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An introduction for those who are not familiar with
Seekers Church
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of Church of the Saviour
September 2004
Seekers Church
276 Carroll Street, NW
Washington, DC 20012
www.seekerschurch.org
Thank you for your interest in Mission Groups at Seekers Church. Our mission groups are at the heart of the life of our faith community, where they provide for ministry, and in the process, for life-enriching and life-altering experiences. Our mission groups sustain and organize our ministries in the world, support the personal spiritual growth of their members, and sustain the life of this Church. A more complete description of our individual mission groups is available at the Church, or on the Seekers web site.
This booklet will introduce you to the life of mission groups in Seekers Church. We understand our church as a community of individuals who intentionally seek out God's call for their life and who welcome accountability and support for living out of that call.
A mission group is a place where you can engage in the work of Christ in our time. It is a place where you can join with a few others who share your particular call from God to do some particular ministry together and find support and encouragement for your spiritual growth.
Those of us who have been members of a mission group for a long time have found that, while it does take some getting used to, mission group life is a blessing - a time to look forward to; a time that give each member special energy. It helps us maintain our focus on ministry and keep us connected with the inspiring energy of the Holy Spirit.
Deep conversations and intimate worship are the basis for countless stories of mission group experiences where members have worked with hard issues and found solace, perspective and support even when there are no easy answers. This has led some members to make sweeping changes in their work and their lives.
We hope this introductory brochure will help those of you who are unfamiliar with Seekers Church begin to understand why these groups matter so much to us.
In Seekers Church, we have come to understand that the best way for us to deepen our faith in God is through a combination of prayerful reflection and intentional action, working together with a few others who share a common commitment to a particular ministry. We maintain this environment for growth through small mission groups. We see mission groups as having some of the qualities of the small groups that lived and worked with Jesus during his earthly ministry and in the early church.
Our current understanding of mission groups in Seekers Church is grounded in the fundamental work of Gordon Cosby, a founder of the Church of the Savior. The most fundamental traditions of Church of the Savior mission groups are continued in Seekers. For the participants, mission groups are a fundamental place of belonging and service. Regular face-to-face meetings help build trust and a sense of shared commitment. The process of discerning God's call and evoking gifts encourages and helps empower all members to claim a specific ministry. The intimacy and vulnerability made possible by high levels of trust, and high levels of commitment and accountability for one's inner journey, promote personal transformation and empowerment.
A Seekers mission group is a distinctive kind of small church group. Many churches use committees to make decisions and accomplish the work of the church. Many churches have support groups in which individuals come together to help one another through their life journeys. Moreover, many churches have classes or study groups that work with the Bible and other readings in order to deepen the spiritual lives of those who attend. Although mission groups do this work in Seekers Church, they are much more than a committee or a support or study group. For Seekers, mission groups are the places of deepest belonging in the body of Christ, places where members of a group can deepen their commitment to Christ and live out God's call.
Mission groups provide support for each member of the group as they pursue a closer relationship with God and seek to refine and respond to God's individual call on their lives. The mission group is a place where members can talk about their relationship with God and their place in Christ's body - the church. Why does God seem so distant right now, or so close? What might these signs and insights mean for me? Mission group meetings also provide time for meditation and for being thankful to God.
Some mission groups in Seekers Church carry core parts of the life of the faith community - worship, lifelong learning and retreat. Others focus on providing a place of accountability and support for members who have an individual commitment to service and witness in some particular place in the world.
The actions of the mission group are the work of the church and are recognized and granted authority for this work by the Stewards.
Stewards are members of Seekers Church who make an additional commitment to the life and health of the congregation. They meet monthly to coordinate overall activities of the community. Since there are normally at least two Stewards in each mission group, this gathering provides an ongoing opportunity to share the vision of our calling as a congregation with each mission group so that it may better shape its life into a supportive part of the whole.
Mission Groups support our personal inner journeys to find and refine what God would have us do with our lives, and our outer journeys of service and witness as it relates to God's call for us. At any given time, most Seekers belong to a mission group. Mission groups encourage deep integration into shared community and this binds together all three elements of the Seekers commitments to inner journey, outer journey and community.
