How Would You Describe Central Presbyterian Church?

At "Take Ten" one recent Sunday, I was waiting to pour myself a cup of coffee.  Just ahead of me were a man and woman I did not recall seeing before at our church.  As we stood there waiting 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, trying 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 ---- "Does Central Church emphasize mainly evangelism (as 'conservative' churches do) or mainly social justice (as 'liberal' churches do)", he asked?  WOW!

How does one give a simple answer to that question?

I started by telling Chris that Central Church has about 750 members, and was established more than 100 years ago as a Presbyterian church; 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 increasing 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 some roles and doing some kinds of ministry, than other things.  Some churches are better at evangelism, I said; others at teaching and discipleship; others at gathered worship and preaching; and others at service to those in need.

We know that no one Christian individual can have all the spiritual gifts and carry out all ministries equally well.  Chris saw my point, and said, "Nor can one congregation have all the spiritual gifts (at least not all in proportion) and therefore it 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 have four major areas of ministry:

     a.) connecting people to God.  We seek to do this through evangelism, pre-K 

          through high school-level Sunday School classes and activities, meaningful 

          worship and music, and adult spiritual development through various media. 

          These efforts are being made year-round, but perhaps they are most effective 

          at Christmas-time and Easter.

     b.) 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),

          creating 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.  Actually, today's church 

          members typically have already many participation opportunities outside of   

          Central Church. 

         

     c.) connecting people to the community.  We seek and find many opportunities 

          for our members to practice mercy and justice for people in our community 

          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.

     d.) connecting people to the culture.  We try to integrate our faith with our work. 

          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 a kind

          of ministering and serving to the world:  witness.

I told Chris we do not actually give attention and engage equally in 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 get 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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