Missouri Union Presbytery

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  November MUP Newsletter (211.5 KiB, 451 hits)

AN INVITATION TO A CONVERSATION

             The words “missional church” have been a part of many discussions in which I have been engaged recently, as well as a fair amount of the reading I’m doing. For example: one of the arguments in favor of adopting the new Form of Government is that the present structure prevents us from being a “missional church” and we need a new structure that will allow us to be that. (In this conversation, the idea of “missional church” is seen as the opposite of “regulatory.”) Another example: at the recent Middle Governing Body Executives meeting in Utah (by ourselves and with the General Assembly Mission Council) we heard presentations from one of the founders of the “missional church” movement, and spent a lot of time in earnest discussion of what governing bodies would look like in a “missional church.”

            But what is a “missional church”? Sometimes, I think we are clearer about what a “missional church” isn’t, that what it is. For example: it is clear that (at the congregational level) it is not a church with a mission committee. A “missional church” can also be distinguished from an “emergent church,” or from a “purpose-driven” church.  What is clear, it seems to me, is that “missional church” is one of many waves of change that is advancing upon the denomination and its congregations, all of which point to the conclusion that things will not remain what they are, or we as a denomination will simply disappear.

            Like the term “paradigm shift” (which we all throw around so blithely), I suspect that “missional church” is one of those terms that has almost become a cliche before we understood what it meant. (And that, itself, may be a reflection of how much faster change is , well, changing.) But it also is not something that I think we can just hope will go away if we avoid it. Because I believe that “missional church” is worthy of serious study and conversation.

            There has been some very good writing on this subject. Included among my favorites are Darrell Guder’s The Continuing Conversion of the

Church (Eerdmans, 2000); Lois Y. Barrett ed. Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness (Eerdmans, 2004); Alan J. Roxburgh & Fred Romanuk, The Missional Church: Equipping your Church to Reach a Changing World (Jossey-Bass, 2006), and Craig Van Gelder, The Ministry of the Missional Church (Baker, 2007).

          I think that reading any of these four books (and there may be others that you know not included here that you’d like to add to the list) would be a good place to start a conversation about what being and becoming a “missional church” would look like.

            So this is what I am proposing. Those who would be interested in being part of a conversation/study group on the topic of “missional church” contact me. Let me know if you would like to begin by focusing on one of the above books, want to begin with another book, or would be willing to go along with others’ preferences. I will try to set up the first meeting (or meetings, if there is enough interest to try this regionally) and (if you need me to) order multiple copies of the selected book.

            Then this is the really challenging part. I am going to propose that once we have met face-to-face for one or two times, I suggest that we develop some kind of electronic on-going conversation. Perhaps this would be a “blog” on the Presbytery website. Perhaps we can do a multi-party phone conversation. Or perhaps we can do an “electronic meeting”using computer software. And I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know what all those possibilities are, so if you do, let me hear from you about other means of possibly linking us all together into a conversational community. It seems to me that with the geographical breadth of this Presbytery, the demands on all our times, and the cost of transportation, this represents both a wiser use of our resources and an encouragement to keep the conversation going for more than one or two meetings.

            So, if “missional church” sounds worth at least beginning a conversation about, in the way I’ve proposed above, let me hear from you, by phone, letter, or e-mail. One way or another, I’ll get back to you. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a meaningful conversation for all of us.

Yours in Christ’s service,

David E. Meerse

Interim General Presbyter

 Missouri Union Presbytery

Silex PC Receives $10,000 Grant from PDA

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has given Silex PC a $10,000 grant to repair the damage to their church.  The Silex PC basement sustained substantial damage during the recent rains and floods. The Silex grant is in addition to the  $30,000 grant from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for unmet disaster recovery needs in the northeast Missouri.