Follow Me!

A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12

If I close my eyes I can see Jesus with John in the river Jordan. See him being driven into the wilderness to be tested. See him beginning his ministry as he calls the Twelve to follow him. Jesus understood that we begin every ministry with the people who God has called. Building spiritual communities of leaders is the first step to readying ourselves to respond to God's call to make disciples and meet human need.

In the words of Jim Collins, "First who, then what." First, Jesus prayed for God to name those whom God had called. He took the time to discern "the who," calling them one by one. Before he healed one person, preached one sermon, taught one lesson, he built his team in response to God's call.

All too often, we begin with "the what," rather than "the who." In our desire to make efficient use of our time and resources, we pinpoint the problems and then seek to tackle them to the ground, only to find that we don't have the depth of relationship to become the change we desire to see in the world.

As Christians, our model for how to live is found in the Perichoresis of the Trinity where the relationship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit allow for each person to bring their whole self into ministry, even as they honor the gifts of the other. As Ruth Haley Barton in Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership writes: Most teams simply "gather around a task... Spiritual communities gather around a Person." As spiritual leaders called by God, we know that our relationship with the Triune God informs our way of being and doing. We know that we are called to make a difference in our communities through who we are in Christ.

When "the who" is honored and nurtured, we are set free to follow the movement of the Holy Spirit, even when it requires surrender to a new way of being and doing.   This coming Monday, you are invited to join Council as we celebrate God's call in light of who we are. It is in that context that we will reflect on the actions of the General Assembly and live forward into the "what" of God's call.

For such a time as this, God has called us! 

July 10, 2012

From the Stated Clerk

Two years ago, I was a commissioner to the 219th General Assembly which met in Minneapolis. I served on the committee that worked to study overtures and reports dealing with the Middle East. After several very full days, I joined our other MVP commissioners (John Bassman, Rick Nutt and Jim Spain) in the plenary sessions, where over 600 commissioners from around the country debated and voted on the recommendations from all of the committees.

I have just returned from Pittsburgh where the 220th General Assembly met for eight days. This time, however, I attended as a presbytery staff person and had neither voice nor vote at the committee meetings and the plenaries. While I missed the responsibility for studying and voting on the minor and major important issues I had as a commissioner, I enjoyed sitting in on many of the GA committee hearings and discussions, taking photographs and catching up with friends from Western New York.

Each General Assembly is grounded in worship. On Saturday, June 30th, outgoing Moderator Cindy Bolbach, though weakened by treatment for cancer, preached a powerful sermon using Mark 2:1-12 as the theme. In this story Jesus is in a house in Capernaum, teaching the overflow crowd who has heard of his power to cast out evil spirits and heal lepers. When four people bring a paralyzed man on his mat and cannot enter the house by the door, they dig a hole in the roof and lower the paralyzed man on his mat until he was before Jesus. Jesus commends their faith and tells the man that his sins are forgiven. When the scribes call this blasphemy, Jesus tells the man to stand up, take his mat and walk.

During the week, at Cindy's request, the other worship leaders provided their own interpretations of that Markan story and left me pondering the times when I have been, and continue to be, paralyzed by lack of trust, weakness and fear on my faith journey. We shared wonderful, new and long-beloved hymns from the sampler of "Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal" that will be available next fall.

Summary Bulletin of GA 2012 from The Presbyterian Outlook:

2012 Post - GA to Email (.PDF) - one side

2012 Post - GA for Printing (.PDF) - two sides 

To the leadership of mid councils:

Below is an attachment of the pastoral letter from the new Moderator and Vice Moderator of the 220th General Assembly, as well as Gradye Parsons and Linda Valentine regarding the 220th GA. Please share it with your congregations as you find it helpful to do so.

The letter is also online at 

http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/7/7/churchwide-pastoral-letter-220th-general-assembly/.

