Christ-Centred and Community-Facing

Being and becoming

The Journey of

St David’s Presbyterian Church,

Palmerston North,

from 2003-2010

Pamela Tankersley Study Leave Report

Cambridge, UK June 2010

This report was compiled during sabbatical leave atWestminsterCollege, Cambridge, UK, during May and June, 2010.

I wish to thank the Trustees of the Cheshunt Foundation for the enormous generosity that allows ministers from New Zealand to live at WestminsterCollege during a term of sabbatical study.

It has been a great privilege to be included in the community of Westminster during our stay and to be able to consult the staff, in particular Dr Neil Thoroughgood and Dr Emma Wild Wood of the Henry Martyn Centre. Thank you too, Principal Susan Durber.

Contents:

• Vision and Mission: being and becoming Christ-centred and community facing
• Missional Worship for a community engaged in worshipful Mission
• Pastoral Care: compassionate solidarity and inclusive networking
• Faith Exploration: equipping the Saints for Mission
• Engagement with the local community: embodying the Gospel
• Ministry with Children and Families: becoming Kids Friendly:
• Resourcing Our Work: tools for mission
• Conclusions: the sound of the Spirit blowing…

Note: in addition to writing this report, my study time has included reading in missiology, particularly concerning the conference held in early June 2010: Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ today. This conference celebrated 100 years of mission since the significant 1910 Mission Edinburgh Conference that is seen to have been the benchmark of 20th century mission and the ground for the formation of the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical alliances.

Vision and Mission

St David's has a vision and a mission - it is becoming Christ-centred and community-facing. Thisvisionhas underpinned our life as a community of faith, aswe have followed the way of Christ, doing what needs to be done in our locality.

Over the past seven years, asthis strong vision has emerged, we have intuitivelydiscerned where the Spirit has been leading us, giving us both the inspiration and the wherewithal to follow our dreams.We have been participating in God's mission, God's sending of the followers of Jesus, empowered by the Spiritto live and proclaim the Way of Christ.[1]

Over many years, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church has called all churches to be mission-oriented and to be outward-facing. The long-standing mission statement of St David's has been 'to be the people of God following the Way of justice, mercy and peace,'[2] and this has led to the Christ-centred, community-facing vision. It's the vision of a pilgrim people on a journey of faith, sent with God's grace, to make a difference as they are able.

Archbishop Rowan Williams says 'Christian mission is finding out where the Holy Spirit is at work and joining in.'[3] In a similar vein, at St David's we have talked about 'joining the Christ who is already out there working,' and contrasted it with church growth attitudes which make an assumption that Christ is primarily within the Body of believers, (in the church), to be taken out to the world by the believers. For us, that has been too small a box in which to put the Spirit of God, a Spirit that blows where it will. We have endeavoured to be incarnational rather than attractional.[4]

Other texts important to us have firstly been the passage where Jeremiah addresses the captives in Babylon: 'Seek the shalom of the city into which I have sent you, and pray to Yahweh on its behalf, for in it’s shalom you will find your own.'[5]

In our mission we are working to bring shalom to our corner of Palmerston North and to pray for our city, seeking God's abundant life for all. As an integral part of the community and its culture, rather than over against it, our mission is with rather than to the wider community.

Another significant passage for us is the story of Jesus' return to his home town, where he declared his 'Nazareth Manifesto.'[6] He claims the promise of Isaiah 61: anointed by God's Spirit, he inaugurates the justice and liberation of Jubilee, announced as the 'Kingdom of God'. As followers of the Way, as Christ-centred, this is our call - to work for the Kingdom in our time and place.

Let me talk about three examples of ventures where St David's has been blown by the Spirit, and empowered by God's grace to follow the Way. In each case the passion of one or two is picked up by the whole community of faith, and resources found.

• The first is about compassion and solidarity with those on the margins of our society: the Kumbayah Project.

In 2007, the Rev Anne Bennett, Chaplain to the severely disabled former residents at Kimberley Home,[7] called in at St David's, looking for a church venue to hold monthly worship for ex-Kimberley people. She needed a place with easy access, flexible seating to make room for wheelchairs and good heating, sound systems etc. St David's Parish Council immediately saw that this was our call, and offered not only the use of the church, but our support in volunteers, worship leadership, finance and advocacy. We were able to give the Chaplain a part-time position in our church (thanks to grants from church and community) and as we opened the doors to these people, their carers and families, we found their presence impacted on many other aspects of our life as church community. In the process, we have created a space of hospitality and friendship, experienced the joy of worship with new eyes and ears and learned about life on the margins.

