PGF Outbox

ON THE ROAD FROM SAN JOSE: A NEW VEHICLE FOR A NEW DAY?

By Vic Pentz

I recently wrote an open letter, “Do You Know the Way FROM San Jose?” inviting readers to join us at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship Conference in Long Beach, August 14-16. In the letter I ventured my analysis of where we are at the moment as evangelicals within the PC(USA), given the troubling actions of the recent General Assembly.

In emphasizing a missional vision, I gave the impression to some that I believe that the political and institutional realities post-GA are not important and that the work of others to create a new system of connectionalism within our PC(USA) is not relevant to PGF’s work of missional transformation.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Planting Trees

Dear Friends,

It’s been ten days since I returned from serving as a commissioner to this year’s General Assembly. The experience made me all the more grateful for the Presbyterian Global Fellowship.

The division within the PCUSA is deep and profound. We are two churches. My cynical side says we are only held together by Roberts Rules of Order. I pray God has more in mind for us than a unity built on that. There are natural longings for quick political fixes that would relieve our anger and anxiety. Some are already working on a mix of immediate responses as well as amendments to the next General Assembly and I pray these will provide some relief but these will provide only temporary relief. These may make us better but they won’t make us well.

Do You Know The Way FROM San Jose?

by Vic Pentz, Pastor Peachtree Presbyterian Church

To most observers, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has been a slow motion train wreck for the past thirty years. Year by year, membership dwindles, conflicts mount, finances shrink and trust in the existing leaders and structures dissipates.  With the most recent General Assembly in San Jose, the smoke seems at last to have cleared, and the steaming debris of the PC(USA) has settled into place.
It’s not a pretty sight. One thing for sure: this Humpty won’t be getting back together again for a long time, if ever.

My purpose in writing is to offer the Presbyterian Global Fellowship (PGF) Conference in Long Beach, August 14-16,  as a hopeful way forward. But first  I want to take my best shot at explaining where we are as a denomination and how we got here.

Two Seconds From Abundance

As most of you might know by now our church made a little trip to Kenya Africa in August 2007. We were headed to Cyprian’s village, Njuthine. When I say “little,” I mean we were only boots-on-the-ground for 74 hours. Our trip was cut short. God worked fast.

Now much has been made of our trip. The support and love our team has received is overwhelming and much appreciated. We thank each of you sincerely for all you have done for us. The body of Christ is an amazing thing. From our collective perspective we want to frame the story not found in the media. The story is not just the sum of chronological facts. It is much more.

Yes, we were held up at gunpoint by men who also had machetes and sticks. Yes, we were robbed of significant material possessions. Yes, it was an awful and terrifying experience. Yes, some of our group were injured. Yet, by the grace of God all of us survived. And, we are all doing well as we begin to settle into the new “normal” of our individual lives.

How can we begin to convey the number or even the texture of the “God” stories that have emanated from this experience?

Step Through the Wardrobe

C.S. Lewis is a master at transporting us from one world into another. Whether through a wardrobe to Narnia or riding a bus to heaven, we are carried into an alternate reality full of wonder and discovery. The mainline church today may be portrayed as if in the sleepy world of the uncle’s house. Looking through the wardrobe, the mainline church can catch a glimpse of an alternate reality that is both thrilling and full of challenge. The missional church movement is about stepping out of the sleepy state of privilege and into the wild and adventurous opportunity to be the sent ones of Jesus Christ in the world. Like for the Pevensie children, stepping through the wardrobe takes faith and courage. Presbyterian Global Fellowship invites you to live out the ancient call, in which the church is not about attracting people but equipping them to be radical, counter-cultural, agents of Jesus Christ in the world. Presbyterian Global Fellowship seeks to be the international community of believers that equips one another to join God where He is moving.

Is the Presbyterian Church(USA) like General Motors?

A couple of days ago, my local newspaper ran an article about General Motors. With no end in sight for elevated gas prices, GM has announced drastic cuts in production of sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickups and stepped up plans for smaller cars and engines. In a humbling admission that the SUV era is all but over, GM said it is considering selling or eliminating the gas guzzling Hummer brand. The chairman of GM announced that $4 –a-gallon gas prices had forced a “structural shift” by American consumers away from larger vehicles into more fuel-efficient cars. 

 Gas prices are changing consumer behavior and changing it rapidly. GM does not believe it’s a spike or a temporary shift. They believe it is permanent. This could close a chapter in the domestic auto industry. GM is basically declaring the SUV is dead. The trend away from these vehicles is irreversible. There has been a radical transformation in the automotive landscape in just the last few months. Sales of SUVs has absolutely crashed under the pressure of rising gas prices. 

 At the same time, smaller cars are flying out of dealerships, with the Honda Civic and the Toyota Corolla as the best sellers. GM sales dropped by 30% in the month of May alone. At its peak in 2002, GM sold 600,000 full-size SUVs. This year, they will sell less than 250,000 of them. One industry analyst said the “nails in the coffin are getting screwed down a little tighter.” GM announced they will close four North American assembly plants that make SUVs and pickups. This will put 8,000 people out of work. Instead, they will add third shifts at plants that make compact and midsize cars. They have also approved production of some new smaller, more gas-efficient and electric cars. GM lost $3.3 billion in the first quarter this year. We are witnessing a paradigm shift in the auto industry.

