An Encouraging Day...

Sunday was an encouraging beginning for us as we move towards doing church as a team.  I talked with many of you individually during our time together and your response was truly humbling and encouraging.  Whether a long-time member or a brand new visitor, you expressed enthusiasm to help our common vision become a reality by getting involved in our new Wellington Presbyterian Church teams.  Thank you to all for your enthusiasm and desire to see Christ glorified through our ministry together!

A common theme mentioned was that you were moved as we looked at 1 Corinthians 12 and saw, among other things, that when we do church as a team, we "image" to the world something of the glorious and mysterious triune nature of God.  Several of you commented how challenging that was.  I couldn't agree more.  Author Stephen Seamands in Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitatiran Shape of Christian Service really sums up that challenge well when he writes:

"But make no mistake.  Moving churches in the West toward a trinitarian model of church life will involve a major paradigm shift away from our pervasive individualistic ways of thinking.  Many Christians have bought into the cultural notion that religion is an individual, private matter and assume they can believe without belonging.   We have to say to them, 'When you believe in Christ, whether you were aware of it or not, you entered into the fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of every other Christian who is a part of that triune fellowship.  Now you belong to everyone else who belongs.  Your faith may be individual, but it's not personal except in relationship.  In fact, you are only truly you in relationship to others.'"  p. 38

To some of us, that sounds too mystical. We can't easily grasp it, and so we dismiss it as somehow being wrong.  But just because we can't totally grasp the Trinity, just because it requires some deeper thinking to understand how we are called as a community of faith to "image" it to the world, that struggle doesn't mean it isn't true.  Again, listen to Stephen Seamands:

The Trinity, however, forces us to acknowledge that not only are there things we don't know now but there are some things we will never know.  Who wants to be told that?  Its disconcerting and unsettling; it makes us feel out of control...  As A. W. Tozer suggests, 'To admit that there is One who lies beyond us, who exists outside of all our caegories, who will not be dismissed with a name, who will not appear before the bar of our reason, nor submit to our curious inquiries: this requires a great deal of humility, more than most of us possess, so we save face by thinking God down to our level, or at least down to where we can manage Him."  p. 102

While we can know certain things about God truly, certainly, and reliably, we will never quite wrap our minds around all that the unique, mysterious, and glorious Triune nature of God really means.  But we can have certainty about our high calling & privilege to show something of the nature of God to the world by how we live and serve together as His church.  Sunday was an encouraging day to begin to pursue fulfilling that calling by doing church as a team!

But Only the Beginning...

As encouraging a day as it should be to all of us, we must not lose sight of the reality that it is only a beginning!  What needs to happen now is a sustained effort to turn our enthusiasm into action.  We've all seen great new ideas and programs in our businesses, schools, churches, etc. launched with great enthusiasm and fanfare only to see them fizzle out into not much genuine change over time.  Your Session and Staff are well aware of this challenge and have committed ourselves to stay focused and work together with you over the next year or two to help our good beginning translate into a real and positive change in our ministry together.  

Over the coming year, we will need to "work out the kinks"of everything from communication to connection to action.  We realize we don't have it all figured out!  But we know where we need to go and the major route for getting there, so lets get started! 

I, personally, am excited at the possibility of working with the teams to provide training and ideas on everything from what is a team, to how to practically connect, to specific training on subjects unique to each team: prayer, sharing the gospel, outreach strategies, connecting strategies, etc. I want to love you all with the gifts God has given me and one of those ways is through teaching, talking, and thinking together practically about how to apply what we believe to how we live.  I learn so much from you in these times, and I trust by God's grace that you will be benefited and built up as well.

I know that our Elders and Staff are all equally committed to work together to help the teams really come to life.  So please, please, please- join the teams!  Begin by praying, and then check out a team that seems to fit with your gifts and interests.  You can share that interest and get some more info on a team by clicking here and filling out this interest form.  Along the way, continue to pray, ask questions and make suggestions, be patient and flexible, and communicate your ideas and passions to the teams.  Together our diverse gifts pulling together in unity towards our common vision can begin to "image" to our neighbors the glorious diversity in unity of the Triune God!  May God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit empower and equip us to turn this good beginning into such a reality that we really become a congregation that does church as a team!