Innovative Holistic Mission Symposium (IHM)
The Symposium leads and equips participants to design, develop, and launch an innovative missional initiative in their community.
Topics include: how to prepare your church to engage missionally, how to understand a city’s pain and seize the opportunity to be a healer, how to understand the unique strengths that can be applied missionally while understanding your limits, how to road test your innovative idea, how to develop a ministry action plan or business plan, etc.
“This is the best Alliance event I have ever been to. I came away resourced, inspired, and equipped with practical steps of how to launch an innovative mission in my city.”
Dave Lawson, Lead Pastor, East Park Church
What to Expect
We conduct a two-and-a-half-day symposium to lead and equip congregations participating in the PEAK coaching process to design, develop, and launch a holistic and innovative mission in their city. The aim is to help congregations adapt to their changing cultural and social contexts by gaining skills to understand the needs of a community, learning how to respond missiologically, and potentially leverage church facilities to meet these needs.
Initial Symposium Process (Two-and-a-Half Days)
- Define clearly what an IHM is.
- Identify a biblical basis for the IHM.
- Provide examples for IHM’s from within scripture, church history, and our denomination, the C&MA.
- Include onsite visits to two IHM’s.
- Instruct participants regarding church prerequisites for launching IHM’s.
- Teach participants how to discover a city’s urgent community needs.
- Highlight how a congregation can leverage their church facility to launch an IHM.
- Include onsite visits to two additional IHM’s.
- Provide information about how to set the stage for the launch of IHM.
- Teach participants to develop a ministry action plan.
- Teach church participants how to unleash and sustain an IHM vision.
- Include an onsite visit to a final IHM.
- Expand time to continue working on discovering urgent community needs and the development of a ministry action plan.
Symposium Follow-Ups
Three months after the IHM symposium, leaders will participate in an online huddle. The purpose of this first zoom huddle will be to assess the traction gained in the identification and development of an IHM. Participants will share the work they have done to discover an urgent community need they will seek to address with an IHM as a church.
Six months after the IHM symposium, leaders will participate in a second online huddle. Participants will share the urgent community need they are addressing with their IHM and the steps they are taking to help their church leadership and congregation to nurture this new commitment to local mission as well as the continued development of a ministry action plan.
Nine months after the IHM symposium, a final zoom huddle will take place for the purpose of finalizing a ministry action plan, which include plans for the startup and launch of an IHM.
Twelve to sixteen months after the initial IHM symposium the ANW District will hold a one-day IHM symposium. Participants in the first cohort will gather to:
- Present their IHM they have launched.
- Discuss the impact the IHM has had on the vitality of their congregation.
- Provide observations regarding the impact in their community.