On Tuesday morning, Paul Mathewson, Ron Markloff and I will share an update regarding our Vision for Mission Mid-Atlantic. The following post is the text of my comments during that session. We welcome your input as we move forward to serve our churches:
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Mission Mid-Atlantic Vision & Update
Dr. James E. Leary
2009
Overview
Mission Mid-Atlantic is a diverse fellowship of churches united by Biblical mission, and our diversity is ethnic, racial and geographical. Our roots are in the Conservative Baptist Movement (CBAmerica) of the 1940’s, and we share as a regional fellowship in a greater work that God is doing. As a regional fellowship, we value the coaching CBAmerica is offering us in the areas of church assessment, envisioning and pastors clusters and we thank Dr. Stephen LeBar, our General Director, for facilitating this training.
Mission Mid-Atlantic is creating a new paradigm that changes the way we work, and not just on paper. We envision becoming an agent of change that resources churches to identify, reach, attract, serve, assimilate and challenge their members to make disciples and fulfill the Great Commission. We see this becoming a reality through skilled church champions and catalysts who work with church leaders who want to make a difference for the Kingdom.
Covenant of Regions
We live in covenant relationships with one another in the Mid-Atlantic Region and we reflect who God is in these relationships and activities. Dr. Bruce A. Ware, in Father, Son and Holy Spirit, observed the following:
“In our own relationships in the home and ministry, we should endeavor, by God’s grace, to model our work and worship in ways that reflect the Trinitarian unity expressed through harmony. This will mean, on the one hand, that we celebrate rather than begrudge many of the differences among us. When we insist that everyone be just like “me”, we have settled for the unity of unison and we have lost the vision of harmony. Rather than bemoan the fact that God gives various gifts in the body of Christ, and rather than look down on others whose interests in ministry and service vary from our own, we can see these as the harmonious display of various “voices” which , if they sing correctly, can create a beautiful common song. Our differences, so long as they are within the boundaries of the moral character of God and express the gifting of the Spirit, need to be embraced and employed in Christian service, both in the home and in the church.”
We believe these Trinitarian realities should influence fellowship within our churches as well as our inter-church relationships. We will also continue to celebrate our differences, as Dr. Ware observed, as long as those differences are within the framework of our Regional Covenant and within the bounds of Scripture.
In light of our national and regional history, and in an effort to more effectively resource our churches, the Mission Mid-Atlantic Board adopted the following recommendations at their March meeting.
Recommendations from the Board
The first recommendation is to do away with the two separate designations of Urban/Ethnic and Rural/Suburban. On May 31st, Bill Holmes and Paul Mathewson will complete their ministries as Urban/Ethnic and Rural Suburban Associates. We have appreciated the way they have served our churches, and we assure you we will continue to reach out to our Urban/Ethnic pastors and churches so that we realize our vision of increased diversity.
The second recommendation of the Board is to re-assign associate directors to begin to resource our four key action steps. This is how our paradigm will begin to develop. Since our desire is to see new churches planted throughout our region, Ron Markloff will begin to serve as the Associate assigned to this action step. He is uniquely gifted and experienced to provide leadership and direction in this area. Paul Mathewson will assume responsibility for building healthy churches. We have valued his contributions in the area of church planting, but more of his time has been spent in assessments and revisioning, and the Board’s recommendation confirms this new direction. We will also continue to develop our pastor’s clusters. This fall CBAmerica is offering coaching in this area, and we plan to send some of our area cluster group leaders to participate in this training. Another action step is to assist pastors and churches in crisis, and I have been approved to enroll in the Certification Program to become a Certified Christian Conciliator. I desire to improve my mediation ministry to our churches and look forward to beginning this process. I also plan to create a network of trained CB conciliators and mediators throughout our region.
Regional NASCAR Analogy
One of my roles as your Regional Executive Director is to build and foster an environment of encouragement, prayer, accountability, personal development and equipping others. Dr. Mark Hoeffner, CBNorthwest RED, uses the NASCAR analogy to illustrate how their region seeks to resource their churches and I have taken the liberty to borrow his analogy.
For Mission Mid-Atlantic (Our NASCAR) to run competitively, we need help. And for our churches to be successful at being competitive or reproducing, they also need help. When NASCAR needs good tires they put a Goodyear sticker on; when NASCAR needs good fuel, they put a BP or Shell sticker on, when they need good spark plugs they put NGC sticker on. For NASCAR to be successful, they need money so they put a sponsor sticker on their car. There are things that churches need to be successful. When churches in our region have needed help in training or assessments they have put a Church Health Ministries sticker on their car. When churches have needed help relationally they put a Peacemaker sticker on their car. When you think about NASCAR, the car is only as good as the people (mechanic, driver pit crew, etc.). Often times the stickers represent a team outside of the church who help the team inside the church be successful. On the regional level, this reflects one of our values that we want to continue to pursue, and the recommendation from the Board also reflects this value.
Mission Mid-Atlantic and Social Media
We continue to build relationships with pastors and churches within our region and I am learning how Facebook and Twitter can help us build our community. Some may view social media as a fad with little to offer our regional fellowship. However, the following anecdote by a writer from South Africa reminds us that the old ways are not always the best.
Gideon (www.1xtramile.com) grew up in a small town in Africa. When he was a boy they went to the river and used gourds to retrieve drinking water. This worked fine and everybody was happy. Then they started to use plastic 5 liter containers. The containers were not as fragile as the gourds and worked better. Still many people didn’t like them. They complained that the water tasted bad or didn’t like losing their traditional method. Over time, as the benefits were realized, most people started using the plastic containers. Years later a pipeline was installed. Water was processed and piped to people’s houses or central areas where people could access it. Again many people complained. Why should they pay to have pipes brought to their house when they could use their plastic containers to get water for free? (Quote from Lystra Pitt’s Blog)
Facebook now has over 200 million active users, with more than 100 million logging on every day. Over 2/3rds of Facebook users are out of college and the fastest demographic is 35 years of age. Many churches are discovering the awesome potential that exists with social media such as Facebook and Twitter to build communities. Mission Mid-Atlantic will also explore how to use these tools to continue to develop our fellowship.
Regional Support of the New Paradigm
Our recommendations will require a greater financial commitment. If you believe our four strategies (Developing, Cultivating, Building and Assisting) are worth resourcing, we urge you to pray with us that our financial base will grow stronger. We are taking a step of faith and trust God for the resources that will be needed to see our paradigm develop to help our churches.
This step of faith includes raising an additional $60,000.00. A portion of the $60,000 increase will be covered as our partnership with Church Health Ministries is realized. Part of the increase in this year’s budget includes shifting Paul Mathewson from the CPC budget to the General Fund Budget. The Board also recommends increasing Rickie Jones’ hours so that she can provide more administrative support. Janice Kulp, our Treasurer, will probably step down this year, and Rickie will also assume her responsibilities.
Financial support to meet these needs will come from sources that we did not expect, and we embrace this challenge as an exciting faith walk with God! We can meet this financial need by seeing one hundred people or churches commit $50 per month to Mission Mid-Atlantic. Will you be one of those people? Will you also invite others to join in this challenge? If you want to join us in meeting this challenge, fill out one of the commitment cards and mail it to the office: Mission Mid-Atlantic, PO Box 345, Clayton, NJ 08312.
~ Jim
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