DALLAS — Saying, “God is calling us to new patterns of mission,” 60 people instrumental in Presbyterian mission met in Texas January 20 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.” For full text of the statement, see the Outlook Web site, www.pres-outlook.org.
The gathering in Dallas 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.), from congregations with active mission programs, from groups such as the Outreach Foundation and Presbyterian Global Fellowship that sometimes work within the denominational structure and sometimes outside of it.
While those groups have cordial relations, there 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, an associate professor of world mission and evangelism at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, speaking at the opening session. “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, 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 why this all matters. Affirmations from some of the constituency groups began arriving almost immediately.
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 Church, 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 for the advocacy group That All May Freely Serve.
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, mission networks active in particular countries or parts of the world, the Joining Hands network, young adult volunteers, groups as diverse as Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and the Witherspoon Society, the Medical Benevolence Foundation and the New Wilmington Mission Conference. 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.