Mission groups practice an action-reflection approach to study and work, to the integration of personal interests and group needs. Mission groups are formed around the call to a shared ministry: it is the call that brings members together in a mission group. The life of a mission group is marked by a sense of informality, honest conversation, by beginning each session with worship, by the sharing of responsibility, particularly by a practiced reliance on listening for the leading of the Holy Spirit. This all works together to make life in a mission group far more than "planning the work, then working the plan." This life together makes room for both prophetic attention to the work of the group and pastoral attention to the needs of participants as whole persons and not just as "committee members."
Most people in Seekers Church lead exceptionally full lives. It takes commitment to join a mission group, but people stay for the joy, the love and the meaning they experience as part of the mission group.
A few people are members of more than one mission group but most cannot sustain two such commitments. The important thing for Seekers is not to do all our work through mission groups, but that individuals have the opportunity to experience the love of God in the transformative, sustained, face-to-face, engagement that a mission group offers.
In Seekers Church, the process of giving birth to a new mission group begins when a Steward hears a new call. This person carries the emerging sense of call, deepening the discernment through prayerful reflection, journaling and talking with others in the community. A valid call will focus on some specific need, some area of brokenness in the world or the church, some specific place where God's Realm is waiting for some co-creator to contribute to transformation.
At least one other Steward must join in discerning and carrying the call before taking it to the Stewards for recognition and affirmation. When the call becomes clarified, the Stewards review the call and work with the initiating group. When there is a positive sense of the call, the Stewards affirm it.
Once the Stewards have affirmed the new mission group, the founding Stewards invite other Seekers to join the mission group if they are ready to make a commitment to the call of the group and the spiritual practices it has adopted for its own health and growth. This affirmation is a sign to all who are part of Seekers Church that this mission group has the authority to act in the name of the church. Mission groups are accountable to the Stewards for the call they have accepted.
You may be wondering if you would want to join a mission group, help to create a mission group, or suggest that an existing group become a mission group. The feelings of community, the support for personal growth, the opportunity for meaning-filled service all make mission groups attractive, but the commitment to weekly meetings to disciplines for spiritual growth, and to taking on a ministry are expensive in terms of time and energy. Moreover, it takes a while to learn the culture and practices that are vital to group life. For some, the commitment to intimate work and worship with a small group of other folks can seem a little strange.
Mission groups take time for the "why" questions that help the participants and the whole group make the connection to meaningful work together. That releases powerful commitment that feels like joy rather than burden. It also promotes serendipitous and "organic" work styles based in shared understandings, whether or not they are clearly articulated.
Seekers Church offers guidance for these challenges by asking prospective mission group members to take two classes in the School of Christian Living before joining. The classes have several purposes, including helping people get ready for life in a mission group. In addition to the School of Christian Living, Seekers Church does many things to help us engage the life questions that lead to exploration and commitment to a mission group. Sermons, retreats and especially searching conversations help a lot. Some members move into a mission group after about a year of participation in the life of Seekers Church, while others take longer.
If you are not joining Seekers, perhaps you might want to find or create some intermediate steps as you work with this way of engaging Christian faith.
There are currently eight mission groups in Seekers Church. Each carries a different part of our ministry in the world or in our life together as an intentional Christian community. A more detailed description of current mission groups is available on our web site at http://www.seekerschurch.org/mission/index.htm.
The Artists Mission Group calls persons to express an inner vision in an outward form. In the engagement with the medium, mission group members become aware of the gift of creation, and hope to be a channel for this gift. The group holds the artist in the faith place where both the creative blocks and creative gifts are experienced.
Celebration Circle is called to energize and structure the worship life of the Seekers Church. Members of this mission group write Seekers' worship liturgies, plan and coordinate worship and other celebrations, and coordinate preaching. The group is an important place of support and accountability for the ministry in daily life of its members.
Journeying with Children is called to be on a spiritual journey with the children of Seekers Church. This takes members of the mission group on both an inward and outward journey and engages them together in building community. The group coordinates community activities that include our children, including our Sunday morning learning experiences for children.
