essential Guide

A beginner’s guide to hold on to!

Mark Tanner

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Church House Publishing

Church House

Great Smith Street

London SW1P 3AZ

© Mark Tanner 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission, which should be sought from the Copyright Administrator, Church House Publishing, Church House, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Emails: [e-mail]

978 0 7151 10935

Typeset by Regent Typesetting, London

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

1. What is the parish church for?

Space with God 1: Reflective prayer based on Isaiah 40.28–31

2. What is (and isn’t) a PCC?

Space with God 2: Prayers based on expression of faith in Northumbrian Office

3. What does a PCC do?

Space with God 3: Prayer for the parish

4. Who are the key figures on a PCC, and what do they do?

Space with God 4: The morning prayer of Philaret of Moscow

5. Who else will I meet?

Space with God 5: Methodist covenant prayer

6. What other committees or groups are there in the church?

Space with God 6: Prayers for the difficult times

7. How does the PCC fit in to the bigger picture?

Space with God 7: Prayers for ourselves

8. Prayers

Space with God 8: Prayers that I may serve

9. What does a meeting look like?

Space with God 9: Before a meeting

10. A year in the life of a parish church and its Council

Space with God 10: A prayer inspired by the ‘Prayer of a Breton Fisherman’

11. What about annual meetings?

Space with God 11: Deliberate gratitude

12. How should I prepare?

Space with God 12: For wisdom

13. Budgets and reports

Space with God 13: When we don’t understand

14. What if the vicar leaves?

Space with God 14: For times of waiting, longing and hoping

Glossary

Foreword by the Archbishop of York

This is a gem of a book for anyone considering being a member of Parochial Church Council and for those serving on PCCs.

The PCC’s purpose is to serve God’s mission for the world and the ministry of the Church. In this highly practical, light-hearted and down-to-earth handbook, Mark Tanner seeks to encourage all. There is a rich resource of imaginative prayers to cover a wide range of contexts which PCC members are likely to encounter. Topics include what a PCC is (and isn’t), the structure and purpose of PCC meetings and a year in the life of a Parish Church and its council. There is a comprehensive glossary and best-practice strategies.

I hope that churches throughout the country will encourage both new and existing PCC members to use this accessible and engaging handbook.

+Sentamu Eboracensis

Dedication

This book is dedicated with grateful thanks to all those who have served on the PCCs of Holy Trinity Coventry, St Mary’s Upton, St Mary’s Wheatley, and Holy Trinity Ripon. Thank you for your faith, your patience, your humour, your willingness to take risks, your prayers, your partnership, and your willingness to keep turning up.

Keep going: the Lord has not finished with us yet …

Introduction

So you’re going to be serving on the PCC: that is fantastic!

You are part of God’s great mission to this world. That might sound like an exaggeration, but it isn’t. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is always good and loving, and sends people to communicate his love to those who do not know it. Sometimes it will feel like the PCC is just another meeting, but as you serve Christ’s Church you have the greatest responsibility in the world: communicating the amazing good news about a living, loving, involved God today.

You are part of something vital for the health of the Church, the welfare of your community, and the mission of God among us here and now. What you do inside and outside of meetings matters!

This little book is designed to help you, whether this is your first time or you have been on PCCs for years. It contains essential information without blinding you with every technical detail. There are plenty of other sources that deal with all the legal ‘stuff’ and I will point you in the right direction to find out more as we go through.

There are a number of things here that will help you as you read. I have tried to keep the chapters short and the titles clear to make it easy to find the information you need. Websites often have an ‘FAQs’ (Frequently Asked Questions) section, and I have aimed for a similar feel here, with information about where you can find answers to more detailed questions. This is a book to read straight through, but also one to keep to hand as a reference guide.

In most chapters, you will find information on:

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Where can I find out more?

Information about the right people or publications to turn to if you would like more specific or detailed information

What use can I be?

We all want to help but often don’t know how. Here are some ‘top tips’ for getting involved without being out every evening.

Spanner alert: what traps should we avoid?

There are lots of common pitfalls in committees and, sadly, some people seem unable to avoid them. Here are some humorous observations to help you avoid the lurking bear-traps of PCC life.

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In between chapters you will find some prayer resources, which I have grouped together in a usable way. They are placed throughout the book to remind us that we should pray all the time and not just when we have special times of prayer.

And at the end of the book is a jargon-buster, or glossary if you prefer a formal term. It’s embarrassing when you don’t know how to say a word or have no idea what someone is talking about, so I’ve made a list of many odd words we use in church, tell you what they mean and how to say them. Mostly you don’t need to know the difference between an Area Dean and an Archdeacon, but when you do, this is for you. Words that are defined in the glossary are printed in italics the first time they appear in this book.

This is written as an introductory guide: useful for everyone, and for all PCC members. The Church of England is full of special cases (not only in so-called peculiars). Sometimes churches are joined together as one parish, so they have one PCC and may have District Church Councils (DCCs) too. Sometimes the parishes stay separate and share a vicar who serves a benefice with several parishes and hence several PCCs. Every church is slightly different, but the majority of the PCC’s work is the same wherever you are. Here