Pittsburgh Seminary Consultation on World Mission: Presbyterian Global Fellowship and Mission Partnerships

The following is an edited transcript of Michael Walker's presentation on PGF at the Pittsburgh Seminary Consultation on World Mission, May 7, 2007.  Also present were the World Mission Initiative,  the New Wilmington Missionary Conference, and senior staff of the General Assembly Council, which includes the PC(USA) World Mission offices. To download this post as a PDF file, click here.

It is a privilege to be here with you this afternoon. I would like to thank President Bill Carl and the seminary, as well as the Committee on Theological Education, for the opportunity to come and share in conversation with you about partnerships to further Presbyterian world mission and in particular about the work of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship. Theological education holds a central place in my own sense of the priorities for church renewal.  Although I confess to being a perpetual student at “the other PTS,” I am grateful for the leadership of Pittsburgh Seminary on numerous fronts, including through the World Mission Initiative and the desire to integrate mission education into the seminary curriculum.

The Presbyterian Global Fellowship is very young and is still taking shape, yet one of our central convictions leads us directly into important conversations such as the one we are having today. There is no question that new patterns for the Presbyterian Church’s participation in God’s mission are emerging, as we move from centrally controlled efforts, to the reality of multiple centers of influence and creative strategic partnerships.  PGF believes that these new patterns must not only be recognized as our new reality but embraced as a tremendous opportunity. We should not only engage in conversations about partnerships but do so with enthusiasm and an expectation that they may bear much fruit for the Kingdom of God.

Referring back to a topic already mentioned today, it stands to reason that Presbyterian involvement in world mission has been significantly affected by the so-called “flat world” phenomenon.  Moving beyond centralized national-denominational efforts, more and more middle governing bodies and congregations are taking advantage of new opportunities to engage directly in global partnerships.  It is important that we see this as a legitimate development in Presbyterian engagement in world mission.  Indeed, for many of us, it is very encouraging to see congregations taking some initiative to develop hands-on, cross-cultural relationships with Christians in other parts of the world.  There is great potential, I think, for this kind of direct congregational involvement, not only for it to be a blessing in other parts of the world, but also to foster the missional renewal of our own congregations here, which are trying to learn the art of translating the Gospel for an increasingly pluralist North American culture.  Appreciation for the two-way relationship and impact of world mission among Presbyterians is a vital interest of PGF and is visible in Presbyterian mission history at least as early as the post-WWII consultations that reconsidered the nature of Presbyterian mission.

Yet, having said all of this, as we all know, with more participants in world mission at multiple levels come many new challenges as well.  These new challenges range from discerning how traditional denominational roles might need to be reconfigured or rethinking how mission funding flows, to learning how various partners can work together to accomplish the need for education and accountability, coordinating global mission efforts and just staying up to speed on what the left or the right hand is doing.  So my hope is that our conversations today will mark an important step forward in a long-term journey toward more faithful and effective Presbyterian engagement in God’s mission.

I would like to give you an introduction to PGF in general, when and how it came about, and what some of our recent activities have been. I will also offer a few reflections on PGF partnerships and point to some possibilities for the way forward.

Who is the Presbyterian Global Fellowship?

The Presbyterian Global Fellowship is about the missional renewal of the church, which is broader than our common understanding of world mission but certainly includes it.  The animating passion behind the Presbyterian Global Fellowship is the desire to see our congregations be transformed into radical agents of God’s mission in the world.  We see ourselves as part of the “missional church movement,” which emphasizes the fundamentally missionary or apostolic character of the Church. To use some now common phrases in missional literature, we believe that our God is a missionary God, and that we are his sent people.  The emblematic scriptural words for us, as for much of the missional church movement, are found in the Gospel of John, where Jesus says: “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Also in the beginning of the Book of Acts, Jesus tells his disciples: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” 

