Page 6 - Presbyterian Connection Newspaper

6 FALL 2019
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Enthusiastic participants of the May 2019 Cyclical PCC meeting.
Church Planting with Cyclical PCC
By the Rev. Steve Filyk, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Kamloops, B.C.
At our November 2018 presbytery meeting, it was proposed that the presbytery investigate the possibility of planting new churches within our bounds and discover expertise for this venture. Through conversations with colleagues in the Presbytery of Westminster I became aware of an initiative called Cyclical PCC.
Cyclical PCC is a new church- planting suppor t initiative within the PCC that, in par tnership with Cyclical Inc., affiliated with the PC(USA), is de- signed to encourage presbyteries and leaders within our denomination to take first steps toward beginning new worshipping communities. In Cyclical PCC, par ticipants are led through a three-step process of discerning call and vision, taking initial steps toward living out the vision and establishing a sustainable new ministry.
I reached out to Cyclical PCC about the possibility of learning more about this initiative as an observer, rather than a participant, with explicit inten- tions of starting a new worshipping community. After some discussion among Cyclical leaders, I was invited to attend their Spring Gathering. At our last presbytery meeting I was granted the permission and the funds to attend the May 13–16 event.
The Spring Gathering brought together over 40 participants and
included a full schedule of worship, presentations, discussions and time for building relationships. Topics ad- dressed included: widening our un- derstanding of mission, widening our understanding of church, coaching, spiritual practices, identifying and building on our strengths, going from nothing to something.
At the outset we were asked to consider the current and past models of church-planting to assess their li- abilities. Below is a short summary that was shared (and can be found in Starting Missional Churches: Life with God in the Neighborhood by Mark Branson and Nicholas Warnes, beginning on p. 14):
• Suburban sprawl (build in grow- ing areas)—this tends to deliver predetermined goods without as- suming what the Spirit is doing; success is rarely transferable
• Protestant splitting (building a community out of refugees from other churches)—pri- oritizes consumer preference over God’s mission and makes discontent foundational in the church DNA
• Expert strategies (calling in the church consultant)—misses unique characteristics of the mission context, objectivizes the context, and undervalues the ac- tive participation of the church community
• Charismatic figure—builds the
community around a single per- son which makes it vulnerable to their eventual departure
All of these models tend to ignore the context (a place in which God is already working) and discount the involvement of everyday Christians (through whom God desires to work).
Throughout the conference, we discussed priorities for starting mis- sional communities. These include the following (which can also be found in Starting Missional Church- es: Life with God in the Neighbor- hood, beginning on p. 37):
• Priority on discerning God’s activity—it is foundational that God is already at work in the neighborhood and it is our task to discover what God is doing and how to join in this work
• Priority on the neighbour as a subject—rather than assum- ing we know what the neighbor needs and treating them like ob- jects or targets, we are invited to join into life with them in mutual relationships
• Priority on boundary crossing— starting new worshipping com- munities demands a willingness to move outside our boundaries of what is safe and familiar and engage those who may be dif- ferent in terms of age, ethnicity or socio-economic differences (among others)
• Priority on plural leadership—
Cyclical communicates a foun- dational belief that when God is shaping a people, God brings together a team of leaders with various gifts, skills, abilities that will be used collectively for this task
What is clear is that church plant- ing according to Cyclical PCC is not a program that you purchase off the shelf, to be used on an unsuspect- ing audience by a solitary church professional. Rather, it involves ac- tive discernment and involvement within communities by people who believe that they are called to this work. If a church professional is to be employed it seems that their role is to facilitate (rather than direct) the process of a larger group discover- ing the mission to which they have been called and to support them in this work.
Discerning who might comprise the team that is creating a new wor- shipping community is also crucial. A number of times throughout the week, it was underscored that the church’s DNA tends to reflect that of its founder(s). That is, if you gather a group of Caucasian male Christian seniors to be a foundational leadership group, it is very likely that the commu- nity that is formed will have a striking resemblance to this team. Similarly, if the group has a culture of generosity versus a culture of tightfistedness, it is very likely that this cultural element
will emerge in the church nascent community that is being formed.
I should note that significant time was spent on Gallup’s StrengthsFinder tool (completed in advance), not as a means of determining who is suitable for church-planting, but as a means of self-awareness for those who intend to go into this work, so that they might know what strengths can be leveraged and where they will need the input and assistance of others.
It was extremely encouraging to at- tend this Spring Gathering and learn more about Cyclical PCC. It is clear not just that people in the PCC are in- terested in star ting new worshipping communities, but that such commu- nities are already beginning, and that there is a growing interest to take part in this work. For those who have consistently heard that it is fall/winter in the life of the PCC, I saw distinct signs of springtime. I would humbly suggest that ministry committees and presbyteries, in their desire to star t new worshipping communities, begin by engaging in prayer, asking God to point out to them the work that God wants accomplished, and to help us find those very people among them who God is calling to this task. I would also suggest that, if establishing new worshipping communities is a priority, congregations consider engaging the Cyclical PCC program.
To learn more about Cyclical PCC, visit presbyterian.ca/cyclicalpcc