Revised 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 the town right now, so he is also interested in learning how to lead his local church in missionally impacting the 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 the common characteristics of 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 leadership
































VIP PROPOSAL COMPONENTS
ANE Missional Studies Group

D) Learning Activities

1) Visit and interview leadership at Cedar Ridge Community Church, a church which has made the transition to missional ministry
2) Visit and interview leadership at missional churches such as Mars Hill Church, Mosaic Church, New Hope Church, and Kauai Christian Fellowship on our Immersion Retreat
3) Become well-versed in publication of churches visited, books on reading list, and on-line resources and discussions
4) De-brief with one another after visits and reading, utilizing our blog, list-serve and web site, as well as our regular meetings
5) Participate in Bible Study of Acts with appropriate aids
6) Each cohort member will write an original plan (paradigm, description, process) for our own ministry context
7) Field test what we’re learning in each of our congregations simultaneously, and in our own lives
8) Work individually with personality/gifting/leadership assessment tools to determine how we measure up with the characteristics we have observed in missional leaders
9) Develop interview tool to gather consistent information from leaders



























VIP PROPOSAL COMPONENTS
ANE Missional Studies Group

E) Evaluation

Group Evaluation: By meeting together regularly and engaging in meaningful discussion in regard to our reading list and Bible study, we hope to discover the truth of what it means to be missional leaders. We want to understand this concept of "missional", we want to learn what missional churches and leaders are doing
in order to accomplish missional ministry, and we want to understand what
missional philosophy will look like in the context of our communal and
individual ministries. Our primary means of group accountability and
assessment will be through gauging one another by the "indicators" listed
below, as well as the use of "measuring sticks" listed by individuals in
their personal evaluation sections. In order to do this effectively we will
visit one another in our particular church settings.
These hoped-for-outcomes and indicators-along-the-way are as follows:
1. To identify a working definition of missional and determine to what
extent our leadership styles and the ministries under our leadership fit that
definition.
Indicator: Consensus among cohort member as to definition and an
understanding by the other members of each individual's critique of his own
leadership/ministry in light of said definition.
2. Formation of a paradigm of missional philosophy implementation through our
Immersion Retreat.
Indicator: Completion of purposeful Immersion Retreat.
Indicator: Completion of missional leadership assessment tool at each
ministry site of Immersion Retreat and organization/analysis of collected data.
Indicator: Deeper understanding and conversation around missional
philosophy and how to be a more missional leader based on our findings during the Immersion Retreat.
3. Develop a list of characteristics of missional leaders from our
Immersion Retreat and understand how to implement those characteristics.
Indicator: Completion of missional leadership assessment tool at each
ministry site of Immersion Retreat and organization/analysis of collected data.
Indicator: Usage of assessment tool on each individual cohort member on
a quarterly basis to examine how the implementation of these missional
characteristics.
4. Formation of a true community of our cohort members, challenging one
another to live out
God's mission in our personal lives and corporate and personal ministries.
Indicator: Moving our relationships from that of acquaintance to friendship.
Indicator: Providing a safe, nurturing atmosphere as a community to
speak to one another's weaknesses as a missional leader.
5. To see the missional philosophy that we possess as leaders begin to change the hearts and minds of the people we lead, particularly lay leadership.
Indicator: Seeing purposefully missional programs begin to increase in number.
Indicator: Seeing non-missional programs begin to decrease in number and phase
out.
Indicator: Hearing missional philosophy language and discussion increase among the members of our congregations, particularly the lay leadership.

