Mission Catalysts are people with the gifts and call to foster a variety of new faith communities. In some places they are called pioneers. As a church, we are called to embody God’s good news in word and deed in ways that offer new life to individuals and communities. This call extends beyond our existing churches. Port Phillip East presbytery has a project to recruit, train, encourage and support mission catalysts. This is a shared project with Yarra Yarra presbytery.
Here’s a link to our presbytery web page – https://ucappep.org/seeking-mission-catalysts/ and a number of parts of this initiative.
We are seeking people who are self-starters, who think outside the box, who are ‘people persons’, who have an entrepreneurial or innovation orientation, who have an evangelical heart in the best sense, who are willing to learn, who travel lightly with the church as an institution, who are more interested in living in the world than in the church.
This is not a formula. The primary aim is to see who God is calling, and to work alongside those people. This project is based in the premise that the Spirit calls people to ministry and mission, and that in this time and place, God is calling the whole church to foster varied forms of Christian community. This is not about church planting as such, but rather about diverse, contextual expressions of Christian community. These may include, for example, a community formed around a particular mission or justice concern or project.
In the first instance we are primarily seeking lay people who see this as a spare time vocation. These are not funded positions, although we hope that some will develop into that. Indeed, we hope that as new faith communities emerge, the presbyteries and their congregations will look at ways to resource them as needed into the future.
Currently we are working on learning from what others have done and framing/clarifying the invitation to prospective participants.
These resources are being helpful to us
Jonny Baker et al, Future Present, Proost
Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross, Imagining Mission with John V. Taylor, SCM Press, 2020.
David Goodhew, Andrew Roberts and Michael Volland, Fresh!, SCM Press, 2012.
Tina Hodgett and Paul Bradbury, “Pioneering Mission is … a Spectrum” in Anvil: Journal of Theology and Mission, Vol 34: Issue 1.
Karina Kreminski, Urban Spirituality, Urban Loft, 2018.
Dave Male, How to Pioneer, Church House Press, 2016
Michael Moynagh, Church in Life: Innovation, Mission. and Ecclesiology, SCM Press, 2017.
Steve Taylor, First Expressions, SCM Press, 2019.
Uniting Next, Stories and research in missional innovation, Uniting Mission. and Education.
Mission Education, Anvil: Journal of Theology and Mission, Vol 36: Issue 2.
Pioneer Ministry and Innovation, Anvil: Journal of Theology and Mission, Vol 34: Issue 3.