REISGESELSKAP

Introduction

Well-known Lutheran systematic theologian and church consultant, prof Patrick Keifert, outlines in his informative book, We are here now, the way forward for congregations at the end of the Christendom era, but also at the beginning of what he calls a New Era of Mission for the local church.

The book is his invitation on a journey of spiritual discernment for local churches, called to move from the maintenance of Christendom to innovating missional church in their time and location.  Keifert’s wisdom and insight was born out of, what he calls, excellent mistakes – the process of failing forward – learning out of your mistakes in a way that leads to positive outcomes.

What follows is a short summary of the book.  It is not intended to replace the book – please do yourself the favour of reading the well-written book.  It will prove to be a very wise investment of your time and money.  The book is available a www.bmedia.co.za, and was also translated in Afrikaans, published under the title: “Ons is nou hier”.

The Partnership for Missional Churches in South Africa uses the insights of the book, packaged as a uniquely South African process, as a journey of innovating mission in the local church.  You are most welcome to join on this journey by being facilitated in a collective journey, that is together with other congregations, in the Partnership process.  For more information please contact me at ngk.ooskaap@gmail.com.

Now for the summary of the book…

Chapter 1:  A New Missional Era

Keifert firstly describes the “lay of the land”, the context and circumstances local churches currently finds themselves in.  He does so by briefly describing Christian church history in broad terms to orientate congregations located at this time and place as being at the threshold of a New Era of Mission.  He gives hopeful perspectives: Congregations do not first need to change dramatically to be at the right place to act true to the gospel.

In the early apostolic age of the first centuries local congregations understood themselves to be mission outposts within the mission of God: communities called, gathered and sent in God’s mission, the very movement of God to the world.  ”Even as the Father has sent me, so I send you”(John 20:21).  They found themselves caught up into God’s movement and life.  They did not imagine mission as something or somewhere other than their primal activity as a called, gathered, centered and sent people of God.  This is the core characteristic of a missional church: being, not just doing, mission.

Since the fourth century AD a fusion between church and culture developed in the West.  The business of European Western culture and the business of the church became relatively indistinguishable.  The church was at the center of power in society.  This is called Christendom.

Through various processes the church was disestablished from this central seat of power, and marginalised in the West.  Most of us may be the spiritual descendants of the Christendom Church, which is no more.  We may grieve this loss.  But we may also be excited by new opportunities : the New Era of Mission is at hand.

Chapter 2:  Models of Change

In this important chapter Keifert discusses the difference between organizational change (the default position of  most proposals for congregational development) versus spiritual discernment that focuses on deep cultural change and missional transformation.

Examples is given, such as the worship wars and the introduction of small group technology in a congregation.  Too much organizational change can can create such conflict that deep cultural change is seriously inhibited.  In this case conflict management strategies may bring about bliss, but not cultural change towards a shared mission.

The so-called Gap-model, where you do strategic planning at the point of intervention, in such a way that the preferred future creates a gap between present reality and future outcome, meaningful change seldom realizes.  The Gap between where we are and where we want to be does not motivate.

The alternative is what Keifert calls diffusion of innovation.  Like adding a daily drop of blue coloring to a glass of water  will slowly, but thoroughly, change the color of the water, diffusion of innovation adresses deep but slow cultural change.

Social scientist Everett Rogers developed the diffusion of innovation-model, stating that change does not occur in a straight line, but along a fairly unpredictable path, with the following stages:

• Awareness
• Interest
• Evaluation
• Trial
• Adoption

These stages correspond to five stages of decision making: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation.

These stages also links to people’s openness to change.  You wil have the:

• Innovators;
• Early adopters
• Early majority
• Late majority
• Laggards

Each phase of the PMC missional journey follows the diffusion of innovation in a culture, because the local church is part of culture. Any model of change that reduces the congregation to either an organization fails to understand not only the depth of the change necessary but the nature and nurture of local churches and God’s way in this world..

Chapter 3:  Phase 1 – Discovering

In the Discovery Phase we recognise that we are living within the life of the Trinity.  Church people often fail to discern God as an active Agent, a Living and Acting Community, in our midst.  In one of the most profound passages of the book Keifert speaks about God as a “Being in Communion”.  of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  God is discovered as the most important partner for mission.  Adjusting focus from the church’s mission to God’s mission massively changes everything.  It is God’s mission, not the church’s.  The very life of God as Father, Son and holy spirit is a process of mission.

