Friday, July 17, 2009

Life at Faith These Days - Part 1

It's been a month since I blogged. Life at Faith has been getting better! Last Sunday was amazing!

Worship was fantastic! I had dropped my daughter off at the airport for the adventure of a lifetime; a semester studying in Costa Rica! I then went on to worship. There were many more folks than usual! There was a delegation of folks from Africa that were in town and came to worship with Frank! That morning and previous evening the church had just hosted two mission teams crossing paths to and from the Gulf coast. Our contingent of folks was back from a South Africa trip! Some friends from work that have been church hunting showed up at Faith that day! The music (all the music) hit a chord with me! Kerry's sermon was fantastic! I wept.

I have been working hard to put up a new Faith Reach webpage; http://hs.presby.org, and it is reaching a stable point and is generating a bit of excitement! The page sprung as a personal response to a list of tenets that Faith's Outreach committee is working to.

  • A team ministry that oversees the total missional arena at Faith
  • A team ministry that lifts up, communicates policies and interprets
  • A team ministry that develops, approves, oversees and implements a budget
  • A team ministry that links members with complementary gifts with ministry of service
  • A team ministry that manages a dynamic relationship with 15 to 20 local ministries
  • A team ministry that provides a Theological foundation and understanding of missions
  • A team ministry that serves as a primary bridge interfacing with laity, church and world
  • A team ministry that will provide leadership for Faith into the mission era
  • A team ministry that uses sound infrastructure, accountability and regulates implementation.

The site has three major thrusts. A news and invitation feature that keeps folks informed on opportunities to get engaged. A series of background pages on different ministries that Faith is involved in. A blog where Faith folks can share their stories and experiences of reaching out with God's kingdom.

My vision is not only to inform Faith members, but attract seekers, and attract non-religious seekers to Faith's work through Faith's friendships. The latter then provides the opportunity to usher them into a relationship with Christ in God's time. Much the way Faith ushered me into that relationship. I strongly feel Faith's future depends on involving people in Faith's ministries and THEN involving them in Faith, not the other way around.

One of the other facets is that I'm funneling the announcements and blog stories to Faith's friends on Facebook through my account there. I've been found by a number of Faith folks already!

BUT... Faith church is still hurting.

I hear reports of some folks complaining about the contemporary music in worship. Which is OK, but not actually during worship disturbing other worshipers!

I talk frequently with a friend who is struggling with the changes at Faith and the way those changes were brought about. They are hanging in with Faith but the hold is tentative and seeking indications of forward movement again.

And I just heard from someone who is really hurting. Someone who has been distancing themselves, painfully, from Faith because of their need to find an active youth program for their child. (They made it clear they were not placing specific blame on Kerry!) This is a situation we all have responsibility for. A situation faced by a number of families at Faith who have made the hard choice. Oddly, or by design, that connection was reestablished though the outreach into Facebook. A bittersweet highlight of that effort's purpose.

(More on this later ...)

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