Partnership for Missional Church is not quick.

It’s not easy. It’s not something you can do alone.
You could say the same things about freedom.
And that’s what we want churches to find: freedom in God’s mission.

“It’s a wonderful journey that helps churches discover a sense of purpose, discern the call of God, and engage in joyful, hopeful mission in their local communities.”

Rt Rev Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham

With so many churches under pressure to grow more, give more, do more – we want to help them discover:

1. The release that comes from truly relying on God
2. The liberty that comes from taking the time to listen
3. The confidence that comes from genuinely connecting with your community
4. The impact of innovating, risk-taking and not being afraid to experiment
5. The lightness of living out your call as a church

Partnership for Missional Church is not a course.
It’s not a programme.
It’s not prescriptive.

How does it work?

Partnership for Missional Church is a 3yr process.  We told you it wasn’t quick – that’s the beauty of it.  And that’s why you’ll be able to see such deep change.

The PMC journey involves clusters of 12-15 local congregations meeting together regularly.

Year 1  -  is all about listening, paying attention and discovering where God is already at work. Specific spiritual practices are introduced that help point people towards being naturally missional, rather than doing mission activities.

Year 2  -  focuses on experimenting. Based on what churches discover about themselves and their communities in Year 1, the next step is to take some risks and learn from both what works well and what doesn’t. This is done ‘with’ people in the local community, not ‘for’ them.

Year 3  -  focuses on recognising God’s particular mission call for your church and figuring out how you are going to put it into action. The outcomes will look different for each congregation.

The journey might not be for everyone.

We won’t sugar-coat it: getting deep culture change can be tough and moving towards freedom in mission can be scary for some.  People have given up.  But those who have stuck with the PMC journey have seen real growth in things like worship attendance and numbers of people turning to Jesus.

We’ve also seen many who aren’t clergy become empowered for leadership and become more involved.  This helps churches thrive.  Together, churches have developed creative, innovative and effective ways of making God’s dreams for their communities come true.

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Partnership for Missional Church  -  Update

Just over 2 years ago, several PCCs in the Diocese were invited to join the PMC initiative and along with them, we agreed to take part in the initiative.  Our church is linked with these churches.  We call the group of churches a Cluster.  Cluster Steering Team Leaders meet regularly - during the last year via Zoom.  The meetings help us to share and reflect on what we are doing.  This helps us to support each other.  Our recent reflections resulted in us reminding each other that:

PMC is not a project;  it is a way of life     

PMC is a cultural change  

PMC is not outcome led     

PMC is a process     

Covid has disrupted PMC and has not stopped it    

PMC builds on strengths, not on needs   

PMC aims at what works in our context 

 

The last Update invited you to take a step back and reflect on what God is doing in your life, the church, the community - the little things not the big things.  What did you noticed?  Were you able to tell anyone about this?   PMC calls this Announcing The Kingdom

 

Keep reflecting.  Keep Announcing.