Ministries Team Leader Andy Hughes to join RBMHO
 

Ministries Team Leader Andy Hughes is to leave his role to become the new Secretary and Tenant Relations Manager for the Retired Baptist Ministers Housing Organisation (RBMHO)

 
Andy will succeed RBMHO’s current manager Stewart Green, who is retiring in the autumn having served the organisation for more than 20 years. Andy will take up his new post in October.
 
Andy was appointed Ministries Team Leader in 2015, initially in an interim capacity while on secondment from the South Wales Baptist Association where he was a regional minister. He took on the role permanently the following year. 
 
During his period as Team Leader he has overseen the implementation of the recommendations of the Ignite Report, working closely with many across Baptists Together. The report, our review into how we resource ministry, was received in 2016, and last October’s Baptist Union Council meeting highlighted all that had been achieved since. 

One of the key early changes was the creation of Marks of Ministry – the core characteristics we want to see in a minister. The Marks are a measure of character, attitude and behaviour, and describe what ministers are, more than what they do. 

Other Ignite developments include: College formation reviewed and revised; the development of a new settlement system; the appointment of a Ministerial Development Adviser (Tim Fergusson) and the introduction of Continuing Ministerial Development (CMD) for Baptist ministers.

‘Although the implementation stage of the Ignite Report has come to an end,’ wrote Andy in the October Council agenda paper, ‘there will always be the need to continue to develop and change to ensure that we fan into flame the gifts the Lord has given us within Baptists Together. 

‘Hopefully in time we will look back and see that the emphasis on the Marks of Ministry will have proved significant in equipping godly leadership and ministry; and that the focus on CMD will enable more of us to faithfully run the race set before us.’

The Ignite implementation took place over several years alongside other developments in the Ministries Team. First and most significant was the Historic Case Review, in which 4,500 ministerial files were reviewed. Secondly all ministerial files were also digitalised, and a SharePoint system (MIX) was created to store them.
 
General Secretary Lynn Green said, ‘I am so sorry that Andy will be leaving us as Ministries Team Leader. He has been a brilliant colleague and served us with huge dedication and compassion for many years. I am really going to miss him as part of the team.  
 
‘Yet this new role is such a perfect fit for Andy’s gifts and experience that I see God’s call so clearly, and for this reason I am delighted that he has this new opportunity.  
 
‘Please join me in praying for Andy, his wife Rachel and the Ministries Team during this time of change and transition.’
 
Andy said, ‘Having led the Ministries Team for the last seven years, Rachel and I have concluded that it is time for me to take a different path.
 
‘I will be joining RBMHO as the Secretary and Tenant Relations Manager which I anticipate will give me further opportunity to support ministers and their spouses, as well as providing strategic leadership for the charity.
 
‘I look forward to continuing to serve our Baptist movement in a different way.’
 
RBMHO is an independent charity formed in 1975, which exists to serve ministers who are coming to retirement and who are not able to provide housing for themselves. 
 
Bill Johnston, RBMHO chairman, said, ‘The Retired Baptist Ministers Housing Organisation is very pleased to have appointed the Revd Andy Hughes as its new Manager/Secretary with effect from the beginning of next October.
 
‘The current manager, Mr Stewart Green, has served the organisation wonderfully well for the last 20 or so years, but has now decided to retire in the autumn.
 
‘The organisation had a very strong list of good applicants and conducted interviews for the role during the second half of June. The interviewing panel made a unanimous recommendation to the Trustees of the Organisation at its board meeting last week, that Andy Hughes be appointed, and this was enthusiastically endorsed by the board.
 
‘Andy will, we are certain, bring his undoubted experience in church, Association and at national level to the organisation in a pastoral and practical way. 
 
‘We very much look forward to working with him and give thanks to God for His leading in the appointment.’
 
The recruitment process to identify the next Ministries Team Leader will begin this week. 
 
Rachel Stone, HR and Safeguarding Team Leader, explained, ‘We definitely saw God’s calling and leading in the recruitment process in 2015 when Andy took up the Ministries Team Leader role. 
 
‘These are big shoes to fill, and we will be starting to search for his successor straight away. 
 
‘We ask you to pray for the discernment process, and to be thinking about those you know who might have the gravitas and deep pastoral experience to take this on. 
 
‘More information will be coming out this week on the role, the requirements and the timescales for expressions of interest. 
 
‘As always, we rely on the Lord to guide us in this important decision.’