• The second example is caring for creation.

One of the key attributes of Palmerston North city is its association with MasseyUniversity and the Crown Research Institutes. We have much significant scientific expertise in our midst of the city and at St David's. In this time of anxiety around climate change and its consequences, we invited one of our members, Dr Kevin Tate to bring us into the reality of the impending forecasts. This gave us a new understanding of the significance of the crisis. The outcome has been to empower Kevin to offer scientific expertise and Christian faith into a wider scene and to challenge people with the critical consequences of our apathy. With our support, Kevin has collaborated with the Assembly Office to produce a discussion booklet for parish use[8], been part of a national delegation of Church Leaders to the Government, and consulted with international church delegations through the Council for World Mission. In Palmerston North, in December, we organised a city prayer vigil to draw attention to the importance of the Copenhagen Conference on global warming and offered to the city an excellent lecture series in a local cafe with some of our prominent scientists. We have instituted better recycling and begun looking at auditing our heat and power consumption.

We have been further inspired to act by the addition of a family from Tuvalu to our church. As a result of higher ocean levels and the salination of arable lands, Tuvalese people are becoming climate change refugees.

• A third stream has been to release people with gifts to serve in a wider mission context.

St David's has offered leadership to the national Church by releasing its Minister to be the Moderator of the General Assembly for two years in 2006-8, and a significant Elder, Heather Tate, (and a local team) to lead the National Coordinating Group of the Association of Presbyterian Women. In each case St David's was drawn into an understanding of itself as part of a bigger scene and to participating in mission beyond its local area. This has involved, a parish mission trip with the Moderator to TaluaTheologicalCollege in Vanuatu, and a relationship re-established through the APW with Turakina Maori Girls' College. It has also meant for others a stepping up into leadership of parish activities.

However each of these examples has emerged out of the regular programme of worship, pastoral care, faith-journeying and community involvement that is the stable diet for St David's. The Spirit of God moves among the ordinary everyday happenings as well as the spectacular, as the agent of change, moving us into new places, with new insights and ways of thinking. Let us now turn to some of these aspects of St David's life, to see where the Spirit of God has been blowing us, as we follow the Way.

Missional Worship for a community engaged in worshipful Mission

What will worship be for a Christ-centred community-facing church? In what way can we have missional worship and worshipful mission? Remembering that Christian mission is God's mission rather than ours, what will mark the worship itself to be missional? This goes to the very heart of what we understand worship to be about, what its function is.

Several things come to mind:

