Associates
Associate members meet regularly in Collectives across the country to develop and deepen their vocation.
Membership Details
1How do Collectives work?
Collectives are composed of a group of roughly a dozen people who live reasonably close to
one another. Any rhythm of meeting has to be regular enough to be meaningful, yet
reasonable enough to be do-able (recognising that the pursuit of a bi-vocational calling is
time consuming in its very nature). Thus, participating in a collective involves at least three
gatherings a year.
The content of gatherings depends on the character of the collective, but in all cases will aim to support the growth of its members in the pursuit of their vocation in an appropriate way. The KSN will seek to support and resource collectives in collaboration with one or two associates who will take particular responsibility for the organisation and facilitation of each collective.
The best way to find out what collectives exist near you and what they are like is to get in touch and have a conversation!
The content of gatherings depends on the character of the collective, but in all cases will aim to support the growth of its members in the pursuit of their vocation in an appropriate way. The KSN will seek to support and resource collectives in collaboration with one or two associates who will take particular responsibility for the organisation and facilitation of each collective.
The best way to find out what collectives exist near you and what they are like is to get in touch and have a conversation!
2Who can become an Associate?
The network is for those who have a call to a fusion of scholarly and pastoral vocation for the
sake of the Kingdom. Therefore the KSN has both vocational and confessional delimitations.
Vocational:
No formal academic qualifications are required for associate membership, but the network is designed for those who are academically minded and consider robust intellectual engagement a part of their vocation. So too associates must be consistently engaged in ministry in a tangible way.
Confessional:
Institutionally, the KSN is (in this order): orthodox (as defined by the historic creeds of the church) protestant and evangelical. We are aware that ‘evangelical’ is a contested term in our current context and often refers to a cluster of beliefs and priorities. We do not attempt to offer a comprehensive definition, but it is helpful to be explicit that for the KSN being evangelical includes a doctrine of scripture, whereby we hold that the whole Bible is the written word of God, divinely inspired and authoritative for faith and conduct. The culture we seek to develop will gladly accept generous and humble disagreement on all secondary issues, and recognise that we are enriched in our diversity.
This does not preclude non-evangelicals from joining the network with the following provisos:
- You must at least be orthodox.
- You must accept that evangelical presuppositions form the framework within which the network operates and hold a generous willingness to participate with these terms of engagement.
Furthermore, as we are a relational network our behaviour must reflect our confession. Hopefully what this means will be fairly obvious, but it may be worth making explicit in three areas:
1. The way we treat one another is really important and we expect fellows to pursue the
virtues of humility, honesty, grace, kindness, generosity, justice, etc., which make fellowships the fruitful places they are meant to be.
2. This must be reflected in a refusal of any form of dishonesty in our speech or writing, including any kind of plagiarism, unpermitted sharing of one another’s work or breaches of confidentiality.
3. Finally, because it is contested, we must be clear that all associates are expected to uphold in their own conduct and ministry what we take to be an orthodox biblical sexual ethic, summarised as “faithfulness inside of marriage, abstinence outside of marriage”, where marriage is between man and woman, and our sex is given rather than chosen.
Vocational:
No formal academic qualifications are required for associate membership, but the network is designed for those who are academically minded and consider robust intellectual engagement a part of their vocation. So too associates must be consistently engaged in ministry in a tangible way.
Confessional:
Institutionally, the KSN is (in this order): orthodox (as defined by the historic creeds of the church) protestant and evangelical. We are aware that ‘evangelical’ is a contested term in our current context and often refers to a cluster of beliefs and priorities. We do not attempt to offer a comprehensive definition, but it is helpful to be explicit that for the KSN being evangelical includes a doctrine of scripture, whereby we hold that the whole Bible is the written word of God, divinely inspired and authoritative for faith and conduct. The culture we seek to develop will gladly accept generous and humble disagreement on all secondary issues, and recognise that we are enriched in our diversity.
This does not preclude non-evangelicals from joining the network with the following provisos:
- You must at least be orthodox.
- You must accept that evangelical presuppositions form the framework within which the network operates and hold a generous willingness to participate with these terms of engagement.
Furthermore, as we are a relational network our behaviour must reflect our confession. Hopefully what this means will be fairly obvious, but it may be worth making explicit in three areas:
1. The way we treat one another is really important and we expect fellows to pursue the
virtues of humility, honesty, grace, kindness, generosity, justice, etc., which make fellowships the fruitful places they are meant to be.
2. This must be reflected in a refusal of any form of dishonesty in our speech or writing, including any kind of plagiarism, unpermitted sharing of one another’s work or breaches of confidentiality.
3. Finally, because it is contested, we must be clear that all associates are expected to uphold in their own conduct and ministry what we take to be an orthodox biblical sexual ethic, summarised as “faithfulness inside of marriage, abstinence outside of marriage”, where marriage is between man and woman, and our sex is given rather than chosen.
3How do I join the KSN?
As the network is primarily about relationships, it must grow relationally. The best first step is
to get in touch and have a conversation. If you decide that you would like to apply for associate
membership, there are two stages to complete:
- You must fill in an application form.
- You must have an introductory conversation with either one of the KSN leadership team or the leader/s of your local associate collective. Final decision for acceptance to the network rests with the trustees.
- You must fill in an application form.
- You must have an introductory conversation with either one of the KSN leadership team or the leader/s of your local associate collective. Final decision for acceptance to the network rests with the trustees.
