The mission of the church is to discern, celebrate, and participate in God's redemptive mission in the world. The greatest challenge facing churches today is to live missionally - to develop missionary sensitivities, vision, and practices for engaging in God's mission. The many efforts churches are making to "keep up" or "survive" are futile if this fundamental challenge is not addressed. This missional reorientation represents a profound learning curve for most churches and a strategic challenge for most church leaders.

In light of this challenge, judicatory leaders seek to be a helpful resource to churches. But regional church budgets are being squeezed from many directions. Staff responsibilities and requests for service and support are on the rise. What is required are creative, cost effective and fruitful ways to leverage resources of time, staff experience and money for their most primary challenge of all - transforming churches toward a missional posture.

The mission of the Center for Parish Development is to provide counsel and resources to facilitate the transformation of churches seeking to discern, celebrate, and participate more fully in God's mission. The Center Staff is eager to share its resources and experience to support regional leaders and teams who seek, who pray, and who work for the church's renewal as God's new creation community. "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Cor.5:17)