So our God is a Sent and Sending God: the Father sent the Son, the Father and Son sent the Spirit, and the Father, Son and Spirit send the Church into the world.  We see the missionary nature of God in the procession of the persons in the Trinity, and the missionary nature of the Church in our identity as those who have been called, sent and empowered by the Spirit to participate in God’s mission in the world.  One of the key take-home points of missional theology is to move away from thinking of “mission” as a program of the church and toward thinking of mission as the church’s reason for being.  We are God’s covenant people, called to participate in the unfolding drama of God’s redemption of the whole world, including the salvation of humanity and the restoration of all creation to harmony with Him and his original intentions. God’s purposes were accomplished in Jesus Christ, though they will not be fully manifest until He returns and His Kingdom is consummated.  In this “time between the times,” the Church is called to represent the reign of Jesus Christ as a sign and foretaste of the Kingdom and to be His agents, through whom He is working out his purposes in the world.  So, in every sphere of life we are called to participate in God’s mission, proclaiming the Gospel with our lips and our lives, and promoting beauty, truth, goodness, and justice in the world.

And so we view our congregations as “local mission communities,” and our hope is to see our congregations faithfully witness to Jesus Christ both close to home and around the world.  Viewing congregations as local mission communities is not an entirely new thing, of course, but it has taken on a much more central place in our understanding of the Church’s vocation. As Western culture becomes increasingly pluralist, we have been awakened to the fact that we are pilgrims in a foreign land who have been given a missionary vocation. Thus, missional renewal moves beyond common modern understandings of the church, which often see the church as inwardly focused “clubhouses” or buildings staffed by religious professionals who provide programs and services. Instead, we are moving toward a theological re-understanding of ourselves as a people called and sent as witnesses to Jesus Christ, contextualizing or incarnating the Gospel as we make disciples and engage the culture.  This re-understanding of our missional purpose should not simply change the language we use to refer to things we are already doing; it ought to lead to a comprehensive re-thinking of the  forms, activities and focal concerns of every level of the institutional church, centering around the congregation as the local mission community.  If we really engage in this kind of re-thinking, we’re in for a lot of change. And this is a long-term process in which we hope to engage our own congregations. 

Often the basic questions are put something like this: “How is God at work around us? And how has God gifted us to join him in that work, so we can participate in his mission in the world?”  These are some basic questions that provide a framework for missional renewal, whether for a seminary, a national denominational office or the local congregation.  The thought process begins with Jesus Christ and His mission; then moves to discern how we can faithfully incarnate the ministry of Jesus in a particular context; then moves to what structures and other supports are necessary in that mission.  The institutional expression of the church is subordinated to its Christological and missiological foundations. Some people refer to this as the “missional-incarnational” impulse of the church.

It was just such a re-ordered thought process and a hope for the missional renewal of our congregations that led to the formation of PGF in the Spring of 2006.  Many Presbyterians are longing for new ways of connecting with one another and with the global church, connections that will help them refocus on the church’s missional purpose.  This longing emerges out of the crisis in the PC(USA) – which has theological, moral and institutional dimensions – because it has both compromised the integrity of our witness to Jesus Christ and further distracted us from our primary missionary vocation.  PGF is thus a movement seeking to chart a different course, “to get on with the mission of the church.”   

In order to do this, the congregations who formed PGF have sought to state clearly and forthrightly our commitment to the apostolic faith and our apostolic calling.  Our 2006 PGF Covenant represents the initial attempt to state these commitments in a formal way, and we are working on a more comprehensive statement of theological vision.  On the basis of these commitments to the apostolic faith and calling, we seek to move forward into God’s purposes for our congregations. Moving forward for us means moving toward a missional vision for the church, rather than being defined by the inwardly-focused dynamics of denominational debates. To be sure, we come down firmly on some key issues of debate, but winning the debate is not the purpose of the fellowship. “Getting on with it” also means beginning the process of developing strategic partnerships and reassessing how we relate to denominational structures, being open to fostering new ways for congregations to engage in global partnerships and exploring new modes of mission funding.  Rather than responding to denominational crisis by shrinking or retreating, our hope is to respond to crisis through expansion: we seek to expand beyond the predominant institutional modes in the way that we express our theological identity, connect congregations to one another and to the global church, and facilitate the sharing of ideas and resources for ministry. 

