An Excellent Consistory Retreat

by Pastor Scott Rees on January 24th, 2012

The Consistory held and 'in-house' retreat on Jan. 20-21, 2012 with the stated goal to assess our situation at this juncture of our life as a church, and to thoroughly discuss what our future might hold.  It was an intense discussion of our past, present, and future, all captured under the heading of "Heritage and Destiny."

New Life Community Church has a rich heritage, starting back with Dutch settlers to the area in 1866 and moving through many challenges, changes, developments, and people. The important task is to honor our heritage without being limited by it. Churches get limited by their heritage when all their present activities, plans, and ministry are measured mostly by, or only by, what was done in the past. All churches have great successes in their pasts, and the temptation is to just try to find ways to polish up the old ways for today's programs. But times change and how we communicate the gospel changes. It is hard for churches to see and to accept these changes.

On our retreat we spent a lot of time remembering our heritage, both the good and the bad, and thinking, discussing, and debating how we might need to readjust our thinking or living or serving as a church so that we might share the gospel of Christ faithfully today.  It was exhausting. And it was thorough.  And it will take much more work to live it out over the next year and beyond. 

In the coming weeks I will keep addressing the main ideas that came out of our retreat, but for now I just want the congregation of New Life Church to know that your Elders and Deacons gave a great effort in this on your behalf for seeking the will of Jesus for us, his church.  And they will continue to wrestle with all the deep changes in understanding what it will mean for New Life Church to faithfully serve the mission of Jesus Christ today and into the future.  This is so we can live into our DESTINY and not just glory in our heritage.

God is always on the move and we must keep following him. Pray with us as a Consistory to listen well for the Shepherd's voice, and to follow faithfully no matter the cost.