Do pioneers only plant churches?
Pioneers often enable new communities but is that all they do?
Image by Sophie Killingley of Perish + Fade
People with the pioneer gift often enable new communities of disciples to grow up, and the Church of England definition of pioneers suggests that’s all they do: ‘Pioneers are people called by God who are the first to see and creatively respond to the Holy Spirit’s initiatives with those outside the church; gathering others around them as they seek to establish new contextual Christian community.’
by Rev Tina Hodgett
There’s lots we love about this definition but it suggests the pioneer gift can be contained and directed for the benefit of expanding the church. People with a pronounced pioneer gift are wired to be catalysts of newness in whatever context they find themselves. They have the ability to measure the usefulness of the structures, processes, attitudes and assumptions of the current state of affairs against the reality of the present moment and to see a different way that doesn’t yet exist.
In the context of church that could apply to anything: to how you shape the liturgy for the people who are in front of you; to what you do with the time in a service of worship that has traditionally been called a sermon, when neuroscience shows listening is one of the least effective ways of learning; how you facilitate congregational giving to the church’s work when banking services are adapting all around you to the digital age.
You can pioneer new ways of sharing the gospel in the public space in ways that don’t involve standing on a soapbox preaching; you can catalyse new understandings of mission – for example, as the newly launched Acts 11 Project based at CMS is helping shift our attitudes to migration.
If you read last month’s blog piece on the Pioneer Spectrum you’ll read how one of the pioneer ‘types’ is a pioneer activist. The activist is most concerned to extend God’s kingdom of justice and peace. If ever there was a need for more of these pioneers, it’s now. We need people who will stir the Christian imagination for environmental and social justice and put new things in the world that will enable others to join in in great numbers.
I’ve just joined Christian Climate Action and am humbled by the work they do – causing lay people and clergy to be sent to prison and priests deprived of their licence to minister – pioneering creative non-violent acts of protest on behalf of God’s creation. So no, pioneering is not all about church planting; it’s about changing the world.
Find out about how you and your church can change the world with the help of a Pioneering Parishes course.