 What can the church learn from all of this? I think it’s safe to say, that like GM, the church has been slow to adapt to the changing culture around us. We built a church model for the previous era that worked really well at the time. Many of our church programs and worship services were so successful in the 1950s, that we have never changed them, not realizing that the old models aren’t working any more. But now, a permanent shift has taken place in our culture. We can’t turn the clock back. If we don’t learn to adapt, we will be closing more church plants just like GM is closing auto plants. Are we still trying to get people to buy the “church SUV” model, when few can afford it or even want it anymore? I don’t think we’ve been particularly adept at anticipating where our world is going, and thinking about what adjustments we need to make. When panic sets in, we cave in to the consumeristic mindset of our culture, and we do anything to get people to come to our churches. There is more pressure and more temptation to do whatever it takes to attract a crowd then there is to maintain scriptural, theological, and missional integrity. We have tried to find technical solutions for adaptive challenges, and its not working.

 The good news is that the auto industry is waking up. I think it’s kind of late, but at least it’s finally happening. The good news is that there are pockets in the church that are waking up. We may be late, but at least in some areas, it’s happening. Groups like Presbyterian Global Fellowship and Allelon are helping us understand the shift in our culture. They are helping us understand the mission field we now live in. They are helping to cultivate the missional church conversation, which is what we need to be about. There are permanent shifts taking place in North American culture. We will never go back to the way we were. We are living in a new economy.

 We need to cultivate the missional imagination of our people for this new world we live in. We need to stimulate the creativity of our congregations as we discern how God wants us to join in God’s mission in our world. Some of our ministry methods will have to change. But, the Bible doesn’t change. The historic, orthodox faith of the church handed down for 2000 years doesn’t need to change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But, the way we minister in this world needs to change drastically, and time is running out on our opportunity to do so. There is an open door, but the door is beginning to close. 

 The Presbyterian Church(USA) is like GM. GM is changing (finally). Will we?

 

Target Heart Zone

Training in the Target Heart Zone is all the rage in physical fitness. The idea is that the heart beats at rates that can be categorized into zones. Each zone provides unique benefits. If you listen to the instructors at my gym, there is nothing more important than training properly in each Heart Zone. The church may be able to learn something about training disciples of Jesus in Heart Zones. The challenge at the gym is that most people want to train in Heart Zone Four, which is the zone my instructor describes, "makes you feel like your hair is on fire." You sweat, breathe hard, and experience muscle fatigue. Zone Four is a real work out. However, Heart Zone Two is the zone that should receive a significant amount of training time. And that takes discipline.

Predestined by a Name

A recent article by the New York Times News Service describes a new phenomenon:  people going on line to meet other people who have their same name.  In a book called "Finding Angela Shelton", the writer described her meetings with 40 other Angela Sheltons.  Websites such as SameNameAsMe and Facebook include nearly 200 people named Ritz, and 1224 people named Mohammed Hassan.  The unanswered question is why do so many people feel a connection with utter strangers, just because they share the same name?

Social science says that we are unconsciously drawn to people that remind us of ourselves.  A psychological theory called the name-letter effect maintains that people like the letters in their own names (especially their initials) better than other letters in the alphabet.  During the 2000 presidential election, people whose surnames began with B were more likely to vote for Bush, and those whose names began with G were more likely to vote for Gore.  It's called implicit egotism.  Researchers have shown time and time again that people are attracted to people, places, and things that resemble their names. 

In studies that make believers in free will squirm, scientists have found that names and the letters in them are surprisingly influential in people's lives.  Similarity is really one of the largest driving forces of behavior.  Studies have shown that we give people special privileges when they are similar to us, like buying something for them or voting for them. 

Take me for example.  My name is Clark.  Clark comes from the Old English word for cleric which means clergyman.  Guess what?  I am a clergyman!  I am an ordained pastor.  How did that happen?  I didn't go into that field because that was what I was named, but how did that happen?  Was it predestined?

Take the name Presbyterian.  Many of us have been told that the word Presbyterian means "governed by elders".  This isn't really accurate.  When we think of "governed by elders", we think of the corporate/regulatory style of government that the denomination has utilized over the last 80 years.  But, what we forget, is that this isn't the style of government the church has used for most of history.  We know that in the United States, the main role of elders from the early 1700s to the early 1900s was to visit church members in their homes to test their theology and morality.  They were the spiritual leaders of the church.  They were the shepherds of the flock.  They were mentors to the younger members.  When the New Testament uses the word presbuteros to describe the church elders, it wasn't talking about our recent style of being a board of directors, functioning by rules and regulations.  They were talking about the spiritual leaders of the church.  These were people who would preach, teach, visit, serve the sacraments, and be the church in the community.

As we try to discover how we can be a missional church, we know that one of the keys is our elders, our lay leaders.  If becoming missional is completely clergy driven, it will never happen.  We believe in the priesthood of all believers.  If our elders only function as a board of directors, we won't be able to make the shift.  If our elders realize that their name, Presbyterian, is a reference to their leadership in the church and the community, then we can begin to make some of the paradigm shifts that are needed.  Leadership is such a crucial issue for the church today.  We need people who are willing to take some smart risks, gain the trust of the people, and who have the skills to help lead us forward. 

So, if we Presbyterians are predestined by our name, then we are called to be leaders.  We are not called to pass more and more legislation.  We are called to lead the church into our communities.  We are called to lead people back into our neighborhoods.  We are called to help people discover what God is already doing in our cities, and find out how we can join Christ in the work he has already begun.  Presbyterian is actually a great name.  Being Presbyterian is about providing the leadership that the Body of Christ needs.  Its time to reclaim the true meaning of our name.  Its time to be proud to be Presbyterian again.  Its time to recover our true identity.  I think its predestined.

P.S.  If you have the same name as me, I already like you!