Individual Evaluation:
Tim - Assumptions: 1) The term "missional" could be defined as revolving around or focused on the mission. 2) The primary mission of humanity is to glorify God. 3) The primary means by which this is done in the church is by knowing and loving God and helping others to do the same, or in religious terminology: growing in personal discipleship while making disciples of others. 4) While these are the primary means I do not see them as the exclusive means. 5) I also assume that I will only have "abundant life" if these purpose and means are set and seen exclusively in the context of a daily, authentic relationship with the living God. 6) I assume that glory and discipleship are terms given to help us understand and chart certain aspects of that relationship. In the broadest sense how can one quantify or evaluate the quality of any given relationship, let alone a relationship with the divine? My assumption is that the term "missional" is an attempt to do just that; quantify and evaluate the quality of an aspect of this relationship. Specifically, the term "missional" is there to help us understand how effective we are at shaping our lives and ministries around the pursuit of God in our lives and the lives of others.
I believe that at the end of these 2 years I should be able to 1) give adequate defense to these assumptions of the mission, the means, and the term "missional" or 2) I should be able to give a well supported rebuttal to these assumptions and a defense for the newly formed assumptions.
Given the first scenario I will need to be able to quantify the level at which I (and the ministry that I lead) am becoming missional in order for the term to serve its purpose of quantifying a certain aspect of my (our) relationship with God. I will attempt to quantify that by a few different means. a) I will list the major duties that I perform and the major things that I give my resources (time energy and money) to. I will explain, for each of those, how and to what extent they do or do not conform to the mission. b) I will provide true purpose descriptions of the ministries that I work with and compare and contrast them with the mission. c) I will take a fruit inventory in my life/ministries to see if there has been fruit born of the mission. d) I will also ask the members of the cohort to evaluate me with the resource, ministry, and fruit inventories.
Given the second scenario I should be able to a) diagram how those new assumptions will shape my future life/relationship/ministry. I should also b) develop a method to measure my effectiveness in that pursuit. c) I will ask the members of the cohort to 1) review and adjust the diagram 2) use that method to measure my effectiveness.

Rob - One tool of measurement for me will be the understanding of what this word missional means, and how it can effectively be applied in the life of our congregations to benefit the community and the church. I hope to discover the pastor’s role in this unique puzzle and accumulate the knowledge and understanding to complete the puzzle. The opportunity to witness a church who has harnessed this missional thing, which seems so elusive to me, will be most helpful.

Galen - I do not feel that I have a comprehensive understanding of what it means
to be missional. I hear the word tossed around today and, on the one
hand, I think it is simply the new word for being “evangelistic,” but,
on the other hand, I have this sense that there is much more to it. I
hear of a missional movement, but very frankly have been so busy
building a growing church over the last several years, that I have not
had the time to read material coming out of these missional movements.
(And it bugs me that my spell checker keeps flagging this word
“missional.”)
At the end of these two years I would like to be able to intelligently
discuss this concept, even if it means I do not buy into it. For sure I
would like to be able to define what parts of it resonate with me and
what parts seem foreign. I begin with the assumption that it is good to
be missional—I may be wrong about that. I begin with the assumption that
I am already somewhat missional and that makes me want to be more so—but
I may be wrong about that, too. I expect that growing understanding, a
change in how I think about the church, more intentionally focusing
outward and more courage in my life personally to reach out, would be
markers that something is changing in relation to our study together.
I am hoping that the Cohort group gels and that we can develop a deep
sense of community in which we support each other, challenge each other,
and grow together. And then that that sense of community affects us in
such a manner that it flows into our congregations. Ephrata has been
working intentionally at building deeper community.
I hope we will be able to help each other congregationally, as we seek
to define and evaluate and apply missional concepts.

Jay - If in am becoming more missional, which I assume to be a good thing mirroring the mission of God in this world in my personal life and ministry, then I should be able to see my mind and actions changing in the regard. To pursue missional ministry, I take two viewpoints: personal and corporate.
Personally, I desire to:
1. Develop a tool (or use the cohort tool) to critique myself personally on an on-going basis. The assumption is that as I endeavor to become more missional, I will
actually see that happening.
2. See missional characteristics become a part of who I am in my essence, not just what I tell the people that I lead to do. For instance, if missional ministry
means purposeful, authentic relationships with neighbors, then I should be growing in the relationships of the people who live around me from acquaintance to friendship.
3. Be in constant evaluation of my personal schedule. Am I engaging in activities that show that I am being missional?
4. I will look to the members of the cohort to inform me personally as well as from a ministry-leadership vantage point.
5. Seek to engage my wife and kids in pursuit of missional ministry.
Corporately, as a pastor of a church, I desire to:
1. Use the cohort tool to critique my ministry on an on-going basis.
2. Philosophically and methodologically begin to challenge the lay leadership around me as to their engagement in true missional ministry.
3. Rely on the cohort to speak into my ministry and church as to its relationship to missional ministry and how to be more effective in it.
4. See missional programs develop and non-missional programs fall away.

