What is God up to in the Presbytery of Philadelphia?
The Partnership for Missional Church is a journey - a journey of discovery to where God is calling for us to be in ministry with God.
20 Congregations in the Presbytery of Philadelphia have committed to this journey. This journey of faith can be exciting and difficult at the same time. Many of our Partner congregations have experienced the joy and ache of discovering where God is calling them. They have wonderful stories to share.
Over the next few weeks and months we will include stories and reflections from the Partnership for Missional Church congregations.
August 10, 2009
Roslyn Presbyterian Church - Alpha Cluster
This is a brief summary of what we, here at Roslyn Presbyterian have been up to since the last cluster meeting. We seem to be always feeling way behind the other churches. We feel very limited due to the size of our congregation. However once we have made our minds up to do something we do it. We have had a slow start but now we are making headway.
Since the last cluster meeting we have gotten together and have come up with
a mission statement which we now have printed in the church bulletin each
week. We had also thrown around various ideas about experiments and plunging in our neighborhood and from those conversations have instituted Wednesday evening neighborhood walks.
Because many of us do not live in the immediate neighborhood so we thought we would stroll through the neighborhood and meet and greet some of the neighbors sitting outside or gardening or other activities . We began our walks by bringing a mascot, Rex, a 90 lb. black Lab with us. Rex has been getting the attention of the kids. With help of Rex, we have met several of the neighbors across the street. This has resulted in a gentleman and his three children coming to our Sunday Services a few weeks in a row now. The children have been coming for Sunday school.
At the end of the summer we have an annual corn roast/picnic which is in the past was for members of the congregation but this year we are extending the invitation to the neighbors.
Part of our experiment has been our "excellent failure" in our neighborhood walks in that the Philadelphia Summer weather has not been cooperative - rain many Wednesday evenings. But we are not discouraged; we are very encouraged with the people who have been receptive to chatting with us. Some of those folks do belong to a church and that is
great but if they know that we're trying to know them and be part of the neighborhood, at least our name will get around. We are also hoping to have a table/stand at the Block Party in Roslyn in September. What seemed like a slow start in the beginning we have caught up and moving forward.
Submitted by Lynn Demitri
May 1, 2009
Holmes Presbyterian Church - PMC Alpha Cluster
Missional Church Impacts
At Holmes Church, we have seen many impacts of PMC on the congregation but more importantly on our leadership. When we first embarked on this journey most of the leadership we recruited for the Steering team saw this as another program, another stab at growing our church. The first year really didn't do much to change that as we went about gathering data and preparing our Church Future Finders report. However, as we ended the first year we began to see deeper into our church, congregation, and community but more importantly we began to see God leading us in this effort. As people began to see this as a change in direction for our church and as we recruited more people for the MET and the plunging, we saw a noticeable fire in the leadership of PMC. People were passionate about it. This sometimes led to conflict but we found those conflicts easier to deal with since we shared a common ground. We were all working toward the same goal; moving outside the church walls to find our place in the community doing God's work. We also see incredible commitment, people are working hard. PMC has also been transformational. Leaders are growing spiritually as we move through this process. I have also noticed this kind of growth in other churches in the Alpha group. I remember sharing with others during "dwelling in the word" early in the first year and then seeing those individual become more assertive and committed. We all started the journey at the same place and everyone has grown. We all aren't in the same place but we are all moving forward. The great thing is that we can visibly see God working here at Holmes and in all the other churches in our group.
We have an older congregation and we see some uncertainty in them as we move forward. We have dedicated this summer to easing concerns and informing the congregation on where we are and what we will need form them. PMC is now ingrained in the leadership, now we need to get the rest of the congregation engaged. I truly believe God called our PMC leadership to this task and as we grow and learn, I am confident that God will lead our congregation as well. We have already started building bridges into our community and we see this as a transforming experience, a way forward for us in an uncertain future. Praying all the way, our leadership and our congregation are starting a long transformation process and we all are seeing how important that is in our church life.
April 24, 2009
Glenolden Presbyterian Church - Alpha Cluster
For First Presbyterian Church of Glenolden the change and connection with our community partners has been an overwhelming great feeling. For us it's been many years since we have connected with people outside our doors and in our neighborhoods. While those we have connected come from all walks of life, non-Christians, Catholic, Methodist, Poor, Rich, etc. it's apparent that we have had a positive impact in the community and this has had the same affect on our community partners. We are learning more about each other through each event we host. We are growing leaders within our congregation as well as outside in our communities. It wasn't easy going into the neighborhoods as this was an uncomfortable feeling for most of us, but the more we do it, the more we are confident that God is with us each step of the way.
For 15 years we have been able to outreach into the community through our Thanksgiving Meal Ministry program. Each year the spirit of the Lord is with us as we plan and connect with our community partners to provide hundreds of meals to our local community, Loaves and Fishes, Salvation Army and Narcotic's Anonymous Speaker Jam event. While some years, we think we are going to run out of food, through the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ we have had an over abundant amount of food left to share with all the groups mentioned above. At every event, we pray together while holding hands with strangers, thanking God for our time together and to bless the food we are to partake together. God has surely kept us busy! Through this event we have planted God's ministry in our own lives as well as others. Only time will tell the impact this has had on those we have partnered with. It's in God's hands now!
With our recent experiment, Support Our Troop event, the community responded quite positively to sharing God's Love by enabling us with financial donations and toiletries so that we could mail care packages to men and women overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. The service men and woman wrote us to thank us for caring and showing our appreciation and kindness. What a great event for the entire family to be a part of and to show our children the importance of sharing God's love in even the worst of times. Our event was so well received, we are considering a 2nd annual event. Our Mission statement for our event was........"GOD IS LOVE, SHARE THE LOVE". We were able to raise $1000 to enable us to mail 62 care packages. During this event we discovered God's work was already being started with other groups. They were praying for partners.
As part of our Missional Engagement process we hosted a Celebration luncheon to celebrate the successes of the leadership roles each of has taken on but we added a twist to it - who better to invite then our community partners, thanking them for a job well done. Each group or individual that came received a certificate of appreciate for volunteering to make a difference in our communities. People did not expect to receive a certificate, they were surprised but quite happy to be acknowledged. It's not surprising how well this was received. We all need to be encouraged as this is hard work and will continue to be hard work. No-one said our walk with God was going to be easy. But it is sure fruitful!
May God continue to Bless us all....
