1. Called? Resilience and Personal Vocation in Education Dr Nick Shepherd
Programme Director for Setting God’s People Free
(yes that’s a real job title - it’s on my business card and everything)

2. Setting God’s People Free
celebrating and affirming calling for all…

3. Improving Services to Dioceses and Cathedrals
The Church of England's Renewal & Reform programme is aimed at helping us become a growing Church for all people and for all places
R&R history
Archbishops’ programme for R&R in each generation (GS1976), Feb 2015
Vision and narrative (GS2038) endorsed by General Synod, Jul 2016
Estates
Working toward a thriving, growing, loving church on every significant social housing estate in the country
Lead: Dave Champness (Diocese of Blackburn)
Growing Vocations
Fostering a culture in which the vocation of each member of the Church can be identified, nurtured and celebrated so the whole Church can grow and flourish
Lead: Mandy Ford
Digital
Harnessing digital and social media to grow people’s faith, bring people to faith and share the common good work of the Church
Lead: Adrian Harris
Contact: Amaris Cole
Improving Services to Dioceses and Cathedrals
Service and process improvements by the NCIs, and the development of new services, that support the wider Church
Contact: Kevin Norris
Setting God’s People Free
Enabling the whole people of God to live out the Good News of Jesus confidently in all of life, Sunday to Saturday
Lead: Nick Shepherd
Nurturing Senior Leaders
Identifying, training and resourcing leaders for current and future challenges
Lead: Caroline Boddington
Contact: Jo Dunne
Peer Review
Supporting dioceses by 'holding up a mirror' to their work and facilitating insightful learning between dioceses
Lead: Philip James
Contact: Alan Cruickshank
Resourcing the Future
Ensuring that the funds, managed by the Church Commissioners to support mission and ministry in dioceses, are distributed in a way which enables them to advance the Church's goal of mission and growth
Lead: Philip James
Contact: David Jennings
Simplification
Legislative simplification and deregulation to break barriers to mission and ministry
Lead: Jacqui Philips
Contact: Jenny Jacobs

4. What is Setting God’s People Free?
SGPF is a programme of change to enable the whole people of God to live out the Good News of Jesus confidently in all of life, Sunday to Saturday.

5. What is Setting God’s People Free?
SGPF looks beyond and outside Church structures to the whole people of God at work in communities and wider society - not to 'fixing' the institutional Church.
SGPF challenges a culture that over-emphasises a distinction between sacred and secular to a fuller vision of calling within the all-encompassing scope of the Gospel – not to limit vocation to church based roles.
SGPF seeks to affirm and enable the complementary roles and vocations of clergy and of lay people, grounded in our common baptism - not to blur or undermine these distinctions.
SGPF proposes imaginative steps to nourish, illuminate and connect what is working already in and through parishes and communities of faith - not to institute a top-down approach

6. Set free to fulfil our calling as the Church and as people of the Kingdom
Community representation
(Projects & outreach)
Faith in Everyday life
Kingdom influence
Church roles
(Leadership & lay ministry)
Changing the way we talk
Changing the way we think
Changing the way we act
Shift1: Equipping the whole people of God to follow Jesus confidently in every sphere of life
Shift2: Enriching mutual recognition and support between lay & ordained followers

7. Called?
Resilience and Personal Vocation in Education

8. The Church of England Foundation
for Educational Leadership’s mission is:
“To develop inspirational leaders who are called, connected and committed to delivering the Church of England’s vision for education”

9. Called:
“Leaders who are called can articulate a strong sense of personal vocation to their role, and demonstrate this through their words, actions and decision making, exemplifying a strong moral purpose, confident vision, and ambitious trajectory of improvement. For some, this sense of vocation will be driven by an established or developing faith commitment. They show integrity, honesty and a deep sense of resilience, underpinned by their personal sense of vocation as a leader.”
5 minutes
BEFORE GOING TO LUNCH, lets go back to our starting point.
Take a moment on your own to note down:
What has struck you during this morning’s session.
What actions will you take as a consequence
Share with a partner.

10. Calling… What do we mean by ‘calling’ ?
How is a sense of calling nurtured?
How can calling contribute to resilience?

11. a calling to love
Resilience and Personal Vocation in Education

12. teaching as profession (and vocation)
To view teaching as a vocation is to acknowledge a call to serve others through the means of education and learning... Such a calling may be grounded within a religious worldview, as coming from God and forming part of a divine plan for one’s particular life, but it need not be...we do not merely choose teaching from among a range of alternative careers that may suit our personal interests. Rather, we assume a teaching role and whatever is involved in fulfilling it out of a sense of duty... [since] the concept of a vocation has an inherently altruistic focus. (Bujis, 2005)

13. Discuss: Are you called…?

14. a calling to learn
Resilience and Personal Vocation in Education

15. children, young people and vocation

17. Calling and practicing discernment…
ortho-pathos
Listening
Loving God with your heart
ortho-optomai
Understanding
Loving God with all your mind
Ortho-doxy
Remembering/Dreaming
Loving God with your soul
Ortho-praxis
Acting
Loving God with your strength
An integrated approach to discernment requires that the distractions of the heart, the whims of the body, and the hubris of the mind be refined by the intuitions of the heart, investigations of the mind, the still point of the soul, and the practical wisdom of the body.
(White, 2005 p. 84)

18. a calling to live
Resilience and Personal Vocation in Education

19. calling and career
Teachers who report a presence of a calling have a good sense of their interests and abilities, they are more likely to be mature in their career development process and they are more comfortable in making career decisions. Conversely, teachers that report a search for calling tend to be slightly more indecisive and slightly more likely to lack a clear career development process; these individuals are less comfortable in making career decisions and are markedly less clear about their interests and abilities (Duffy & Sedlacek, 2007)

20. How was your day?
Turn to your neighbour and tell them in two minutes what you did in school/work yesterday…
Those listening listen carefully as you are going to reflect back what you heard in sixty seconds…
Now switch, but those listening are going to reflect back what they heard in one word…

21. Calling, resilience and community.
Resilience as a communal capacity not merely an individual trait
What resilience do our school, church and other communities confer?
Personal resilience is underpinned by sense of call, satisfaction in role & space to develop
What professional and personal practices help centre resilience?