David Ulm - I feel I am significantly behind the others in this group in my understanding
of missional ministry. I know what I believe it to mean , but am unsure of how my understanding relates to the meaning used by the larger church community.

Hoped-for Outcomes: I hope that at the end of this two-year study I will have a firm grasp on what the missional concept is all about and what a missional leader looks like. I hope to know whether that concept is one that fits my God-given calling, and should therefore be pursued, or whether it is foreign to my calling and should be abandoned. More importantly, I hope to have a solid plan for moving myself and my congregation in whatever God’s direction is for building His kingdom in our ministry setting. I also hope to have a greater connection with those in the cohort group, so that we can encourage each other, and work side by side in ministry.

Indicators: I’m sure I will be looking at myself and the knowledge I am acquiring, and hoping to see a decrease in the gap between myself and the other group members. I will also be looking at the dynamics of our group and how we are impacting each other as we study this issue. But more than anything else, I will measure the outcome by how I and my congregation are progressing in our current attempts and future plans to impact our community with the love of Christ and the message of salvation. If more people in the congregation are involved in ministry beyond our four walls, if our community is being changed in some way, if meaningless activities of “doing church” are being replaced with activities that “make disciples,” I will be moving toward the hope-for outcome.


I hope to invite a member of the cohort group to visit my church and analyze a worship service, sit in on a leadership team meeting, and interview several of my church leaders in order to provide input on my progress toward becoming a missional leader.

Dave Weiss - How will you personally measure the outcomes named in your learning
objectives? I remember very clearly the first time I heard someone refer to “building missional communities of faith.” My first thought was, “ Oh great. some new buzzwords, but what do they mean?” I have been trying to get a handle on post-modern and emergent ministry and what that means to me here in suburban Pennsylvania. What really helped was really disecting the phrase. Missional (which still trips most spell checks), the idea of the fact that we are surrounded by a mission field and that God has a mission for our lives. This is a two fold issue, dealing with two very important relationships, my relationship to God (internal mission) and my relationship to my fellow man (external mission). Community, the idea that the people in the church are interdependent, and of course the faith that holds the whole thing together.
My hoped for outcomes for this cohort group are:
1. To experience, in a small microcosm, missional community in this cohort as we encourage each other, build each other up, and keep each other accountable through this study (internal mission) and prepare to communicate our findings to other cohorts (external mission).
2. To grow in my own personal understanding of what to means to be a missional leader and apply what I learn in my ministry context so that I can lead by example and encourage others to fulfill their God-given missions both internal and external.
3. To discover the current missional elements in my ministry and to learn what elements are off mission and need to be re-evaluated.
4. To revitalized my walk with the Lord.
5. As a bi-vocational minister, I hope to learn how to lead missionally helping others to gain a sense of mission and help them to take some of the load off me so that I can remain on mission and not distracted by things that I do not need to be doing. My hope further is that I will gain some of this information from my brothers in this cohort. One of the things that I value in this group is seeing three brothers who are on one church staff and seeing how they delegate to one another. If I am to continue in this ministry, delegation will be vital.
6. To build deep relationships with my brothers in this cohort that will spill over into our congregations working together as the body of Christ should.
7. That through this group and the skills learned that we might learn real world applications that we can share with other leaders in the Church of the Brethren, to light a “missional fire” that may stop the decline of the denomination.
The indicators for me will be
1. Gaining a better understanding of what it means to be missional, that I can not only define it but also live it.
2. That I will be able to lead more of the members of my congregation into active ministry, using their gifts and talents to serve the Lord.

3. That God will use these “ministries” to add to the number in my congregation. (I will try not to be number focused, but in my ministry context as a new church plant, growth equals survival.)
4. More free time as I let things go into the hands of others, allowing me to spend more time with the Lord and family.
5. A willingness (both personal and in my congregation) to reinvent ministries and cut ministries that are not bearing fruit, and a clearer understanding of what that fruit should look like.
6. One of my favorite speakers always says that “If you want to be successful, speak to people who have been successful.” My hope is that in our immersion retreat, through meeting and speaking with “successful” missional leaders that I will gain a new perspective on what success (and fruit) looks like in a missional context.
7. FRUIT!