Partnership for Missional Church

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1 Partnership for Missional Church By the Revd Canon Dr Nigel Rooms Director of Ministry and Mission, Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Introduction: Culture change towards mission and growth in a changing culture There are several initiatives which offer potential for growth in the Church such as Leading Your Church Into Growth, Mission Action Planning, Natural Church Development etc. Dioceses also invest heavily in individual leadership development for clergy and lay ministers. The question is do these interventions really deliver large-scale long-term sustainable culture change in congregations towards an outward-looking missional orientation? Our congregations in general are, quite naturally, in varying degrees of captivity to the culture of modernity. Growth, if it is to happen and be sustainable, needs to arise from a deep shift in culture of the congregation. How can the culture of a Christian community, a congregation, be directly engaged with in ways which transform that culture and, at the same time, make it a significant player in its own community and context? What do we mean by Missional Church? And what does the word missional mean? Being missional is more than just doing more social service activities or increasing the membership of a church. Being missional affects everything that a church does and is. Missional describes the character of the church. In a missional church, mission is not one among many activities. It is instead an intention that is demonstrated throughout the life of the church. A missional church looks for how God is in mission in the world today in the light of how it knows God has worked in the past, especially through Jesus Christ. A missional church chooses to join God in that mission in the world, to let God call it and send it in that mission. A missional church knows that a part of its calling is to provide for the world a glimpse of God s future, to be a sign of God s reign. Partnership for Missional Church The Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) was created to address these questions. It has been around for 30+ years and operates in North America, Europe and South Africa. In the East Midlands we began working with our first cluster of 15 churches in 2012 between Leicester and Southwell & Nottingham Dioceses with the academy St. John s College, Nottingham is also involved. 1

2 We have already seen churches: Face their current reality arriving where they are both inside the congregation and outside in their context Change some of the language they use for describing themselves and their mission Let go of programmes which are busy activities not engaged with the mission of God Begin missional experiments, looking for where God is at work and addressing adaptive challenges in their communities Engage at a different level with ministerial formation and the task of spiritual leadership. What does it involve? PMC has been developed by the organization Church Innovations (CI), headed up by U.S. theologian Pat Keifert and others. It is based in the USA but works internationally. See Theologically the process (we must insist it is an organic process and not a programme) sits in a missional church frame and connects with the Gospel and Our Culture network that grew out the work of Lesslie Newbigin. However there are several other sources of material that it draws on so that it is applicable across all church traditions. A full description is found in Keifert s book We Are Here Now: A New Missional Era (copies are available from Nigel Rooms and Mike Harrison please see the contact details at the end of this paper). There are several things to note about its emphases: Works with the Missio Dei Is a learning process for everyone which returns theology to its original locus in the congregation while involving the theological academy Empowers widespread participation & church members as disciples Is not prescriptive or about technical solutions but addresses adaptive challenges to use Heifetz s ideas Every church discovers a different outcome Is a patient, long-term, deep, faith-filled and spiritual process, embedding spiritual practices as habitus in the congregation but aims at having a realistic 20% of church members on board after three years of the process Has a clear qualitative and quantitative research base In the USA (where around 95% of all congregations have less than 50 members) research shows that congregations who stay in the process (there is an attrition rate as it isn t a quick fix ) grow in worship attendance, conversions, lay leadership base, 2

