From the Pastor's
Heart... 
Restructure
At Powhatan Mennonite Church we continue to look at the possibilities of
reconfiguring our present church structure. As a Restructuring Team we are
pouring some time and energy thinking about the team concept of church ministry
and trying to apply the four principles that we agreed on when we began this
endeavor.
The principle of plurality among elders.
(The leadership should always be more than one elder.)
The principle of a presiding pastor. (There should be a senior pastor that leads the elders.)
The principle of partnering with others for ministry.
(The ministry is carried out by those in the church but with clear leadership
and accountability.)
The principle of simplifying. (Those doing the
ministry should be the ones making decisions.)
There
are times as a leader of this team that I find myself getting frustrated. My
frustrations come as a result of leading something that I myself am still
learning about. I continue to try and wrap my arms around the team concept of
doing church ministry. I think it is a fair assumption to say that we all will
be on a steep learning curve if the church decides to adopt our proposal and
implement a team structure. It is great to be working together with wise and
knowledgeable men and women which make up this team. My hat is off to them (Gene
& Wallace Schaefer, Brenda Walton, Ron, Dave, & Sid Moyer, Linda Duncan,
Ernie Godshall) for their work!
I’d
like to remind you to pray for our team. It is a difficult undertaking that will
have implications for how we do ministry at Powhatan Mennonite Church.
What would Jesus
do?
This past week-end I heard John Roth talk about the church in a
post-Christian culture. He didn’t paint a very good picture of how the church
as a whole is doing. He gave statistics, like it or not, that are a barometer
showing us how strong of an undercurrent the culture is. It is simply impossible
to ignore the culture that surrounds us. In fact we are called by God to make a
difference in it. I guess the backlash of that is when the culture has a bigger
impact on the church than the church does on the culture. I think the latter are
what some statistics may be suggesting.
Maybe
there is not much good that comes from dwelling on all the negatives even if it
is good for us to be realists. Could it be that our lives should focus on Jesus
and what it means to follow Him? Shouldn’t the things that we do represent the
One that we follow? The old adage that was made new not too long ago, “What
would Jesus do?” would go a long way in being a guide for our lives as we
endeavor to live above our culture.
Hans
Denck, a young Anabaptist man in the late 15th century, made this exclamation, “No one can truly know
Christ unless he follows Him in life, and no one may follow Him unless he has
first known Him.” You may have to reread that quote several times to grasp at
the heart of Hans’ point.
What
I’m saying is this, yes we (the Christian church) know we are not doing very
well in our present culture. But maybe if we simply begin to follow Jesus in our
own lives in small things, we would realize that it eventually makes a
difference for all eternity.
Now
let’s see, what would Jesus do?
Your pastor,
Tim
At
Powh
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