Local church life is changing radically and patterns of clergy training and deployment with it. Multi-congregational groupings are increasingly the norm with fewer stipendiary clergy and greater reliance on self-supporting and lay ministry. Meanwhile some aspects of priestly ministry are being carried out by specialist practitioners such as missioners working across a number of parishes.

All of this raises questions about how we understand, prepare for and practice ministry and leadership in the church today. As ministry increasingly becomes the responsibility of the local congregation and priesthood more about supervision, this key book explores the theology of such a model and how it is beginning to work in practice, drawing insights gained from rural ministry which has pioneered advances in multi-congregation ministry settings.