An Old Road and a New Vision
Dear friends,
Yesterday we had our first staff meeting since my return to work at the beginning of January. I got through the first part of the meeting without much trouble, because the first part of the meeting involved a devotional and prayer. After we finished a time of prayer, a bit of panic seized me. First, I looked around the table and realized I had an entirely new set of colleagues. With the exception of Betty Cheek, no one was there last April 13 -- my last day in the office. I had to admit that I was not even the same person! Second, I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing there. I felt like something of an outsider. Thankfully, it all came back to me pretty quickly and we had a good meeting.
Speaking of feeling out of place, on Monday I had an appointment with the surgeon who removed the skin cancer from my nose in November. Bert Carmichael picked me up at my home and took me for the visit. Our plan was to leave at 11 a.m., have lunch, and then go to Marietta for the 1 p.m. appointment. Since neither of us had any particular eating places in mind, we agreed to ride down Highway 41 with the idea that we would certainly find someplace good to stop and eat. What we saw however, or at least what I saw, was really quite remarkable. You will remember, I have been out of circulation for a good long time -- that is, I have not been on Highway 41 from Cartersville to Marietta for about 10 months! I saw one new commercial area after another, including several large office complexes as far north as Highway 92.
I remember traveling down that road to be received by Cherokee Presbytery in May 1997 at the Mars Hill church. At that time one could leave Cartersville and drive to the Mars Hill Presbyterian Church without seeing hardly anything but a few cars and a large number of trees. Now, the area around Mars Hill Road is covered up with businesses, subdivisions, and a large amount of auto traffic. The Mars Hill church has even invested in one of those great computerized "message" signs so that people sitting in traffic will have their spirits lifted as they read the sign.
And so, mile after mile we drove down Highway 41 as I marveled at all the new growth and development. It was truly mind blowing. In the midst of all this flurry of commercial activity, I saw something equally interesting by stark contrast. Every mile or two we would come across a small building, a house trailer, or an older business -- perhaps 20-30 years old. These places looked odd, quaint, and even strange by comparison with the glitzy, sparkling, eye-catching new commercial construction. It looked as though these places were left over from a bygone era -- actually, they were!
Once again, I heard a parable for the contemporary Christian community by simply riding down Highway 41. This time the parable reminded me that nothing stays still -- even when the observer is laid up with a catastrophic injury. People keep building new buildings and making plans for more new buildings. Wal-Mart continues buying up acreage for new supercenters and terms like "rural Cobb County" are gone forever from our vocabulary. Like it or not, things keep changing -- that is all there is to it!
This is not the place to deal with the daunting subject of what it means for the Church to live and function in a constantly changing environment. One thing I know for sure is that although "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever," the shape and form of the community that bears his name is constantly changing because the cultural environment in which that church worships and serves is always shifting and moving. On the one hand, the church sufferers from decline and irrelevance when it ignores or resists change. On the other hand, the Church cannot afford the luxury of hoping the world will stand still while it figures out what to do.
If I have learned anything during my time apart these past nine months is that my world has changed remarkably during that time period, and that I must remain strong and flexible if I am to survive -- much less prosper. I have had to learn how to embrace my mission and purpose in life and to adapt the same to a constantly changing mission and environment.
This thought came to mind once again yesterday as the Presbytery staff sat around the table for its meeting. Throughout the meeting I sat facing the wall on which were hung the wonderful banners depicting the "Great Ends of the Church." You will recall that Jo Clark had made those banners just before I was injured and brought them to the Presbytery office. When I was a patient at the Shepherd Center I received one banner each week for my room. As you can imagine, they brought me great joy because they served as a constant reminder of why I needed to work and pray as hard as I could for health and wholeness. I needed to get back to work so that I could live out my purpose in and through the Christian community to do the following:
I want to challenge each of you to think of yourself and your church family in these constitutional terms. How does each of these "ends" define your church's mission and purpose? How are you suffering if these "ends" do not define your church's mission and reason for being?