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, is one of the best "missional preachers" in the U.S. today (in my humble opinion). 

The content of his preaching is somewhat "cerebral" -- engaging some of the most common intellectual challenges that both Christians and non-Christians face when seeking the face of God or the meaning of their existence.  And this stands to reason: a big part of missional preaching is sensitively contextualizing the Gospel message, and Redeemer Pres. is made up largely of youngish, on-the-rise professionals in an environment that fancies itself as cutting edge. 

It also means that Keller's preaching is often very helpful for those outside his congregation who have many of the same pressing questions.  What's underneath our culture's best formulated objections to faith in Jesus Christ?  How can we address them well?  What unselfconscious concepts of God or humanity or salvation has the church embraced that have prevented us from being a counter-culture for the common good?

I haven't read it yet (trying to meet a dissertation deadline), but Keller has recently published a book that will be of interest to most Presbyterians who are seeking the missional renewal of the church.  It's called The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, and can be viewed here on Amazon.  The reviews of the book are quite good, and being familiar with Keller's approach, I'm confident it's a worthwhile and provocative read.

I also found that the Veritas Forum has both audio and video of a "talk" given by Keller on the topic of his book at a University of Chicago forum.  Head over to the Forum's website and check it out.  Part One of Keller's talk is here, and Part Two is here. 

Feel free to offer your thoughts / questions / amens / rebuttals!

Are We Going to the Dogs?

They say that truth is stranger than fiction. They have made a believer out of me. My local newspaper recently ran an article about a growing number of pet owners who are buying custom-built wheelchairs for their dogs whose legs, hip, or backs don’t work anymore. Most dogs have rear wheel wheelchairs to compensate for their lame hind legs, although a growing number of front wheel drive wheelchairs are being ordered for animals with front-leg problems. (I’m serious. This is no joke.)

 One dog owner got a wheelchair for her dog after learning that his odd gait had damaged his spine and would have required surgery. She said, “He just wants to live, after all those years of really hobbling and not being able to get where he wanted to be”. Really? How did the dog communicate this to her? 

 The owners of the animal wheelchair business began in 1989 when their ten year old Doberman lost the use of his rear legs because of disc disease and spinal problems. Since then, they have made wheelchairs for cats, a ferret, alpacas, goats, sheep, a rabbit, and a possum. One pet vet said that animals whom once would have been irreversibly crippled are benefiting from a variety of advancements, such as improved hip and joint replacements, better physical therapy, and wheelchairs. (Remember, these are not human beings, these are pets). One of the company’s founders said, “Dogs don’t understand why this is going on, but they’re very accepting: ‘Oh, this is the way I am today.” So when we put them in the wheelchair, they’re like: ‘Oh, now I’m back to normal. I can go where I want.’” Really? How do the dogs communicate this?

Even if treatment is expensive, these are people who say they’ll do anything to keep their pets moving, to keep them happy, and to keep their quality of life up. Why do they do this? The owners’ goals are simple: to reward their pets’ unconditional love with whatever it takes for the animals to live normally. 

As I read that, a light went on in my head. Maybe that is the real issue. Perhaps people are starved for unconditional love. Maybe they experience more unconditional love from their dogs and their pets than they do from people. And when people do experience unconditional love, look at how much they are willing to give back in return. They are willing to spend lots and lots of money to return the love that means so much for them. 

If this is the case, maybe it’s time for the church to go to the dogs. As our churches seek to become more missional, and intentionally move out into our neighborhoods, it’s important that our community life extend unconditional love to the world, even when it doesn’t come naturally. The Bible teaches us that God loves us unconditionally. People who buy wheelchairs for their pets have experienced this unconditional love from their animals. But it sounds like they have not experienced this from other people or from the church. People not only need to hear the message of God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ, they need to experience it in the community of Christ’s followers. They need to see it, feel it, taste it, and touch it. If it is fake and phony, they will sniff it out in five minutes, and have their worst attitudes confirmed. It must be genuine, authentic, and real. It must not be something that is just a form of new member recruitment. It must be from the Father, it must be like Christ, and it must be empowered by the Holy Spirit. 

Maybe it’s time for the church to go to the dogs. If we learn to practice, to share, and to live unconditional love to our neighbors and colleagues, new doors of ministry will open. The church will become more missional. Unconditional love is powerful and life-changing. Just ask the dogs in the wheelchairs.

 

 

 

Changing the Church Culture

Images, metaphors, pictures and stories are powerful because they plant meanings and truths accessibly in our brains.  Jesus’ parables are memorable for just these reasons.   One only has to say “mustard seed” or “prodigal son” or “light under a basket” and our minds immediately go to the truths evoked by the stories around these images.

One of the building blocks of communal culture are the images and stories that we share which explain who we are.   Families, for example, have stories—sometimes humorous, sometimes almost incidental, sometimes traumatic—which are repeated around holiday tables or in transitional moments and which remind us of who we are, how we are expected to behave and what binds us together. 

Churches also have their symbols and their stories.  Some of these, like the cross or a loaf of bread, have long histories and have found a home throughout the entire Christian culture.  These have both wide community meanings and more individual associations, but they nevertheless shape who we are and how we look at the world.  Other stories are far more focused toward a single community.  These may include a particular building or architectural feature, or a repeated story about a key event in the life of the congregation. 

Good preachers and teachers use strong images, metaphors and stories to strengthen their communication and to help listeners remember what has been said.  Indeed, sometimes the story can eclipse the point, because stories can tug at mind and heart together in a way that propositional truth alone cannot.  Recently I overheard one man speaking to another as he was exiting one of my classes, “I’m not sure what point he was making, but that was a great story.”  Oops.  Maybe that story needs a new home.

