For the past, few years we’ve been wrestling with how to approach the vocation of mission in our CAPC Oakland Community. In the past, our thinking has been divided to some degree around two opposing poles: 1) Missions is overseas, done by missionaries in non-Christian countries, and 2) Missions is also local, here in Oakland, involving social justice actions, done by our church (as in the Friday Night Meal). On a certain level, we’ve had a false dichotomy between evangelism (or speaking the gospel) and social action (or doing the gospel).
Our Understanding of Missions and Missional Matters.
Today, we’ve come to a larger understanding our call to be missional – to live into and out the mission that Jesus gives in Matthew 28. This vision is rooted in a more expansive definition of missions which sprouts from the experience that everything we do is evangelism (sharing the good news victory of God in Christ over the forces that diminish life).
The word Mission comes from the Latin missio, which comes from the Greek word to apostle – both of which mean “to send” or “to be sent.” So to do mission is to be an apostle. It’s to be sent to share the gospel to anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere. Francis of Assisi said that as Christians we are called to “Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, using words.” Sharing the good news victory of God in Christ is done through preaching, teaching, conversations, and also actions: feeding, healing, helping, standing with, and walking alongside.
Foreign Missions is doing that by crossing a culture, which usually involves learning a language, a different culture and/or culture cues in order to share the gospel. And we recognize that today we do that in our own city of Oakland. And so, while not minimizing the immeasurably challenging work done by missionaries working in different countries, doing mission is more about being than acting. We’re called to be people who share the gospel everywhere we go, with everyone we encounter, journey with and live alongside. We are called to be missional.
Missional Matters involve both foreign and local works, as well as ones to which we give money and ones with which we collaborate by rolling up our sleeves and getting personally involved.
In the past we’ve given to missions in two principal ways:
First, as a tithe of the church income generated by building use agreements. We save a tithe percentage of those monies in a rainy-day fund to take care of our 100+ year old building. The other tithe percentage we give as a church to missions. These monies have been divided up and designated to particular missions and missionaries based upon a vote of what has been our Missions Committee. Over time particular ministries were funded because of particular people on the Mission Committee having a personal relationship with the mission or missionary. As the church has aged, these relationships now exist differently because of death, membership attrition or change. Consequently, most people in our church community today do not have any sort of personal relationship or conception of the ministries, missions, and missionaries we have supported over the years.
Second, we also recognize that we give much more to missions and missional living as our church community and as individuals. These may be based on our diverse relationships and different faith journeys. Some of these missional collaborations are also works of our own CAPC community that haven’t been understood historically as “missions” because they have been more local, or social-action oriented. In the past, our Mission Committee has in large part not counted this missional giving as part of the work of our Missions Committee as they have not been an official part or line-item in our annual church budget.
Some of these missional actions include:
Funding our weekly Friday Night Meal – responding to the hungers of Oakland – feeding those hungry for physical food, social connection and a chance to serve
Funding our annual Free Thanksgiving Community Meal
The work of our Deacons with those in need
Our annual Change to Change Lives Offering to support Witnessing Ministries Intl
Our weekly food giveaway
Individual giving to mission organizations and actions that we support, including Cows in Rwanda, working with the Dalit in India, La Ceiba Coffee and efforts in Palín, Guatemala.
The piano fund – to purchase a new piano to empower musical ministries
And countless others…
As a church community we have committed to:
Giving to groups/missionaries that align with our mission (our theology, our audience, our financial strategy)
Empowering groups doing the ministry work to be involved in process. Trust those closest to the mission work to have a perspective on what’s needed.
Focusing on relationships we can nurture in a common call to mission.
We will use the following criteria and values when we select ministries to support.
We believe these criteria and values help us be more Missional* in our work in the community and the world. It is our goal to invest in ministries that not only impact needs in our neighborhood and world but also challenge and change us (the members of CAPC) in the process.
As we approach our mission budget and special giving opportunities we ask the following questions giving each question a value of 1-5 (5 being highest).
● How does the ministry fit the values of the PC(USA)?
● If we don’t support them, who will?
● Are ministry decisions made at a level closest to the people doing the work?
● What percentage of the money received goes to “overhead”?
● Are there opportunities to foster personal relationships with the mission, and or, the people doing the work?
● Does this ministry feel like more of a congregational call to support or more an individual call?
● Did this ministry grow out of a ministry of CAPC or was/is it part of a collaboration with CAPC?
These values are recorded on a score-sheet that we can use when we discern together as a community about potential missional collaboration.