An Introduction to FGC's Ministry and Nurture Committee

FGC's Ministry and Nurture Committee (M&N) functions in a similar role to the committee that many monthly and yearly meetings name Worship and Ministry, Care and Counsel, or Oversight. The committee contributes to FGC's goal of nurturing Quakerism by focusing its attention on the spiritual life and health of FGC's Spirit-centered decision-making, on the organization as a whole, and on the spiritual health of its monthly and yearly meetings. FGC's M&N Committee:

•  Serves as a pattern of Quaker process through welcoming, informing, and supporting newcomers to FGC Central Committee, FGC's decision-making body

• Provides an example for how M&N (or equivalent) committees of monthly and yearly meetings can provide spiritual grounding for the bodies they serve by preparing queries for worship sharing groups during FGC Central Committee, holding the business sessions and the clerks in prayer, and serving as prayerful presences as called upon in difficult situations.

• Encourages leadership among Young Friends by supporting clerks of the High School and Young Adult programs of FGC Gathering to attend a clerking workshop.

• Nurtures seeds of new work/ministries within FGC. For example, the Traveling Ministries Program, the Committee for Ministry on Racism, and Youth Ministries Committee grew from concerns heard and affirmed by the Ministry and Nurture Committee. A Ministry and Nurture Committee can focus on areas of new spiritual growth, whether in individuals or groups.

• Seeks indirectly to reach monthly meetings through its consultations for yearly meeting clerks and clerks of ministry and nurture equivalent committees. Participants at the latest consultation heard from a couple of yearly meetings which gather together the clerks of its constituent monthly meetings to share their concerns and leadings.

M&N offers the following queries for worship sharing in a committee or meeting setting:

What is fresh and vital in your meeting? How is the Spirit alive in your meeting?

How does your meeting's Ministry & Nurture/Counsel/Worship Committee support:

-the life of the Spirit in the meeting?
-committee clerks and the monthly meeting clerk?
-new leadings or programs?

How do you listen to and hear what is on the hearts of the members and attenders of your meeting?