Mission Field
Written by Bishop Max Whitfield Friday, 16 October 2009 00:00
Donna TeBrink and I traveled to four sites in the New Mexico Conference and Murray Murphy and I traveled to four sites in the Northwest Texas Conference making presentations on the appointive making process. Since that time, I spoke at the Clergy Academy and Pastor’s Retreat to several of the pastors. My heart rejoices with thanksgiving as I recall meeting so many outstanding leaders and hearing some of the hopes, dreams, and concerns. We requested participants to share inquiries regarding where our presentations were foggy, did not make sense, or places where information appeared to be missing. We also requested aspects of the appointment making process that participants could affirm. Finally, we requested questions for which the participants wanted answers. Participants responded to our request and over the coming weeks I will attempt to address some of the questions and concerns through various media.
The most frequently asked questions or areas that remained foggy related to what I term “the mission field.” My quick definition of the mission field is the community both inside and outside the church membership that God entrusts to our care. The size of that mission field varies. For some, it will be an entire county. For others, it may only stretch for several square blocks. Each community of faith will determine their own mission field. The pastors, district superintendent and I may all wish to determine the nature of that mission field, but only the local congregation can ultimately discern the community God entrusted to their care. Most New Mexico congregations will need to use data available on the New Mexico Conference web site entitled, Demographic Information from Percepts Inc. for Planning Your Ministry. Cheryl Hicks, in the Conference Office, can assist you in this task. Just as important, you can define that mission field by walking or driving around the various neighborhoods and looking to see who is present, what they are doing, and how the church ministers to their needs. In the Northwest Texas Conference, the Rev. Ava Berry can assist in helping congregations obtain that demographic information. Each congregation must answer the question posed to Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” An answer to this question begins to define a congregation’s mission field. A clear description of the mission field enables the Cabinet to deploy the “right” pastor to serve with a congregation in ministering to that mission field.
One of the most distressing concerns for me related to whether we designed the new appointive process for large membership churches in large population areas. The Cabinet focused instead on fulfilling our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Any other mission must be subservient to this one. This is Jesus’ commission. We must carry out this mission in every mission field. We have strong, vital, fruitful congregations in every membership size. Some small membership churches are doing more to make disciples in their mission field than some large membership churches. The Cabinet and I will make every effort to deploy pastors who demonstrate readiness to employ creative, innovative, effective tools to make disciples of Jesus Christ to congregations who demonstrate readiness to change, innovate and become all that Almighty God desires for them to be. We will also attempt to match congregations that are not ready to take those risk taking actions, but are willing to discern and grow toward what God intends. We will make every effort to see that every pastor and every congregation can utilize the gifts entrusted to them and serve the Kingdom of God in the most effective way possible. This matching will occur in all congregations and communities.
It appears that several participants were unclear about the meaning of congregations and pastors being highly effective. We attempted in various ways to indicate that we must assess effectiveness from both quantitative and qualitative sources. We have used and will continue to use the data provided by each congregation in their annual statistical report as printed in the Conference Journal. We pay particular attention to the number of professions of faith, growth in membership, growth in average worship attendance, growth in average Sunday School attendance, and the payment of Shared Ministries. We will also utilize Bishop Robert Schnase’s five practices of fruitful congregations—radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk taking mission, and extravagant generosity. The more subjective aspects, like a sense of community, openness to change, innovation, creativity, and hearts focused on Jesus Christ, interpret and clarify numerical data. I find it extremely difficult to define a vital, fruitful congregation, but I can feel vitality in a congregation in the first few minutes after entering a worshiping congregation. Fruitfulness must include the making of new disciples, average attendance in worship, participation in intentional faith development groups, risk taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity. Fruitfulness in a mission field with a declining population will look different from fruitfulness in a mission field characterized by an exploding population growth.
A few persons inquired about how we deal with statistics that appear to be inflated. This is normally easy to discern when we examine several years of data on both the pastor and the congregation. “Pastoral estimates” usually show a radical decline with the assignment of a new pastor. The superintendent’s observations during visits to the churches also refute such estimates. Those who inflate figures are only harming their own integrity.
I am enjoying the dialogue and look forward to the continuing dialogue in the coming weeks.
Grace & Peace,
Max
