PMC Establishes Sound Missional Practises
By Martin Robinson

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Mission is on the agenda for many local churches and denominations in Great Britain. The Archbishop of Canterbury has sponsored an initiative in the Anglican and Methodist churches called “Fresh Expressions,” which, as the name suggests, is attempting to encourage many new and experimental mission initiatives. A significant cross-denominational debate has been asking serious questions about the nature of the church so that the task of mission can be better understood.

Most denominations are taking church planting seriously and resources are being developed to encourage that to happen. In the midst of all this interest in mission and good missional practises, many denominational officials are asking some key questions relative to the need for missional processes to enable congregations to move from maintenance to mission. Congregations encouraged to think about mission are inevitably coming back to their denominational leaders and asking the key question, “How would we do that given our present starting point?”

In May and September this year, a small group of key leaders from five denominations and church networks met with Pat Keifert to receive an introduction to Church Innovations’ Partnership for Missional Church (PMC). During the discussion, there came a recognition that Pat was describing precisely those sound missional processes that many are interested in identifying.

What is so helpful about PMC? Three key elements quickly emerged as critical. The first was the soundness of the PMC process itself. The notion that deep change does not come through programs but by engagement with a facilitative process was intuitively recognised as sound by those who have been this way before.

Second, the awareness that what is at stake is not actions by themselves but processes that facilitate deep cultural change. It is not just about what congregations do but what they can become that matters to those who take mission seriously.

Third, the capacity of PMC to enable congregations to work on change together – to share resources and insights, leadership and encouragement – was recognised as fresh and imaginative. In particular, the concept of creating Missional Action Teams clearly represented a practical methodology to locate leadership that currently stands on the edge of congregational life.

Congregations recognise that they need help in the exegesis of their community, in changing their relationship to the communities they seek to serve. The totality of the PMC approach represents a potentially “do-able” process to take congregations to the place where they would like to be but previously had been unable to see how they might get there.

Clearly there is still a long journey to cover and significant issues to resolve. Adapting processes that have worked in other cultures to an older Christendom needs to be carefully considered. Thinking through the financial implications for churches significantly short of financial resources represents a huge challenge. Locating appropriate personnel, designing implementation processes, and identifying key leadership all remain necessary. These challenges seem very daunting but a significant inter-denominational discussion has begun.

Martin Robinson is the national director of Together in Mission, a UK-based organization equipping churches with training and resources for establishing successful church plants.