Gerrit says, “Get on with it!”
Dear New Wineskin Congregations,
The Convocation is long past. The next Convocation isn’t until October. What do we do now?
We get on with it!
Some churches are pursuing securing property, educating their congregations and talking with their presbyteries about how to make realignment to the new EPC presbytery a reality. That’s great. Let’s remember our friends in prayer who are in the crucible of that transition.
Other churches are considering what faithfulness looks like in our present denominational context. That’s great, too, politics and all. Let’s be in prayer for those who live as strangers in a strange land, seeking to show the way home.
But the truth is neither of those are what we’re after ultimately. The New Wineskins came into being because we discerned the New Wine of the blessed Holy Spirit as he pours out the presence of Jesus Christ across the world. We saw lives transformed and longed to be part of it. We saw the Father calling home his prodigals with a great celebration and said, “I want church life to be like that!” We heard the call of the Triune God who said, “Get on with being my witnesses to the ends of the earth.”
To drink the New Wine, we realized we needed New Wineskins, and it’s not really about denominations at all. It’s about being missional, out-turned congregations. That’s where the real deal is. The rest is peripheral to our calling.
What does it look like when congregations get missional? I’ve been watching the Triune God ignite his people. All at once, it looks so normal and yet is so extraordinary:
· A group of seniors meeting at the chapel of their retirement community lament the absence of their friends now in Healthcare who can no longer attend services. Suddenly it dawns on one woman. “Let’s have our worship over at Health and Wellness. They can’t get to us, but we can get to them!” That’s missional thinking. They went where people are who need the gospel.
· An African-American pastor tells me about his church’s after school program in a rough neighborhood. God is doing extraordinary things. But the little church is drowning over all the demands. A few days later a young adult says to me, “I feel God calling me to serve him in a tangible way, but I don’t what to do. I have all this cooking stuff—could that be a help?” He’s cooking twice a month now for forty children. That’s missional: hauling your cooking stuff to a place where people are hungry.
· The handful of intercessors got convicted hearing Sameh Maurice say we should spend most of our prayer time praying for the world before we get to ourselves. So they did it. Funny how a couple of weeks later a man in agony over a family situation came into the chapel and wept his heart out. “I didn’t know where else to go,” he said. “I knew people at my church would pray for me.” That’s missional: we prayed away from ourselves and so God sent us people we never had before, to be cared for right in our midst.
Coincidence, paradox, surprise—God stuff, all of it. The New Wine is flowing because God is stretching forth his hand to deliver. Being part of the New Wineskins Association means allowing the New Wine to determine the shape our churches will take. We stop looking so much at the old wineskin and obsessing over whether or not it can hold wine. We start praying more. We start looking more for signs of the New Wine. And God shows us. Suddenly we understand the meaning of the Scripture that God gave wine to make glad the hearts of men.
May I encourage you, bravehearts all of you, to get on with it. We’re not waiting on developments of one kind or another in our denomination. We’re about the business of being wild and crazy missional churches.
Gerrit Dawson
Co-Moderator
March 20th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Thanks for the pep talk at a time when we sorely need it. First Pres, Quincy, IL, is more or less as described in your first paragraph. All of our elders and deacons are involved, and we’re feeling a little weak-kneed as we learn new lessons on what it means to be obedient to our Lord.
I like adding “out-turned” to “missional.” It helps tell what a missional church really is.
March 20th, 2007 at 11:10 am
It is in many ways a tough season and that is what Jesus promised - but the joy of being faithful is worth all the challenges the Devil or the World can throw at us.
Getting on with it!
March 20th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
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March 23rd, 2007 at 5:25 pm
God bless you,Dave, and everyone in Quincy. It’s so hard to keep the main thing the main thing, especially when we get covered in the sticky gook of this conflict.
I remember being astounded by Paul’s words at the end of I Corinthians: a wide door for effective service has opened for me, and there are many adversaries. The adversaries were linked to the wide door–it wasn’t a “but there are” It was an “and”, almost to be expected. I pray you will see more of the wide door and less of the adversaries
gerrit
March 26th, 2007 at 5:16 am
This is a GREAT letter.
So many faithful Presbyterians, who are proud of the Presbyterian tradition of reformed theology are saddened, dismayed, and angry about the PCUSA abandonment of Christian principles and its pursuit of idols as the “Goddess Sophia”, homosexuality, abortion, and other such worldly ambitions.
The PCUSA, like the Titanic, has struck an iceberg in the night, and it will soon sink beneath the waves.
The EPC, which remains true to Presbyterian reformed theology, is not sinking and stands by to rescue the victims of the PCUSA disaster. We only have to make our way to that vessel.
The PCUSA has attempted to bind us to itself with chains made of an implied property trust. We must break those chains to free ourselves from the PCUSA so we don’t go down with the ship.
Several evangelical (small “e”)congregations in New York, Louisiana, California, and elsewhere have shown that the property trust does not stand up in court. Those congregations are now free to make their way to the succor offered by the EPC, buoyant with traditional reformed theology and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Such evangelical congregations, if they unite with the EPC, are likely feel as though they have returned to the fold from a long period of wandering in the wilderness of the PCUSA.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:46 am
good:Several evangelical (small ?e?)congregations in New York, Louisiana, California, and elsewhere have shown that the property trust does not stand up in court. Those congregations are now free to make their way to the succor offered by the EPC, buoyant with traditional reformed theology and guided by the Holy Spirit.
April 1st, 2009 at 11:57 am
I like the way you put it. tks for the info…