I do want to clear up any misunderstanding that may be out there on this point: PGF is not seeking simply to leave the denominational structures behind.  Rather, in order to gaze at a more faithful and hopeful horizon, we are taking a step back from those structures, looking at a missional vision for our congregations, and then beginning to re-assess how that missional vision intersects our relationship to the denominational structures and to other entities with whom we can partner for faithful and effective Presbyterian mission.  It is our conviction that doing otherwise – that is, allowing faithfulness and our congregational horizons to be narrowly defined by the structures of the denomination and its internal dynamics – is a central catalyst for the crisis of the PC(USA). 

If we take one step further back and look through the wide-angle lens of cultural change, few people deny that the role of denominational structures is changing, not only in world mission but across the board and across all of the mainline denominations. In this sense, PGF can be seen as part of a larger movement that views some of the functions of denominational structures as important for engaging in God’s mission, while reassessing how other functions might be better served or supplemented through other forms of partnership. Clearly, there are both dangers and opportunities in this larger trend as we explore new patterns for mission.  And in the process of “getting on with the mission of the church,” PGF is open to having honest conversations about what is best for the whole Church.  And within the PC(USA) it should go without saying that there are healthy and unhealthy ways to address these current changes. Two of the more unhealthy ways are congregational retreat and total disengagement on the one hand, and denominational rigidity and heavy-handedness on the other. I think all of us recognize that neither of these courses of action will ultimately help us to address the challenges we face and the opportunities that God is giving to us in this new day.

At this point I would like to briefly mention some of PGF’s early activities exploring a missional vision for the church.  The first thing to mention is the annual PGF Conference, and the second thing I want to highlight is what we are calling “The Missional Web.”  First, regarding the PGF conference, I invite you to look through the brochure that I handed out for the August PGF conference in Houston.  As you can see from our speakers, we will be hearing from a blend of significant North American leaders along with leaders from other parts of the world, including Elias Chacour, Amon Kasambala, Li Mei Lan, and Michael Frost.   I am excited about how God may use this and future PGF conferences, because at the first conference, in August 2006, the movement of the Spirit and the response of attendees was frankly beyond what we could have hoped for.  Sociologists speak of events that have the ability to spark the memory of a community, to put them back in touch with their “deep culture.” “Deep culture” refers to the whole set of assumptions about reality and purpose that are unself-conscious and yet form the framework through which we experience and understand everything else. As Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow puts it, “renewal is most effective when it rejuvenates or redefines culture at the level of deep meaning.”  And Wuthnow says that we need significant rituals and events that can reconnect people with that kind of cultural memory.  I think this is true of the culture of the church and its renewal as well.  Looking back on the first PGF conference, it does seem to me that God used it as just such an occasion; for example, one person who had been a Presbyterian pastor for decades said he had never felt a part of the Presbyterian family until experiencing that event. My own conviction is that these sorts of events do have the potential to be used by God to reconnect Reformed Christians not just with the church’s deep memory of the awakenings of 19th and 18th century America but even more significantly to the calling Christ gave the apostles in the Book of Acts, that they would be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. I hope many of you can come to the conference in August.

The second major PGF initiative I want to mention is The Missional Web, which will be a resource-sharing and community-building website.  One of the major catalysts of the “flat world” phenomenon is digital media, and The Missional Web is our effort to use cutting-edge technology to facilitate the sharing of information, opportunities for cooperation in mission, and resources in a variety of media formats – print, audio, video, and so on.  You will be able to set up your own username and password, and upload your own resources or information about projects and events that you want to share with people around the world. You can have your own homepage, rate resources, identify other people as your “friends” and share your own “favorites” with them.  The second phase of The Missional Web will expand the community-building capabilities of the site, and it will likely also offer congregations the ability to develop their own websites and blogs through The Missional Web. 

Some Opportunities for Partnership

Now, a few words about partnerships. Because in many ways PGF wants to be a broker of relationships, partnerships are central to moving toward our vision.  On the one hand, the idea behind the fellowship is developing means for congregations to partner with each other.  And so many of our activities will be in networking congregations.

