06028
Jan. 24, 2006

GAC to mull ‘big-picture’ mission plan

Blueprint for 2007-’08 lists just
eight objectives deemed ‘crucial, attainable’

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE — The General Assembly Council (GAC) will be asked to approve a leaner, more sharply focused set of objectives for Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission in 2007 and 2008.

        The new Mission Work Plan (MWP), unveiled on Jan. 23 to GAC members and the PC(USA)’s national staff, enumerates just eight objectives — two for each of four “goal areas” adopted by the General Assembly in 2004.

        By contrast, the 2005-2006 MWP listed more than 20 objectives.

        “This is a new direction,” Charles Easley, a GAC member who served on the Mission Work Plan (MWP) drafting team, said in a Jan. 24 interview with the Presbyterian News Service. “The 2005-2006 Mission Work Plan was very prescriptive — verging on micro-management. This time we didn’t want to tell the staff what to do.”

        “Instead of … telling the GAC staff exactly … how to spend time and resources, a more excellent way was to set direction for what the council believes to be the most crucial and attainable objectives,” John Bolt, of Charleston, WV, a member of the MWP drafting team and of the GAC, said during the staff meeting.

        The four goal areas are Evangelism and Witness, Justice and Compassion, Spirituality and Discipleship and Leadership and Vocation.        

        The eight objectives, which will be presented to the GAC during its Feb. 7-11 meeting:

• Enable Presbyterians “to witness locally and globally to the gospel … with an emphasis on (people) with no active religious affiliation”
  
  
• Support presbyteries’ efforts “to develop congregations and fellowships … to reflect the multicultural makeup of our society”
  
  
•  “Encourage and support partnerships … to actively address the causes and effects of poverty locally, nationally and globally”
  
  
• Have presbyteries and congregations “seek non-violent solutions to conflict in their communities and the world”
  
  
• Help presbyteries and congregations … develop their members’ ability to appreciate and understand their Reformed identity”
  
  
• Support efforts by “presbyteries and congregations to ground families … in Christian discipleship that helps them confront and resist” idolatry
  
  
• “Enable presbyteries and congregations to help members discern that their vocation is a call from God to Christian witness”
  
  
• “Facilitate … alternative models (of) pastoral and mission leadership in small churches”
  

        “We hope you will notice two particular themes — emphases on partnerships and strengthening congregations,” Bolt said during the Jan. 23 staff meeting.

        Those themes are based on Presbyterian traditions, he said: “Presbyterian mission is centered in justice and evangelism … done in partnership with other denominations, other cultures and other faiths” and “much of the mission work of the PC(USA) rightly occurs in and through congregations.”

        In a background paper prepared for the GAC, Bolt and fellow council member Michael Kruse, of Kansas City, MO, outlined four “key dynamics” that in the past half-century have moved denominations:

• From consensus to disestablishment: “Fifty years ago, Christianity was the dominant religious force in the culture. … Now, more attention … is given to a multitude of beliefs, and institutions have become less inclined … to deal with the multiplicity”
  
  
• From institutional loyalty to choice: “We have become a consumer-driven society. … Denominational labels usually mean little.”
  
  
• From cultural homogeneity to pluralism: In the past, the United States “was clearly dominated by Anglo-American culture, and ethnic or minority voices were largely muted,” but today we see “growth in the diversity of expressions within Christianity, as well as growth in non-Christian traditions.”
  
  
• From information filtering to information overload: “With (the) Internet, cellular technology and a host of other advancements, information bombards us.”
  
  

        “This Mission Work Plan completely changes the way the General Assembly Council does its work,” said GAC Executive Director John Detterick. “It moves us away from looking at our mission administratively and toward looking at our mission directionally — from the minutiae to the big picture.”

        “When the budget comes back to the council in April, we’ll be looking for new things and new approaches,” Easley said. “This will be oversight, not micro-management; we’ll be looking for outcomes and obstacles…and how those obstacles will be overcome. The job of the GAC in all this will be to steer resources to these achievable objectives.”