Partnership for Missional Church

Overview: Partnership for Missional Church is a journey of spiritual discernment that empowers churches worldwide to respond to God’s mission. PMC takes local congregations on a journey of discovering God’s specific call to them for moving beyond doing mission to being missional in attitude, vision and action. PMC is based on two decades of consulting experience, research and scholarship. A comprehensive overview of PMC is available in Patrick Keifert’s book, We Are Here Now, available through our on-line store. A ten minute DVD and a brochure are also available upon request; a printable version of the brochure can be downloaded using the link at right.

Audience: Partnership for Missional Church is designed for local congregations and their judicatory bodies. PMC has as its primary aim to build capacities in these congregations and judicatory bodies for the spiritual discernment of where they are, who they are, what God is doing in their midst, how God is sending them, and to whom God is sending the

Benefits: The Partnership for Missional Church helps congregations grow by developing:

• A God-centered, biblical vision for mission
• A greater sense of God’s activity in their congregation and community
• Ownership of the mission of the congregation by more members
• Members committed to and capable of making disciples
• Both a vision for mission and a practical action plan to achieve it
• Strengths of the tradition of the congregation
• Practical skills for managing change and attending to conflict
• Dramatic expansion of lay involvement
• A decision-making process for planning activities and budget
• A faithful and hospitable congregation
• Relationships with other partner congregations and partners in the broader community

Success Stories: Church Innovations can provide you with congregational stories and testimonies from churches in a variety of denominations that either went through the PMC process already or are currently involved in a cluster of PMC congregations. Please email Bob Armstrong, the PMC Director, for more information at barmstrong@churchinnovations.org.

Time and Resources: PMC is a three to five year (or three to four phases) process. Phase one is a phase of discovery and attentive listening. Phase two is a phase of experimenting and engagement with the broader community. Phase three is a phase of visioning for embodiment to be a missional church in community. Each of these phases consists of three Friday to Saturday events spread out over the period of a year. These events include the spiritual practices, reflection and training necessary for the local congregation’s journey between events. The total costs are $25000 per judicatory per year, plus $3000 per congregation per year (exclusive of a part of the time of a judicatory staff person).

Getting Started: Download, read and share with others the additional resources provided at right and on the PMC Resources page. To learn more, contact us at barmstrong@churchinnovations.org, or by phone at (651) 644-3653 or (888) 223-7631.

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