Mission Study: Part 1-What is NOT posted.

Two concentrations of information from the Mission Study were not posted in the blog.  The first are the two Scripture texts that frame the Calling and Values Statements, to which I will return in moment.  The second, more extensive, is the breakdown of the teams, laying out their purposes,  Book of Order citations to their form and function, responsibilities, and membership.  I do not believe that is central to the discussion at hand. 

First, the Scriptures.  Above the Calling, John 15:12 is quoted, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I first loved you."    The second pair of passages are on the bottom: Matthew 22: 37-39 and Matthew 28: 19, The Great Commandment and the Great Commission listed in the Calling:  "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind".  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  (Mt. 22: 37-39)  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."  (Mt. 28:19).

The Calling Statement itself is: "As a Christ-centered community of congregations, we support and encourage one another as we joyfully carry out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission."

That is the sound-byte, the bumper sticker, the Vision Statement being laid out in this Mission Study.  Our sound-byte is that "we seek to be a neighborhood in the kingdom of God."

I see this statement, at its best, calling us to be together, in Jesus, as we love God, our neighbor and seek to convert the world to belief in Jesus Christ.  It is a call to arms to evangelize in our section of central New Jersey.

It assumes a few things. 
1.  That we are, as congregations, Christ-centered.
2.  That we are, as congregations, a community.
3.  That our work together in the Presbytery is to support and encourage one another.
4.  That our congregations are, in fact, joyfully carrying out the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

The work and the role of the Presbytery is going to be to shape our congreagations into this Vision of what we see God doing in the lives of our churches, if this passes second reading in September.

For me, the single biggest question that I have is how applicable is this to us in Elizabeth Presbytery?  How does this speak to us as one group of churches in God's world?  My fear is that this statement is so broad that it doesn't speak to who we are in this place and in this time, and, if it doesn't speak of who we are, how can we mold ourselves to live into it?

That is a question that I will, in my turn, be bringing to the Mission Study team.

Blessings,
Pastor Peter