Grace and peace,

Sharon

Sharon Youngs

Communications Coordinator

Office of the General Assembly 

GA220 Pastoral Letter (.PDF)

Dear friends,

I have a couple of folks that are searching for answers on how to run a successful Sunday School ministry. If your church is in the process of hosting a successful Sunday School ministry, I ask that you take a few moments to respond to these questions:

1. How are you running a successful Sunday School?

2. What is the model of your successful Sunday School?

3. How do you get parents to commit to the program?

Please send your responses to:

Nancy Umberger, ncu@netscape.com or Cindy Krause, wkrause2@roadrunner.com  

Thank you!

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Since 2003 I have been involved in mission work in Belize, Central America. Over the years the mission groups I have been working with have built new homes, refurbished old homes, built bathroom facilities and playground equipment for schools as well as preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Most recently, in the past five years, Warsaw 1st Presbyterian Church has funded building projects in the San Narcisso RC School and has rewired one school building and built partitions to separate classrooms.

Each and every project has blessed the community of San Victor and San Narcisso in a powerful way. I have developed a relationship with Maestro Gregorio Moralez, principal of the San Narcisso Roman Catholic School. Each year, he and his staff help me to see where the needs of the school are most beneficial. In April of 2012, I went on a fact finding mission trip to the community of San Narcisso and met with Maestro Moralez to discuss the future of the school. Several needs have emerged as a result of that meeting: one need is that the new kindergarten class which began just two years ago is in need of a kitchen. The children have to go home to eat lunch, and for some families the work in their cane fields is more important, so some of the children will not make it back to school. Adjacent to the kindergarten building is a small building that needs refurbished that would provide a great kitchen area. The kitchen will provide cold storage of homemade lunches, tables and chairs for the students, and a clean up sink with lighting. The proposed goal of the Belize Mission 2013 document shows what it will take to provide for this need. The work will be done by parents of the children in the community.

The second need concerns the school library. We discovered that the library of the school is mostly in storage because the need for classroom space is at a premium. Only about 50% of the books are displayed in one portion of a classroom. It is difficult to send students to the library area because it interrupts the class that is using the room. Adjacent to the main school building is an area in which a library building could be placed. This will be the main focus of the 2013 mission trip. The building will have to be purchased ahead of time and placed on its foundation in time for the 2013 mission group to build shelving and catalog books. The proposed building will be constructed in the Ship Yard district of Belize by the Mennonite Community and traveled to San Narcisso RC School.

Also in the proposed goal document is a cost estimate for the library. Finally technology is a must for a community trying to raise the standard for the emerging workforce of the future. Many of you know that our children are born with a keyboard in their hands and a person that is proficient with a computer is more valuable in the workforce. The school has internet and a computer lab but much of the equipment is antiquated and needs replaced. Many of the computers are running Windows NT (2000) operating system. In late May, I received a donation to the Belize Mission project: 56 used computers and flat screen monitors. My son-in-law, Phil Wentworth is wading through the massive amount of equipment to build/refurbish at least 40 usable computers that are internet ready for the San Narcisso RC School. In order to get them to Belize, they will have to be shipped individually and I will be asking for donations for the shipping cost. This is exciting work for the Lord. This school of 300+ children will impact a community in a powerful way with these new innovations. In addition to the 2013 Mission trip we have several professional teachers who will be teaching seminars in various teaching techniques that are needed for the school. Seminars on Reading Comprehension, Special Education, Special Needs (ADHD) and Library Operations to name a few will help to make this school a powerful place of learning.  

For the 2013 Mission trip to be successful we need several commitments from you. We ask for your prayers, we are seeking a substantial amount of money and we need to ask God to provide. We need your financial support. The kitchen and library will not be built without many dollars, so I ask you to please prayerfully consider what you or your church could give. Finally, this mission trip may be what God is calling you to do in 2013. There is room for you on this trip and what you bring to the table. God has gifted you with many talents and they can be used to bless the people of Belize. Whatever God is calling you to do, please do it!

In Christ,

Pastor Tim Thomas

P.S. Gifts can be sent to: Warsaw 1st Presbyterian Church P.O. Box 193 Warsaw, Ohio 43844

Proposed Goals of Belize Mission Trip 2013 (.PDF)

Belize Mission Letter 2013 (.PDF)