Tuesday, August 18, 2015

WEEKLY COMMENTARY: Does Central Church Offer Opportunities To It's Members?

At "Take Ten" one Sunday last spring, I was waiting to pour myself a cup of coffee.  Just ahead of me were a man and a woman I did not recall seeing before at our church.  As we stood there awaiting our turn, I introduced myself and asked if they had enjoyed the worship service.  They smiled and enthusiastically told me that both the sermon and the music had been very meaningful.  They were husband and wife, new to Summit, and had been visiting several local churches, hoping to find a church home.

A few days later, I needed to take the train to Manhattan for the day.  By chance, on the station platform waiting for the New York train I saw the same man I had chatted with a few days before at CPC's "Take Ten."  We recognized each other.  He said his name was Chris, and I asked if he would mind if I shared a seat with him ---- I wanted to be a little bit welcoming to this newcomer to Summit.

Our train had barely left the station, when Chris asked me to tell him about Central Church. He wondered, "Does Central Church emphasize evangelism (as 'conservative' churches often do) or  mainly social justice (as many 'liberal' churches do)?". 

WOW!  How does one give a simple answer to that question?

I started by telling Chris that Central Church has about 700 members, and was established more than 100 years ago as a Presbyterian church; and that like any church, we have evolved over the years and today we continue to evolve.  I told Chris that if he had put his question to any ten members at Central, he might have heard ten different answers, because each of us try to continue growing ---- not to increase the number of church members, as much as to increase our impact on the lives of our members, and our impact on the Summit community and beyond.

I noted that the particular spiritual gifts and callings of our congregation's leaders, together with our social context (Summit, a small-sized city, 30 miles from New York City) necessarily means that Central Church tends to be better at doing some roles and doing some kinds of ministry, than for others.  Some churches are best at evangelism, I said; others at teaching and discipleship; others at gathered worship and preaching; and still others at service to those in need.

"We know," I said, "that a particular Christian individual can not carry out all ministries equally well, nor have a complete range of spiritual gifts."  Chris saw my point, and said, "Nor can one congregation have all the spiritual gifts (at least not all in proportion), and therefore may be unable to do all things equally well."

"Okay," said Chris, "but let's focus on Central Church ----- how is it different from other area churches?"

"Well, Chris." I said, "and this is just my opinion, we seem to provide four major areas of ministry, and they are four areas of personal involvement opportunity for our members:

     1.) Connecting people to God.  We seek to do this through organized church school classes for youth and adults, and activities like mission trips for teenagers.  We also try to provide very engaging worship and music on Sunday mornings.

     2.) Connecting people to one another.  We continually seek member participation in our church activities.  Many friendships are born out of these joint activities.  For example, while many churches have 8 or 10 on-going committees ----- Central Church has 19 "teams" reporting to the governing body (the Session), which creates many participation opportunities.  Of course, some members are very active as leaders and other members may seldom be seen.  But the opportunities are there.  Perhaps we could do a better job in the cultivation of participation, but that is an on-going challenge.

     3.) Connecting people to the community.  We seek and find many opportunities for our church members to practice mercy and justice for people in our community, people who are outside our church.  Mindful of what Jesus taught, we give both time and money to those in need of mercy and justice, even though our resources are not unlimited.

     4.) Connecting people to the culture.  By our  example, we try to integrate our faith with our work life.  Our faith is not just a "Sunday thing."  We encourage each other to live by our faith and the teachings of Jesus, all week long.  Some people call this kind of ministering and service to the world, "witness."

I told Chris we do not actually give equal attention to all four of these areas of ministry. However, we attempt to engage in all four areas concurrently, to the extent of our collective individual gifts and resources of time and money.

Chris said our conversation had been helpful, and that he thought he and his wife would want to know better the opportunities at Central Presbyterian Church.

I saw them again at our next "Take Ten"!
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These thoughts are brought to you by CPC's Adult Spiritual Development Team, hoping to encourage you to pursue some personal growth this year at CPC.
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