I want to close today with the bringing together of the old and the new. This week I received a notification from the Worldwide Ministries Division of the General Assembly about recent missionary appointments. I want to share two of them with you because they reflect our Church's glorious past and hopeful future.
Todd and Tricia Reinschmidt, members of First Presbyterian Church in Cartersville, GA, have been appointed to serve with Pasos de Fe, one of seven mission projects of the Presbyterian Border Ministries (PBM). PBM is a joint project of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico and the PC(USA). Pasos de Fe is located in El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico. The Reinschmidts' responsibilities include hosting, organizing, and facilitating the visits of "mission teams" that come to help in various projects organized by Pasos de Fe.
Walt and Valerie Shepard will serve in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Walt is returning to the country of his youth - he is the son of Caroline and Walter Shepard, who served there (then the Belgian Congo) from 1947 to 1961. He will divide his time between the pastorate of the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa and the Booth Superior Institute of Theology (ISTB). For Valerie also this is a return to the mission field. She is the child of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, missionaries to Ecuador, whose story was written by her mother in Through Gates of Splendor. After her father was killed, she returned with her mother to Ecuador and lived with the Aucas for five years. Walt Shepard served in Uganda for short terms in 1992 and 1996 and in Sudan in 1996. Prior to the current appointment he was pastor of Harrison Bridge Road Presbyterian Church, Simpsonville, SC.
This is just grand! The Shepards are lifelong missionaries who could not imagine doing anything else. Todd and Tricia, on the other hand were a teacher and stay-at-home mom who went on a church mission trip and became convinced that God called them to go back -- for as long as God needs them! This is what I mean by strength and flexibility in uncertain and changing times.
The peace of God be with you.
Jim
Yesterday we had our first staff meeting since my return to work at the beginning of January. I got through the first part of the meeting without much trouble, because the first part of the meeting involved a devotional and prayer. After we finished a time of prayer, a bit of panic seized me. First, I looked around the table and realized I had an entirely new set of colleagues. With the exception of Betty Cheek, no one was there last April 13 -- my last day in the office. I had to admit that I was not even the same person! Second, I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing there. I felt like something of an outsider. Thankfully, it all came back to me pretty quickly and we had a good meeting.
Speaking of feeling out of place, on Monday I had an appointment with the surgeon who removed the skin cancer from my nose in November. Bert Carmichael picked me up at my home and took me for the visit. Our plan was to leave at 11 a.m., have lunch, and then go to Marietta for the 1 p.m. appointment. Since neither of us had any particular eating places in mind, we agreed to ride down Highway 41 with the idea that we would certainly find someplace good to stop and eat. What we saw however, or at least what I saw, was really quite remarkable. You will remember, I have been out of circulation for a good long time -- that is, I have not been on Highway 41 from Cartersville to Marietta for about 10 months! I saw one new commercial area after another, including several large office complexes as far north as Highway 92.
I remember traveling down that road to be received by Cherokee Presbytery in May 1997 at the Mars Hill church. At that time one could leave Cartersville and drive to the Mars Hill Presbyterian Church without seeing hardly anything but a few cars and a large number of trees. Now, the area around Mars Hill Road is covered up with businesses, subdivisions, and a large amount of auto traffic. The Mars Hill church has even invested in one of those great computerized "message" signs so that people sitting in traffic will have their spirits lifted as they read the sign.
And so, mile after mile we drove down Highway 41 as I marveled at all the new growth and development. It was truly mind blowing. In the midst of all this flurry of commercial activity, I saw something equally interesting by stark contrast. Every mile or two we would come across a small building, a house trailer, or an older business -- perhaps 20-30 years old. These places looked odd, quaint, and even strange by comparison with the glitzy, sparkling, eye-catching new commercial construction. It looked as though these places were left over from a bygone era -- actually, they were!
