JSPs: Partners on Your PMC Journey
By Caroline Hvidsten

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If you’ve had any experience with Partnership for Missional Church, you’ve probably found yourself overwhelmed by all sorts of new terms and phrases like Dwelling in the Word, Congregational Discovery, Church FutureFinder, Missional Engagement Team, SMART plan of action, Staff Covenanting, to name just a few. It can be a challenge for a congregation just to keep these terms and phrases straight, not to mention engage them. The PMC Local Church Guide and We Are Here Now are designed to serve as road maps for your journey into discovering God’s preferred and promised future and can provide you with definitions and ways forward with these terms. Still, it can be difficult to travel this road alone. We at Church Innovations believe just as Jesus sent the 70 out in pairs, he also sends us out with partners. One such partner on your congregation’s PMC journey is your JSP.

JSP stands for Judicatory Support Person and is the person at your judicatory, synod, conference, diocese, or equivalent whose job--as the title suggests--is to support the PMC congregations in your cluster. This support in manifested in a variety of ways. JSPs coordinate many practical aspects of the PMC events including lodging, meals, and worship. They field your questions about the process, provide needed resources, and serve as the go-between for congregations and the CI office. Even more, as trusted partners in your journey, they spur you on, help you keep going in the right direction, and celebrate your accomplishments with you. And they often share God’s peace with you in difficult and challenging times. Of course JPSs don’t have all the answers and can’t tell you what God is calling your congregation to do. But their partnership with you is a crucial one, one that you’ll be thankful for as your congregation seeks to be transformed and goes on the way God has sent you.

Caroline is Office Manager and Project Manager for Partnership for Missional Church for Church Innovations.