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The Emerging
Parish
Seeking
to be faithful in the
21st Century...
Moving
from competition to
cooperation...
The
congregations of Calvary,
Concord, and
Elsmere Presbyterian Churches
are on a new
journey together. Calling our journey the "Emerging Parish", we are
seeking together to find a new way of worship, service, study,
fellowship, and being church together that enables faithful
mission and
ministry far into the future. The sessions of each of these churches
have
agreed that for an initial 5 year period beginning January 2008, our
congregations will explore and experiment together with new forms and
types of
ministries and structures as we seek to be the people God calls us to
be in the
21st century. We believe a key to this new journey will be a movement
away from
competition to cooperation as we seek to respond to God’s
call in this new day
and age.
The
Vision for the Emerging Parish:
The
Emerging Parish Project involves
creating a new paradigm for ministry and a new way of being church by
uniting
several churches into a single Parish. We envision creating a new way
of being
together that
- preserves strengths,
- creates new energy,
- gives new vision,
- enables our faith community to
thrive.
While
this new way of being in ministry may
ultimately mean that our current congregations cease to exist as
completely
separate entities, this model is intended to:
- preserve and enhance the
strengths of each current congregation,
- free us to undertake new forms
of ministry,
- give us additional resources to
be engaged in faithful mission,
- help us to become an effective
witness in a quickly changing world.
The
creation of this new structure -- a new
church -- has the possibility of igniting a new spark of faith among us
all
that encourages and enables faithful response to God’s love
far into the
future.
Undergirding
this Vision are some
important beliefs:
- Each
of our
congregations has a
unique and important ministry and mission, and the loss of any of these
congregations would be a significant loss to the communities we serve.
- Each
of our
congregations has
experienced over many years a significant reduction in both fiscal and
human resources.
- Continuing
to do
“business as usual” or making only minor changes in
the way we function, will not enable our congregations to continue
faithful mission and ministry far into the future.
- While
each
of our churches is
unique and while there is diversity in belief, style and mission among
our congregations, we are united by our faith, our denomination, and
our God. The diversity among us may help us to explore new directions
and represents opportunities for new vision and faithfulness. The unity
among us provides a source of strength and stability.
- The
maintenance of our current
organizational structure is less important than being engaged in
faithful mission and ministry.
- Through
the
sharing of resources
and the creation of a new way of being together, there may be
significant reductions in cost, as well as significant opportunities to
expand our mission and ministries in new directions.
- Our
current
models and
structures for ministry were developed at a time when our communities,
our culture, and our congregations were different than they are today,
and different than they will be in the coming years. A new day calls
forth a new way of being which capitalizes on the gifts that God has
given us, and helps us meet the new challenges of a rapidly changing
world.
As
we explore and begin to implement
the Emerging Parish Vision:
- each
congregation will be in
prayer for our partner churches,
- a
council
that will guide the
implementation of the new project will be created with representatives
from each participating congregation,
- the
pastors of each
church will meet regularly together for prayer, support, and
conversation.
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