One of the most interesting items of business for the Evangelical Presbyterian Church at their General Assembly back in June was a statement on what it means to be “missional” and what that means for their structure and operations as a church.

Now, in the wider church these days it is the trend to be missional.  But what missional means is a bit like the statement in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone,” it means just what I choose it to mean –neither more nor less.”

For a good summary of the variability of the term there is an article from Christianity Today in March 2008.

Here is what the ECP GA adopted about being missional (taken from the Theology Committee report):

Our denomination wants to clarify for its member churches who we are and what we do as the United States becomes a mission field that is larger, more spiritually diverse and more antagonistic to the Gospel than ever before.

The term “missional” has become common and therefore highly nuanced. We desire to define missional in a simple and specific way so that each EPC church can commit to a unified, obedient pursuit of the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

1. A missional church grasps that God is a missionary God and that “it is not so much that God has a mission for His church in the world, but that God has a Church for His mission in the world.”
2. A missional church believes that the mission of God is rooted unalterably in the Bible, God’s infallible Word. Therefore, a missional church believes that the essence of God’s mission is to extend the reign of God and is summed up in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. A missional church is a visible community of authentic disciples of Jesus Christ who gather for celebration, prayer and teaching and then disperse locally and globally as His missionaries to love and serve people. In so doing, a missional church both pursues and welcomes those who are searching as they are drawn into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. The greater purpose in all of this is that the earth will be filled with the worship of God.
4. A missional church believes that it is more than just a collection of individuals, but that it is a community called together by God both to love Him and serve Him.
5. A missional church is concerned with more than maintaining programs for existing members; it is called to mobilize itself both individually and as a community to daily self-sacrifice for the hurting world around them. A missional church is both inwardly strong and outwardly focused.
6. A missional church perceives that the essence of these things is the essence of its existence. Therefore, a missional church will constantly seek to reevaluate itself as to whether or not it’s emphasis, organization, and activity effectively positions the church to partner with God in His mission.
7. A missional denomination
   

   a. Believes that the location of ministry is the local church
   b. Is made up of local congregations committed to being missional
   c. Believes that the Presbyteries and General Assembly, being expressions of the larger church, have an important role to play in identifying, equipping and supporting leaders and churches. They are a key link in the principle of mutual accountability toward missional ministry and Biblical standards.
   d. Constantly examines whether its polity, structures and programs are supporting or inhibiting that missional commitment

First, this is clearly a very Presbyterian formulation of missional since it takes into account the full governing body structure of the denomination.  But, having said that it also affirms that the higher governing bodies are there to play a supporting role and for accountability.  The mission and ministry point of the church is the local congregation.

It has the sense of the sovereignty of God and the idea that God leads in mission and we in the church are participating with God.  To use my favorite phrase, “God acts first.”  It also reflects that God calls the church into being (“a community called together by God”).

In other business of the Assembly there was a very tangible result of the principles listed in #7 above.  The Committee on National Outreach proposed, and the Assembly approved, a change in their mandate that would reduce the size of the committee on the national level and move the responsibility for church planting to the presbytery level leaving the national committee to encourage and provide resources.  (It begins on the bottom of page 6 in this set of recommendations.)  The rational says:

Grounds: For the past three years the National Outreach Committee has engaged in a thorough review of its mission and ministry to the EPC. It has identified those activities that are best done at the national committee level and sought to “push down” to the presbyteries those activities that are best pursued at that level. During this time, the NOC met jointly with presbytery Church Development Committee chairs. Recognizing that the CDC’s are closer to the local level, NOC asked the CDC’s to experiment with meeting and taking care of those items focusing on church planting and church revitalization. Given the success of this experiment we are unanimous in proposing this change.

NOC has concluded that the best way to pursue church planting, church revitalization and evangelism is to support the presbyteries and churches as they take responsibility for these activities.

The adoption of this definition of a missional church did not spring out of thin air; there has been a build-up to this point.  It came out of the work of the Long Range Planning Committee which was formed by the 25th GA of 2005.  In 2006 they issued a white paper titled “Toward a Stronger Future” where they talked about evangelism and “recovering mission.”  They talk about their plan for the study and how they are basing it on the work of the Missional Leadership Institute and how “for real change to happen it must be owned from the
bottom up.”  (Although their links appear old and broken and the MLI has moved or folded.)  The Long Range Planning Committee wrapped up their work and presented to the 28th GA (2008) and based on their report specific actions of the Assembly were presented through the Theology Committee and the Committee on Administration.  While not having any action items directly deriving from the Long Range Planning Committee, the Committee on Administration does reflect in their goals the same approach as the National Outreach Committee where they list one of them as:

F. To “push down” activities historically directed out of the national office to Presbyteries and provide or recommend appropriate means of equipping and encouraging presbyteries in their mission.

And they share their vision for the structure and functioning of the EPC five years from now as:

Another way to describe our vision for the EPC is to describe what we hope to find as one examines our denominati
on five years from now. In 2014, anyone observing the EPC would find:

1. A General Assembly that oversees the work of the church by supporting the Presbyteries as they support the local churches.

2. Presbyteries that offer helps to local churches in such areas as evangelism, discipleship, training and other facets of Christian ministry.

3. The re-formation of the Great Commission in the form of the missional church widely accepted and firmly established in priorities.

4. A re-formation of the church – in our practice, not our doctrine.

I only share the first four items in the vision but there are 15 more for you to have a look at (it begins on page 8 of the committee report).

I think that give a good overview of what the EPC decided and where it sees itself going with the concept of “missional.”  If you want to look at it more take a detailed look at the Committee on Administration report as well as their 2007 “Missional Church Primer” and a series of reflections the stated clerk, the Rev. Jeff Jeremiah wrote leading up to their 2008 GA.

Now, on to missional from another vantage point…  Stay tuned.