The point of all of this is that if we are going to be culture changers, we need to find the right images and metaphors to anchor various elements of the new culture in the minds and hearts of our churches.  And then these elements of story need to be frequently repeated so that people begin to associate whole clusters of new meanings with the image.

Around our church we are trying to become a more “missional” church.  But the word “missional” doesn’t conjure up clear meanings in the minds of most of our people.  Even explaining the term often doesn’t help, because our explanations are imprecise and they vary every time we try to clarify the meaning.

But recently we have been using an image which is new to us to explain the “missional church.”  “How do you see the church?” we ask.  “Is the church like a cruise ship whose mission and staff are focused on attracting people to its own programs and giving people a good time so that their consumer impulses are satisfied, their felt needs are cared for, and they believe that their money has been well spent?  Or is the church an aircraft carrier whose mission and staff are focused toward equipping and empowering our people for their ministries every day in the world?”

On aircraft carriers there is a spirit of anticipation, readiness, and a communal life which is intensely supportive, but outwardly focused.  The mission of an aircraft carrier is not to entertain but to equip—not to attract, but to deploy.  Aircraft carriers evaluate success not by the number of people who come onboard, but rather the number of missions engaged.  On an aircraft carrier people listen intently for the orders of the Commander in Chief, rather than sitting in the sun waiting for the next activity on the schedule.

We are discovering that to change our culture, we have to change the way that we think about “the church.”  And one way that we facilitate that change is to provide new images, metaphors and stories to create new associations in the hearts and minds of our community. 

What are your metaphors or stories for what it means to be the “missional church”?

THIRD PRES HOLDS FIRST ANNUAL "VISION CONFERENCE"

Why did 1300 people gather together at Third Presbyterian, Richmond to talk vision?  In Senior Pastor Steve Hartman’s words, “Without a vision, the people perish.”   So Third Presbyterian held their first annual “Inside-Out Vision Conference” January 11-13, 2008. Dr. Mark Labberton, pastor of First Presbyterian in Berkley, California, was their conference speaker. The inspiration was attending the 2006 PGF conference in Atlanta. They set in motion the goal to bring the message of simultaneous inward and outward focus back to their own church in Richmond.  They set out to reframe their church structure, basing it on the “inside out” model, and to put together a new mission statement centered on that concept.  From this reframing process came the idea to hold an annual conference to calibrate and recalibrate Third Presbyterian to their mission statement as well as involve lay people in an excellent, congregation-wide experience.

 

Lead as a Presbytery in a Post-Denominational Setting

The Way Forward Work Group asks that the Presbytery of San Diego receive and implement the following report:

Work Group Chair: Rev. Dr. Mike McClenahan

Tasks (From the Task Force on the Way Forward Final Report Adopted by the Presbytery of  San Diego on November 21, 2006):

1.  Lead  as a presbytery in a post-denominational setting – Engage our entire presbytery and its member congregations in a process of education and reformation as we recover the church’s missional identity which is best  defined as being inwardly strong and outwardly  focused. Consider how to survive and thrive in this emerging post-denominational culture. Re-invent our presbytery meetings, gatherings, and communications to make them missionally relevant and supportive. Annually evaluate the missional effectiveness and progress of our presbytery and member churches with regard to church health, congregational growth and vital ministries that  further the Kingdom of God here on  earth.

2. Create a new way of being a presbytery – Explore such possibilities as realignment within geographic areas based on like-mindedness; parallel presbyteries within the synod; blessing and releasing one another to separate ministry and mission – modeled after Paul and Barnabas.

 Report and Recommendations:

 The post-denominational setting of the communities we serve provides an opportunity for us to learn together to be missional churches supported with the Presbytery of San Diego. A missional church is “a community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission in the world,” (Alan Hirsch). Our presbytery will focus on education and gatherings that leads to missional transformation.

 Our recommendations:

 1. Pilot Missional Leadership Gathering of pastors, elders, and staff who meet monthly around God’s Word and resources to gain insights of missional church and to pray for each other’s ministries.

 2. Pilot Missional Church Project with 5-6 congregations who join together over 18 months. The pilot includes the mission-shaped congregation survey and the mission-shaped pastor leader survey.

3. Pilot Missional Pastor Project where we invite 5-6 pastors to join together over 12 months. The pilot will include the mission-shaped pastor leader survey.

 4. Affiliate with the Presbyterian Global Fellowship(PGF) as a presbytery, a movement within the PC(USA) “to transform mainline congregations into missional communities following Jesus Christ.”

 5. Encourage sessions to affiliate with the PGF and celebrate those churches at presbytery meeting beginning May 2008.

6. Attend the Inside Out Conference presented by PGF in Long Beach,   

CA, from August 14-16, 2008. Our goal is for two thirds of our churches in attendance.

7. Redesign Presbytery meeting. The Vision Team of Council will redesign presbytery meetings to create a culture of celebration, missional transformation and learning, including

Sharing God’s Word and praying for our churches and the world,
Celebrating stories of missional change, growth and learning,
Inviting a broader cross section of our ordained leadership to attend.
Currently elders who work are not able to participate in Presbytery meetings.
Encourage churches to nominate next generation elders as presbytery representatives,
Limiting the work of presbytery to essential business.

 This document was approved March 11, 2008, at a regular stated meeting of the Presbytery of San Diego.

