There is a difference between being a church with a mission and being a missional church.  A church with a mission focuses on evangelism and/or social action.  In a missional church both congregational life and outreach focus on God's mission.  Being missional is more than conducting social service activities or increasing the membership of the church.  Being missional affects everything that a church does and is.

"Missional" describes the character of the church.  In a missional church, mission is not one among many activities but an intention that exists throughout the life of the church.  A missional church looks for how God is working in the world today in light of how it knows God has worked in the past through Jesus Christ.  A missional church chooses to join God in that mission, to let God call and send it in that mission.  A missional church knows that a part of its calling is to provide the world with a glimpse of God's future and to be a sign of God's reign.

A missional church looks around itself.  It recognizes, learns about, and engages in all of its contexts - geographical, cultural, social - even though it may not let itself be shaped completely by those contexts.  The missional church is not conformed to the world, but it is engaged in the world.

A missional church is willing to try experiments.  It is willing to take the risk of being different from the world for the sake of carrying out God's mission.  It is willing to put itself at the disposal of the Holy Spirit, who gives the church the power and passion for ministry in spite of the costs.  The missional church does this because it knows that the final victory belongs to God alone.

WHAT IS THE PARTNERSHIP FOR MISSIONAL CHURCH™?

 It is a network of local churches sharing this 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.

 It sounds ambitious, and it is.  This is a partnership of congregations on a shared journey.  It takes time - even years.  On this journey, congregations are changing, taking reasonable risks, trying something different, and giving long-term commitment (three to five years) to the challenges of becoming a missional church.

 These congregations will seek to reach across boundaries as they live into God's preferred future for the whole world.  By partnering with others who are wrestling with the same question, in their own unique settings, each of these congregations will attempt to become a sign and an instrument of God's future.

CURRENT PARTNERSHIP OF CONGREGATIONS

 Shenango Presbytery

Beaver-Butler Presbytery

Redstone Presbytery

Lake Erie Presbytery

Pittsburgh Presbytery

 WHY IS IT CALLED PARTNERSHIP
FOR MISSIONAL CHURCH™?

 "PARTNERSHIP" - Members of each congregation and their elected church officers, assisted and supported by their clergy, Presbytery staff, and professional consultants provided by Church Innovations Institute, partner by gathering in worship, learning events, and prayer; learning through shared stories and experiences; and, supporting each other in becoming more missional.

 "MISSIONAL" - The partners seek to participate in God's mission of reconciling, restoring, and redeeming a world in need of God's grace.  By engaging in spiritual discernment, the partners attempt to discover specifically how God is sending us so that we may be better partners with one another in God's work.  With full understanding that the mission field is not only in foreign countries but also among us, the partners endeavor to make local churches the mission centers for the Christian church today.

 "CHURCH" - It must be emphasized that the Partnership for Missional Church™ is not about making a "brand new church" from nothing.  It is an attempt to build upon the traditions of our congregation as it grows into a missional church.  It grows from the dedication of the people in our pews, led by lay and ordained people toward a new mission frontier - a new age of mission in a time when the society around us doesn't look very Christian.

THE STEERING TEAM

 Earlier this year, the Session approved the participation of Clen-Moore Presbyterian Church in the Partnership for Missional Church Program ™.  Subsequently, the Session appointed the pastor and seven of our members to serve as a Steering Team.  In addition to Rev. Bill Meyer, the Team includes Ray Keffer, Tom Mansell, Brenda Matas, Amy Plyler, Joan Rapp, Tom Rapp, and Bob Wilson. 

The mission of the Steering Team is to guide the congregation through a process of spiritual discernment and theological reflection that will enable us to develop a missional vocation and to walk into God's preferred and promised future for this congregation.

This Team has not been created to "remake" our church.  It is not charged with the responsibility of identifying problems and recommending solutions.  Churches, including our own, have tried that approach and have found it to be a band-aide process that generally addresses the immediate or short-term needs of the congregation but which too often fails to carry out God's purpose for His Church. 

The Partnership for Missional Church program is a four-part process.  The first part is devoted to Discovery.  The second emphasizes Experimentation, and the third involves Visioning.  The final part of the process is the on-going implementation of the long-range plans developed as a result of the spiritual discernment acquired from the first three parts

During the Discovery part of the process (the part we are presently engaged in) your congregational leaders will innovate the capacity of listening to discover our partners for a missional church.  The Steering Team will assist our congregation in growing toward a missional vocation by helping them ask and answer these five questions.  Where are we?  Whose are we? What is God doing?  How is God sending us?  How are we living according to God's future?

