A Vision for the future
by Godfrey Talford

One hundred and fifty years ago the foundation stones of LPMA were laid by visionaries. When Joseph Marsden suggested to Francis Pearson the idea of a national society for the relief of poverty amongst Local Preachers through mutual assistance, Pearson's initial reaction was to dismiss the idea as splendid, but impractical. In just over four months in 1849, without the benefit of modern communications technology, the Methodist Local Preachers Mutual Aid Association was established, transformed from a dream to a reality. Its continued existence through 150 years of change is testimony to vision and wisdom in the intervening years. It has embraced the union of most of the divided segments of the Methodist movement and has adapted, not only to the tentative first steps of the state in supporting the sick and the unemployed in the years leading up to the first world war, but also to the more radical incarnation of the Welfare State in the last 50 years. It has invested huge sums in Homes for the care of the elderly and, more recently, in developing the competencies of the people delivering care; in so doing it has found ways of continuing mutual aid to complement rather than compete with statutory provisions.

At the dawn of the 21st Century, LPMA must adapt again to changing circumstances. People live longer anc the proportion of the population dependant on pensions and on care increases at a faster rate than the financial resources needed to fulfil all society's noblest aspirations for them. Conversations are in hand which may bring closer the day, which some have longed for, since Archbishop Fisher's approach on behalf of the Church of England to other churches in 1946, when the Methodist Church in England unites organically with one or more of the other larger branches of the Christian church. On a smaller scale, there is tangible evidence of increasing cooperation between the Churches of the Wesleyan Reform Union, the Independent Methodists and the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. Changes to the constitution of either or both of the churches, currently with the scope of the LPMA's activities, could have profound consequences for the Association. The pace of change, in business and social values, seems to accelerate year by year. Businesses which have survived these changes have done so because they have had the vision to adapt and respond to the changing expectations of their customers. Many of those who have not survived have found that the ageold pearl of wisdom in Proverbs 29 ('Without vision people perish') has never been more true than it is today.

So what is our vision for the future of LPMA? In recent years we have exercised ever more stringent control over our finances, so that we can assure our supporters of continuing prudence in the stewardship of the resources they entrust to us. We have identified what is distinctive and unique about Mutual Aid Homes and committed ourselves informally, with our friends at Methodist Homes for the Aged, to the production of a joint statement defining how the services provided by the two organisations differ. In this way we can re-assure the Methodist people (whose Conference has sought re-assurance on this point both in 1998 and 1999) that it is not wasteful of precious resources to support two nominally Methodist charities providing care for the elderly. We have published a written plan for our future which has gone into its second edition within 12 months of the first and, at the current pace of change, will need to be revised every year.

We can justify our claim to be perceptive to changing circumstances at this level, but what about the Local Preachers at the grass roots of the Methodist Church? What need is there for mutual aid in the churches and circuits? Is there a continuing role for mutuality in what is essentially a 'Friendly Society' when the concept of mutuality in the Building Society movement and the Insurance industry has all but died in the 1990s?

Our plans for our future must be based not on hunches or visions alone, but on soundly based research. In this there is scope to develop further the partnership with the Local Preachers' Office, which has blossomed over many years, but never so fruitfully as since the new relationship with the Methodist Conference was forged in 1996. The Methodist Church lacks the information it needs to produce a forward plan for the recruitment of Local Preachers just as much as LPMA lacks information about how its activities are perceived and the expectations of those preachers who are currently young or middle aged about how they might be cared for if they become too frail to be self sufficient. The Heriot Watt University has conducted some limited research into some of these issues under the guidance of one of their academic staff who is also a Local Preacher. In the coming months all preachers may well receive a questionnaire as part of a national survey on behalf of all three parties. It will not take long to complete, but when the returns are analysed, the results will be immeasurably helpful to us all.

It is clear that there is increasing scope for future activity at Circuit level in voluntary support to professional care agencies, whose activities often seem to be curtailed for want of financial resources when a good job is but 90% complete. After-care support for those recovering from mental illness (a condition from which Local Preachers are not immune) is but one example of an activity which has a spiritual dimension and provides preachers with an opportunity to put into practice the gospel of love they preach.

However, LPMA has always thrived on fellowship and preachers who have rendered practical support to their colleagues in large or small ways have testified to the enrichment of the spiritual life they have experienced through the fellowship of caring. The Preachers' Study Conference, organised by LPMA at Willersley Castle in May 1999, was an outstanding success in promoting fellowship and plans are being made for similar conferences to be held annually in future years. This conference was complementary to, rather than competitive with, those sponsored by the Local Preachers' Office. Their principal focus is on courses for those on trial and for newly accredited preachers as a contribution to their continuing development The subject matter of LPMA fellowships will be of wider interest to all preachers, young and old, with few or many years' service on the plan.

LPMA is run by Local Preachers for the benefit of their fellow preachers. Preachers are never self-sufficient. Young or old, they depend on the strength and comfort of the Holy Spirit, which they experience in all kinds of fellowship and mutual activity one with another. Our prayer is not so much for a vision of what to do, but for a vision of our priorities in fulfilling all the many and various needs of which we are aware which, if they were fulfilled, would make us more effective heralds of the Cross.