 

The Presbytery of San Diego Declaration

As of today, we, the Presbytery of San Diego declare that we are no longer primarily a governing body. We declare that we are a relational community and that we are becoming a mission agency.

 THE PAST/A GOVERNING BODY: In recent years, our Presbyterian Church (USA) has described the identity of presbyteries as governing bodies. This gives the impression that the main reason we come together is to govern ourselves. It suggests that rules, regulations, and policies are what is most important about our life together. This is probably a result of the corporate and regulatory model of church that our denomination has followed in the twentieth century. While this may have been sufficient in the past, it does not describe who we are today or who we hope to become in the future. While we will continue to govern as needed, it is not the primary adjective that defines who we are. Our polity alone cannot be the reason enough for us to meet together.

 THE PRESENT/A RELATIONAL COMMUNITY: The main reason we as a presbytery come together today is for relationships: our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, our relationships with personal friends, and the relationships that congregations have with one another. It is through our God-given relationships that we experience joy, sorrow, purpose, fulfillment, and hope. Our connections are providing a bridge for us towards our emerging future. As a relational community, we will emphasize listening, learning, and praying. We have taken vows to abide by the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and we will continue to do so, lovingly holding one another accountable in relationships. Our polity helps us set up appropriate boundaries for our relationships. It is a means to an end, it is not an end in and of itself. We see the value of being a part of a connectional system with other presbyteries and other communities who share a similar identity in Christ.

 THE FUTURE/A MISSION AGENCY: Our dream is that we will learn to become a mission agency together. As the early church laid hands on people and sent them out in mission (Acts 13:1-3), we hope to do the same. We live in a mission field and all of us are sent by God into it. God has a mission and God’s mission has a church. We hope to discern what God is doing in our world and Join Christ in the mission He has already initiated. We hope to learn new skills for new forms of mission for this new millennium. We hope to launch new missional experiments to discover together how God’s Holy Spirit is leading us. We want to be a sent people who are shaped by God’s mission, energized by God’s mission, and defined by God’s mission. The reasons we will come together is to discern where and how to be in mission together. We hope to connect with other mission agencies in California, the
United States, Mexico, and around the world, extending the Kingdom of God here on earth. As we move into our new future, we desire to be both humble and bold. We are humble because we do not have all the answers, we are learning as we go, and we know we need each other’s wisdom and insight. We want to be bold because we do not want to be trivial or waste our time on what is not important. We long to make a difference in the world.

This statement was approved on March 11, 2008, at a regular stated meeting of the Presbytery of San Diego.

Rev. Dr. Clark D. Cowden, Executive Presbyter

 

What Makes a Church Missional?

J. Todd Billings, a professor of theology at Western Seminary, has written a good, brief contribution to the ongoing to discussion of this question in the latest Christianity Today.  Billings summarizes an underlying theme of his article this way: "With so many variant views, the term missional church now needs something like an FDA label: Warning: Contradictory and conflicting views of the church inside."

But Billings goes beyond the confusion and helps outline some of the original intentions of the book that made the term famous (the 1998 book, Missional Church, edited by Darrell Guder).  And he compares those intentions with a variety of recent approaches that seek to capitalize on the "missional movement."  Some , in their fervor to emphasize the Kingdom of God as the central focus of God's mission, tend to preach the Kingdom without the King.  Others fall prey to the temptation of discarding the majority of Christian history as hopelessly captive to "Christendom."  Instead, Billings offers some constructive hints for how the missional conversation can shed new light on the significance of key aspects of the traditions within Christianity, and he points us toward a robust understanding of our participation in God's mission.

If you read the article and have bones to pick (it's bound to stir some people up), then submit a comment here and I'll be happy to engage in a conversation about it.

Check out the article here.

It's Time To Let Go!

Last night I was reading Nemo to my 3 year old. Right in the middle was a scene that jumped out at me. For those of you who don't dine regularly with a 3 year old and 4 year old in full princess regalia at the breakfast table, Nemo is the star of a Disney film.

Material Offerings, Eucharist, and Our Vision of the Future Life

The future life envisioned by Holy Scripture involves a restored physical universe, a “renewal of all things” — a New Heavens and New Earth (e.g. Rev. 21).  It’s true, however, that if we were to take a poll of western Christians about their views on what the future life will be like, we’d likely get a very different prevailing view: something like a disembodied existence, a “heaven” that is an immaterial existence. Critics of that prevailing western view have often laid the blame on the influence of a Platonic dualism (where immaterial “spirit” and material “flesh” are juxtaposed as higher and lower modes of existence). This criticism is mostly right.

ONE PASTOR COMMENDS 'RETREATING' IN ORDER TO IMAGINE...

Jim Street pastors North River Community Church, in Lawrenceville, Georgia.  The congregation represents some fifty households.  After watching Michael Frost on YouTube, Street decided to do something unusual: he took a one-day retreat originally slated for the church’s leadership and opened it up for the whole congregation.  Not insignificantly, nearly half of the congregation took part in a day organized entirely around Frost’s two presentations at the 2007 PGF conference. 

“The Missional Imagination,” (as the retreat was called) was not an effort to “come to any conclusions or create a five-point strategy,” as Street recalls.  “Rather it was to open up our minds to other ways of seeing God, ourselves and our neighbor that are more faithful to the intentions and purposes of God.” Here Street shares what he learned from the experience…

Missional, communally AND individually

One of the issues that I have struggled with as we at Heritage try to become more missional is how to make sure that missional does not become only about what we do together in community.  In other words, how do we begin to discover that being a sent people is also very much about what each of us do Monday through Saturday at work, in our neighborhoods, and with our friends.

