DISTRICT CHANGES AND THINKING MISSION

On Sabbath, January 15 I visited in the Bucks County Church.

It was my joy to be among the worshippers in the morning church service. The worship service was very engaging and I felt my spirit drawn to the Lord.

Elder Troy Haagenson had a wonderful sermon, encouraging us to consider the events of the world, with special attention drawn to the unsettling and unexplainable conditions in the natural world just in the last week’s news. He then gave an altar appeal for re-commitment to Christ and readiness for His coming and several people came forward.

I also had the joy to slip in to another room in the Bucks County Church where a new church plant is beginning to take shape. Hispanic members in the area around Bucks County are working diligently to raise up another new church to the glory of God.

Under able lay leadership, some of whom have been elders and leaders in Philadelphia Spanish churches, this new mission group began their first completely Hispanic worship service at the 11 o’clock hour.

I am thrilled to see the commitment and the willingness of these fine lay leaders to embrace the formation of a church plant process, with the conviction that God and the Holy Spirit can work through them as lay people and lay leaders in the raising up and the leadership of this new church.

In the afternoon, I met with an open meeting of the Bucks County Church family, as we dialogued regarding the decision by the December 8, 2010 Conference Executive Committee to place the Bucks County Church into a two church district comprising Bucks County and Fairview Village. This is the first time in many years that Bucks County has been a two church district, and many members wanted to voice their concern as to the effect this might have on the ability of a pastor to lead them forward in their mission initiatives for the coming year.

Due to the current economic times in our country and thus that affecting our Conference, we are needing to adjust our workforce in order to best fulfill the mission of the Adventist Church in inviting people to be disciples of Christ and be able to provide the financial support of the spiritual leaders for mission in our Conference. This is necessitating some re –districting, consolidation, and even change in our workforce. Among several churches affected by this need, is Bucks County, Fairview Village and Pottstown. Other church districts across the Conference will be adjusted over the next few months.

Presently in Philadelphia, several, if not most of our Anglo churches are multi-church districts, or will be in the near future. Lansdale and Souderton, Boulevard and Phoenixville, Chestnut Hill and a new church plant intentionally reaching a new part of the city, West Chester, Lancaster and Ephrata, and Bucks County and Fairview Village. Our Hispanic work has a 7 church/church plant district, that very soon we need to re-district into districts comprising 4 and 3 churches. Havertown is now ably led by a lay pastor with mentorship from a senior pastor in the Boulevard church.

As we consider and implement the present changes, some have voiced concern that with the vision to treat Pennsylvania as a Mission Field, we need more pastors, not less. While I would favor that in concept, we must prayerfully ask the question and seek direction from the Holy Spirit as to why the question is being asked, and how pastors are being utilized in local churches.

In the Bible and the especially in the Spirit of Prophecy the call is for every person who takes the name of Christ to be a missionary for Christ. Sometimes the concern is voiced that “We work all day, and we need the Pastor to be the full-time mission worker, since we cannot.” Yet the Spirit of Prophecy reminds us that until the laity rally to the work of ministry and join the pastors, the work will never be finished. In other places, the counsel is continuous that the Lord is eager to work through each of us. And that every member of the church has a role to play in winning souls.

Now is the time that our concept of church, of missions, of pastoral leadership needs to be re-examined and changed to come in alignment with the will of the Lord for these last days.

Now is the time that each member of the family of God, each person who claims to have been saved by grace, each person who takes the name of Seventh-day Adventist must be willing to look at their entire day, as being on the mission of Jesus. Being the mission leader at their work. Being the mission leader in their neighborhood. Being the mission leader at their place of recreation. Being the mission leader at their school. Being the mission leader in their home. And being a mission leader in their church.
That is what God has called us, as servants of Christ, as redeemed members of the heavenly family, as chosen and cherished members of a last day church, to be, to act and to think.

A pastor is to be the mission leader. As one Pennsylvania member said to me recently, “God calls a pastor to provide ‘Pastor-leadership, not Pastor-doing.’ Some churches speak mission but they want the pastor to do it.”

There are two ways we can move forward toward the models and structures that best support the mission calling we have as disciples of Christ and members of a last day church.

1.) We can embrace change, and prayerfully examine our current systems and structures and be willing to search out God’s leading in moving past current practices and traditions, to new ways of serving. These news ways, rather than moving away from the Adventist perspective, will in actual fact need to be a direct coming back to the principles and purposes the Adventist Church was raised up for in the beginning.

2.) Or, we can cling to our current practices and structures, even as the need to reach the present world changes, and we come to face the eventual result that the Lord may be allowing our familiar and comfortable methods to become unsustainable. Only then might we become willing to move to a better model and method for mission.

I would like to have the heart of the first way. While change can be unsettling and not always easy to accept, I would rather rise up and follow the call of the Lord. James and John, Peter and Andrew rose up when Jesus came by and invited them to “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Talk about change! They left their nets, their livelihood, their family, their familiar way of working, and followed Jesus into mission.

Will you join me in praying that the same Jesus who called James, John, Peter and Andrew, and who called you and me, will find us willing to follow Him just as faithfully into whatever new activity and approach He wants to lead us into?