1. Glorifying God: Worship is our time to glorify God, to offer praise and pause to reflect on the graciousness of God. We need to be reminded that God is the object of our worship - God is the "audience", not the people gathered. What we put into worship perhaps takes precedence over what we get out of it. Our worship must first of all be joyful and 'praise God and glorify Him (sic) forever.'[9] Music is very important to us - ancient hymns and contemporary New Zealand hymns that speak of our context and our mission in new ways.
2. Inspirational: But then we will also be aiming to bring us individually and as a community closer to the heart of God, as we explore the scriptures and are equipped to be sent out in mission. True worship will inspire us to proclaim the good news that the reality of God's dream for humankind is in our midst. The Kingdom of God is at hand, and we are instruments of God's compassion, peace, reconciliation and justice. On the whole St David's worship attendees prefer sermons to be thought-provoking and connect with our community rather than evangelistic. We expect to be invited to explore our own faith responses, rather than be told what to believe or how to act out the good news.
3. Universal: Worship that is missional is always seen in context of the whole church - the church universal- and links not only with our traditions and 'the way we have always done it', but also with the world-wide church. It has been a joy to include in our worship family folk from PacificIslands, as a reminder that we are part of a whole. We struggle with how to meet the needs of those who find it easier to worship only with a traditional liturgy and those who find the triumphalism of the 19th and early 20th century not to their taste. We don't have a contemporary band, but we appreciate our talented organist and the occasional instrumentalists. In the past seven years St David's has moved from having a traditional 3-monthly communion service to monthly and the form of the liturgy and the manner of distribution are variable. (Gathering everyone around the table in a big circle is perhaps the most tangible expression of our theology of the Eucharist.)
4. Relational: But if our primary mission is the local community, if we are to be incarnational, how will this influence this worship praxis? The worship language and style needs to be really 'accessible' in format and in words, with not too much ecclesiastical jargon or taking for granted that all present know what we are on about. It must be community building, a place for relationships, rather than just a gathering of individuals, at the same time as being respectful of people’s privacy. Our liturgical language is corporate, rather than individualistic and there is opportunity both during the worship and before and after the service to be neighbourly.
5. Inclusive: 'Drawing our circle wider'[10] is a constant theme of St David's. We aspire to be inclusive and respect diversity for the delight of God. We are challenged to appreciate not only those who 'fit in' but also those who might disturb our comfort zone, to see all strangers as guests bearing gifts, appreciating newcomers, not for what they might offer us (such as an increase in our Godsown numbers)but for themselves. Including the children in worship is a must.
6. Participatory: There is no longer an expectation that the congregation will sit passively in worship and listen to what is being said and done 'up the front.' Many parts of the worship are led by the lay people and we have teams of excellent lay preachers, readers and intercessory pray-ers. The children participate in leading parts of the liturgy when present, too. The layout of the church centre provides for an intimacy that expects involvement and most worship leaders use this well; the congregation sings with enthusiasm (helped by data projection) and responds to all age worship well.
7. Hospitable: Setting an ethos of warm and welcoming hospitality is very important here too - a starting point is the lovely banner in the foyer[11]. What does the person who comes looking for a church glean by way of information from our ' body language', before they even enter the door at St David’s? What would we like them to see and hear and feel about God’s love?
8. Evangelical: And yet worship will be equipping the saints in their journey with God, to nurture our framing stories of an alternative dream, to remind us of the values and metastory we live by, as followers of the Way, and so equip us to live out the good news, to bethe good news. In this sense it is evangelical, and our prayers and or teaching should celebrate, challenge or help us grieve the issues of our local community in the light of our faith. [12]
9. Transformational: Worship that is missional will remember the words in Micah, 'what does the Lord require as worship? Not burnt offerings and sacrifices… but to do justice, to love kindness and walk humbly with our God.' Our worship will inspire us to transform the world (beginning with ourselves), knowing we are joining with Christ and the Holy Spirit in this work.
10. Incarnational: Just as Jesus was man of his time and place, we are called to be the face of Christ, in Terrace End at the beginning of the 21st Century, and missional worship will be an event which celebrates the local, and brings to God the issues and relationships of our time and place. We have developed some intentionally community-facing annual worship 'events', such as the Anzac Day service, the Blue Christmas service for those who have suffered loss and occasional services such as the prayer vigil in the Square to pray for the outcomes of the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. We need to keep questioning how the joys and struggles of the community we serve are intersecting with our worship.
11. Beautiful: We want the very best for God in our worship, from the practical details to the beauty that is created with visual art. Our liturgies will use the best of contemporary devotional material and music. Our church is homely and comfortable, yet still retains its essence as sacred space and a place of prayer. We now have a good sound system and visual links to the power point; we have good access for the disabled and flexible seating. We have a sense that we worship in the whole building and even within the outreach-focused Community Centre, the worship centre is till the heart, and at best its spirit pervades all our work, reminding us that we are Christ-centred.
12. Multi-congregational: we recognize that one style of worship cannot suit all and be readily accessible to all. While we probably will always see Sunday morning worship as being mainstream, our missional emphasis means we must be open to the agendas and needs of different community and parish groups for different styles of worship, in different times and places. These will be both alternatives to Sunday and overlap with the same people. Current examples of these are a mid-week communion for the Friends of St David's (Seniors), Friday Family Night worship for families including a meal, (including families from the outreach programme), Tranquil Space, and the Kumbayah Service for the severely intellectually disabled.
13. Rites of Passage: The use of the church as the major venue for funerals and weddings has become less frequent as New Zealand has become more secular. Nowadaysa church like St David's is used only when there is some kind of current or historical connection. Yet these occasions remain an important part of our worshipping life, along with baptisms and confirmation of baptismal vows. They are an opportunity for mission beyond the congregation, as we meet people's deepest needs of identity and celebrate stages of their lives with them.

Pastoral Care: Compassionate solidarity and inclusive networking

What does it mean to offer Christ-centred community-facing pastoral care as part of our mission and ministry? How has the Spirit moved the boundaries of our understanding of whom we are to care for and how that is expressed?