We started our journey by focusing on how we as a body could become more missional. 

I think this was a great place to begin because we were able to discern the Spirit in community rather than as individuals.  Also, when we were doing something missional as a community (like holding a “festival” for the apartment complex next door) it was much less risky than if we were trying to do these things as individuals.  Yet, as we continued in this journey I began to feel as if there had not been enough focus on the way the Spirit is going before us at all times and in all places. 

"A Church without a church"

“We help people discover a God who loves us more than we can possibly imagine.  By stepping into God’s mission of restoration and reconciliation, we can discover the life that is worth living for and dying for.”  That is how missional visionary Jonathan Brink describes the work of the non-profit ministry that he directs.  “Thrive Ministries,” as it is called, seeks to explore what it means to follow Jesus in His mission of restoration and reconciliation.  Here Brink pokes holes in traditional assumptions of “church” as “place” and wrestles with the concept of what it means to be truly “a Church without a church.”  (You can find the full-length version of the article at his blog, "Missio Dei," at http://jonathanbrink.com.)

ST. ANDREWS PRES REACHES OUT TO LATINO IMMIGRANTS

“My wife calls us the ‘outlet for misfit toys.’”  That is how Spike Coleman, pastor for the past ten years of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, begins the story of his congregation’s journey towards missional transformation...

I Don't Want to Be a Hydrox Cookie

I Don’t Want to be a Hydrox Cookie

 

Yesterday I read an article from the Wall Street Journal, that at first I thought was a joke, but it turned out to be true. The Hydrox cookie is dead. Not only is it dead, but it died five years ago, and people are only now realizing it. 

 

The Hydrox cookie was created in 1908, by what would later become Sunshine Biscuits. They combined the words hydrogen and oxygen because they thought it communicated purity. (When you think of hydrogen and oxygen, do you think of purity?) Others thought it sounded more like a laundry detergent, but it gained a loyal following anyway. However, Nabisco had a much larger marketing budget for Oreos, so the Oreo always overshadowed the Hydrox cookie. In 1991, Sunshine created a new mascot, a glob of vanilla crème that morphed into a smiley figure named Drox. Pillsbury sued Sunshine, claiming that Drox looked too much like the Pillsbury doughboy. Pillsbury won and Drox was eliminated. In trying to appeal more to children, they renamed the Hydrox cookie as Droxies. When this didn’t work, they quietly stopped making the cookie in 2003. The cookie was 95 years old when it died, and it has taken people five years to finally notice.

 

One person wrote on a website, “This is a dark time in cookie history. And for those of you who say, ‘Get over it, it’s only a cookie,’ you have not lived until you have tasted a Hydrox.” 866 people (in a nation of 300 million) have signed a petition demanding that the Hydrox cookie be brought back. Some don’t believe the cookie has really gone away. In recent months, people have reported Elvis-like sightings – and tastings – of the defunct product. 

 

The contest between Oreos and Hydrox used to be like Coke versus Pepsi, the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones, and dog people versus cat people. But the Hydrox had so faded from public view that it is only now, five years after its death, that people are beginning to notice. This all according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

I don’t want our churches to be like Hydrox cookies. If your congregation died, I wouldn’t want it to take five years for people to notice you were gone. What is your local church’s connection to your neighborhood, city, or town? What part of your ministry would your community miss? 

 

In Jeremiah 29:4-7, the Lord, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles whom God had sent into exile from

Jerusalem

to

Babylon

: Build houses and live them in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

 

I think this is what it means to be a missional church. The missional church is sent by God into the community to live among the people, putting down roots, investing in the local economy, and trying to make it the best place to live in the world. That was hard for the Jews in 586 BC who really wanted to be back in

Jerusalem

. The customs of

Babylon

were foreign and strange and odd, but that was where God sent them. God wanted His people to interact with the Babylonians, to get to know them, to listen to them, and to care for them. They were to become such an integral part of Babylonian society, that if they were all taken away, they would be sorely missed.

 

Part of my dream for the church is to be like that. I want the church to move back into the neighborhood. I want the church to be alongside normal, everyday people as they go about their lives, and to be such authentic people of integrity that people see our good works and give glory to God in heaven. I want the church to try some missional experiments where we live. The Church of Jesus Christ has so much potential. We can make such a difference in the world where we live. I want us to be the Church. I don’t want us to be the Hydrox cookie.

 

 

Clark Cowden

Executive Presbyter

Presbytery of

San   Diego

 

ONE CHURCH MAKES MISSIONAL STRIDES THROUGH SMALL GROUPS

Changing a heart is one thing.  Transforming a whole community for the sake of Christ’s mission is another.  But that is exactly what Solana Beach Presbyterian Church, in Solana Beach, California, is trying to do…and it is making strides.  How?  Part of the answer to that question has to do with what happens when people gather in small groups and practice telling their stories—stories that testify to why they have put their trust in Jesus Christ.

The Small Church Missional Advantage

Jerry Deck is a small church pastor and offers this helpful perspective on missional living from the small church context...

As a solo pastor of a small church I am well aware of the unique difficulties of leading a congregation that is few in numbers. From low esteem to burnout to frustration with not being bigger (oftentimes equated with being better), small churches (and their pastors!) can easily embrace a “woe is me” attitude. I have found myself, more often than I’d like to admit, focusing on how nice it would be to have a staff, a few more people to hear the incredible sermons I’ve prepared (please note the sarcasm) and someone other than me to shovel the snow on Sunday mornings. Moreover, in a church culture which seems to think the best leaders are always those in big churches (just take a quick look at the bio lines of most church conferences) it becomes very easy to think that we who lead smaller churches are merely followers, that we have little to add.

