A mission group is a place where you can join with a few others who share a commitment to God’s call on their lives to do some particular kind of transforming work in the world. A mission group is a place of safety in which you can share your inner journey, find forgiveness and understanding, ask and answer hard questions, and discern ever more clearly the ways in which God is calling you to embody Christ in your daily life. A mission group is a place where you can find support and encouragement for your spiritual growth while engaged in a particular work of transforming service. A mission group is a place where both your journey inward to knowing God and your journey outward to service can be held together in loving community.
Like Seekers Church as a whole, each mission group has a written call describing the purpose or mission of the group. This call begins to emerge before a group is formed. The call serves as the framework or skeleton for action by the group. It describes the part of our life together where the mission group will lead the congregation.
Each mission group of Seekers Church holds a part of the life of the congregation, and is accountable for the way it cares for that part of our life together. Just as the individual members of each mission group have authority for their roles in the group because the mission group as a whole has confirmed their gifts, so mission groups exercise authority at the point of their confirmed call. In Seekers Church, the Stewards affirm the call of each mission group based on their discernment of how the call of the mission group grows out of and supports the call of Christ on the Church, and our growing understanding of the needs of the congregation and the world.
A mission group supports the implementation of the Realm of God. As part of their life together, members of each mission group should be reflecting on how well they are doing in achieving that goal, how they can modify their approach or change their strategy to be more responsive to God’s call.
Periodically the Stewards invite all members of a mission group to meet with the Stewards for a conversation about the life of the mission group and the role it is playing in the life of the congregation, and its role in bringing about God’s Realm.
Every group should be clear how much time and energy is required of its members, both in and between meetings, for full participation in the group. Groups with corporate missions normally require some commitment of time from participants outside regularly scheduled meetings. Mission groups that support individuals in their vocations require a continuing awareness of the presence of Christ in the vocational environment.
Balance is as important for our groups as for ourselves. Each group tries to balance the work of the group with celebrations of birthdays and other special events, an occasional dinner together, or other playtime. Worship is a part of every meeting, and a major part of most mission group retreat activity.
You can expect from your mission group:
The mission group will expect from you:
Mission groups are the structure we have found most helpful in supporting us as we respond to God’s call on us as individuals and as a community. They are structured to offer support and spiritual accountability for living out God’s claim or call on our lives. Belonging to a mission group will support you as you:
In Seekers mission groups, selecting participants to fill roles requires a process of discernment that allows the group to call forth and confirm God’s special gift to each participant in the group. Once the gift of each member has been discerned within the context of the group and confirmed, roles can be structured to allow each participant to give to the group from a position of authority. This allows authority within the group to be shared by all participants, and gives each person a position of leadership. (For more on roles and responsibilities, see Appendix B.)
The corollary to the authority of gifts is our understanding of servant leadership in Seekers mission groups. We believe that leaders are called to lead in the way Jesus taught. The leader must be the servant of the group. This means being faithful to the call of the mission group and the good of the community in the exercise of gifts. It means not using your role within the mission group to push for a personal agenda, even as you bring your hungers, interests and concerns to the call of the group. It means keeping clearly in mind that every participant has authority at the point of his or her own gift. A member’s ability to contribute to the health of the mission group and the ability of the group to follow God’s call flows from each person seeing herself or himself as part of the community rather than a lone individual. Servant leadership underscores a natural tension between the efficient employment of skills, experience and power and true collaboration in service to Christ through the call of the group. Mission groups are one important place where we are learning, from the teaching of Jesus, a way that the world has rejected.
Regular meetings are important. The frequency of meetings will affect the depth of connections within the group.
Seekers mission groups with corporate missions meet weekly. Weekly meetings foster a sense of closeness that encourages sharing in depth and mutual support, and allows for visible progress on the work of the group. A few groups choose to meet every other week. This makes it possible for some with full schedules to attend more regularly, but slows the development of intimacy and trust within the group.
Some groups work on their tasks or mission at the group meetings. Others plan task work during meetings and do the work at other times. Groups use some meeting time to evaluate past work and nurture group visions of the future.
Mission group meetings begin with worship, to help bring us consciously into God’s presence. Some groups use a brief reflection on the weekly Lectionary Scriptures, with time for silence or comments, and prayer. Other groups combine other readings with an opportunity to use art materials or other less traditional worship activities such as dance, or a choral reading of the Lectionary, or singing several hymns, or drumming. There are many ways to come together through worship.
Sharing is an important part of the life of every mission group. Each of us needs to be understood and supported through the pain of life. Equal participation by all members is particularly important in sharing and support. Mission groups use different structures for personal sharing. Some groups give each person a brief opportunity to share the highlights of the week, and then allow one person to share in depth. Others focus the sharing around a question drawn from the weekly Lectionary Scriptures. Others use non verbal elements in their sharing such as art or movement.
We believe that a mission group is the place within the community where we are most intimately known. In order to be open and vulnerable to each other within the mission group it is essential that each participant have the assurance that when something sensitive is shared in the group it remains there. Members of the mission group agree that each participant’s story remains hers or his to share as desired with others.
We understand that the personal and group disciplines that come with joining a mission group are demanding. For someone joining a mission group for the first time, the disciplines of the group may feel like an affront, as controlling, or perhaps as unreasonable or unfair. Those who have embraced the disciplines and expectations tend to think of them as gift and freedom. This is not a freedom from constraints but the freedom to invest one’s life and caring in a group. Such investment encourages personal and group transformation towards God’s intentions. Living out the common call expresses the ministry entrusted to us in baptism, in communion, and in deep moments of connection to God.
Seekers mission groups include a specific commitment to nurture the spiritual life of each participant in the group. Typical elements of mission group discipline include:
The role of spiritual director or guide is perhaps the most important and least understood function within a mission group. Each Seekers mission group has a structure for spiritual guidance. Each participant in the group, as one of the conditions of joining the group, agrees to enter into a spiritual guidance relationship. We believe that the Holy Spirit will provide within each group the gifts necessary to nurture the participants and sustain the life of the group.
Spiritual guidance in Seekers groups takes a variety of forms. Often one member is confirmed as the spiritual guide, receiving reports from all other members. When one individual is not called to the role of guide, the group determines other arrangements so that each participant is accountable to one other person in the group for her or his spiritual nurture and growth.
Most groups find it important to structure regular time to nurture the growth of the group -- working with a book that addresses the call of the group; participating together in some outside activity related to the call; or going on retreat together. Many groups schedule longer meetings (weekend retreats or half-day meetings) to give them more time to share their stories and build the bonds of community. Longer periods together help deepen the sense of community, and allow extended opportunities for sharing and mission work together. A weekend at Wellspring or Rolling Ridge is nice, but groups also plan an occasional Saturday at someone’s home, at the church, or in a park. The moderator must be sensitive to each participant’s need to share, and provide time for all.
Retreat leadership, to help structure the time and help the process along, can come from within the group, or from outside. Seekers Church is rich in leadership resources that can help plan or lead a group retreat. The Living Water Mission Group is called to help individuals and other mission groups deepen their inner journeys.
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