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Board of Mission in Ireland 124 ANNUAL REPORTS, BELFAST, 2014 BOARD OF MISSION IN IRELAND Convener: Rev CHRISTOPH EBBINGHAUS Secretary: Rev DAVID J BRUCE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY From A Church That Does Mission To A Missional Church 1. The Board of Mission in Ireland (BMI) is committed to serving the Church by enabling mission. 2. In recent times the Board has sought to enable mission in a great variety of ways, not least by inviting every Congregation in Ireland to prepare a mission plan for use as a basis for outreach into its local community. The Board is grateful to God for the way in which this venture has led to local mission being given a new level of prominence in the mind of many local Congregations. 3. While there is much to be grateful for the Board is clear that the work of enabling the Church for mission has really only begun. The mission planning work of the last few years may have helped to raise the level of priority given to local mission. It may have resulted in an increased level of missional activity throughout the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI). But it has not, so far, helped the PCI to move from being a Church that occasionally engages in missional activity to becoming a network of missional Churches full of disciples of Jesus Christ for whom living and telling the gospel has become a way of life. This is the challenge that lies before the PCI early in the third millennium. 4. The Board is seeking to serve the Church by envisioning and equipping it to create whole-life, missional disciples; people whom God will use to transform their neighbourhoods and their workplaces and all the other spheres where God has sent them. Among much else, this report tells of the Every Day in Every Way pilot scheme, which the Board has facilitated in 2013- 14, giving ministers and elders from twelve Congregations an opportunity to be inspired for whole-life disciple making ministry. It tells also of helpful conversations which have been opened with the Board of Christian Training with regard to whole-life disciple making and an event that is being planned for an appropriate time in 2014/15. 5. The Board recognises the decline that is widespread throughout our denomination, particularly in our urban centres. This report tells of the important work of the Belfast Panel, reflecting on the challenges of urban mission and seeking new models and processes to bring missional followers of Jesus into our urban spaces. It is hoped that some of the work of the Panel will prove helpful in the future in other urban situations. Revision of the Book of Public Worship 6. The Very Rev Dr David Clarke has convened a Panel for the last three years working on a comprehensive revision to the Book of Public Worship. This represents a major achievement, and he and the Panel are to be warmly thanked. The Rev Prof Drew Gibson has headed up a sub-committee of the Panel looking in detail at services of Ordination, and the Rule of Faith. The Presbytery BOARD OF MISSION IN IRELAND 125 comments received are reflected in the proposed changes to the Code, tabled as part of the BMI report this year. Board Committee Convenerships 7. This year, the Board said farewell to two Committee conveners: Debra Anderson from the Personnel Committee, and the Rev Trevor McCormick from the Communications Committee. At its March meeting, the Board had the opportunity to thank them for their committed service to these respective Committees in recent years. In addition, one of our Assembly Committee conveners set aside the role this year, and a resolution is appended thanking Chris Kennedy for his work with the Research and Resources Committee. The BMI Team 8. The BMI team is made up of Home and Urban Mission ministers, deaconesses, Irish Mission workers and other Church-based staff supported by BMI grants. We are grateful to God for all the ways in which he uses these men and women to serve the wider Church and enable so many in the mission of the gospel. A directory of their names and spheres of service is appended as Appendix A to this report. 9. We are grateful too for the work of the office team which serves the needs of the Board with such dedication and such a passion for God’s glory. The Board records its special thanks to them: Lorraine Beatty (Support Officer, Property and Grants), the Rev David Bruce (Executive Secretary), Evelyn Craig (Secretary pt), Nehru Dass (Finance Manager), Robin Fairbairn (Communications), Mandy Higgins (Office Supervisor), Elaine Huddleston (Secretary), Laura Whitcroft (Secretary pt), the Rev David Thompson (Mission Development Officer), and Marianne Trueman (Secretary Personnel pt). STRATEGY FOR MISSION COMMITTEE 1. The remit of the Committee is the supervision of the Home Mission and the Irish Mission of the Church and the formation of missional strategies, including mission planning, development, Church planting and specialist networks. The Secretary to the Committee