November 28, 2005

Relational Pods

Later the Master selected seventy and sent them ahead of him in pairs …

“What a huge harvest! And how few the harvest hands. So on your knees; ask God of the Harvest to send harvest hands…”

“On your way! But be careful…”

“When you enter a town and are received, eat what they set before you, heal anyone who is sick…”

Selections from Luke Chapter 10

(The Message)

The laity must be trained to visit, listen, talk to and build relationships with the people in the community around the church. As relationships develop, the church laity begins to understand the hopes, desires, and dreams of the people with whom they need to be in ministry.

From the PC(USA) Congregational Transformation Grant Application

Wow! Those seem very similar. But how do we do that? With whom are we to build relationships? Community building is a key component of New Church Development.

At Bay Presbyterian Church the nine people who are beginning that church identified all the leaders of the 37 organizations to which they belong. They pray for the time and courage to share their vision with these people.

One of the places the Next Generation Project is going is the Baltimore Sports and Social Club (BSSC). The year-round sports league asks teams to join one of three leagues – the social, the extreme social or super-extreme social (the more social a league is, the less focus there is on athletic performance). The Hartmans are considering joining the super-extreme social league. The pattern of spiritual formation the Hartmans are using as they meet people through the BSSC is to meet, make relationships, make informal relational pods of three to six people, begin small groups, do hands-on mission, and eventually form a larger community. Will it be a church? Not one that we might recognize; it will be missional instead of traditionally church-based (read more).

So “On your way!”

Bill Millen

Inside this issue

Relational Pods

Take Note/Act Now

§ POAMN

§ Springfield Hospital Ctr. Chaplain

§ News Update

§ 2006 Legislative Agenda

§ Big Event

§ Katrina Work Trips

Prayer Concerns

First PC of Frostburg

Perry Hall PC

People

Pray for Richard W. Shreffler, Pastor Emeritus of 1^st of Bel Air, who is in the Care Center at Oak Crest Retirement Community.

George DeMass’s mother’s service will be on Thursday, February 23^rd at 7:00pm at Perry Hall PC.

Pray for Dottie Sharp’s recovery.

Pray for Harry Holfelder’s return to full activity.

Prayer Concerns

First PC of Frostburg

asks for prayers:

· for discernment about the future

· for a stronger vision

· for health and vitality

Perry Hall PC

asks for prayers:

· for the rental of their Joppa Road property

· for growth of their Sunday School and Youth Ministry

· for better stewardship of their time and monies

· of Thanksgiving for: their human resources, property, and facilities; increased attendance at Sunday worship; their choirs: Chancel, Children’s, and Handbell

Take Note/Act Now

Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network (POAMN) will be holding their annual conference April 19-22, 2006 at Stony Point, NY. Learn more about the conference and the theme, “A Passion for People”, at http://www.pcusa.org/olderadults/poamn.htm.

Springfield Hospital Center currently has no chaplains and patients are requesting them. They are seeking to hire chaplains immediately (Read More).

The Big Event will be held at Woods Memorial PC on Saturday, February 25, 2006. Brochures have been mailed to each church. The brochure is also available as a PDF off of the home page of the Presbytery website: click here.

Hurricane Katrina work trips:

§ The Presbyteries of Baltimore, New Castle and National Capital are coming together to form a coalition to support and train groups who would like to travel to the Gulf Coast to help in the recovery from Katrina. Read more on our website. More details coming soon.

Also on our website

Don’t miss all the new Local Church Announcements at: http://www.baltimorepresbytery.org/announcements.html.

Past Issues of Tidings are available at: http://www.baltimorepresbytery.org/midweekmail.html.

Presbytery Yearly Calendar

Peter Nord, Executive Presbyter

pnord@baltimorepresbytery.org

Bill Millen, Associate Executive

bmillen@baltimorepresbytery.org

Deb Milcarek

Associate of Mission and Justice

dmilcarek@baltimorepresbytery.org

Charles Forbes, Stated Clerk