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06426 August 23, 2006
International mission calling New group seeks 'horizontal' mission partnership system
by Toya Richards Hill
ATLANTA * Likening the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to a bulky, old rotary dial telephone that's no longer adequate in today's world, a leader of the newly formed Presbyterian Global Fellowship (PGF) set the stage for a weekend of mission renewal and rededication.
The group wants to create new, less-hierarchical means for Presbyterians to be involved in mission around the world. Between Thursday, Aug. 17 and Saturday, Aug. 19, about 820 registered participants took part in the inaugural PGF conference hosted at Peachtree Presbyterian Church here to begin figuring out how.
The gathering was co-sponsored by the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and the Outreach Foundation, two "validated mission support groups" that have worked very closely with the PC(USA)'s Worldwide Ministries Division. On the eve of the PGF gathering, both groups announced that they will begin sending missionaries independently of WMD and have hired an executive director to coordinate that effort.
"We have a rotary dial telephone system," the Rev. Vic Pentz said, holding up a bright, yellow rotary phone in front of the packed sanctuary of the denomination's largest congregation, of which he is pastor and head of staff.
And while most other organizations shifted away from the 1950s way of doing things * leaving behind hierarchies, assumptions of loyalty and poor communication * "the evolution has been something that has not worked for us," he said.
Some would say it's not the rotary phone that needs to be changed, Pentz preached, but simply the "antiquated message" that comes from it. Yet at the Presbyterian Global Fellowship, "we strongly disagree in changing the message" which is rooted in the historic confessions and the saving grace of Jesus Christ, he said.
What's needed is "a new phone with the old message," Pentz declared.
With that, Pentz, and other PC(USA) congregation leaders involved in the PGF, set about the task of discussing and outlining what it will take to meet that new-phone-old-message need.
The fellowship, a group of "inviting congregations" that are "seeking to reclaim the missional purpose of the church," engaged in worship, workshops and witness in order lift up mission work in a denomination they believe desperately needs to be transformed.
Along with Peachtree, the other inviting congregations are Calvin Presbyterian Church, Louisville, KY; Covenant-First Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, OH; Crestwood Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA; First Presbyterian Church, Boulder, CO; First Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, TX; Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Dallas, TX; Louisville Korean Presbyterian Church, Louisville, KY; Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, Houston, TX; Neelville Presbyterian Church, Germantown, MD; North Avenue Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, GA; Third Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VA; and Korean Presbyterian Church, Miami, FL.
The meeting "is not a sobfest," Pentz told the audience in his opening-night sermon. Nor is it an attack on the people who currently work in the PC(USA)'s national office, he added.
"We seek to renew the church," Pentz said. It's a time for a "turnaround."
"We want to move beyond the old model of mission," he said. And instead form "horizontal partnership" that link with global Christians around the world.
The world is saying, "show us something real that will make a difference in the world today," Pentz said. The world desires "that we put up or shut up."
The Rev. Steve Hayner, associate professor of evangelism and church growth at Columbia Theological Seminary in nearby Decatur, talked about how the U.S. church developed into a "clubhouse" where "missions became thought of as programs" and the methodology internationally was "mission by conquest." The bottom line: "This way of thinking just isn't working anymore," he said. "People are no longer inspired."
And while the U.S. church "is being pushed to the margins," the church is growing significantly in places like Africa, where there are 90 million Christians, and China, which has 85 million or more believers, Hayner said.
Churches that are growing see the whole world as the mission field, he said, and see mission not as a program of the church, but its call.
"God's calling is to turn our faces to being an outward church," Hayner said. "God's calling is to become a missional church."
The call for Presbyterians to turn their faces outward to the larger community continued as an ongoing theme throughout the conference, including during a panel discussion by the Rev. Maqsood Kamil, executive secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan; the Rev. Yohanna Katanacho, a Palestinian Christian scholar from Jerusalem and an instructor at Bethlehem Bible College; and the Rev. Lucas de Paiva Pina, coordinator of Tri-Presbytery Immigrant Ministries, based in Atlanta.
"We need to create a sense * that we cannot be separated," Kamil said in answering a question about how the PC(USA) can have "genuine partnerships" outside the U.S. "It's a universal body of Christ."
Also, there must be compassion and an ability to suffer with the various international churches, he said. "The Western church does not know the meaning of suffering."
Kamil pointed out that some U.S. missionaries love mission, but hate the people whom they have been sent to be with.
"We don't really need project lovers," he said. "We need people who are servant minded. We need people who can trust other people."
Missionaries must come to work for the unity and empowerment of the local church, Kamil added. "Unless we have mutuality we cannot be good friends."
Mutuality is true even for local U.S. congregations and the mission work they do right in their own neighborhoods, said de Paiva Pina, who serves as an intermediary between immigrants and local churches.
Presbyterian churches make it at extremely difficult at times for immigrants to maneuver through the church system, de Paiva Pina added. Getting approval for something relatively as simple as an immigrant group using an empty church building during the week can often take months to work though sessions and committees, he said.
"We need to share power," and "we need to be flexible," he said.
It's unclear yet what impact the PGF will have on the larger PC(USA) structure, but there did appear to be a willingness to share power and be flexible within the broad denominational family.
A number of key leaders from the PC(USA)'s national office in Louisville were present at the Atlanta gathering, including new General Assembly Council Executive Director Linda Bryant Valentine and outgoing WMD Director Marian McClure.
International mission work remains a trouble spot for the denomination as it struggles to find funding to maintain the denomination's current mission presence abroad. GAC downsizing and budget reductions in May reduced the Louisville-based WMD staff and trimmed 45 overseas mission jobs.
The GAC is currently working with staff leadership to develop a new organizational structure on the heels of massive budget cuts and layoffs. At least one GAC member was also at the PGF gathering.
Also on hand was General Assembly Moderator Joan Gray, who was prayed for by PGF attendees in a mass laying on of hands.
"We are here for the whole church," Gray told the crowd. "The PC(USA) and the church of Jesus Christ. I think this is an important gathering."
Gray challenged the PGF to "lead from your knees" and "not to be satisfied with what you can do in your human strength."
Jesus said: "I am the vine and you are the branches," Gray said. "Whatever you do, do it in the spirit of Jesus Christ."
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