is the Board Secretary. The Nightlight Panel reports to the Committee. Mission Development Every Day in Every Way 2. The Fit for Purpose theme for 2014/15 is A People of Service and Outreach. Across our denomination, Church members experience an amazing variety of opportunities to live out the mission of God in their everyday worlds of work and study, family and social networks. In response to Congregations expressing a need for support in equipping members to be more aware of these opportunities and better able to live as whole-life disciples, the Board initiated a pilot project under the heading Everyday in Every Way. The aim was to further 126 ANNUAL REPORTS, BELFAST, 2014 explore what mission looks like when viewed through the lens of the everyday rhythms of life experienced by our membership. 3. This was not the Board’s first venture in this area. The Tapestry: A Mission Woven Life resource, still available for download on the BMI website, seeks to acknowledge that a continuing emphasis on gathered congregational mission in the parish locality needs to be supplemented by developing the potential of every member mission in the places to which God scatters them to live for Him in daily life. This year’s pilot project has sought to deepen and develop our understanding of this challenge. The Committee has been grateful for the opportunity to work in partnership with the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) which has a long track record of work with Churches in developing this area of life and witness. 4. Twelve Congregations from a wide variety of contexts, and a range of different starting points on the journey of developing an emphasis on whole life discipleship, took part in the pilot project. The group met three times throughout the year with a focus on sharing their emerging experiences and receiving specialist input from Neil Hudson of LICC. Meetings involved both sessions for ministers of participating Congregations and for ministers along with key leaders. This approach delivered valuable insights from two interconnected perspectives – both pulpit and pew. 5. Early in the process it became clear that the issue was multifaceted and represented a significant series of challenges to the existing culture of how core issues of Church life, mission, ministry, membership and discipleship are understood. 6. As a number of these areas are the subjects of on-going work under the remit of Christian Training, a fruitful conversation has been opened with the appropriate Committee and Panel conveners of the Board of Christian Training. The result is that it is planned to hold an event informed by this more comprehensive agenda at an appropriate slot in 2014/15. The programme will seek to frame the issue of whole life discipleship in the wider denominational and congregational context of: • understanding and equipping members for the challenge of everyday mission; • the developing picture of how discipleship overlaps with the agenda for pastoral care; • leading culture change in the area of expectations of Church members; • the implications of embracing disciple making as a core vocation of ministerial training. 7. It will represent a first word, rather than a last word, on the interconnectedness of these issues which are complex and sensitive. As such, it will form an important step into what will undoubtedly be an ongoing journey for the Church. 8. The Board is grateful to those Congregations who contributed to the pilot project and remain committed to taking our shared learning forward to form an appropriate on-going agenda for this important area of Church life and witness. BOARD OF MISSION IN IRELAND 127 Urban Mission 9. The 2013 General Assembly passed the following resolution:- That the General Assembly encourage the Board of Mission in Ireland in its reflection upon the challenges of mission in urban situations, and in particular in its discussions with the Union Commission in seeking to secure more sustainable models for resourcing Presbyterian mission in our cities. (Resolution 2, p.34 Minutes of the General Assembly 2013) 10. The resolution highlights the rapidly deepening crisis facing Presbyterian presence for mission in our cities as established urban Congregations continue to decline in strength. To fail to acknowledge this reality will allow the present situation to deteriorate beyond retrieval. A conversation between practitioners and decision-makers is required. There is an urgent need to pro- actively communicate a direction of change and the reasons why it must happen within Congregations, Presbyteries and the wider Church if the mission of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is not to become restricted to rural and suburban communities. This message needs to be balanced with the development of new imaginative models and approaches to urban mission which enact hope that change is possible, and that the Church can engage in gospel ministry to the contemporary city.
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