February 26, 2015

Dear MLEPC Members and Friends, 

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" ~ Jesus; John 10:10.

The third of the four life stages that MLEPC staff and congregants seek to serve is the life stage of adulthood. We serve children, youth, and senior adults too, but a very large portion of our congregation and the surrounding community fall into the category of young adult through middle aged. We are called by Christ to reach upward in worship and prayer, outward in witness and service, and inward in fellowship and discipleship. My personal calling in life and calling in ministry involves all three of these areas, with a focus on the first two. I have the opportunity to be a teaching elder (or Minister of Word and Sacrament...a.k.a., "Pastor"), and this offers me the chance to preach, teach Sunday School, teach in small group settings, or address an audience of church goers or participants in specific ministry programs. That said, my main focus is on supporting worship ministries on Sunday mornings and at other strategic times, and to train, support, and encourage the congregation in our efforts to reach out with the message of the Gospel, in both word and deed.

What are some ways that we worship God, and reach out with the Gospel of Jesus Christ at MLEPC, specifically with adults in mind? First, each Sunday morning is an opportunity for both. In a spirit of teamwork, the contemporary and traditional music teams desire to provide excellence in our expression of worship, whether at 9:00 AM or 11:15 AM. Research in both evangelism and church growth (there is a difference between the two) suggests that, besides the Holy Spirit, there are two areas that draw people into worship and inspire them to consider staying in any given faith community. They are the preaching and the music during worship on the Lord's Day. When designing worship services at MLEPC, the staff, Worship Music and Ministry Team, Contemporary Worship Team/s, Choir Director, Choir, Organist, and pastors are intentional about creating a worship experience that puts God first, is centered around the Word of God, is thematically coherent, is both experiential and cerebral, and balances the need to feed the flock with the need to reach out to the unchurched. We also seek to offer special worship services, such as inviting Lori Matta to lead in a worship concert, the December Cantata, or various outreach related music events (such as the Mission Possible concerts of years past including Shawn McDonald, Phil Keaggy and the Del McCoury Band). The worship team puts on an outreach concert each summer in conjunction with an outreach picnic during Mission Possible, thus, worship and outreach work hand in hand. All these ministry opportunities are for adults as well as children, youth, young adults, and senior adults.

MLEPC has a long history of reaching outward, both locally, nationally, and internationally, with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Historically, our church has placed a heavy emphasis on reaching out internationally. This is still the case, but we have recently sought to reach out with our own local sphere of influence and neighborhoods in mind (again, research suggests that churches that wish to grow will reach out in their own back yard, and ultimately plant churches or satellite worshipping communities in those areas). MLEPC's Kingdom Growth Ministry starts with those who visit MLEPC. We seek to make contact with these people quickly, through phone calls, emails, and letters. We likewise do personal visitation for those who are interested, through our "PIE" team, and seek to encourage interested parties in membership through a detailed membership program beginning with Meet MLEPC seminars. Further, we seek to do strategic times of training (such as our training this summer in doing follow-up work and leading Discovery Groups for new Christians), or evangelism and prayer training, as we did a while back during a rooftop gathering. We want reaching outward to permeate every area of adult ministry, so it comes up often and intentionally in our teaching times, in our preaching, and in our everyday activities. I personally am involved with a ministry, along with Elder Catherine Corey, focused on young adults, with the intention of outreach and opening dialogues with unchurched people. Each Wednesday we do Theology on Tap (intentionally meeting at a local pub away from the church's campus). This is in conjunction with Family Fusion, and features me and dozens of the area's finest speakers, brightest theologians and professors, and most outreach-minded pastors. Theology on Tap is supported with other additional programs geared toward young adults. For example, we attempt to do at least one young adult retreat, our young adults are involved in mission with Off the Floor Pittsburgh, and Dr. Kevin Storer, Linda Pokrajac, and I offered a Sunday School class entitled "God and Popular Culture" with young adults and also unchurched folks in mind. Our participation in this past summer's Festival of Hope incorporated both young adults and adults, with the intention of reaching out to all of Pittsburgh and beyond with the hope that is in Jesus. Our continuing emphasis on Seeker Small Groups and Story-based evangelism (the natural outcome of being a Christian in our families, workplaces, and places of recreation) breaks through the paradigms of programmatic ministry and emphasizes a ministry that is organic and relational. You don't need a special program or vision-casting team to do this kind of ministry--it simply happens when the Holy Spirit opens the door and you as an individual Christian responds.

Periodically, we encourage our members to share stories of faith, struggle, challenge and hope in Christ through Reasons for Hope. Often times this happens right in the middle of our worship services, and also when large groups are gathered at the church. Mission Possible is an annual, concentrated expression of who we seek to be year-round. We gather together to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our local community, while at the same time being ambassadors for Christ, verbally. We do "mini" Mission Possible events through the Fall Crawl, Christmas Caroling, and periodically through acts of love and kindness, always giving praise to Christ in the midst of it. With our mission in East Kano, Kenya, our support of Sierra Leone through the local Presbytery, and our support of literally dozens of overseas missionaries, we take the outreach to the world, and are likewise affected positively by the gospel ourselves. We do special partnerships with those in the area, such as through Pitcher Park, with special fundraisers (like the one done on January 24th at MLEPC), with South Hills Young Life, the Billy Graham Association, and multiple others. All of these efforts are done in addition to the outreach we seek to provide to children, youth, college, families, seniors and others.

The future vision of the Kingdom Growth Team is twofold: First, to reach out to our left (Mt. Lebanon) and our right (Dormont, Castle Shannon, etc...) through intentional means of interaction, relationship building and influencing leaders in those communities. Second, we want to explore and implement the planting of a satellite worship experience in one of those communities.

As we forge into the future, we must never forget that ministry to adults, whether worship or outreach, is initiated by the Holy Spirit, points to Jesus as the Way, Truth, and Life, and exists to glorify God the Father.

• Save the date! Sunday, April 12th at 12:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall - Evangelism Training with Pastor Steve. A light lunch will be served. Please RSVP to Nina Geitgey@ngeitgey@mlepc.org.

In Christ,

Dr. Steve Aguzzi

Associate Pastor for Worship and Evangelism