Partnership for Missional Church (PMC)
As a congregation, we started our journey with PMC in February of 2007. The idea behind PMC is to turn our focus outward to our community and for each member to feel that they are being sent out like servants. Our past plan for ministry has been “If we build it, they will come.” We have had the attractional mentality that everything that happens with the church must happen at the building. But it has become clear that we no longer live in a culture where this attitude will achieve its desired goal.
The first gathering of the Northwest cluster of churches was at our building on June 8 th and 9 th of 2007. This began our quest into the year of discovery of who we are and how we see ourselves, what our gifts and talents are, and how we are viewed by our community. We participated in several fact finding projects that gathered this information from members of our congregation and our community. We also participated in some conversation events that shared these discoveries of this process with our members. All the experiences of the first year of PMC were filtered through our Dwelling in the Word text of Luke 10: 1-12. This passage of scripture deepened our understanding of being a “Sent People”. The information that was gathered in year one is now the driving force of the second year of experimenting.
The second phase of our journey began in Caldwell, Idaho, on July 25 th through 27 th of 2008, where we received our new Dwelling Passage of II Corinthians 4: 1- 12. This scripture is deepening our understanding of being “Slaves for Jesus’ sake”. This second year will expand the number of participants to the process by adding three more teams of workers. We have the people who are directing our focus of the experimenting with our community (MET), we have the laborers who are sent out to form relationships with our neighbors (Plungers), and we have those that will form a bridge group between the community and the church by gaining a better understanding of offering and receiving hospitality (HCG). These will be the key players of the process for the second year of PMC.
Vocabulary
We understand that PMC offers a whole new vocabulary for our congregation. Here are terms that have been used in this process so far.
Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) – A cluster of area congregations sharing the vision to listen to God’s specific call to us, to let God send us and, through the Holy Spirit, empower us to participate in God’s mission in the world, so that both our outreach and our life together as a church are a witness to Jesus Christ.
Dwelling in the Word: This is an exercise in listening. Listening first to God and what he has to say to us through his word, and then listening to others as they share what God is saying to them through the Holy Spirit. The Dwelling Passage for the first year was Luke 10: 1-12. The Dwelling Passage for the second year is II Corinthians 4: 1- 12.
Congregational Discovery Report: Stories and perceptions gathered through interviews of a cross section of members of our congregation. This information was dissected and compiled into anonymous statements and phrases that help us to see ourselves more clearly.
Congregational Timeline Event: We recorded points in our own church history that represented things that we are proud of, things that make us sad and things that bring us hope.
Church Future Finder: A database that details the population, demographics and transportation patterns of our immediate neighborhood, statistical information of attendance, membership and finances of our congregation, building usage, community interviews and other information.
Adaptive Challenge: The direction of experimentation during the second year given by our elders based on the gathered information of year one. It is something that we do not have the resources or ideas to meet, we will need new partners and habits to accomplish it, but it is vital to our life as the church. The challenge given by our elders is to “Listen to the Spirit speaking through our neighbors’ invitations toward meaningful relationships and partnerships.
Missional Action Plan (MAP): The MET’s suggested detailed direction for missional change in the congregation related to the adaptive challenge as given by the elders.
Participants:
Elders and Ministry Staff – These people will shepherd our congregation as spiritual leaders through prayer and knowledge of the scriptures. They are the overseers of the congregation and the PMC process and they will encourage us to listen to God’s word and the Holy Spirit and to discern God’s activity in our community.
Steering Team (ST) - The members of this team work to direct the congregation through the PMC process by deep listening and reflection. They will facilitate, train and pray for each new group that comes on board. They will encourage communication between the work groups and the congregation. They will use the Dwelling Passages to filter all information gathered to direct the activities of the church.
Missional Engagement Team (MET) – They will use the adaptive challenge given by the elders to direct the outreach into the community. They will review information from the plunge team and continue to refine the adaptive challenge over the course of the year. They will then make a MAP to direct the congregation.
Plunge Team – These people will form relationships in our community as directed by the MET. They will continue building these relationships as they have been given hospitality from the community. They will reflect with the ST over these plunging experiences and the information will be given to the MET for their review and planning of experimentation in outreach.
Hospitality Conversation Groups (HCG) – This group will meet weekly for five months to learn more about hospitality by Dwelling in Luke 10: 1-12. They will be participating in discussion questions and also giving and receiving hospitality with the community. The community may be a specific group designated by the MET and Plungers or it maybe an individual from work or a next door neighbor to the HCG member.
Northwest Cluster of Churches - There are ten Churches of Christ participating in this cluster. They are Bellingham/Sterling Drive; Caldwell, Idaho; East County; Federal Way; Longview; Port Orchard; PUMP; Vancouver; Wenatchee/Kings Orchard; and Woodburn.
Practices
Dwelling in the Word
The practice of dwelling goes as follows:
1. Pray for the Holy Spirit to open your ears to hear the message that God has for you.
2. Have someone read the passage aloud.
3. Meditate individually in silence. Then each person should find a partner. One person at a time will share how the passage has spoken to them, a question that was raised, or thoughts that were inspired. The other partner listens to the first one as he/she shares. Then the pair switches roles as they dwell in the word together.
- Come back together as a larger group and each person should share what they “heard” their partner say during their sharing time.
- Close by reading the passage again and sharing a prayer.
Each time a group sets out to dwell in the word together they may decide to select a question to focus the thoughts of the group. Here are some suggestions:
- What is God up to in this passage?
- What is God up to in the world, related to this passage?
- What is God calling us to do and to be, related to this passage?
- What stands out for you?
- How is this passage challenging or inspiring?
- What grabs your imagination?
- How did this text prepare the early church for its mission, and how does it prepare us for ours?
- What does this text tell us about the gospel?
- What makes it good news?
- What does this text tell us about ourselves? About the world?
- What does this text show us about the way in which the gospel is to be make known?
- How does this text challenge our organizational forms and functions?
- How should our organizational practices change in light of this text?
- How does this text challenge us to be converted?
Luke 10:1-12
2 Corinthians 4:1-12
Links:
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