Long Range Planning

The 25th General Assembly (2005) approved an ad interim committee on strategic planning representative of all the presbyteries to be appointed by the Moderator to evaluate progress on "Vision 21" and to begin envisioning the EPC's mission beyond 2010. The Long Range Planning Committee is focusing on developing missional ethos and practice in denominational life.

btn-V21 - button vision 21

The process cannot be divorced from Vision 21, the EPC's previous strategic initiative. Reviewing Vision 21, it's not surprising to learn that some of what we already sense in our work is consistent with our standing vision statement. The Committee believes that many of its proposals will be consistent with Vision 21 and hopes to speak to the kind of operational and ethos changes necessary to get Vision 21 "off the shelf," as well as recommend any adjustments that seem prudent.

A number of key assumptions gude the work of the Long Range Planning committee. 

  • The LRPC (Long Range Planning Committee) will focus on developing missional ethos and practice in denominational life.
  • The local congregation is the focal point for mission. The EPC rises or falls depending on whether or not the local church succeeds in her mission. Developing missional practice means equipping local churches and developing operational flexibility.
  • The task of the General Assembly and presbytery is to help churches to be missionally successful.
  • The LRPC will initially use the Missional Leadership Institute (MLi) Change Model (see below).
  • The LRPC will work intentionally through presbyteries.
  • The LRPC feels it must challenge the assumption that a church can be a healthy, evangelical, Reformed congregation in a mission field without growing.
  • The LRPC will take the posture of giving voice to people in the denomination and leading a movement rather than imposing a will.
  • The EPC is at a moment when God's Providence has given us a clear identity and yet we are still small enough-and relational enough-to effect meaningful change.
  • Ultimately, the LRPC needs to be prescriptive-but only after a process of careful listening. If the process is flawed, the prescription will flounder.

CHANGE MODEL - IMAGE 

MISSIONAL - a working definition

A missional church is a church:
  1. That is grounded in the Scriptures and historic Christian orthodoxy and so committed to the primacy of the Great Commission.
  2. That believes that the United States has become post-Christian and is now a mission field.
  3. That believes that it has been planted by God in its own community to effectively reach those around them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
  4. That is committed to reproducing a community of authentic disciples of Jesus Christ.
  5. That is continually in the process of equipping its members to be missionaries sent by God to live and proclaim the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus in their own world and to the ends of the earth.
  6. That is constantly re-examining itself as to whether it is merely doing maintenance of existing ministries and members, or whether or not it is effectively doing the mission of reaching its own community with the reign of God through the Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
  7. That perceives that the essence of these fundamental attributes is the essence of its own existence.
A missional denomination is a denomination: 
  1. That believes the location of ministry is the local church.
  2. That is made up of local congregations committed to be missional.
  3. That is constantly re-examines itself as to whether or not its polity, structures and programs are serving or inhibiting a missional mindset.

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