“Deep Refreshing & Revelation” The 2023 Missional Planning Summit
Clergy & leaders praying over the Missional Plans. Foreground left to right: Rev. Mary Tusuubira, Bishop Andrew, Rev. Cinnamon Blomquist
“This year’s Missional Planning Summit felt like a mastermind session with church leaders from around the ADNE retreating for two days of dreaming and strategizing. The Lord knit the groups together in such a way that churches across the Diocese were able to dream, encourage, support, and equip one another. At the end of two days, each church left with a Spirit-filled plan that will make the transformative and empowering love of Jesus Christ known in their community.”
This is how Mr. Josh Vanada, Chairman of the ADNE Standing Committee described this month’s powerful Missional Planning Summit. Hosted at All Saints’ Cathedral, this annual two-day gathering is designed to help ADNE leaders dream big, identify God’s vision for their parishes, and strategize how to mobilize their people to mission in their parish’s local contexts.
As this was the third year leaders have made a 12-month missional plan Bishop Andrew and Josh Vanada - who really spearheaded the leadership of this year’s summit - charged the leaders gathered to begin asking Jesus for long-term vision and strategy, and to consider how diocesan resources and parish-partnerships could help individual churches reach their goals.
Like last year, at the core of the summit were midsize groups. In these, leaders reported back on the 12-month missional plan they created at last year’s summit. Missional wins were celebrated, lessons learned from “failing forward” were shared, and common struggles and breakthroughs were identified. Josh Vanada, Joe Githinji, Drew Thurman, Canon Paul Githinji, and Bishop Andrew served as coaches for each midsize group, helping leaders clarify goals, gain insight regarding next steps, and connect with others who can provide support. By the end, each church’s leaders had opportunity to share their 12-month plan, which included strategies for developing their church’s missional engagement, children & youth ministry, leadership development process, and making more room for the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Brian Chase, who in February was installed as rector of Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church in Danvers, MA, had this to say about the summit:
This was my first year at the Missional Planning Summit. I have had the opportunity to serve in several different dioceses and have always noticed how difficult it is to catalyze and measure the growth of so many different parishes scattered across such a broad area with different contexts and different needs. The Missional Planning Summit provides an excellent opportunity to focus all of the parishes of the diocese on a shared mission and provide a clear method for measuring progress on a year to year basis.
All of my clergy at the conference felt that they came away from the conference, not only with a clearer sense of where we are headed as a parish, but also with a stronger appreciation for the ministry of other parishes in our diocese and a deeper bond with the other clergy in our group. Sometimes ministry can be very isolating and it was wonderful to gather so many of our clergy together for support and prayer.
A stunning highlight of this year’s summit was an evening spent in the Williams’ home which featured the ADNE’s first open-mic event. All were treated to beautiful poetry from Mille, who also sang with Ven. Michael Kafeero, original songs performed by both Kathryn Miller and Rev. Sean Norris, Bach performed on cello by Sarah Hoskins, a powerful worship song led by Isaiah Sylvia and Rev. Dan Sylvia, and the Revs. Blomquist’s unique style of musical entertainment. The joyful evening concluded with the office of compline. The evening was the pinnacle of an experience of fellowship that had infused the entire day. Bishop Andrew testified to this sense of fellowship, saying,
My vision for our time together at the Missional Planning Summit was always that it should be a moment of deep refreshing and revelation. A moment in our year, where we all came together in the presence of the Lord and discern Spirit led strategies to put His Kingdom first. For me, this third year of our coming together in this way, took us all higher and deeper in His vision for the shared mission He has called us to. There was a transparency, vulnerability, honesty and desire to encourage and champion each other that deeply moved me. It was a time together when, in multiple God ordained moments, one family member looked into the eyes of another family member and said (with heartfelt relief) “You too! I thought it was only me! Shall we talk and pray together.” I saw us strengthened in the love of Jesus Christ for each other – fortified in the bonds of His love. Our evening together where musicians and poets took to an informal stage to share their gifts was an anointed time, drawing us together in Christian joy – the sheer goodness of being together and enjoying one another in Him. Our fellowship is much, much more than deep affection and hospitality. It is even more than reading and studying the Scriptures with each other, as supremely important as this is. True fellowship in every century and most certainly the 21st Century requires blood, sweat, and tears as we stand side by side, against the fierce tide of culture, to see His Kingdom come. I am profoundly grateful to Josh Vanada and his small army of apostolic coaches, who inspired us to greater heights of trust and faith, to find within our hearts the God given courage to put vision into action that is beyond us to achieve, and indeed can only be accomplished in the outworking of love and power of Jesus.”
All the work of the summit led up to the celebration of Holy Eucharist when dozens of missional plans surrounded the altar as a offering unto the Lord. Like in previous years, everyone was invited up during the service to lay hands on the missional plans to pray and share Scriptures and words as the Lord gave. This year, a beautiful art project - the idea of Rev. Kate Norris - also adorned the stage: participants were invited to paint their hopes and prayers within the outline of the cross as a visual representation of prayers of reawakening for New England. The theme of prayer and upholding one another in support was strong throughout the week. Again, Bishop Andrew reflected,
“In our time together, the Lord sovereignly reminded us that His church is not a select circle of the immaculate, but a home where the outcast may come in. His church is not a palace with gate attendants to hold off the stranger at arm's-length, but rather a hospital where the broken-hearted may be embraced and healed, and where all the weary and troubled may find welcome and mercy. Our time together was the restoration of our calling as worshippers and workers in Jesus’ great restoration movement, the Father’s great kingdom-project. It is a calling to heal the wounds of the heart, to open doors, to set the captive free, to declare that God is good. He forgives all. He is our is Good Father. He is kind, and His kindness has no limits. He stands as the Father of the prodigal, patiently waiting for us and rejoicing over us with love and mercy. In our time together, the Holy Spirit led us back to our identity as a community of the broken; a church that is sent out onto the battlefield to minister to the wounded and the fallen. A church that sets up camp not only each Sunday but every day as a field hospital for the healing, salvation and deliverance that comes abundantly, powerfully and freely in Jesus Christ.”
Next year’s Missional Planning Summit is scheduled for June 13-14, 2024.
