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Partnership
for Missional Church (PMC) is a new initiative that Bishop Mansholt
has begun at the synodical and congregational levels in the
Central States Synod in conjunction with Church Innovations.
PMC is a process to help Christians re-focus their lives and
the lives of their corporate ministries on God’s preferred
and promised future for them in their contexts today.
As Lutherans,
we’re great at looking back, but looking forward can often
be scary. I know I was nervous going into the first PMC cluster
event at the end of September in Kansas City. It had taken Peace
several months of prayer, planning, conversation and study to
come to this point of beginning. Should we participate in this
process? Do we have the resources, both financial and human,
to make this three year commitment? Is this really going to
make a difference for us or is it just the program du jour?
Pastors
and lay leaders from nine congregations across the synod joined
together for two days for this first event. We were given a
good foundation to continue this journey. As a pastor, I got
the theological understanding of the process that I needed to
shape my preaching and teaching. We all got an overview of what
the next three years will look like. And the lay leaders who
attended got very concrete, specific directions about what needs
to be done by our second cluster event in February.
Since then,
PMC has been in the works here at Peace, but not overly visible.
The listening team is interviewing congregational members. The
steering team is getting ready for the congregational timeline
event toward the end of the month. The church future finders
are collecting data about the congregation and the wider community
as well. Much is going on behind the scenes.
Right now,
the only piece of PMC visible to the congregation at large is:
Dwelling in the Word. Every meeting, whether it’s choir
practice or the finance committee, is supposed to start with
time spent in God’s Word, specifically, Luke 10:1-12.
Honestly, we haven’t managed to do it at every meeting,
but, gradually, we’re getting there. When we do, I can
tell the difference in the tone of the meeting. It’s almost
like the Word of God greases the gears of our work together.
I don’t exactly understand how that works, but I like
it – especially when we’re wrangling with the budget!!
We’ve
made a good start and I’m looking forward to being part
of what God has in store for Peace through the PMC process.
What’s it going to look like? I don’t know, but
so far the process is energizing the life of Peace.
Pastor
Robin J. Morgan
Peace Lutheran Church
Washington, MO
November 8, 2007
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