Dear Trinity family,
As you have likely seen and felt, many exciting things are taking place in the life of our congregation these days. God is at work in our church and our community, and I have loved watching the church respond to God’s call for renewal, service, and faithfulness. I write to share a wonderful thing that is on the horizon for Trinity Presbyterian Church.
Several years ago, as we began looking into the way our church participates in mission, we recognized one missing piece: an international mission partner. As Jesus commanded in Mark 16: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation,” so we go to the ends of the earth. We began conversations about the potential for pursuing an international partnership. In conversation with many church members and the Mission Ministry Team, we heard the same concern: financial resources. This year, Session approved a plan for allocation of land sale profits that included an investment into building an international partnership. This has allowed us to revisit this conversation with renewed possibility and hope.
The Mission Ministry Team appointed a team to discern international partnerships. That team consists of Beverly Bradley, Brian Field, Warren Henry, Katherine Lambert, and Matt Smith. During our meeting times, we’ve considered questions like: Why should we be involved in an international partnership? How do we take the next step? and How might this affect our local partnerships? These are good and important considerations indeed, and questions I presume many of you hold.
In response to these questions, and with the hope of engaging all of you – our entire church family — in our evolving vision for this partnership, we have invited an expert in international mission, Ellen Sherby, to come and spend time with our congregation. Ellen is a Coordinator with the PCUSA’s World Mission program for equipping congregations for missional involvement. Ellen truly lives and knows international mission partnerships, she served for eight years as a Mission Co-Worker (a person or family called to live and serve in a community to work on the needs of the community together) with the PCUSA in Nicaragua and has helped numerous congregations facilitate and nourish their global ministry partners. We are so honored and excited that Ellen will help us begin the conversation about an international partnership. Click HERE to check out an article written by Ellen to get to know her and her ministry more.
It is our belief, hope, and prayer that building this international partnership will grow our missional identity – and therefore our overall identity — as a congregation. I, along with our International Missions Discernment Committee, hope to see us build a partnership that would inform and help us better understand our local mission work. Thus, this new endeavor might change the way we do things – the we way in which we are and strive to be the church and its disciples — every day. There are many opportunities available for us, and we hope to enter into one prayerfully and with a sense of God’s call to that partnership.
Please save the date for January 6 to spend time with Ellen learning about international mission partnerships and missional involvement at the church level.
In Christ,
Grace Lindvall
International Mission Discernment Team
Bev Bradley
Brian Field
Warren Henry
Katherine Lambert
Matt Smith
