The School of Ministry hosted three regional diocesan events on Rethinking mission, at St. Mary's in High Point, St. Peter's in Charlotte, and St. Paul's in Cary, in 2005.

For those who may wish to engage, in their parish, with an exercise we used at these events to reflect upon God's mission and your call to ministry, and to consider where your own parish is and where your own energy lies, we have developed the following, that you may find helpful.

You may find it helpful to initiate a conversation about mission with others in your parish – perhaps in an adult forum, perhaps with your vestry or with other committees or groups. Here’s a possible agenda for you to adapt to meet your particular needs. If someone from your parish attended one of our Re-thinking mission events in the fall of 2005, items 1-3 below apply. If no one did, simply go to item 4.

1. Report on your experience at our Re-thinking mission event. If there were several of you in attendance, plan together to share your insights gleaned from the event. Keep in mind that most of us don’t want a detailed report of what people attending an event did and what the agenda was like; rather we want to understand the purpose of the gathering and then the insights, thoughts and ideas that you found valuable. As you discern what to share, consider this question: What seems especially relevant to your parish life?

1. Allow the group to respond to your comments generally if they wish.

1. If there was a quote, a thought or an inspiration from Re-thinking mission that you found especially meaningful, consider putting it up on newsprint and ask the group to respond. Give them some questions to make their response more specific, such as
   1. How does this quote relate to our parish’s mission statement?
   2. How does this quote relate to your own understanding of mission?
   3. What needs to happen for our parish to live into/live out the message of this quote?

1. Consider asking the group to go through the exercise that you did at Re-thinking mission, copying in advance the worksheet that appears here as a pdf file.
   1. Remind the group, if needed, that the “Marks of Mission” are not the definition of mission. They are simply one way of expressing mission, intended to stimulate our thinking together.
   2. Let the group spend a few minutes individually working with the sheet.
   3. Ask them to share how well they think your parish is doing on the various marks. Put the ones you’re doing well on one page of newsprint, those less well on another.
   4. Now talk about energy. This is important; if we see ourselves doing less well on one of the marks and have no energy for it (which shouldn’t be a surprise!), that doesn’t mean we have our priorities wrong. But it does call for a good conversation about why, which could happen in a future Bible study or adult forum. The other combinations – having energy for a mark we are not addressing well, for example – call for other types of conversations… good next steps to define.
   5. Personal commitments can be handled in a variety of ways. People may not want to be put on the spot at that moment, and the final column on the worksheet may wisely be left to them for personal prayer and reflection. The commitments can also be shared, or offered in closing prayers as we did at Re-thinking mission. Gain a good sense of the will of the group before proceeding. If commitments are made openly, take a few minutes to discuss support, accountability, and next steps.

1. Close with prayer. Prayers for mission appear on pp. 100, 257, and 816 of the Book of Common Prayer. Consider also the “Missionary Diocese Prayer” on the diocesan website.