Churches are becoming a new creation by...

Paying attention to their missional context:
They are developing skills for discovering, interpreting, and purposefully engaging their missionary context. They are moving beyond demographics to discern powerful cultural patterns, beliefs, and values that shape them and those with whom they live, work, and worship. They are responding to social and local realities (such as increased ethnic diversity, consumerism, nationalism, and variety of spiritualities) with the resources of the Gospel.

Paying attention to the Spirit:
They are cultivating the church as a community of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit - who calls, equips, and sends the church - empowers the faith community through biblical study to perceive, think, and behave as the People of God. As they learn about the world and about the Gospel, people are becoming knowledgeable and articulate. Evangelism grows naturally out of their commitment and excitement.

Paying attention to one another:
They are shaping anew the church's common life in ways that are a sign and foretaste of God's reign. They are developing and sustaining rich practices of "one-anothering" - joining and sharing, eating and drinking, listening and caring, testing and deciding, welcoming and befriending. They are drawing a critical mass of the congregation into study, prayer, conversation, discernment, and transformation as a disciple community.

Paying attention to change:
They are equipping leaders (lay and clergy together) to think, organize and lead frame-bending change toward a missional identity and vocation. They are creating readiness for significant spiritual renewal, building commitment to the major changes that are required. They are building and equipping leadership teams, thinking systemically, discerning God's vision for their church, inventing new ways to demonstrate their faith, and embedding innovation.

Missional transformation is not simply a new way to keep doing what is presently going on. It does not offer merely a "tune-up," or adaptations to existing programs and priorities. Rather, in a very constructive and faith-filled manner, it enables the congregation to evaluate and define anew the nature, purpose, and practices of its life together in light of God's mission. It offers the opportunity to make the changes discerned to be necessary in order to become more faithful to God's calling and purpose in their situation.

There are three phases of learning and activity for the congregation that are tailored to fit your local life and circumstances:
           
                        Discovering
                                    Discerning
                                                Embodying

In more detail, these three movements of discovering, discerning, and embodying become learned practices within the congregation.  They are supported with training initially, in order to become ongoing in the congregation as a way of life.  It is the pattern of continuing journey of the people called and sent by God to participate in God’s mission in a changing world.

The Journey of the People of God is marked by –

• Bible Study
• Congregational Conversation
• Strategic Decision Making
• Partnership
• Gatherings with Other Congregations and Pastors
• High level of support

Key training modules for congregation teams include:

Discovering Phase
1. Getting Ready for the Journey
2. Discovering our Context

Discerning Phase
3. Discerning God’s Call
4. Crafting our Missional Strategy

Embodying Phase
5. Shaping Missional Life and Witness
6. Living into a Faithful Future

1. Renewed spiritual life by discovering and experiencing anew what it means to be the church - God's people of salt and light.
2. A community of Christ followers, learning to live as committed disciples.
3. People no longer content simply to be consumers of a church's Sunday morning programs.
4. Increased excitement about and greater sharing of the Christian faith.
5. Increased clarity of purpose as a congregation.
6. A greater sense of trust and unity, pulling together toward common goals.
7. More responsive to new missional opportunities.
8. Developing leaders who are wise in both world and Word, offering sound and balanced guidance for the church's ministry.
9. Broader participation in decision-making and ministries of the church.
10. Not just talk about God's mission, but also organized to move concretely toward realizing that vision.
11. Savings in time and money by focusing congregation energies, asking the important questions, putting the spotlight on key results.
12. New measuring of congregational Fruitfulness: not by budgetary or membership goals, but by the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

A regional approach to congregational transformation stewards the gifts, time, and energy of judicatory, congregation, and leaders alike in creative and fruitful partnerships.

A regional approach will include any or all of the following supports:

Leadership:	To train clergy and lay leaders to create awareness and readiness, and to cultivate skills for leading a process of missional transformation. Theological grounding in a missional orientation. Conceptual and practical skills for leading change.
Congregations:	To enlist, train and guide congregations through a process of missional transformation. Discern God's vision for the congregation within a changed and changing context for ministry. Organize the life of the church around God's vision and develop a forward looking plan of action to guide the congregation into the future.
Consultants:	To enlist, train and support a network of consultants to assist congregations on a journey of missional transformation. Provide a range of practical and conceptual tools and skills. Assist with curriculum resources and coaching.
Connecting:	To strengthen relationships and leverage resources among congregations, across regions and within the judicatory for faithful and fruitful mission and ministry. Clusters of congregations and consultants supporting one another and learning from one another. Mentoring congregations and leaders available to support on-going transformation.
Strategy:	To develop a regional strategy and infrastructure to support on-going missional transformation. Build the regional team to coordinate and support congregational transformation. Support for critical thinking on how to live and witness in a missionary setting.

A regional approach leverages the gifts, time, and energy of judicatory, congregations, and leaders alike in creative and fruitful partnerships. What follows is a "scenario" to stimulate conversation and imagination about the support to congregations for the challenging yet rewarding journey of missional transformation. More...