DALLAS — Saying that “God is calling us to new patterns of mission,” 60 people instrumental in Presbyterian mission met in Texas and signed a covenant to work together in what they call a “new collaborative model of Presbyterian mission.”
That covenant calls for doing mission together in trust and humility, with the participants pledging to encourage one another and to “celebrate and encourage diverse approaches and structures for mission while maintaining the unity of our participation in God’s mission.”
What was remarkable about the gathering in Dallas is that it brought together people who have not always agreed on how to approach Presbyterian mission — people, for example, from the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), http://www.pcusa.org/ from congregations with active mission programs, from groups such as the Outreach Foundation http://www.theoutreachfoundation.org/ and Presbyterian Global Fellowship http://www.presbyterianglobalfellowship.org/ that sometimes work within the denominational structure and sometimes outside of it.
While those groups have cordial relations, there sometimes have been tensions over issues such as dissatisfaction with the PC(USA)’s sometimes-awkward mission funding system — the word “Byzantine” was used to describe it — and with the amount of money and resources Presbyterians at the grassroots are sending to mission efforts outside of the PC(USA).
“I would venture to guess that we are all here because we think something needs to be fixed,” said Scott Sunquist, http://www.pts.edu/sunquists.html an associate professor of world mission and evangelism at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, in the opening presentation of the convocation. “However, we come with different ideas of what is wrong and what caused it.”
But what they have in common is this: they’re all trying to figure out where Presbyterians fit into Christian ministry around the world.
As Sherron George, http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/georges.htm a regional liaison for the PC(USA) in South America and a consultant in theological education, put it: “We’re trying to see the big picture of God’s global, cosmic mission that involves us, the PC(USA) . . . We are now extending this invitation to our broken, suffering denomination” to take part.
The covenant signed in Texas creates a “continuation committee” to make sure this beginning can be sustained — saying in the next year the covenant group will promise to collaborate in the sending of mission personnel and to expand Presbyterian funding to support missionaries.
The participants promised to take the two-page document back to their own constituencies, to seek their endorsement and to invite others to join in what they described as an “expanding partnership.” Before they left, they worked on what they called a “two-minute elevator speech” to explain quickly to people why this all matters. Already the affirmations from some of the constituency groups are beginning to arrive.
The covenant also speaks of “the growing opportunity for cross-cultural mission” in an increasingly pluralistic society — fueled in part by global partners sending their own missionaries to the United States.
“The world has changed, and the majority of the world’s Christians are now in Latin America, Africa and Asia,” the covenant states. “The great growth and mission faithfulness of the Church outside the West invite us into a new posture. We must listen and learn to receive. We must also be open to new patterns of collaboration. These new patterns involve new cooperation and partnerships within the PC(USA).”
Joan Gray, moderator of the 217th General Assembly of the PC(USA), convened the meeting, held Jan. 16-18 at Preston Hollow Presbyterian church, http://www.phpc.org/templates/cusprestonhollow/default.asp?id=29712 in response to a commissioner’s resolution from the General Assembly in 2006.
On the last morning, Gray told the group she had come to this gathering from preaching at San Francisco presbytery — at a meeting in which the presbytery, after hours of debate, voted 167 to 151 to approve as “ready for examination” Lisa Larges, a lesbian who works as for the advocacy group That All May Freely Serve. http://www.tamfs.org/
Gray said she left the meeting in California carrying “a burden for the deep division in our church” and, in Texas, “what I have received is a vision of a way forward in the midst of our differences — and I’m thankful to the Lord for that.”
Most of the discussion at this meeting was on ways to work together — what could be, sprinkled with some honest talk of what hasn’t gone so well and could be done better.
People came representing immigrant churches and presbytery mission partnerships, mission pastors and missions professors, Presbyterian Women, http://www.pcusa.org/pw/about/index.htm mission networks active in particular countries or parts of the world, the Joining Hands http://www.pcusa.org/joininghands/ network, young adult volunteers, groups as diverse as Presbyterian Peace Fellowship http://www.presbypeacefellowship.org/ and the Witherspoon Society http://www.witherspoonsociety.org/ and the Medical Benevolence Foundation http://www.mbfoundation.org/ and the New Wilmington Mission Conference. http://nwmcmission.org/ Also participating were overseas mission co-workers and global partners from Ghana, Colombia, Peru, India and Vietnam.
After three days of intense discussion, those participating had reached some agreement about what they could do together — and found a new level of trust.
Before they left, Gray admonished the group to “remember the adversary. There is an adversary. And when we walk out of this place, we are going to have a struggle to hold on to what has happened here . . . There’s inertia in the system. We are going to have to go against that and find ways to let this new thing grow in us. It would be very easy to let the seed be snatched away” before it can flourish. “Do not let the adversary kill this new thing before it has a chance to grow.”
Gray also threw out a challenge.
“I would like to see a group of Presbyterians meet for three days to pray for mission,” she said. “To pray — period. To pray.”
The covenant asks the whole church to be involved in intercessory prayer.
Will Browne, formerly a top leader in the PC(USA)’s World Mission staff and now the incoming executive director of the Medical Benevolence Foundation, described what happened in Dallas as a “radical departure” from the way things have been.
