Mercersburg

Mercersburg, officially known at the Presbyterian Church of the Upper West Conococheague.

Only a block south of the town square in Mercersburg you will find our Presbyterian Church. It is a classic, old, stone sanctuary with a heritage going back to the 1730s. The gorgeous sanctuary, with its exquisite oak woodwork, creates a holy place for worship. This is a family church, where everyone knows everyone and a deep sense of caring and friendship is always present when the congregation gathers. The numbers are small; less than 40 people gathered for worship this snowy, winter Sunday. Mercersburg is now a church in transition with a Pulpit Nominating Committee elected and beginning their work to call a new pastor. There is a stellar group of leaders who divide up the responsibilities of the session, the trustees, and the new PNC. I am motivated and encouraged by these strong, committed lay leaders who will persevere and continue the heritage of faithfulness which has been passed down to them. Heather Sigler and I were there for the first expression of our Committee on Ministry’s new Congregational Vision Day curriculum.
Our Committee on Ministry and our Strengthening Our Congregations Committee created together a special taskforce to look at the question of mission study curriculum and long range planning for congregations. The first step in our taskforce’s work was the creation of a new Congregational Vision Day curriculum which has the specific purpose of working with congregations to help them quickly gather the information and data necessary to write their Church Information Form. We are very grateful to the Presbytery of Washington for allowing us to adopt and adapt the one day, mission study curriculum they created and have used successfully. Our new Congregational Vision Day curriculum is a comprehensive, one day mission study process which will provide a wealth of data for a PNC to write the five narrative questions in the Church Information Form. This Vision Day is simply that: one day. With leadership provided by Heather and me, the congregation gathered at 9:00 a.m. this Sunday morning to begin the process. The morning session is spent working through several creative activities which together grasp the mission priorities of the congregation. We then moved into worship together. In Mercersburg, the 25 people who gathered for our Vision Day work made up most of the worshipping congregation. After worship, we moved immediately back into our Vision Day work around lunch. The session at Mercersburg had made arrangements for a marvelous catered lunch which helped get our afternoon session started. The Vision Day is scheduled to finish at 3:30 in the afternoon. Unfortunately, a snowstorm today forced us to cut our day short and finish after lunch. Despite our shortened day, I am gratified that a priority of being more actively committed in mission and outreach clearly emerged from the group’s conversation and will inform their Church Information Form.
I am very grateful to the Mercersburg congregation for their willingness to work with us as we continue to write, revise and polish our new Congregational Vision Day curriculum. The leaders at Mercersburg – session and PNC - were very helpful in both helping us prepare for our time together and evaluating and improving our process. With gratitude to the Mercersburg folks – who did it first – we now have a resource which will help Pulpit Nominating Committees quickly gather data and information to write their Church Information Form and begin their pastoral search. I believe this is an important step in our effort to support and encourage the ministry of our congregations.