Do Mission.
In a moment Kim is going to report for our Mission
Committee. Please join us in work we are doing in partnership with Presbyterian
World Mission in support of the Presbyterian Church in Honduras. All of our
congregations do mission, reaching out beyond the members of the congregation
into the local community and around the world. Mission is a key aspect of our
identity together in Christ. Mission is an important part of who we. We are
reminded of this in the first chapter of the Form of Government of our Book of
Order:
“The
congregation reaches out to people, communities, and the world to share the
good news of Jesus Christ, to gather for worship, and to offer care and nurture
to God’s children, to speak for social justice and righteousness, and to bear
witness to the truth and to the reign that is coming to the world.”
I encourage each congregation, especially as you prepare
your budgets and build stewardship efforts, to intentionally evaluate and
review your mission. I want to encourage these principles as you do mission:
Do
mission in partnership: Your mission work should never simply
be writing checks and giving away money. Build partnerships and relationships
with people. Presbyterian World Mission has created abundant ways for us to
stay in personal relationship with our mission co-workers. You should know the
world mission co-workers you support by name. Many, if not most, of our
congregations participate generously in local mission through food pantries and
local social service ministries. We may gather thousands of dollars’ worth of
groceries to give away, but do we build relationships with the people and the
families that receive this generosity? We need to be careful to do mission. It
is very easy to support patterns of dependency motivated by pity, which make us
feel good but do not build relationships and do not inspire or transform people
in Christ.
Balance
local and global: “The
earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.” We have an opportunity to do
mission around the world through Presbyterian World Mission. There is also work
to do in our own communities. We have a clear, unambiguous calling from the
Lord to go to all the world. We have a clear, unambiguous conviction that the
whole world belongs to God. We need to have a balance in our mission work
between local and global. We need to educate ourselves and participate in the
work of the Church in our neighborhoods and all around the world.
Balance
a response to poverty, evangelism and reconciliation:
These three – responding to poverty, evangelism and reconciliation have been
identified by World Mission as our critical issues. In our congregations, we
seem to have an affinity for responding to poverty. Many of congregations have
active local mission work to the poor in our communities. But what about the
mission of evangelism, sharing the name of Jesus? What about the mission of
reconciliation, bringing people together across barriers of cultural, social
and racial differences? We need in our mission work to seek a balance between
alleviating poverty, the work of evangelism and the work of reconciliation.
These three are the guiding principles of Presbyterian World Mission, and may
also be guiding principles for our congregations.
Connect
with the larger Church: Consider the larger church as part of
your mission work. You have the
opportunity to participate in and support the ministry and mission of many
other congregations through your support of the Presbytery. A number of our
churches are now naming the Presbytery as a Designated Mission, and providing
specific, designated support to the work of the Presbytery. This is a growing
line item in our proposed Budget. Theologically,
it is important to consider support for and connection with the larger church
as part of your congregation’s mission.
This is part of Presbyterian World Mission’s organizing
statement: “As Christians, we understand
"Mission" to be God's work for the sake of the world God loves. We
understand this work to be centered in the Lordship of Jesus Christ and made
real through the active and leading power of the Holy Spirit. The
"where" and "how" and "with whom" of mission is
of God's initiative, sovereign action, and redeeming grace. The message we are
called to bear is the Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ.” Let us
do mission together in the name of Jesus. Amen!
