It
was a pleasure to be guests of the Elders and Deacons Association as we
gathered as a presbytery at Vah-Ki Presbyterian Church on April 2. Our Native
American brothers and sisters provided warm welcome and gracious hospitality as
we worshiped and worked under their ramada: thank you, EDA!
For
my pastor’s report I asked those gathered to share their thoughts with one
another about the purposes of a presbytery in general and of our presbytery specifically, and I
promised I would share the results of their feedback. Below is a snapshot of
their responses:
The
verbal responses were, as I expected they would be, all over the spectrum, from
“only do COM and CPM and nothing else” to “our minister needs to be ministered
to – burn-out prevention.” If there were themes that emerged from the written responses,
however, they clustered around the ideas of (1) supporting racial-ethnic
ministry, especially Native American ministry, and (2) seeking a sense of
relational, connectional ministry together. Below are representative comments:
Native American and Hispanic ministry is
what makes our Presbytery unique – it is our genetic DNA, and we agree that the
pastoral cohorts are a good thing.
Churches / congregations working
together, sharing expertise on training / mission projects / mentoring is key.
I think COM’s efforts to be in
conversation with churches on a regular basis is, though a work in progress,
great!
In a time of transition,
clear, calm and connected communication is critical to the health of
communities, especially faith communities. May we continue this year in a
season of such communication first with God (prayer), then with ourselves
(personal reflection), and also with one another (fellowship).
Grace
and peace,
Brad
Munroe
P.S.
A big shout-out and THANK YOU to the member from Palo Cristi who wrote: “EFocus
is awesome!” J
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