Section 5.00 of the Confession of Faith ( COF ) is titled, God Creates The Church For Mission. That is about as straight forward a statement as can be made. The COF goes on to say in 5.09 " the church in the world never exists for herself alone, but to glorify God and work for reconciliation through Christ. " At the leadership meeting a couple of weekends ago, the elders spent some time talking about their specific role as individuals and as a session to lead the congregation toward a better understanding of this purpose for which God has created the church.

That conversation, coupled with the previous night's financial report in the session meeting, has caused the session to enter into a discussion about a few essentials that are vital to move the mission of the church forward. Chief among those essentials is programs of ministry that allow people to use the gifts with which God had blessed them and the staffing of the church with called, capable people to lead the congregation in those programs. This will take a renewed commitment to tithing and giving and finding time and energy among the church's members to be faithful to the call of God.

As we continued studying on Saturday about the role of elder, we discovered many things about ourselves. Among those is that all of us are theologians and all of us are missionaries. We have a call from God to interpret the events of life and living in the light of who we understand God to be. And, we have been called by God to share that vision of life with others. I give you all this background to let you know that the session takes seriously their responsibility to lead this congregation, and we admit that we have not been as bold in our leadership as we could have been.

The session interprets all of our discussion to fall under the category of stewardship. So, a Stewardship Committee has been formed. The members of that committee are Tim Blackmon, Renee Brown, Nancy Gillis, and Pastor Mark. We will be bringing to the congregation's attention those ideas of theology and mission which will inspire deeper levels of commitment to stewardship and form the foundation for everything this church will say and do.

5.29 of the COF begins with this statement: " Growth is natural to the church's life. The church is called into being and exists to reach out... ". Reaching out is our work. Our mission. People looking beyond our own walls and our own selves is the kind of people God desires us to be. The session is determined to bring that message to this community through this church. The church needs you. Your money. Your time. Your energy. Your imagination. Your creativity. Your complete commitment to the mission that God has called us to continue.

Grace and peace,