During the years when I was growing up, we had a number of cars in our family. Big cars, little cars, new cars, old cars — they came and went, according to the fortunes of my dad’s business and my mother’s teaching salary. We were a suburban family in the Sixties, which meant there was often one common denominator amongst all those vehicles that ever occupied our driveway: the station wagon.
Read MoreWhile the New Jersey Missional Structures (NJMS) working group is convened and facilitated by the Synod of the Northeast, the group’s members were appointed through the moderators of each of the seven NJ presbyteries. This is an incredible group of talented, creative, and visionary people, and we are so grateful for their work to imagine a new approach to presbytery life!
Read MoreOne of the primary responsibilities of a Synod is to serve and care for its member presbyteries. In our New Way Forward, the manner in which this responsibility is carried out has changed significantly. Our values now call us to focus on serving rather than directing, listening rather than telling, and working from as close to our grassroots (congregations) as possible. This work is shaped by careful listening.
Over the more than five years since we have started on this New Way Forward it has become clear that most of our 22 presbyteries are struggling to find new ways to meet their own calling. Every presbytery has experienced shifts in demographics, changes or confusion in what is expected from leaders, as well as loss of membership and financial resources. Almost every presbytery has been engaged in creative experimentation in finding new ways to meet this sea change.
As our Synod Mission Team works among our presbyteries, it became clear that we are at a Kairos moment.
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