Where Have You Witnessed Costly Discipleship in Your World?

We put that question before our readers in last month’s newsletter, and many of you responded.  Here is what some of you shared…

ONE PASTOR SUGGESTS DISCERNMENT AS KEY TO MISSIONAL TRANSFORMATION

There is no cookie-cutter approach to living missionally, but one thing is sure: the journey to missional transformation calls for prayerful discernment of where God is at work redeeming His world and a clear sense of the Spirit’s prompting to take part in that work.  Here, as part of an ongoing series highlighting lessons in missional transformation, Steve Stager shares what he and his congregation of Faith Presbyterian Church, in Huntsville, Alabama, have been up to in the way of discerning their missional path...

UPDATE ON PAKISTAN'S CRISIS...One Missionary's Perspective

Missionary to Pakistan Cheryl Burke shares  an update on Pakistan's crisis in her latest letter  home:

Happy New Year!!

And a belated Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Eid Mubarak, Happy Kwaanza, Happy Hannukah and any other holidays I may have missed! I chose to stay in Lahore over the holidays this year so had the chance to experience two major holidays, one Muslim and one Christian. Classes ended on the 20th and Eid began on the 21st. This is the Eid which commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. (Muslims believe that it was Ishmael rather than Isaac.) They sacrifice an animal in order to demonstrate their willingness to give up something of value to them. I was offered the chance to observe a camel being sacrificed but didn’t do it. Not sure I could handle that. It was interesting though in the days prior to Eid to see camels being led behind cars and rickshaws (at slow speeds) along the roads. The goats and other animals are decorated with henna and other "accessories" so you see goats and buffalo for sale many days in advance of the actual holiday. They then take the meat from that sacrifice and distribute it among friends, relatives and the poor. The Eid holiday lasts 3 days (21st - 23rd this year) and, beyond the actual sacrifice, involves special prayers and time spent with family and friends. The Islamic calendar is lunar so the holidays are about 10 days earlier each year on the Gregorian calendar.

WHAT IS A MISSIONAL CHURCH?

Jason Zahariades belongs to a newly formed missional  community called "Off Ramp" in San Dimas, California.  He recently wrote an article addressing the question, "What is a missional church?"  It's worth a read at http://www.theofframp.org/missional_comm.html.  Zahariades and his missional co-laborers often blog on their experiences at www.offramp.org.

PGF LEADERSHIP TEAM WELCOMES THREE NEW MEMBERS

We are thrilled to announce the addition of three new board members, Carol Kilman, Paul Parsons and Mike McClenahan.  Their gifts, resources and leadership will assist PGF in fulfilling its mission of transforming mainline congregations into missional communities following Jesus Christ!
 

Thinking Missionally

This video found on YouTube captures in beautiful language and imagery exactly what the "missional church" strives to be.  If you're looking for more of an introduction to what "missional" is all about, check it out here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg628SZ1tfw.

CAUSEdepot: A Resource for Global Christians

Looking to expand your global, Christian perspective?  Seeking new mission opportunities?  Then the new web site, "CAUSE depot," may be just the place for you. Pr. Jim Toole at San Clemente Presbyterian Church, in San Clemente, California, describes his new online initiative as "a website to create awareness around global poverty and entrepreneurial innovation."  Toole wrote PGF to say he is "trying to engage the Christian community around innovative organizations through two blogs, "Entrepreneurs Against Poverty" and "Faith and Globalization."  Let's give a hand of applause to Toole and his collaborators in mission!  Visit the site at www.causedepot.org and let us know what you think!

 

RESORT ISLAND YOUTH SHARE GOSPEL AND WATCH IT TRANSFORM CULTURE

In last month’s issue of the PGF e-newsletter, we asked readers to share feedback on their efforts to positively contribute to and shape culture.  Bill Walker, a businessman, had this to say about how one youth group at a small church on St. Simons Island, Georgia (St. Simons Presbyterian) began to reach un-churched peers for Jesus…and witnessed some incredible transformation!

ALAN HIRSCH TOUGH TALKS "DISCIPLESHIP"

Alan Hirsch will be keynote speaker at PGF’s 2008 conference.  He happens to be good buddies with 2007 keynote speaker Michael Frost, with whom he co-wrote the book, The Shaping of Things to Come and is often collaborating.  You can often find Hirsch musing about various things “missional” at his blog, “The Forgotten Ways” (www.theforgottenways.org)  Here he explores the Kierkegaardian concept of “existence communication” as a pathway to understanding what discipleship (a central feature of missional life) is all about…

CONFEREES SHARE LESSONS IN MISSIONAL TRANSFORMATION (PART 4)

As is often the case, the best “coaches” in missional living are those of you who find yourselves on the front lines of mission as members of local congregations.  Here, Reid Stairs and Ernie Thompson share their testimonies in a fourth installment of a series that highlights lessons in missional transformation…

Mere Mission

Another great blog for engaging the missional church discussion is "Mere Mission" (www.meremission.org) which touts itself as "an open dialogue in missional theology."  It's worth a look.

MISSIONAL IN ACTION: ONE CHURCH ADVENTURES IN SPIRIT'S LEADING

Just several months ago, an elder at Cornerstone Community Church in Ocean City, New Jersey, came across a video on YouTube of Michael Frost.  In the video, Frost was speaking to PGF’s 2007 conferees.  He was telling them that a missional lifestyle would change the way they view God, the way they view the church and the way they view the world.

