From the minister
Our mission promise
A year in the making, but most definitely worth it! I am very pleased to share with you our Mission Promise, adopted by our Kirk Session on March 11:
We will live as disciples: As disciples we are followers of the way of Jesus Christ and committed to Christ-like living.
to grow: We are committed to growth in Christian maturity through prayer, learning, serving,
praising and witnessing to the Gospel.
and go: We are committed to the great commission given to us by Jesus after his resurrection to go out into the world and encourage others to follow him; welcome into his church through the sacrament of baptism; and teach his word in worship and daily living as to what it is means to be disciples of Jesus.
in faith, hope and love; our Father's gifts from above: We are committed to growing and going out into the world in faith, hope and love. We recognise that these gifts are given by God for our sustenance, development and witness. We are not the source of faith, hope and love, God is, and therefore we are assured that we will never run dry because God will always replenish his children. We will act local: We are committed to contextualising the Gospel and reaching out to our local community in a way that is relevant and engages, in the Christian way, with their spiritual search. We are a Parish church committed to serving the spiritual and social needs of our congregation, Parish, town and communities.
with a heart for the global: We are committed to the world through prayer and action. We give of our money and seek to develop links with the worldwide church. We are committed to being caretakers for creation.
journeying together as one, committed to Jesus the Son: We are a congregation of the body of Christ. As members of his body we seek to recognise and enable the gifts of each member so as to build up the church and usher in God's Kingdom among and around us. We are committed to working alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in other churches in our joint mission to serve Christ and his world. We will serve to enable friends round a table: We are committed to encouraging people into deeper relationship with Christ through partaking in communion at the Lord's table and joining in membership of our church.
filled from the Spirit's care, sharing his gifts everywhere: We are committed to being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, prayerfully and diligently looking for the Spirit's guidance as we seek to authentically be God's church. We will do this so that when the Spirit comes we will be in a position to enable God's blessing to flow in us and through us and so bring about Christian revival in our lives, in our congregation and beyond. Next steps
We have outlined where we want to go and the principles that will shape our journey; now we have the detailed part of how we are going to work together to achieve this. If we leave it here without doing any more work then all we will have produced is an empty promise. Each group, committee and person in the church is now asked to reflect on how we can commit to this promise. This will require prayer, reflection, discussion, a look at the gifts we have, the opportunities that are presented and the risk that will need to be taken. I hope that we will begin the new 2008-2009 church year with these goals in place and we will work towards achieving them over the following years, reassessing where deemed appropriate. In five years' time, the church will carry out a full audit and I anticipate that we will find ourselves in a place where we have achieved much of what we had hoped for, and be ready to go through this process again and make new promises to God, one another, our parish and beyond. Thank you to everyone who supported this process in prayer, Bible study and in giving of time and energy to help in the development of our Mission Promise. Let's now work together to be promise keepers. Yours in Christ's service
Jamie Milliken
We will live as disciples to grow and goOur Mission Promise is one promise in three verses; this reflects the Unity and the Trinity of God. Each verse focuses on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our Mission Promise is expressed in poetry; the great tradition of the Psalms and much of Biblical literature. Poetry is alive and it has rhythm. Poetry rather than a propositional statement reflects more of the wonder of God who is fluid, living and leaves space for growth. Poetry is also memorable – that is why we can remember hymns long after we've forgotten sermons. Our Mission Promise is built on biblical principle. It was developed after biblical reflection. And while we believe that God speaks through the whole of the Old and New Testaments, we consider there are some key verses that support our mission promise. These are given below for your own reading and reflection: Micah 6:8, Mark 1:17, Matthew 22:37, 38, Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 7:12, Romans 12:5-8, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, 1 Corinthians 13:13, Galatians 5:22, 23. Our mission promise explained
in faith, hope and love;
our Father's gifts from above. We will act local with a heart for the global,
journeying together as one,
committed to Jesus the Son. We will serve to enable friends round a table,
filled from the Spirit's care,
sharing his gifts everywhere.
We will live as disciples: As disciples we are followers of the way of Jesus Christ and committed to Christ-like living.
to grow: We are committed to growth in Christian maturity through prayer, learning, serving,
praising and witnessing to the Gospel.
and go: We are committed to the great commission given to us by Jesus after his resurrection to go out into the world and encourage others to follow him; welcome into his church through the sacrament of baptism; and teach his word in worship and daily living as to what it is means to be disciples of Jesus.
in faith, hope and love; our Father's gifts from above: We are committed to growing and going out into the world in faith, hope and love. We recognise that these gifts are given by God for our sustenance, development and witness. We are not the source of faith, hope and love, God is, and therefore we are assured that we will never run dry because God will always replenish his children. We will act local: We are committed to contextualising the Gospel and reaching out to our local community in a way that is relevant and engages, in the Christian way, with their spiritual search. We are a Parish church committed to serving the spiritual and social needs of our congregation, Parish, town and communities.
with a heart for the global: We are committed to the world through prayer and action. We give of our money and seek to develop links with the worldwide church. We are committed to being caretakers for creation.
journeying together as one, committed to Jesus the Son: We are a congregation of the body of Christ. As members of his body we seek to recognise and enable the gifts of each member so as to build up the church and usher in God's Kingdom among and around us. We are committed to working alongside our Christian brothers and sisters in other churches in our joint mission to serve Christ and his world. We will serve to enable friends round a table: We are committed to encouraging people into deeper relationship with Christ through partaking in communion at the Lord's table and joining in membership of our church.
filled from the Spirit's care, sharing his gifts everywhere: We are committed to being open to the movement of the Holy Spirit, prayerfully and diligently looking for the Spirit's guidance as we seek to authentically be God's church. We will do this so that when the Spirit comes we will be in a position to enable God's blessing to flow in us and through us and so bring about Christian revival in our lives, in our congregation and beyond. Next steps
We have outlined where we want to go and the principles that will shape our journey; now we have the detailed part of how we are going to work together to achieve this. If we leave it here without doing any more work then all we will have produced is an empty promise. Each group, committee and person in the church is now asked to reflect on how we can commit to this promise. This will require prayer, reflection, discussion, a look at the gifts we have, the opportunities that are presented and the risk that will need to be taken. I hope that we will begin the new 2008-2009 church year with these goals in place and we will work towards achieving them over the following years, reassessing where deemed appropriate. In five years' time, the church will carry out a full audit and I anticipate that we will find ourselves in a place where we have achieved much of what we had hoped for, and be ready to go through this process again and make new promises to God, one another, our parish and beyond. Thank you to everyone who supported this process in prayer, Bible study and in giving of time and energy to help in the development of our Mission Promise. Let's now work together to be promise keepers. Yours in Christ's service
Jamie Milliken
Posted on Apr 10 2008 at 01:04
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