PGF Outbox

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 about Christianity’s impact (or lack thereof) on culture.  In 2003 Lyons founded “Fermi Project,” a small, collaborative gathering of Christian leaders and thinkers seeking to make positive contributions to culture, and he recently co-authored a book (just released in October) on a related subject.  unChristian:  What a New Generation Thinks About Christianity…and Why It Matters reveals what most sixteen-to-twenty-nine-year-olds really think about Christians.  The findings are less than flattering: they show most young Americans find Christians to be “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental,” among other things, with the implication that the church’s cultural influence on future generations is quickly waning.

But what should the church do about it?  That is the focus of the following reflections from Lyons.   They come from a longer essay titled “Influencing Culture:  An Opportunity for the Church,” that Lyons has made available to PGF here in abbreviated form….

A COMMON WORD

As we Presbyterians continue to seek out God's will for our lives while pursuing a missional paradigm, it seems we have a lot to learn from others as well.

MISSIONAL IN ACTION: ONE COUPLE TAKES LOVE AND MARRIAGE TO THEIR COMMUNITY

Tom and Liz Dressel are “missionaries”—only their “mission field” is marriage.  Now, thanks to their convincing, 173 churches in Clackamas County, Oregon have officially affirmed a commitment to supporting lasting marriages by signing on to a one-of-a-kind “community marriage policy,” that requires every couple contemplating marriage to undergo four premarital mentoring sessions….And, the policy is bearing fruit:  in the last five years since it  began, Clackamas County has witnessed a 15 percent decrease in its divorce rate...

CONFEREES SHARE LESSONS IN MISSIONAL TRANSFORMATION (PART 3)

We believe that some of the best missional “coaching” comes from local congregations on the frontlines of ministry. That is why we have brought you another installment of a series highlighting how our churches are seeking to live more missionally in the wake of this and last year’s conference. What follows are more personal testimonies...