Other aspects of the discovery includes:

• Living into God’s preferred and promised future.  Questions are being asked like:
  • To whom and across which barriers is God sending us to be part of God’s mission?
  • What is our local church’s missional vocation?
  • What are God’s gifts in our local church, and how do they relate to our mission?
  • How can we be faithful to both the past of God’s actions in the world and God’s future – how can we find a useable past for our future as faithfulness to God’s preferred and promised future?
• Dwelling in the Word: to imagine our everyday lives  within the narrative of the Scripture;
• Discovering congregational leaders;
• Dwelling in the World (exploring the community and listening to various groups with the congregation and community, called family, inside strangers and outside strangers);
• Discovering other congregations as partners;
• Systems that support innovating missional church.

The most important capacity in Phase 1 – by far – is to listen.

Chapter 4:  Phase 2 – Experimenting

This phase enage not only the innovators and early adapters, but especially the early majority, the respected, thoughtful leaders, to relate the gospel, the local church and its culture. Rather than taking on the whole system of the local church, this phase asks and teaches leaders to experiment on one or two pieces of local church life and work as they encounter those whom they believe God is calling them to serve in mission. These one or two pieces need to touch the entire system in innovation, but do not attempt to change the entire system.

In this process it is vital to manage the polarities of:

• Early victories and long term change; and
• Sprinters and long-distance runners amongst members.

In this phase congregational leadership is challenged by adaptive change rather than technical change.

• Technical change: using existing competencies to solve an easily identified “problem”.
• Adaptive change: deep engagement with the entire system.  This is done in such a way (by experimenting) that the adaptive change may fail, without threatening the whole system.

Congregations need to give themselves permission to fail at this point.  Innovation requires experimentation; experimentation involves more failure than success; if you do not examine the failure, reflect upon it, and learn from it, you increase the change that you will repeat the failure.  Learning from mistakes is excellent mistakes, and quite useful.

Most congregations are risk averse, and when they fail they rather sweep it under the rug.  None is useful.

Acting and reflecting is the rhythm in which experimenting and excellent failure takes congregation forward.

Chapter 5:  Phase 3 – Visioning for Embodiment

This chapter describes the process of creating a vision to be embodied through a strategic plan.  This chapter is often what other processes of congregation development describe as their whole plan, but in this proposal the actions are fitted in a complete different model of change.  By this time congregations have developed practices of spiritual discernment, and have leaders who lead with spiritual discernment.

The role of missional vocation, discerned by this time, is irreplaceable.  Without a critical mass of church members sharing a sense that God is calling them to a specific part of God’s mission, the creation of a mission statement and planning alone will not move them forward.  This critical mass, 15-20% of active members, are the trustees of the vision.

Keifert stresses  the importance of written documents.  At this stages in the process five written documents are produced:

1. Statement of missional vocation (concrete and specific);
2. Vision for embodiment of missional vacation (how will the missional vocation look like embodied within 3 to 5 years, in terms of 3 to 5 primal practices?)
3. Strategic plan (the incremental steps forward over the next 3 to 5 years);
4. SMART plans of action (what will be done between the present group meeting and the next one):
   1. S = Specific concrete objective
   2. M = Missional (how does the objective fit in with the missional vocation?)
   3. A = Authorization and accountability
   4. R = Resources
   5. T = Timeline
5. Staff Covenant (a covenant authorizing the staff to do what they are gifted for, relating it to the missional vocation, and putting accountability in place).

Chapter 6:  Phase 4 – Learning and Growing

At this stage the congregation has a clear understanding what it needs to learn, e.g. the role of significant relational groups, and has formed a learning community with those to whom God is sending them.

Now it must be clear that every member is a missionary in day-to-day life, and it is the responsibility of the congregation to provide continuing education for them.

Some of the topics may include the following:

• Worship as public witness and community formation
• The Bible and Christian formation
• Making Christians and doing local theology
• Risk taking as contrast community
• Dependence on the Spirit
• Witnessing the reign of God
• Witness and evangelism

Chapter 7:  Sharing and Mentoring

Congregations learn best from one another, but they do not want to do that.  Therefore they need to be clustered on the PMC-journey.

The PMC-journey is informed by systems theory, with two kinds of systems:

• Closed systems, like the family (a metaphor that goes a long way to explain dynamics in congregations, although they are not families, and are not intended to be families);
• Open systems – congregations are open systems with permeable boundaries rather than the high boundaries of closed systems.  They focus on joining and belonging sociology.

PMC Relationships

The following relationships are formed on the journey:

• PMC Consultants
• PMC Trainers
• PMC Phone Loop
• Mentors and asymmetrical partnering
• PMC Summer Missional Institute

Epilogue:  Is all this necessary?

If technical change was all that was needed to fix a problem, PMC would be too much. But because we are at the end of Christendom, and the beginning of a New Missional Age, confronted with adaptive challenges, the PMC-process is actually the basics.

© Reisgeselskap 2010. Alle regte voorbehou

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