The Role of The Superintendent
My life has fallen into a few stages.
As a child, I lived in Box Hill when it was a Village. I then became Pastor to the Slums of Inner Melbourne for eight years. I was then a Country Parson and a Teacher at a One Teacher Bush School out at Jackson Creek in Western Victoria and then for thirteen years, I was a Suburban Minister in one of Australia’s largest suburban ministries.
Then, for almost thirty years I was Superintendent to the city of Sydney at Wesley Mission, Australia’s largest church ministry. I’ve told you stories of people in each of these places.
The name “Superintendent” is an unusual one for a church. It is usually used of a building site manager or a senior officer in the police force. In the Methodist and Presbyterian churches it was reserved for the senior minister in charge of a whole collection of church agencies and activities, such as the Dr John Flynn, Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission with its Flying Doctor Service or Rev Dr Sir Irving Benson Superintendent of Wesley Mission Melbourne. Both of these were nationally known and important Superintendents, but the most famous in my lifetime was Rev Dr Alan Walker of the Central Methodist Mission, Sydney. It was his shoes I was invited to fill.
The first ministers to be known by this title were Rev Thomas Coke and Rev Francis Asbury as they oversaw the new Methodist Church in the USA. Before long they took the Biblical title of “Bishop” and it is so used to this day in the United Methodist church in USA. In the Australian Methodist church, the Superintendent was regarded as “first among equals” with his name being printed at the top of all other ministerial lists.
The Superintendent of Wesley Mission Sydney has a unique role. The position is neither that of Minister, Chairman of the Board, nor Chief Executive. The role is unique. The role – not just the function – is significant because of the nature of Wesley Mission.
It is not a business. It is not a charity. It is a church involved in business to fund its work of charity. The role must satisfy the demands of the ordained ministry (as a church); of management (as a business); and of social work and fundraising (as a charity). Neither a Chairman of the Board nor a Chief Executive is required to fulfil all three roles.
From the time of my appointment I understood the position clearly, even though clergy joining the Uniting Church in Australia did not. The Methodist ministers understood it, but the Presbyterian and Congregational ministers not only did not understand the role, but were quite hostile to its use. I was to feel their continuing hostility for all of my time in office.
Early in my ministry I explained my role as having six aspects.
The first was being a minister of the Gospel. I may be first but it was among equals. Wesley Mission is a Church, a large city church committed to the ministry of Word (preaching, celebrating sacraments, communication of the Gospel, teaching the faith) and Deed (works of charity, social welfare, rehabilitation, medical care.) Its leader must fulfil each role. It is essential that the leader of Wesley Mission be an ordained Minister of the Uniting Church to fulfil sacramental, property and trust obligations.
The senior minister is designated Superintendent Minister. That ministry is one of both word and deed, and these two cannot be separated from each other. In some similar missions, the ministry of the word has been delegated to a minister of the church and the ministry of the deed has been delegated to a lay manager of social welfare. In every case the total work has declined, and in most has ceased. Without the ministry of word and deed together, the impetus for good works is lost. As a minister I preached the word of God (on an average of over 9 times every week for 25 years) started new congregations and services (until we were operating 56 service every week, and I spoke on a roster at all); provided pastoral care for the members and those associated with us (visiting people in their homes and when in hospital); conducting weddings, baptisms, funerals and Holy Communion (meeting monthly with our elders to discuss pastoral needs and weekly to discuss the conduct of services) and all the other normal duties undertaken by a parish minister. The difference was that we had many thousands of people involved whereas most ministers have hundreds.
A second aspect of my role as Superintendent was to be the initiator of programs. Ministers of local churches were not expected to have either the talent or the scope for such an activity. Yet each of eight Sydney Superintendent Ministers has developed a ministry of powerful preaching attracting the largest sustained membership of any church in Australia’s history (now covering 190 years). Each such long serving Superintendent has also initiated a variety of Christian welfare programs to meet the social needs of each era: “homes for waifs and strays”; “support for fallen sisters”; “Institute for the Inebriated” in the last century. During the post World War 2 period: psychiatric hospitals; geriatric services, aged cared hostels, nursing homes, and the Life Line Telephone Counselling Service.