Learners and Teachers is called to invite and enable people to take part in learning and sharing opportunities that help inform and support a life of faith. Learners and Teachers lives out this call by sponsoring the Seekers Church School of Christian Living as well as sharing its approach to Christian education with other congregations.
Living Water supports the inner life of all Seekers by developing the capacity for group spiritual guidance and other forms of spiritual companionship; sponsoring retreats (silent and other designed experiences); supporting current offerings at Dayspring, Wellspring and Rolling Ridge that focus on the "inward journey"; presenting disciplines to nourish the inner life; and supporting other dimensions of our inner journey.
The Mission Support Group is called to support members on individual mission, and others who are in the process of discerning mission. The group provides a place of support and accountability for these individual calls.
River of Light is called to healing. Jesus sent his disciples forth to heal. As 21st Century disciples, members of the mission group seek to learn from Jesus' ministry and to share in Christ's work as healers.
Seeds of Hope is called to help create transforming congregations. The mission group builds on the experience in Seekers Church and elsewhere to discern and share the seeds of hope for empowering ministry, for deepening personal faith journeys, and for encouraging vital Christian groups and congregations.
Over the years, Seekers Church has developed a set of guidelines and processes for mission groups. These are found in the eighth edition of Guidelines for Seekers Mission Groups. The guidelines are just that, for life in Seekers is the antithesis of legalism. The main thing to remember is that the secret of our mission groups is not in the guidelines and processes, but in the depth of our meeting and caring for each other. The group's call invites the transformative presence of the Holy Spirit in individual transformation to pour out into creative, committed work together.
One sign of this reality is that Seekers mission groups seldom work out of any rigid processes for accomplishing various purposes, even though there are millions of handbooks available for all kinds of church activities. We are an "understand it ourselves" and "do it ourselves" people. We are not above borrowing from others and we have several members who are connected to various expressions of the wider church. Such borrowing is enhanced by our decision not to commit to any one denomination or tradition, and a willingness to learn from whatever is life-giving. Our flexibility is also based in rich and variable theological engagements and in ongoing bible study, and an understanding that "lived truth" is often more valuable than "objective truth." Because we believe in shared leadership, most of our members feel free to take appropriate initiatives and to share in discernment concerning the leadership of others.
Another sign is that we are not afraid of failure, or of having a good initiative come to an end. In one sense, we cannot fail. Everything contributes to our growing understandings and helps us discern and direct ourselves for our mutual good. Endings release energy for new beginnings and course corrections.
Our secret is that to understand why mission groups matter so much to us, you have to experience them. At least this introduction gives you a peek.
Mission groups are not the only way things are done in Seekers Church. There are other kinds of opportunities for individuals to offer their gifts through small, more informal groups. Sometimes individuals or informal small groups take on the coordination of a specific task such as providing coffee and tea after worship. Stewards sometimes appoint a group to perform some specific task or to develop a recommendation for consideration by the community. This currently includes many teams that came to life as Seekers Church began renovating a new home base on Carroll Street in northwest Washington, DC.
Recently several "ministry teams" have begun coordinating specific activities. These teams are different from mission groups because they meet less frequently than mission groups, draw participants who are also members of mission groups, and are more focused on the task. For example, the Washington Area Tumelong Team coordinates support for ministries in Winterveldt, a township outside Pretoria, South Africa. Other informal groups oversee our financial stewardship and the management of our new headquarters on Carroll Street.
Members of the Servant Leadership Team also take on numerous and diverse tasks that include administration, healing, encouragement and coordination to support the life of the congregation.
If you are visiting with Seekers Church and are interested in learning more about mission groups in Seekers Church, please speak to a Steward or a member of the Servant Leadership Team.
Seekers Servant Leadership Team:
Peter Bankson
Kate Cudlipp
Jeanne Marcus
Brenda Seat
If you are interested in learning more about our mission groups but it is not convenient for you to visit with us, please contact the Seeds of Hope Mission Group.
Contact
Phone: 202.289.9882
E-Mail: Write us
Web: www.seekerschurch.org
[Seekers] [Write us] [Seeds of Hope Mission
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