The covenant is filled with nuggets of broader concepts — with references, for example, to valuing long-term international relationships, to mutual responsibility, to doing mission in the context of particular cultures, to the PC(USA)’s World Mission program moving away from a regulatory role towards a more enabling one, to issues of power resulting from global inequalities.
“Our church is divided on so many things,” Gray told the Dallas gathering. “However I have seen a ray of light in the darkness” with this new covenant.
THE STATEMENT:
An Invitation to Expanding Partnership in God’s Mission
As members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) committed to God’s mission, accompanied by global partners, we gathered together January 16-18, 2008 in Dallas, Texas. We acknowledge the rich Presbyterian heritage in world mission and reaffirm the Presbyterian understanding of God’s mission as it is expressed in “Gathering for God’s Future,”
The Good News of Jesus Christ is to be shared with the whole world. As disciples of Jesus Christ, each of us in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is sent into the world to join God’s mission. As individuals and as a church, we are called to be faithful in this discipleship. Our mission is centered in the triune God. Our mission is God-called, Christ-centered and Spirit-led. Our mission is both proclamation and service; it is the reason the church exists…
Our renewed call from God is to face the challenges of witnessing and evangelizing worldwide, equipping the church for transforming mission, engaging in ministries of reconciliation, justice, healing and grace, and living the Good News of Jesus Christ in community with people who are poor, [persecuted, and living in the midst of violence]…
The church is part of God’s plan. We are called into the community of the church, and we call new disciples into that community. With Christ as our head, the church community exists for the sake of God’s mission. We learn to serve in mission in a way that is faithful to the triune God. We are to model the kind of community God intends for all humanity. To be the church is to be one large mission society. [1]
Grounded in this theological foundation we realize that God is calling us to new patterns of mission. The world has changed, and the majority of the world’s Christians are now in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The great growth and mission faithfulness of the Church outside the West invite us into a new posture. We must listen and learn to receive. We must also be open to new patterns of collaboration. These new patterns involve new cooperation and partnerships within the PC(USA).
I. We recognize that God calls us to mission that is grounded in confession of our sins, grows out of a life of prayer and is sustained in worship. Therefore, we covenant to live and serve together in God’s mission according to the following values:
1. Trusting in the Holy Spirit and trusting in one another as each discerns how God is moving us in mission. (Acts 10)
2. Doing mission in the way of Jesus who humbled himself, showing the way of self-giving and self-emptying. (Philippians 2)
3. Seeking to be faithful to God as we live and proclaim the fullness of Jesus Christ’s good news; personal witness to those outside the church, justice for the oppressed and compassion for those in need. We accompany others in their efforts to be faithful. (Luke 4)
4. Affirming the complementary nature of God’s gifts to all in the one body of Christ and encouraging one another in living out those gifts. (I Corinthians 12)
5. Recognizing our responsibility to each other by communicating openly, acting transparently and speaking and hearing the truth in love. (Ephesians 4)
6. Striving in our mission to be aware of the context out of which we come, to respect the persons with whom we labor and to honor the context in which they live. In an era of massive global inequalities we commit ourselves to be sensitive to and address the issues of power that result from our differences. (Philippians 2)
7. Valuing long-term relationships, partnerships characterized by perseverance and long-term commitments which support and encourage global partners. (I Thessalonians 2)
II. We seek to live out these mission values with humility, integrity and steadfastness. Recognizing that God invites us all to be full participants in God’s mission, we commit ourselves to work cooperatively with one another in the following ways:
1. We will affirm and encourage World Mission as it continues to move from a regulatory role to a more enabling and equipping role.
2. We will celebrate and encourage diverse Presbyterian approaches and structures for mission while maintaining the unity of our participation in God’s mission.
3. We will share responsibility for the education and preparation of all Presbyterians for mission.
4. We commit ourselves to seeking more mission personnel who will serve long-term in cross-cultural contexts through the PC(USA), and to supporting them fully.
5. We commit ourselves to enabling and supporting our global partners as they send their mission personnel in cross-cultural service.
6. We recognize and affirm the growing opportunity for cross-cultural mission in our own increasingly pluralistic and multi-cultural society, and we receive the global community from near and far as mission partners and God’s gift to us. We seek increased integration between local and global mission.
III. As we move forward together in God’s mission, we commit ourselves to calling the church to ongoing intercessory prayer for God’s mission and to the following tasks:
1. We will form a Coordinating Committee to ensure that we will meet together to share and cooperate on a regular basis.
2. During the coming year we will work to address two immediate priorities:
a. to coordinate and collaborate in the sending of mission personnel.
b. to expand Presbyterian funding for mission personnel.
3. During the next three months we will share this document and invitation with our constituencies.
IV. With bold humility we invite those who would covenant with us to join in this new collaborative model of Presbyterian mission, and we ask for encouragement, for guidance and for prayer, remembering Jesus’ own prayer:
The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:22-23)
We, the undersigned, as individuals, join in the covenant, and we will encourage the organizations we serve to affirm it as well. Signed this January 18, 2008.
[1] PCUSA, “Gathering for God’s Future: Witness, Discipleship, Community: A Renewed Call to Worldwide Mission,” 2003, pp. 1, 16. Text in brackets is added.