When appointed Superintendent, I delayed coming for one year to give me time for prayer and reflection as preparation for the task. At the conclusion of that time, I wrote a 500-page treatise in 1977 before coming to the position outlining my intentions and approach to the city ministry. It included 160 published potential new developments that would require research and if such research sustained the concern, would be established to meet community needs. Almost all subsequent developments at Wesley Mission have been the outworking of these initiatives. They include: Gamblers Anonymous and addictive gambling counselling; a Christian educational Institute; national Christian television program weekly; cassette ministry; estate planning division; television commercials; major Easter/ Christmas ministry to the nation; development of investment land; Asian student outreach; computerised mail fundraising; cross divisional seminars on social issues; unemployment retraining programs; child abuse programs; monthly supporters luncheons; home domiciliary support services; clothing collections via street bins; telecounselling at the conclusion of each telecast program; staff birthday celebrations; emergency family accommodation units; Friends of WM fundraisers; art sales; school vacation programs for the underprivileged; rebuilding the existing city property; relocating Life Line; building retirement villages as in Melbourne on equity participation basis; publishing history of Wesley Mission; building a Day Hospital for community based elderly; running a pre-school centre for children, opening many accommodation centres for intellectually disabled people; producing prestige Annual Reports; establishing a volunteers division under paid staff; opening youth hostels; developing magazine subscriptions; establishing a Chinese ministry, a Japanese ministry, a Spanish ministry and many others; creating a Creative Ministry School; develop a new worship format using video clips and promotions as worship; joint staff/elders planning retreats; management training for all senior staff at University Graduate Schools, establishing a national financial counselling service to aid people in credit card debt; establishing an institute for ministry in evangelism; and so on.
I would initiate every one of these programs, and bring along side me as soon as I had raised the money for their salaries, talented people to bring the programs to reality. Only a few of the 160 concepts have not been implemented and that is because we came up with a better idea than those 1977 ones. All of the above are now significant additions to Wesley Mission. With the exception of a dementia program, no major developments at Wesley Mission have been generated by staff, although every one of the above have been developed and conducted by competent staff recruited for the task.
At management conferences, most CEO’s who handled my strategic plan for the next twenty years were amazed that such preparation should be made. The Superintendent is different in this way from any other CEO.
Third, the Superintendent is an interpreter of Christian doctrine. The role of the Superintendent involves initiating responses to community need, based upon a theological understanding of Christian response. The response of Wesley is never just a practical response. It is a theological response. That is: this is what we know God wants us to do in this situation.
Bio-ethical decisions, human rights issues, gender issues, social conscience matters proceed from a doctrinal basis. Doctrine determines practise. Our response to social need does not follow Government awareness of need. It usually proceeds both awareness and funding by Government. The Superintendent interprets the Church’s policy on such matters and provides the logic and impetus for such decisions using published Uniting Church policies where relevant.
Fourth to be an accountable person to the community. So often ministers of large churches and leaders of charities are not accountable. Inevitably the press or other media begin making inquiries into financial or moral matters concerning the leadership. That is because they do not make themselves completely transparent, with independent audited accounts, and open lives. The Superintendent must accept that the buck stops with him or her. There is no hiding behind other staff or other people.
Ministries like Wesley Mission, depend ultimately upon public support and funding. An important principle in fund-raising at the level of millions of dollars a year, lies in the axiom that people give to a person they trust. The response is to a person, not an organisation. The Superintendent must come under public and press scrutiny on matters of morality, accountability and credibility. Where charities do not have a human face, they do not grow. Hence “The Fred Hollows Foundation” grows as does the World Vision Famine relief which always has the face of a starving child. Missions grow strong on the sustained personal accountability and leadership of the Superintendent. Witness the work of Sir Irving Benson in Melbourne (1925-1965) and Sir Alan Walker in Sydney (1938-1978).
Fifth, the Superintendent must be an able communicator. All Superintendents who have been effective have been great communicators through preaching, writing, use of the press, radio, television. Unlike a business that has a manufactured product or service to sell, the Mission exists because it communicates effectively its plans to meet human need in a Christian fashion which deserves the practical and voluntary support of the person to whom the communication is addressed. Most business executives prefer a low profile whereas a Mission’s success is in direct proportion of the profile and communication skills of the Superintendent. Paid public relations staff and image creators have never been accepted by the public.
Sixth, the Superintendent is the image creator. The public responds emotionally to human need. It does not respond according to intellectual awareness. Do Governments get elected on the basis of a rational community response? The Superintendent is required to create the image within the bounds of authenticity and credibility of the Mission as a centre of compassionate care and sensible service. The Superintendent embodies the traditions of the church over the centuries while at the same time being on the cutting edge of care.
The role of Superintendent, when reduced to that of either a manager or a Chairman of the Board, results in a lowering of public perception and support.
That is how I outline my role during 1978 after my appointment but before coming to Sydney. If the people of Wesley Mission had called me to be their Superintendent, then this was how I would see my job. They all received a copy, studied up and came up smiling. The outline of my work for the next twenty seven years was settled.