The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod World Missions, through its National Missions Staff has developed a process designed to assist local congregations in revitalizing their sense of mission. The LCMS Districts will be the responsible parties to introduce, communicate and monitor the Revitalization Process among selected congregations in their judicatory. Districts will not be looking for all of their congregations to participate, nor even for full participation from a selected region or circuit of the district. Rather districts will be fostering the formation of learning communities comprised of willing congregations which have undergone a screening process. Ideally, these learning communities will comprise congregations in sufficient proximity for pastors and leaders to conveniently meet face-to-face. However it may also be possible for congregational leaders to meet via distance technology.
The Mission Revitalization Process works through LCMS Districts.
LCMS World Mission has contracted with Missions International and its Director, Dwight Marable, to create a reproducable process for Mission Revitalization. The LCMS Mission Revitalization team, under the directorship of David Born, is working with LCMS districts to effectively apply Revitalization strategies in their local congregations. In general, it is not possible for the national team to work directly with congregations, but the team is dedicated to be of every kind of assistance to districts in promoting and managing the Mission Revitalization Process within their respective judicatories.
Materials
The Mission Revitalization Process is not a program, but a process designed to change the culture of local congregations from one of self-service to one of outreach. A considerable body of material has been designed not to be programmatic, but to be ancillary to the process. The materials of the Mission Revitalization Process, including Groups Ablaze! is the intellectual property of Missions International. LCMS World Mission has entered into a licensing agreement with Missions International so that any LCMS ministry is permitted to make unlimited copies of the materials. Therefore it is possible for a district or congregation to purchase a single manual for $25, the simple production cost of that manual, and is free to make copies of its contents to suit its local ministry needs. Unlike many programs which sell their programs and materials, the Mission Revitalization Process is accessible to congregations with limited financial resources. LCMS World Mission is dedicated to serving every interested congregation with this process and has eliminated financial restrictions as impediments to it.
The Revitalization Process: Steps for Districts
1. Identify a point person to serve as the district facilitatorfor the TCN process. The facilitator will be the liaison between TCN and the district process. The facilitator will be coached by TCN in monthly coaching clusters, and will be the conduit for the flow of information to practitioners at the district level as well as supplying feedback to TCN for the monitoring and quality control of the process.
2. The district will identify candidates to serve as Certified Consultants. There should be a number of consultants which lead weekend consultations in each district on a congregation-by-congregation basis. Training for certification includes attending a national training event (which involves observing an actual congregational consultation) and participation in 4 other consultations under the supervision of a TCN certified consultant.
3. The district will identify candidates to serve as Coaches to the pastors and congregations which have had weekend consultations. Coaches are trained at a national event and use the TCN directional coaching manual as a primary resource. A coach must be designated for each congregation in which a weekend consultation is held and must be present at the consultation. The coach will be responsible for monthly coaching sessions with the pastor and quarterly visits with the leadership of the congregation for a period of at least one year after the consultation.
4. The district team should be helpful to congregations entering the revitalization process, both those congregations which are interested in joining the process, and those targeted by the district as good candidates for participation in the process. The district can also serve as a gate-keeper to the process so that congregations and leaders who are not likely to succeed in working the process can be redirected to concentrate on specific issues which will may make them better candidates in the future.
5. Those congregations identified by the district as part of the Mission Revitalization Process will be grouped in regional clusters of Learning Communities. The district team will provide for competent conveners for each cluster who will gather the cluster monthly around the Learning Community agenda, which includes learning exercises, case studies of congregations, the review of a book and homework assignments designed to expand the effectiveness of the pastor as a leader and to promote the revitalization process in the congregation.
6. The pastors involved in the Learning Communities will identify a local leadership team composed of people passionate about the growth of God's kingdom through the increased effectiveness of the witness of the local church. The leadership teams will become local learning communities which use a curriculum closely paralleling the material used in the Pastor's group. The hoped-for outcome of these local learning communities will be to change the culture and climate of the respective congregations so that the new believers and reclaimed unchurched identified in the small outreach groups will find a welcoming entry point into the life of the church.