Once again, I heard a parable for the contemporary Christian community by simply riding down Highway 41. This time the parable reminded me that nothing stays still -- even when the observer is laid up with a catastrophic injury. People keep building new buildings and making plans for more new buildings. Wal-Mart continues buying up acreage for new supercenters and terms like "rural Cobb County" are gone forever from our vocabulary. Like it or not, things keep changing -- that is all there is to it!
This is not the place to deal with the daunting subject of what it means for the Church to live and function in a constantly changing environment. One thing I know for sure is that although "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever," the shape and form of the community that bears his name is constantly changing because the cultural environment in which that church worships and serves is always shifting and moving. On the one hand, the church sufferers from decline and irrelevance when it ignores or resists change. On the other hand, the Church cannot afford the luxury of hoping the world will stand still while it figures out what to do.
If I have learned anything during my time apart these past nine months is that my world has changed remarkably during that time period, and that I must remain strong and flexible if I am to survive -- much less prosper. I have had to learn how to embrace my mission and purpose in life and to adapt the same to a constantly changing mission and environment.
This thought came to mind once again yesterday as the Presbytery staff sat around the table for its meeting. Throughout the meeting I sat facing the wall on which were hung the wonderful banners depicting the "Great Ends of the Church." You will recall that Jo Clark had made those banners just before I was injured and brought them to the Presbytery office. When I was a patient at the Shepherd Center I received one banner each week for my room. As you can imagine, they brought me great joy because they served as a constant reminder of why I needed to work and pray as hard as I could for health and wholeness. I needed to get back to work so that I could live out my purpose in and through the Christian community to do the following:
- The Proclamation of the Gospel for the Salvation of Humankind
- The Sheltered Nurture and Spiritual Fellowship of the Children of God
- The Maintenance of Divine Worship
- The Preservation of the Truth
- The Promotion of Social Righteousness
- The Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the World
I want to challenge each of you to think of yourself and your church family in these constitutional terms. How does each of these "ends" define your church's mission and purpose? How are you suffering if these "ends" do not define your church's mission and reason for being?
I want to close today with the bringing together of the old and the new. This week I received a notification from the Worldwide Ministries Division of the General Assembly about recent missionary appointments. I want to share two of them with you because they reflect our Church's glorious past and hopeful future.
Todd and Tricia Reinschmidt, members of First Presbyterian Church in Cartersville, GA, have been appointed to serve with Pasos de Fe, one of seven mission projects of the Presbyterian Border Ministries (PBM). PBM is a joint project of the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico and the PC(USA). Pasos de Fe is located in El Paso, Texas, and Juárez, Mexico. The Reinschmidts' responsibilities include hosting, organizing, and facilitating the visits of "mission teams" that come to help in various projects organized by Pasos de Fe.
Walt and Valerie Shepard will serve in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Walt is returning to the country of his youth - he is the son of Caroline and Walter Shepard, who served there (then the Belgian Congo) from 1947 to 1961. He will divide his time between the pastorate of the International Protestant Church of Kinshasa and the Booth Superior Institute of Theology (ISTB). For Valerie also this is a return to the mission field. She is the child of Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, missionaries to Ecuador, whose story was written by her mother in Through Gates of Splendor. After her father was killed, she returned with her mother to Ecuador and lived with the Aucas for five years. Walt Shepard served in Uganda for short terms in 1992 and 1996 and in Sudan in 1996. Prior to the current appointment he was pastor of Harrison Bridge Road Presbyterian Church, Simpsonville, SC.
This is just grand! The Shepards are lifelong missionaries who could not imagine doing anything else. Todd and Tricia, on the other hand were a teacher and stay-at-home mom who went on a church mission trip and became convinced that God called them to go back -- for as long as God needs them! This is what I mean by strength and flexibility in uncertain and changing times.
The peace of God be with you.
Jim
posted by Pierce | 12:00 PM
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