(Kathy Tabasso with husband Tony)

 

Association of Presbyterian Mission Pastors

I'm reporting “live” from Louisville where I'm attending the Association of Presbyterian Mission Pastors annual conference.

PRESBYTERIANS IN CHARLESTON REACH OUT TO LATINOS

It's not every day that you read about how the Presbyterian Church (USA) is creatively reaching out to under-represented minority populations within her ranks-- which is why this article, commended by Steve Hayner of the Leadership Team, is worth a read:
http://www.charleston.net/news/2007/nov/25/presbyterian_outreach_embrace
s_latinos_area/

"MISSIONAL FOR DUMMIES": AN INTRO TO PGF

The following Power Point presentation was recently made to a couple of congregations in the Atlanta area as an introduction to the work and mission of PGF...

A few weeks ago somebody was telling me about a church conducting a search for a new pastor.    Apparently, this congregation is in a bustling and growing suburb of Atlanta.  More and more people are moving into the area; local business and real estate are showing similar signs of new life; and the congregation itself is excited about the prospects of adding more people to its rosters.

But there is one big catch.  The church is dying: each year more people leave, the budget shrinks and morale gets worse.  In short, this little congregation in an Atlanta suburb is just one more casualty among the fastest dying breed of mainline Christianity…the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. 

[Slide 1:  The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is dying.]

NOTES FROM PAKISTAN-- A MISSIONARY'S REFLECTIONS

Cheryl Burke is serving as a missionary in Pakistan where her ministry is to students at Forman Christian College.  Her reflections often make their way back to friends and family in letters like this one:  it offers a missionary's eye onto the current political crisis embroiling the country of Pakistan and, in the midst of the chaos, glimmers of hope for a new generation of Pakistani women seeking to give back...

Word-Made-Flesh Mission: A Sermon

The following sermon, taken from the Gospel of John (1:1-14), was recently preached by Methodist minister and missional church enthusiast Dave Faulkner.  He has given PGF permission to republish it in its entirety…

Happy Christmas! I just thought I’d get that in early. The shops are already wishing ‘Happy Christmas’ to your credit cards, so why not?

Seriously, what did you think when you heard that the opening verses of John’s Gospel were to be our text? Did you not think, ‘That’s a Christmas reading’? We hear those words at carol services and on Christmas morning. Of course, they are wonderful words for Christmas, and especially verse 14, which is going to frame my thoughts today:

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

Christmas is about the Word made flesh. But we cannot restrict these words to Christmas. They are a missionary text. ‘The Word became flesh and lived among us’ describes the missionary strategy of Jesus. And they are relevant to us, because they are the model for the mission to which Jesus calls us.

What is God Doing Underground and When will We See It?

A recent newspaper article reported that scientists now believe they understand the origins of the HIV virus and how it came to the United States. A lot of false rumors have circulated over the years that they hope to correct.

The best evidence now suggests that the HIV virus jumped from chimpanzees to humans, possibly when hunters in Africa butchered animals infected with a version of the virus. This virus began to proliferate in Africans around 1930. Researchers believe they have 99.8% certainty that the virus moved from Africa to Haiti and then to the United States.

The virus appeared in Haiti around 1966.  It may have traveled to Haiti after the Democratic Republic of Congo won its independence in 1960 and many Haitians sought work there. There were a lot of Haitian teachers in the Congo, and it is probable that some of them brought the virus back home with them.

The HIV virus first appeared in the United States around 1969. Once it got into the U.S. population, Americans traveling to other countries and people traveling to America allowed it to flow to Europe, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Japan, and other parts of the world. The United States probably served as a worldwide hub for this spread.

The newspaper article concluded by saying that scientists now believe that HIV arrived in the  United States much earlier than was previously thought. It takes as many as ten years after infection for most people to get sick, which would have allowed the virus to spread before health authorities became aware of it. The virus was “underground”, present among us, and we didn’t even know it.

In Mark 4:1-9, 26-34, Jesus tells some parables about the Kingdom of God being like a person who sows some seeds in the ground. Some of the seeds do not grow, some grow briefly, and some grow and produce quite a harvest. But, it doesn’t tell us how long the seeds are at work underground before any growth appears above ground. How long does it take to put down its root system, before it can begin to grow up? Does it stay underground ten years like the HIV virus does before it surfaces? 

This raises some interesting questions for our missional church conversation. If you are a church leader or a ministry leader, how long will the seeds you are planting in your people remain underground before God brings them to the surface? Ten years? More? Less? If you are seeking to plant and spread missional seeds in a denominational system, how long will they remain underground before their fruits begin to surface? Ten years? More? Less? If you are seeking to be missional in the community in which you live, how long will your efforts remain underground before you begin to see results? Ten years? More? Less?

I believe the missional conversation can have a positive effect on the western church, but it is not a quick fix. It will not produce an overnight success. You can’t order it at a fast food drive-through or cook it quickly in your microwave. And because so much of the growth takes place underground, we can’t even see it happening. We have to operate by faith. We have to keep planting, fertilizing, cultivating, and watering, trusting in the Lord to produce the growth. If the HIV virus can travel in our bloodstream undetected for ten years before coming to the surface, perhaps God can get under our skin and work underground for years, before we begin to see its tangible results.

To what can we compare the kingdom of God? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches. (Mark 4:30-32).

Clark Cowden

Executive Presbyter

Presbytery of San   Diego

 

CULTURAL EVANGELIST GABE LYONS OF FERMI PROJECT TALKS WITH PGF

Gabe Lyons cares a whole lot