The Emerging Mission........

                                         

The work of our District Mission Strategy Team is moving along at a measured pace. Watching, and listening to God is not a weekend endeavor. Catching a glimpse of God's preferred future demands patience and faith, both gifts from God. Our vision is still coming into focus, but if we were asked to name it on Thursday, February 27, 2014 - it would look/sound something like this:

The mission strategy of The Capital District is to intentionally partner  in sharing the good news of God's love for all people, revealed in Jesus Christ. We believe that God is a God of mission and we are God's sent ones. Therefore, we will link ourselves with the God who goes before us, and is with us, as we seek to be in mission with: 

•Our Public school children and their families

•Our Hispanic/Latino brothers and sisters, and

•Our hungry and needy neighbors, locally and globally

This week I'd like to take a few moments to consider our second stream. It occurs to me that in order to be on mission with God, with our Hispanic/Latino brothers and sisters, we must first acknowledge that many of us need help in seeing. To be on mission with God and with our Hispanic/Latino brothers and sisters we must begin from a posture of learning. I hope this video serves you as it has me. The very fabric of our culture is constantly morphing and changing. Such is the case with the 1 million new residents coming annually to the US who would call themselves Hispanic/Latino. I believe God is calling us on mission, together, and in the process is teaching us that "us" vs "them" must be replaced by "we". Watch the following video, and then ask yourself what new discoveries you make as a result. 

                 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQnhuj11zgI 

This is an invitation for you/your congregation to acknowledge  how you are in this particular stream - today - with God. Streams wind, and twist and turn, but they move. In the next few weeks we would appreciate hearing from you. Could you and a few key leaders invest 30 minutes of time to pause, and celebrate how you are in this stream? Can you name the specific shape of what you are doing with God to address hunger and human need in your immediate community? to the ends of the earth??  Would you share these with our district team and help us begin to see with greater clarity what God is up to? 

Still In ONE Peace,

jon(theMethodist)