(This has been edited for the internet.)
You may be saying: “Wait a minute, you are talking about congregations. What about the state of the Region?” Well, our churches are the Region. We are a family of churches; Regional ministry is always embedded in and responding to the life of our individual congregations. To talk about Regional ministry outside of this frame of reference is to talk without a context. So how has the Region been embedded in and responded to the lives our churches?
MISSION EXPANSION
Since we last met in 2016, the Region has completed our cycle of 5 mission trips to work with the AMOS health ministry of ABC missionaries Drs. David and Laura Parajon in Nicaragua. A group of ABCNYS Baptists are continuing to work with this ministry, most recently building a self-contained mobile computer center outside Managua, a centered power by solar panels. This is the goal of our mission involvement: to introduce New York State Baptists to mission opportunities and then have them take them up as their own.
In 2018 the Region began a three year partnership with two ministries in Rwanda. We are capitalizing on a long-term relationship two of our pastors have had with these ministries. In 2019 and beyond we will likely expand that partnership to work with the Siera group of churches.
The Region continues to introduce International Ministries missionaries to our churches and encourage mutually supportive relationships.
In 2018 we sponsored a four-day mission trip to Niagara Falls to serve with Community Missions of Niagara Falls. We served in variety of ways to some of the most vulnerable people in our State. The Board of Mission has taken on the aspirational goal of two trips to work with this ministry in 2019. They also have laid plans to provide a mission experience with a Native American population in New York State.
These expanding mission enterprises reveal a growing emphasis in our Region. We want to be “doers” of mission, opening ourselves up to the new and stretching experiences God has for us. If we are not challenging our congregations to dare new things for Christ, we as a Region are not being good stewards of the wealth God has invested our people. In some organization “mission creep” is seen as bad; with us it is seen as the pull of God’s Spirit.
CHURCH LEADERSHIP
We have gotten nearly all our Lay Study courses online, both those sponsored by the Region and those sponsored by local Associations, In this way training is now available to everyone interested person in our Region. Some participants are honing their skills for lay leadership. Others are preparing to be a Certified Lay Minister and lead a congregation. And some start out as the former and end up as the latter. (I love it when a plan comes together.) We are working creatively with church and leaders to match trustworthy, trained, called leaders to congregations who will respond well to their gifts.
We have provided and continue to train pastors in the special skills that make them well suited for interim ministry.
We have completed 3 of 8 sessions of our Going Deeper into Ministry through Continuing Study, a program designed to equip pastors and other church leaders. It is funded by a Palmer Grant from the American Baptist Foundation.
An increasing number of our congregations are looking to multi-income stream pastor’s (I hate to say part time; no pastor gives just a part of themselves to ministry) to lead them. We are working to get people into ministry more quickly, sometimes with close mentoring.
We cannot change the realities of modern church ministry. Our churches need pastoral leadership. Our goal is to partner with them to help them make wise and informed choices, with maximum flexibility as to how that is achieved.
CHURCH LIFE
We must minister in the world we have, not the world we wish we had or maybe used to have. We do not get to choose our time and place in the movement of God’s Kingdom. We simply must play the hand we are dealt as faithfully as we can; faith in this context is a lot like courage. Our churches struggle with outsized expensive-to-maintain buildings. Region staff help them to set priorities and learn from the experiences of other congregations. Our churches struggle with changing demographics and find themselves in communities that are struggling. Sometimes churches must face questions of viability; this is never an easy conversation. Region staff guide them as they think through their options and help them gain wisdom from the experience of other churches. It is not an easy time to be a Christian congregation in upstate New York. Our congregations are work harder and trusting God more.
Our Burmese Diaspora churches, Karen, Chin, Kachin, and Zomi, are flourishing and bringing new vitality to our family. The Region walks with them as they negotiate organizing themselves, buying buildings, and adapting to a new culture.
Each year we sponsor the American Baptist Youth convention where young people are challenged to be committed disciples of Jesus Christ and are provided with tools to do that. These conventions are also a training ground for future church leadership, both lay and pastoral.
CONCLUSION
Our congregations continue to find ways to be faithful in a world they could not have seen 30 years ago. We, as a Regional family of congregations, move forward believing that God is in the change and meets us at every turn. The challenge always is to hear the prophet Isaiah: I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (43:19).
Blessings,
Jim Kelsey
Executive Minister
No comments:
Post a Comment