The Steering Team is currently seeking answers to these questions by collecting statistical data about the church and the community that the church serves, conducting interviews with individual members who represent a cross-section of the congregation, and seeking input from groups within our church regarding our heritage and traditions and our strengths and weaknesses. 

DWELLING IN THE WORD

Throughout our endeavors to discover God's future for our congregation, we have diligently practiced the discipline of dwelling in God's Word.  At every meeting of our Team, at every meeting with our partnering Team from East Main Presbyterian Church in Grove City, and at every cluster meeting with the other twelve partner churches; we have committed ourselves to discovering God's will as revealed to us in the following passage from the Gospel of Luke.

 LUKE 10:1-12  (New International Version)
1 - After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go.  2 - He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.  3 - Go!  I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.  4 - Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and, do not greet anyone on the road.  5 - When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.'  6 - If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him.  If not, it will return to you.  7 - Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.  Do not move around from house to house.  8 - When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you.  9 - Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'  10 - But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 - 'Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you.  Yet be sure of this:  The kingdom of God is near.'  12 - I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town."

We have read and reread these verses.  We have questioned and discussed their meaning both to us and to our congregations.  Most importantly, we have prayed for God to reveal His will for His church here on earth.

Now, we respectfully request that you read and reread these verses.  Ask yourself the following questions and reflect upon your answers.  Then pray and ask God to reveal His mission for the future of His Church and how He is sending our congregation to carry out that mission. 

REFLECTING ON THE WORD

1.         Do I believe that the Bible is the divinely revealed word of God?  If it is, what is God saying to me in this passage?

2.         At what point in my reading did I have to stop and think?  Why did I stop there?

3.         With which persons in this story do I most identify?  Am I one of the persons appointed by Christ to carry out the mission, or am I one of those hosting the missionaries? 

4.         What is God's will for the future of His Church here on earth?   What is the role of this congregation in carrying out His will?  What is my role?

5.         If I am appointed to undertake a mission in the name of Christ, am I willing to trust Him to protect and sustain me as I carry out that mission?  Am I willing to forego the material pleasures and social interactions that might divert my attention from or delay my accomplishment of that mission?

The Missional Mindset

Church

 The missional church thinks of itself as a community of those who love God and "who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

The missional church sees itself as identified and defined by its relationship with God and not by its organization, the building it occupies, the quality of its services, or the charisma of its clergy.

Clergy

Ordained clergy have completed specialized training and have been authorized to perform certain practices or functions considered to be sacred by their respective denominations, but they are called by God to provide for the spiritual care and guidance of a community of believers not to do all the work of the church.

The missional church believes that all the members of the church, not just the hired professionals, are called to minister to others in God's name.

Worship

Corporate worship is an important moment in the life of the people of God.  Jesus told the Samaritan woman, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24). 

"In spirit and in truth" implies a process rather than a program.  It is about active participation in the proceedings and not about passive attendance at an event.  Worship should enlighten, encourage and energize those in attendance.  It should not be a comfortable routine that is faithfully observed because it makes the participant feel good. 

The missional church is more concerned about the end results of the process and less about the rituals practiced or the format followed.  God's people gather together as a body of believers to seek God's presence, to praise God for his gift of salvation, to enhance their knowledge and understanding of God's will and to become realigned with the Triune God's purpose.  In a missional church, worship is a rallying point from which God's people emerge, directed and inspired by the Son and strengthened and sustained by the Holy Spirit, to carry out the Father's mission throughout the week. 

Missions

Christ sent His followers into the entire world to make disciples of all people.

Evangelism

The word "evangel" comes from the Greek word evangelion which is interpreted to mean the "good news" or the "gospel", and the dictionary defines "evangelism" as the winning or revival of personal commitments to Christ. The Bible says that spreading the good news of God's salvation and making Jesus-followers of all peoples throughout the entire world is God's mission for his church here on earth and that His followers are sent to carryout that mission.

The term missional church is not just a new strategy for evangelism.  Evangelism is not just another program, activity or service to be designed and implemented by a church committee. The missional church sees evangelism as the goal of every church program, activity and service.

Success