~ by the Pastor and guest writers ~
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A Message from Our Moderator (August 14, 2003) As many of you know, the Reverend Susan R. Andrews, Pastor of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, Bethesda, Maryland, was recently elected Moderator of the 215th General Assembly of our church. In July Reverend Andrews sent a message to all our churches that I think is worth passing on to each of you. Please carefully read and reflect on her words: “When I think back to my earliest memories of the church, I see and feel myself in worship – a small child, cherished and safe. My favorite part was the offering because I could participate. I could place my quarter on that velvet lining and then imagine myself curled up in that plate, being carried forward as an offering to God. I invite us this year to imagine ourselves as a collective offering to God, carrying forward our whole lives as a gift of hope for the church. I call our Presbyterian Church to a season of graceful growth – in gratitude, membership, and mission. Growth begins with deep gratitude for the trustworthiness of God. We have much to be grateful for in our denomination: love of scripture and scholarship; cultural and theological diversity that challenges and changes us; wide arms of mission, embracing the whole world. Let’s spend this year saying thank you to God and to each other. I call us to graceful growth in membership. The congregation I serve has been growing for fourteen years. The reasons include a commitment to grow twenty-five percent in five years. We also doubled our evangelism budget. We offer creative options for reverent worship, rooted in strong, biblical preaching. We openly welcome thinking, searching Christians. We have an interfaith witness in our pluralistic city. We push each other to serve “out there” – in God’s fragile world. I call us to graceful growth in mission. We have two mission fields in this rapidly shrinking world. One is across the ocean, where we are called to meet the physical and spiritual hungers of the developing world and where we are energized by the fresh joy of global Christians. The second is in our backyard. We need to reclaim our conviction that ministry is everybody’s business, that the vocation of each Christian is to be the living presence of Christ in the boardrooms, courtrooms, living rooms, and classrooms of our world. We are surrounded by people who long to experience the presence of God. Brothers and sisters, God is in our dreams. God is working in the imagination of our denomination. This year let us be that grace-filled offering I dreamed of as a child. Together we can give ourselves to God for the sake of the world.” Reverend Susan R. Andrews Moderator, 215th General Assembly Instructive words to ponder and words we can live by as God call us to graceful growth.
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