Proposal

VIP PROPOSAL COMPONENTS
ANE Missional Studies Group

A) Critical Question

How do pastors develop and perpetuate Christian missional ministry and lead missional movements?










































VIP PROPOSAL COMPONENTS
ANE Missional Studies Group

B) Study Focus

Rationale:
Galen: Has spent most of his life in traditional churches with concern for survival, church business, maintaining the status quo, and not risking ourselves. Trying to break out of myopia which is strangling ourselves and develop missionary strategies. Catch the vision and lead
Jay: Theology informs our actions through the Great Commission. Our identity as Christians forces us to be missional.
Tim: Sick and tired of doing church just to do it. Life is found in mission, it is the purpose why I live.
Dave W.: Desire to get past sermon as the only thing that get’s done as bi-vocational pastor
Rob: Has seen church buried under itself and scared of being missional, Need for purpose and re-learning
David U: Return to the original vision of ministry when God called me

Issues in Ministries:
Jay’s church is located in a town - Lebanon, Pennsylvania -- that is filled with social problems. Drug, alcohol and sexual addiction are rampant, as is mental illness. Cornerstone is a church that is full of young believers, many of whom come with the baggage of these types of problems, and an understanding of purpose is essential in leading them to be the people God wants made them to be. The mission of the New Testament is not having much impact on these tough problems in our town right now, so I am also interested in learning how to lead our local church in missionally impacting our town with the message of Christ.
For Dave Weiss, pastor of a small, new church, growth is a necessity. He has been blessed to see many members of his congregation grow into new ministries, leaving their “comfort zones” to do the work of ministry that needs to be done. This has been good for them and for the church. However, the group is becoming very close knit and while this can also be a very good thing, there is a very real possibility of becoming “impenetrable.” This will impede their shared mission. He am a bivocational pastor whose time resources are being stretched just to maintain the status quo. Short of major growth, he will remain bi-vocational and the status quo may be all they get. That is not what he feels God is calling them to do. They are in a fairly affluent community but one with a lot of problems that needs strong churches rising up to make a difference and be the body of Christ.
Tim, Rob, Galen and Dave Ulm serve in congregations of a traditional nature which have a long history and a deeply seated sense of who they think they are as a church. The struggle here is against rigid traditionalism, people growing comfortable with the way things have been, trust in programs that have worked in the past and the tendency to be internally focused. These pastoral leaders seek to establish new vision for the church, increased passion for outreach and an openness to change, while honoring the history and heritage of the congregation and meeting the legitimate needs of the existing members.

Assumptions:
1) It is better to be missional than inward-focused. Not missional is not healthy.
2) True spirituality combines outward ministry with inner spiritual health.
3) Missional is well-balanced.

Ministry Context:
Tim, Rob and Galen serve in one of the largest Church of the Brethren
congregations in the nation. It is one of the few churches that has a
multiple staffing beyond just two or three people. The Ephrata Church is
located just a mile or so from the famed Ephrata Cloister, so there is a
rich sense of heritage. The church also is just across the yard, so to
speak, from the Ephrata Middle School. It is located in an upper-middle
class community. The town of Ephrata itself is about 12,000 people,
situated in a larger area of 50,000 or so. The community has significant
social service needs. About 55% of the community is considered “unchurched.”
The church Jay McCumber leads, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship, is a pretty
missional church. Cornerstone is only about ten years old and still has the feel of a church plant. Most of his people are young believers in Christ and are excited about who Jesus is. His church has a real vision to see the community we are living in -- Lebanon, Pennsylvania -- alive in Christ. As of now though, that's not happening. This congregation has loads of excitement and passion for Jesus, he believes they are missional in their hearts, but they have little to no structure for allowing people a concrete outlet for that passion. The founding pastor of Cornerstone did a great job of developing missional ministry. Jay is part of this team to try to discover how to perpetuate and deepen that missional mindset and see it change our city.
This question is appealing to David Ulm because he and his congregation have been in dialogue for some time as to how they can substantially increase their ministry in a relatively rural community. They have taken concrete steps in the form of building plan to facilitate greater ministry, while not having a specific vision of what this ministry will look like (perhaps putting the cart before the horse).
In the contest of Dave Weiss’ small, two year old church plant, becoming missional to their community is essential to their survival as a congregation. He finds himself with the luxury of having nearly every member of the church committed to this, mainly because it was the one thing all the members of the core group were desiring when they set out to do this work. The congregation is willing, but they need to learn how to do what they are setting out to do more effectively if they want to survive and thrive.

Denominational Guidelines for Continuing Education - We expect that our study will speak to at least two, and possibly three, areas of continuing education as listed in the 2002 Guidelines for Continuing Education. Our learnings around missional movements will most certainly speak to the areas of Pastoral Leadership and Church Growth and Evangelism. We expect our experience together will also contribute to Spiritual Hardiness.




VIP PROPOSAL COMPONENTS
ANE Missional Studies Group

C) Learning Objectives

1) Define what missional is
2) List obstacles and barriers to development of true missional leadership
3) Identify and characterize two or three Christian missional leaders and communities
4) Gain understanding of the missional philosophy and the application of that philosophy to each member’s ministry setting
5) Develop a community that supports and nurtures each other in developing missional ministries
6) Identify the qualities, characteristics, and skills needed to lead a congregation through the missional transition
7) Identify potential strengths and liabilities inherent in each cohort member leading to or detracting from developing enduring missional movements