Mennonite Church USA:Purposeful Plan – An

IntroductionNeffsville Mennonite Church

Town MeetingFebruary 12, 2012

To move more deliberately toward fulfillment of our missional purpose as a church.

Goal of Purposeful Plan

Part I: Missional Vision1. Who is God calling us to become as a people?2. Where is God calling us to go?3. What are the signposts to show we are on God’s

chosen path for us?Part II: Purposeful Plan

4. Where are we now on this journey?5. What circumstances might cause us to make

adjustments along the way?6. What are the next steps on the path?

Basis for Purposeful Plan:Six Questions

1. Who is God calling us to become as a people?Mennonite Church USA Vision Statement:

God calls us to be followers of Jesus Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to grow as communities of grace, joy and peace so that God’s healing and hope flow through us to the world.

Part I: Missional Vision

2. Where is God calling us to go?Seven Priorities

Christian Formation Christian Community Holistic Christian Witness Stewardship Leadership Development Undoing Racism and Advancing Intercultural

Transformation Church-to-Church Relationships

Part I: Missional Vision

3. What are the signposts to show we are on God’s chosen path for us? (Three of twelve are below)

The church reads the Bible together with the presence of the Holy Spirit to learn God’s good and gracious intent for all creation, the way of salvation, and the indentity and purpose of life together.

Welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community plays a central role.

The church makes an observable impact that contributes to the transformation of life, society, and human relationships.

Part I: Missional Vision

4. Where are we now on this journey?Positive Developments

We know of 96 new churches being planted in the last five years.

Racial and ethnic groups are experiencing numerical growth.

Many of our young people are expressing their Anabaptist convictions by joining new expressions of the church in house fellowships and discipleship movements.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

Concerns Drop in numbers from 120,381 members and

1,063 congregations in 2001 to 104,687 members and 872 congregations in 2011.

Demographics that show we are aging as a denomination.

Increased political tension in our church due to alignment with political parties.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

5. What circumstances might cause us to make adjustment along the way?

Fear of outsiders, and terrorists in particular – creating a challenging environment for racial and ethnic groups that are growing

Social and economic inequities between rich and poor Dramatic natural disasters in the last decade Changes are in our nation’s attitudes toward same sex

attraction Changes in information technology

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

6. What are the next steps on the path?Alternate routes

Common vision or divisive issues Abundance or scarcity High expectation or low expectation of

members Soft or hard geographic boundaries Resources or regulation

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

Polarities to manage Strong servant leadership and church

management Empowering leaders and professional clergy Culturally relevant and rooted in our heritage Creating the new and preserving what is

good of the old

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

Outcomes and Goals1. Christian Formation

1. Outcome: To increase our capacity as a community of faith to use the scriptures as a faithful guide for daily living.

2. Sample goal: Designate a “Year of the Bible,” providing resources to enable every congregation to increase its biblical awareness and faithfulness.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

2. Christian Community1. Outcome: The church makes visible the

reign of God by reflecting the gracious presence of God in all of its corporate gatherings.

2. Sample goal: Facilitate mediated conversations between people from different theological perspectives to practice and demonstrate faithful agreeing and disagreeing in love.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

3. Holistic Witness (includes areas of peace and justice, evangelism and church planting, and health services or ministries)

1. Outcome: The church witnesses to the wholeness of God’s salvation made possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ via an interwoven fabric of activities.

2. Sample goal: Nurture the practice of testimony in congregations, area conferences, denominational meetings and committees.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

3. Holistic Witness3. Mennonite Mission Network (MMN) goals:

Denominational staff dedicated to planting peace churches (shared staff between Executive Board and MMN work closely with area conferences and their congregations to assist church planters and teams.

Through MC USA and MMN communication staff share stories of creative church planting through news service stories at least six times a year.

Pilot two Mennonite Voluntary Service projects in communities of color to expand diversity in our short-term programs.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

4. Stewardship1. Outcome: As God’s stewards, we will reflect

God’s abundance through our generosity in achieving missional goals across all parts of the church.

2. Sample goal: Develop a Congregational Resource Manual to assist congregations in developing narrative budgets that reflect missional priorities and provide guidance on stewardship best practices in the congregations.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

5. Leadership Development1. Outcome: Church members with leadership

gifts are called, trained and nurtured in Anabaptist theology and practice, and work together in various teams so that both credentialed and lay leaders can be empowered to fulfill the church’s missional vocation.

2. Sample goal: Champion a “Culture of Call” in our congregations.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

6. Undoing Racism and Advancing Intercultural Transformation

1. Outcome: To overcome antipathy and alienation among different cultural groups through a dismantling of individual and systemic racism in our church, making the way for people from every racial and ethnic group to have just and equitable access to church resources, positions, and information as manifestations of the one new humanity we have in Christ.

2. Sample goal: Translate and contextualize core documents of Christian belief and faith into the language of worship for every people group in Mennonite Church USA.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

7. Church-to-Church Relationships1. Outcome: To give and receive gifts within the body

of Christ as a witness to the unity to which God calls us as we pursue God’s mission in the world. We will nurture relationships with others in the Anabaptist family, both in the U.S. and globally, and with the broader body of Christ.

2. Sample goal: Participate with brothers and sisters in the broader Mennonite family of churches in the planning for and hosting of Mennonite World Conference Assembly in Pennsylvania in 2015.

Part II: The Purposeful Plan

We intend to review the elements of this plan at each biennial session, so that we can celebrate milestones and make appropriate adjustments along the way.

Conclusion