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The
Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) is a hard thing to explain
– especially when congregations are used to thinking in
terms of programs in which we try to get something up and running
like small groups or Alpha courses or things like that. We go
into such programs with a fairly clear idea of what to expect
in the end. Partnership for Missional Church is a process, rather
than a program. A congregation enters the process in the company
of other congregations with no idea where this journey might
lead, but simply the trust that God is calling us into a future
and the hand of God will lead us there.
The earliest
steps of this process have been hard for many members to see.
There was a special event to review the history of the congregation:
the exiting times, the sad times, and things that have given
us hope. Everyone was invited to that. Around two dozen members
were interviewed about their experiences with and observations
of a number of facets of congregational life. At Trinity Lutheran
in Topeka, Kan., we’ve done studies similar to these in
the past. But the information only seemed to go into a box somewhere,
never to be used again.
This time, we’re
finding the information has gone somewhere. It’s gone
to trained and dedicated readers at Church Innovations who looked
very carefully at all we had to tell them. They lifted up patterns
in our history and in interview responses, highlighting the
strengths and gifts we have as a congregation. The readers also
offered questions for us to ponder as we seek to move into the
future – questions that have no easy answers and get us
thinking and wondering what these things might mean.
We’ve got more
information to collect. Although we’ve gathered some census
data on our community, now we are asked to talk to key leaders
in our community (city council members, school officials, etc.)
and some of our neighbors. We’ll also be looking at traffic
patterns around the church and who all is coming into the church
building on a regular basis.
And we’re
still trying to spend time regularly Dwelling in the Word
with Luke 10:1-12 whenever congregational groups meet. A number
of people have expressed frustrations with this practice …
always the same thing with the same passage every single time.
However, the practice is intended to turn us from our constant
craving for the new and the novel, to move us from reading just
to get information toward letting the Word read us. It’s
designed to shape our imaginations and help us learn to listen
to one another and for the voice of God. Such developments are
vital to a process of discernment.
The next big step
is a time of discernment as a congregation. The Steering Team
will present what we’ve learned so far about ourselves
as a congregation, the neighborhood in which our church is,
and the neighborhoods to which we’re connected through
our members. Together, we’ll be asked to look at all we
have learned and try to discern where God may be calling us
and how we might take the first steps towards that future.
Discernment is another
process that’s hard to define. It’s a term frequently
used to describe the work of candidates preparing for service
in the church ... whether as ordained pastors, associates in
ministry, diaconal ministers, or parish ministry associates.
In these cases, it is the candidate who must sit with the questions,
pondering the calling of God, trying hard to listen for the
still small voice with which God continues to speak. Now, instead
of an individual discerning a call, we’re to discern together
as a congregation what our collective calling is.
Candidates don’t
do this alone. They have the synodical candidacy committee,
advisors, mentors, and others to support and nurture them in
the process of discernment. In the PMC process, congregations
don’t do this alone either. The members of the congregation
do it together. The congregations of the cluster support one
another as they share their experiences with each other at the
cluster events. We also have mentors and advisors in the consultants
from Church Innovations, experienced hands who have coached
many congregations through this process into the futures to
which God is calling them.
The journey through
the PMC process is one of faith … Faith that God is indeed
at work in our world … faith that God still chooses to
work through churches to love and bless this world … faith
that if we simply seek to find God’s calling to us, God
will meet us in that seeking and show us the way to go.
Submitted By:
Rev. Trudy Cretsinger
Trinity Lutheran Church, Topeka, Kan.
February 4, 2008
I will
say to the Lord, “His is my refuge and my fortress, my
God, in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:2 (NIV)
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