PCA Conversations

We are going to spend the next several Wednesdays exploring the topic of parish—the where and who of ministry. We’d like to discuss together the importance of place to the mission of the local church. To what extent should a circumscribed geography be determinative of a local church’s calling and culture? Does a theology of place matter? Indeed, what’s the place of geography in the mission of the church?

What you will read over the next few Wednesday posts is a real discussion that occurred between pastors from around the country in very different places.  [Three are from Brooklyn in two very different communities.  One from Harlem.  Two are in the Northwest.  Four are from Southeastern medium to large cities and a college town.  One is a missionary in S. America.  One ministers in Utah.]  They serve as church planters, pastors, and associate pastors who are thinking through what it means to be committed to a particular place and people.  The churches these men serve range from 1000 to 100 people and from 30 to 3 years old. We will be presenting the former discussion here in serial form over the next few weeks, and the idea is that you’ll be encouraged to join in as we go–ask questions, argue, provide insight–to help the conversation take new directions.

“Defining the Terms”

Jamison Galt, Brooklyn: Are any of you self-consciously engaging in a parish approach to ministry in your church life? If so, what resources got you there? Can anyone recommend books or articles that argue for such? Thomas Chalmers was recommended to me, but I’m not sure where to start with him…

Anonymous from NW:  Maybe I am idiot…but what exactly is parish ministry?

Vito Aiuto, Brooklyn: I/we don’t know what parish ministry is either, and if we do figure out what it is we’re not sure if it works anymore, or if it even ever did.  But we’re trying to find out.

Jeff White, Harlem: A parish approach means a couple of things in practice to me: 1) You seek to provide pastoral care not just to the church but to the entire neighborhood; 2) The church exists not simply for its own well-being, but seeks the peace and wholeness of the entire community.

The first of these is accomplished mostly by presence.  You live in the neighborhood and have your life and being there.  (My son once asked me if I was famous because so many people in our neighborhood say hello to me by name.  Though tempted to let him believe that I was indeed famous, I told him that I was just friendly.)  This works particularly well in residential urban neighborhoods, but is certainly not limited to them.  The main strategy here is simply hanging out and moving at a slow enough pace and an attentive enough eye that you see people and people see you so that you can engage in conversation.  Practicing hospitality with your neighbors is essential.

The second of these builds on the necessary work above and goes on to ask the question, “How is my neighborhood doing?  In what ways is it flourishing that I can celebrate and what ways is it not flourishing that we can play a role in addressing?”

I don’t believe by any stretch of the imagination that the parish approach is the only church model, but I believe it is deeply important.  It also is richly fulfilling.   Embracing God’s love for particularity is essential for doing it well and sticking with it.  God, after all, chooses the exact times and places that we live.  In Peterson’s lovely phrase “In the Christian life, geography is just as important as Christology.”  In Newbigin’s “the hermeneutic of the gospel” he points out that Paul always located the church in two places - it is “In Christ or in God” and “In a specific place” (Ephesus, Corinth, etc.).  Therefore, the church is meant to be God’s embassy in a particular place.