But more germane to this particular meeting are partnerships at the organizational level. There are a number of other connections that we are only beginning to explore. I was the director of Presbyterians For Renewal when PGF was formed, and we hope to work with PFR on matters related to domestic mission. We are also in conversation with the Association of Presbyterian Mission Pastors.  In addition, Dave Peterson, a member of our leadership team, is also the co-chair of the Joining Hearts and Hands campaign, so our personal relationships stretch into major denominational efforts as well.

We are exploring partnerships with The Outreach Foundation, Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and their new missionary sending alliance called The Antioch Partners.  The staff of these organizations spend a great deal of time meeting with the leadership of congregations here in the U.S., helping them discern their unique giftedness and how their giftedness intersects with what God is doing in the world.  In addition, these organizations are also regularly taking North American Presbyterians to other parts of the world.  PGF hopes to work with them in helping congregations to build responsible, long-term cross-cultural relationships.  We have had some preliminary conversations, for instance, about developing trips to serve as cross-cultural immersion experiences for pastors and mission leaders who are interested in developing potential partnerships, and building into the trip an extended retreat around the missional purpose of our churches – equipping pastors to come back and engage in missional renewal in their own contexts.

Together with all of these groups just mentioned, I think those of us here at this meeting have many opportunities to explore as well. For instance, in addition to being used by congregations, I would be happy to explore how The Missional Web could be used by the seminary, PC(USA) World Mission unit, or middle governing bodies as a way of sharing opportunities and information. Especially with Phase 2 of the Missional Web, it may be helpful in achieving some of the aims of the new networking groups that have been set up by the PC(USA) World Mission unit. The possibilities for using this website are significant. And effectively sharing information should be a priority for the future.

We could also consider filling some gaps in educational materials. WMI, the seminary’s missiologist (Sunquist), PGF, the Antioch Partners and the PC(USA) World Mission unit could work together to develop some theologically sound resources. I know, for instance, that Prof. Sunquist has an idea for an educational video that could be put in the hands of every Presbyterian graduating from seminary, to inform them about how their congregations can engage responsibly in world mission.

We also need to find productive ways to address issues related to mission funding. I find the current system very complicated and I admit that I have a lot to learn in this area. PGF has offered a document on “Mission Funding FAQs in the PCUSA,” to help congregations at least understand the present system.  I hope we can work together toward a more simplified system, one that also creates a positive atmosphere surrounding designated giving.

Finally, let me offer a “big picture” comment and say that I do think we have a good opportunity to work together to create a culture of conversation and cooperation on the World Mission front. PGF is new, The Antioch Partners have a new alliance, and very significantly, Linda, Tom and Hunter are all new faces as in the national offices of the PC(USA) as well.  So, there is a lot of change going on around us, and we have the opportunity to break old molds and think more faithfully and creatively together for the future.

It is a privilege to be here with you all, and I look forward to our conversations both today and in the future. Thank you.

Comments

[Don Dawson]

Michael,

Thanks for your contribution to the World Mission Consultation at Pittsburgh Seminary. I pray this will be a springboard to many more significant conversations about faithfully living out our missional calling as followers of Jesus.
For those who want to see what World Mission Initiative is seeking to accomplish at Pittsburgh Seminary and for the church, our website is www.WorldMissionInitiative.org.

Don Dawson
Director, WMI

[David Dawson]

Michael,

Thanks for what you and Scott and Don did at Pittsburgh Seminary as you identified important issues for cross-cultural mission in particular and the missional church conversation in general.

PGF might be interested in noting what Church Innovations at Luther Seminary in St. Paul (Pat Kiefer) along with Alan Roxburgh through Allelon are doing to actually innovate missional thinking in congregations. Shenango Presbytery engaged Alan for a project with 9 churches in 2003 - 2005 and 13 churches from 5 presbyteries in western PA are beginning our second year with the Partnership for the Missional Church project with Church Innovations. Thanks to significant funding from the Synod of the Trinity (one of the few doing much) we are discovering the possibilities of developing a "long obedience in the same direction" (Peterson).