Prior Editions
May 26, 2005
The
Discipleship Adventure
In just a day or so, I'm headed to the
121st session of Annual Conference. Annual Conference is a time for
the churches of our area to meet together and discuss the business and
ministry of the Conference. Some of it is very exciting (the
worship, the Bible study), some of it is more mundane, but all of it is an
important part of our life together.
This year will be Bishop Schol's first Annual Conference and he believes,
rightly so, that it "will be important for our life and for our
future together." He has requested that United Methodists in
our Annual Conference reserve the rest of May for a time of prayer and
discernment, and choose a day during annual conference to fast, leading up
to the important decisions we must make. Annual Conference begins
Wednesday and lasts through Sunday; I encourage you to set aside some time
for prayer during those days. If possible, add a time of fasting to
your prayer. We will all be greatly blessed by your faithfulness.
Bishop Schol has asked the congregations of the annual conference to join
him in a "discipleship adventure" that incorporates an inward
journey and an outward movement to Celebrate, Connect, Develop, Serve and
Share Faith. That should sound vaguely familiar to you and should
remind you of some key words from our own mission statement: Worship,
Grow, Build, Serve and Share.
What the Bishop is calling churches to is a Purpose Driven Life; an
adventure in Discipleship that touches every part of our church's life.
This presents our church with a unique opportunity. We've spent a
considerable amount of time over the last two years refining our mission
statement and evaluating our ministries in light of God's purposes for the
church. Now we need to continue that transition by planning on
purpose, worshipping on purpose, staffing on purpose and developing
leaders on purpose. All of which means learning some new ways of
thinking and letting go of some others.
As we contemplate that, I think it would be helpful to remind ourselves of
the role that each of God's purposes plays in our church. Let's
identify and celebrate where we are, and remember where we've been, before
we venture on toward God's next great thing.
Over the next five weeks I'll be sending out a "Mid-Week Musing"
each week. Each will highlight one of the purposes and explore how
we can more completely fulfill God's plan for us as it relates to that
purpose. Then we will move on to consider our next steps as a
Purpose-Driven Church on the Great Discipleship Adventure.
We stand on the threshold on another exciting day. "Lord, I
have heard the news about you: I am amazed at what you have done.
Lord, do great things once again in our time; make those things happen
again in our own days." [Habakkuk 3:2]
Godspeed,
Pastor John
Mid-Week
Musings
An
Occasional bulletin from Christ United Methodist Church