What has become known as the “Dallas Consultation” ended with representatives from the PC(USA) national offices, local churches, presbyteries, and mission organizations signing on to a covenant that established a new culture of collaboration among the disparate groups by re-affirming Presbyterian values and practices in the worldwide mission of the Church. This covenant agreement established a Continuation Committee, and it has been meeting to determine how these ends will best be achieved.
Since the meeting in Dallas, more than 130 individuals and groups have joined the invitation, agreeing to operate according to commonly accepted values and participating in an ongoing process ultimately intended to enhance cooperation among Presbyterians involved in mission. The commissioners at this year’s 218th General Assembly will be invited to affirm this invitation as well.
The General Assembly Council (GAC) meeting in spring 2008 was so persuaded by the significance of this consultation that its elected members, at the unveiling of the 2009-10 budget, recommended a plan to increase, rather than decrease, the number of mission personnel sent from the GAC’s World Mission offices beginning in 2009-10. This would mark a historic reversal to the fifty-year-long trend of decreasing numbers of mission workers.
GAC Executive Director Linda Valentine said, “Dallas was more than an event and a document. It has become a movement. The spirit of cooperation and the vision for a synergy in Christ’s mission, which is larger than each of our own work, has moved from Dallas into innumerable ministries across our denomination. I’m extremely excited to see where this will take us.”
The Dallas Consultation was based on a commissioners’ resolution from the 217th General Assembly, which directed PC(USA) senior leadership, including Assembly Moderator Joan Gray, Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick, and Executive Director of the General Assembly Council Linda Valentine, to convene “people and organizations concerned about the future of worldwide [PC(USA)] mission work … for the 21st century,” in order to reflect on what Presbyterian theology and practice of mission should be.
What excited me about being a part of the Dallas Consultation was that it became a broad look at all types of mission. Certainly, it was about the deep needs on the international mission field. But it was also about the deep needs here at home, and how we can best come together in partnership to meet those needs.
The commissioners’ resolution that prompted Dallas was due, in part, to the increased fracturing of mission work across the denomination, with many congregations sending or supporting independently their own mission workers, supporting mission work outside of the PC(USA), or starting new groups intended to do national and international mission work. Many groups felt the need to consider ways of avoiding the duplication and inefficiencies sometimes resulting from independent, uncoordinated mission work. The leadership of the PC(USA) saw this resolution as a Holy Spirit-driven opportunity to draw together all with vested interests in Christian mission, to ask the question, “Can we agree upon what it means to be Presbyterians joining in God’s mission in the 21st century?”
While validated ministries such as the Outreach Foundation, Frontier Fellowship, and the Medical Benevolence Foundation were always anticipated by the resolution to be at the table, the conveners of the consultation opted early on to gather a widely diverse group, which ultimately also included representatives from groups like the Presbyterian Global Fellowship, the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, large churches, Young Adult Volunteers, middle governing bodies, Presbyterian Women, and many more. The question was, could those with such contrasting ideologies truly come to agree upon the essentials of Christian mission? Or, would this gathering only play out as a further example of the impasses that divide us as Presbyterians?
As the participants gathered in Dallas, from the beginning time of worship it was clear that all were intent on maintaining mutual respect for one another, humbly accepting constructive criticism where needed, and seeking real collaboration wherever possible. “It’s no secret that there has been a history of mistrust among the various mission agencies of the church here in the U.S.,” said Rick Ufford-Chase, at that time Presbyterian Peace Fellowship executive director. “This is an attempt to lay the foundation for closer coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, and to admit that no individual body is fully capable of capturing the breadth of the task of living and sharing the good news of the Gospel in a world of so much suffering.”
Those from the Presbyterian national offices such as Hunter Farrell, director of world mission, who played a central role in the consultation, were clear from the beginning: “Our denomination has moved from a centralized structure, where congregations and mission groups were dependent on the central offices to ‘do mission’ for them to an independent style where mission groups could do mission as they saw fit, but without much coordination among themselves. The Dallas Consultation marked the beginning point of a new chapter in our mission history where, to be faithful to Jesus Christ, we have to recognize that we need to work together. This interdependent way of doing mission invites each to bring to the table what they do best, so that we share the Good News of Jesus Christ most effectively and in such a way that advances all our work with the highest sense of integrity.”
Scott Sunquist, the W. Don McClure associate professor of world mission and evangelism at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, brought a keynote message entitled, “Continuity and Change in the Landscape of God’s Mission.” In his remarks, Sunquist said, “Christian mission is a matter of spirituality more than structures, of sacrifice more than strategies. Any assumption that our task here is to restructure life into Presbyterian mission will fail, and it should. Our task is to participate with God, and plead with God that he would breathe new life into this old institution.” He was followed by other breakout presentations led by Setri Nyomi, the general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; Sherron George, Worldwide Ministries Division’s regional liaison and theological education consultant for South America; and Bill Young, executive director of the Outreach Foundation.
Maria Zack, Medical Benevolence Foundation board chair, led the plenary sessions of the group. Combining pastoral sensitivity and a focus toward substantive outcome, Zack led the overall group for two full days through exercises intended to see if this group could unite in a common understanding of mission theology and practice that also acknowledges the changing face of missions among Presbyterians. Participants shared honest frustrations and occasional hurts, along with mutual praise and helpful stories of “best efforts.”
On the final morning of the two and a half day experience, a writing team who had been recording the conversations throughout the event handed out a document purporting to reflect what they had heard. Maria Zack directed all to read it in silence. As they did, heads nodded in awed satisfaction, tears came to the eyes of others. The 64 participants covenanted to “live and serve together in God’s mission” according to the shared values of mutual trust, humility, holistic mission, interdependence, transparency, contextual sensitivity, and long-term relationships. They pledged to “work cooperatively” according to specific mission practices and to address two immediate priorities: “to coordinate and collaborate in the sending of mission personnel, and to expand Presbyterian funding for mission personnel.” As one after another finished reading the document entitled, “An Invitation to Expanding Partnership in God’s Mission,” all sat in astonished silence with the overwhelming sense that God was there and had, as Presbyterians affirm, spoken clearly and powerfully through faithful disciples who had humbly and honestly come together to seek God’s will.
A movement has begun in our Church. The Dallas Consultation affirmed that we can participate in Christ’s mission more faithfully and effectively when we do it together. Won’t you join us?
Tom Taylor is deputy executive director for mission of the General Assembly Council.
