Simeon on Church Organisation

I'm reading through Moule's biography of Charles Simeon at the moment and am finding it incredibly encouraging because of what it says of both Simeon's ministry and also his character.

Following on from yesterday's post regarding the need for Anglican Church ministers to keep their Word ministry central, I think Simeon's refections on church organisation are very helpful. Moule quotes the following from a letter Simeon wrote to the Bishop of Winchester in 1829

I have seen, my Lord, of very recent date a little pamphlet, where a Minister is set forth in Herbert's way as the father, the physcian, &c., &c., of his parish; but my judgment did not go along with it. In a very small parish these duties may be combined; but it appears to me that, comparatively, this is serving tables. ... The giving himself to the Word of God and prayer seems to me to be [the pastor's] peculiar duty; and the paternal part (of administering relief, &c.) should, I think, be delegated to others under his superintendence, as Moses delegated many of his duties to the seventy employed by him.

Then this statement of how he had put his beliefs into practice

This is what I have done myself for nearly fifty years; I have thirty (male and female) in their different districts, and I preach an annual Sermon in aid of their efforts. By these, I hope, great good has been done; whilst by their supplying my lack of service, I have been left at liberty to follow that line of duty which was more appropriate to my own powers, and which I could not have prosecuted if I had not thus contrived to save my time.

Here we see that Simeon had emplaced a system of church leadership that retained the authority of the senior minister, that embodied the distinction between 'presbyters' and 'deacons', that valued the real leadership of volunteers and lay people, that took individual gifting seriously, that increased ministry effectiveness and that prioritised the Word and prayer.

At one level, I find this to be really impressive stuff but at the same time, I kinda think it's not rocket science. All Simeon really did was to embrace explicit biblical ideas about church leadership and organisation. I guess the real encouragement for me then is that he shows that it's entirely possible for this to work and flourish within the Anglican system.