3 and in partnership with constituencies outside the church (see later figures). Many of the congregations involved have been Episcopalian with some whole dioceses getting involved. Overview of the Partnership for Missional Church Process PMC is a three to four year journey that engages congregations in practices that help them discern what God is up to in their place and God s preferred and promised future for them. The work is undertaken with clergy (who are named as spiritual leaders in the process) and different levels of lay leadership to guide and assess the process. Clusters of around congregations engage in the three year journey, with a possibility of a fourth year of learning and reinforcing the change. The PMC cluster meets for three times per year for three years, called Phases. Each year/phase contains three, two day events where the spiritual leaders reflect with the delivery team for a day (Friday) and then everyone meets together on a Friday evening and Saturday. Each year/phase also has a different focus: Phase One: Discovery This could best be described as a time of learning to listen and arriving where we are. We listen to Scripture, our congregations and our communities and for the leading of the Spirit of God in allowing ourselves to be shaped and formed for sending into the world. We also learn to listen to our partners, those who help us understand ourselves and the context in which we live and work. A number of inventories, self-studies and evaluations are used to take the pulse of each congregation or group, which will aid in the second phase of the project. Some of this data is collected locally and interpreted by a reading team (and here the academy, St. John s College is involved in developing and reflecting upon this data). Phase Two: Experimenting The discoveries of the first year s work are translated into experiments. After learning about who we are, where we live and who we are sent to, the next logical step is to take action. The information uncovered during the first step will hopefully lead us into developing experiments for innovating missional transformation. This involves more risk taking, and while not every risk will be rewarded, there is as much to learn from the mistakes as from the successes. Phase Three: Visioning for Embodiment In phase 3 congregations will begin moving toward living in God s preferred and promised future. After discovering and learning from the successes and failures of the experimenting phase, churches and their leaders will develop their own plans for congregational transformation, and will better know how to focus attention and energy toward attaining those goals. Phase Four: Learning and Growing (Optional) All through the process clergy and lay leaders have been involved in developing spiritual disciplines and recognizing ways to grow leadership within their congregations. Many congregations realize at the end of Phase Three that they were just at the beginning of 3

4 significant and long lasting change. There are many ways for them to move forward and continue the journey of learning, experimenting, planning and effectively executing their plans. Some clusters elect to continue using Church Innovation services for a fourth year of learning and growing and reinforcing the changes and the new practices of spiritual discernment. Resourcing An initial pilot cluster would cost 16,000 to Church Innovations (CI) plus 320 for each participating benefice (which we ask them to pay). In addition there are travelling expenses for the CI trainers, venue costs etc (we also pay for some of the time St. John s puts into the process). This amounts to approximately 4,000. So 20,000 per year for the three years of the pilot would be required. This can be reduced by sharing with a neighbouring diocese as we did. There needs to be a delivery team which learns the process alongside the CI trainers. These people will then, along with others identified along the way, deliver the process going forward. The normal pattern is to run three clusters with CI in attendance (with the local team taking more and more responsibility). This team is available at all three cluster events in the year (two days each) and for three days training with CI. They also need to be available to accompany and mentor congregations as well as the occasional learning event in the parish itself (morning or whole day). It is good practice to provide the clergy and key lay leader with someone who will offer them a particular kind of spiritual accompaniment twice for one hour between each cluster using the phone or skype. In the first year there is a particular task for a reading team who process the interview data generated within the congregation and feed it back to them in the form of a written report. It is a few weeks of intensive work before cluster event 2. We used St. John s placement students for much of this work. What happens for a given congregation? The PMC process is designed to help congregations grow in many ways by developing: a God-centred, biblical vision for mission a greater sense of God s activity in their congregation and community ownership of the mission of the congregation by more members members committed to and capable of making disciples both a vision for mission and a practical plan of action to achieve it the particular strengths of the tradition of the congregation practical skills for managing change and attending to conflict dramatic expansion of lay involvement a decision process for planning activities and budget 4

5 a faithful and hospitable congregation relationships with other Partner congregations Fifteen years of research from the U.S.A. on the PMC process have learned that congregations who stay in through all phases of the partnership showed a... 17% median growth in worship attendance over a 5 year period 77% correlation to the longevity of pastorate 64% correlation to growth in adult conversions 74% correlation to increased lay leader base 73% correlation to increased participation of young adults after confirmation/high school 62% correlation to developing a new constituency base in situations of high social change Further information For further information please contact: Rev Canon Dr. Nigel Rooms Director of Ministry and Mission Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham Nigel.rooms@southwell.anglican.org Rev Dr. Mike Harrison Director of Ministry and Formation Diocese of Leicester Mike.Harrison@LecCofE.org Rev Nick Ladd Director of Ministry and Formation and Director of Practical Theology St John s College, Nottingham n.ladd@stjohns-nottm.ac.uk 5