« Back to Issue 58

Editorial

By Paul Beasley-Murray.

In place of my usual editorial this edition, I am delighted to offer all readers and members an invitation to the 20th anniversary conference:SURVIVING AND THRIVING IN MINISTRY – TODAY AND TOMORROWTuesday and Wednesday 18-19 March 2014 at the Chelmsford Diocesan Retreat House, Pleshey, Essex.If researcher Peter Brierley is right, most mainline denominations will experience whole-scale decline – how will the churches adapt? Will ‘fresh expressions of church’ prove to be the panacea – or will the traditional churches re-invent themselves? What will this mean in terms of ministry? God apart, what hope will be there for ministry? How will ministers need to change? What skills will they need to develop? These are the issues which we will be exploring together, led by our leader and speaker, Tim Marks, who is the author of our first article in this edition of MTUK. For more information about Tim, see the Conference flyer enclosed with this edition of MTUK.Details of the venue and cost  are also included in the flyer. The first evening will include a special anniversary dinner on the Tuesday evening!If you want to book your place now, please contact:  David Parsons, 25 Barn Rise, Seaford, E. Sussex, BN25 3DA (01323-896917; parsonfamily25@gmail.comHere’s what others have said about our annual conference:“We all attend conferences, but none has stimulated so consistently and deeply as Ministry Today.  It is my only ‘red-line’ event of the year” (Baptist minister, Surrey)“This is now the only conference I want to attend. No conference I have ever attended in the past has supported and resourced my ministry as effectively as Ministry Today" (Anglican priest, South Wales)So do mark it in your diary and book your place on what promises to be a great occasion.