Churches across the Reformed Church in America (RCA) are engaging in a discernment process by going through a Congregational Discovery Workshop. Church of the Chimes is hosting a Congregational Discovery Workshop to help our church community celebrate God's work in our midst, and as our contribution to this denomination-wide movement to discern together how the Holy Spirit is leading us forward into new horizons of mission and ministry.

DISCERNMENT AND DISCOVERY PROCESS

Some Background . . .

For centuries, the Reformed Church in America has been actively involved in applying the grace, mercy, and truth of the gospel in living out our faith with boldness and faithfulness.

Beginning in 2003, the RCA has been serving God faithfully with a focus on Our Call, a ten-year commitment to church revitalization and church multiplication built on the foundations of leadership, discipleship, mission, and embracing a multiracial future free from racism. As we move toward the culmination and conclusion of this chapter, the ability to discover and discern God's leading requires further submission, reflection, prayer, and conversation in seeking God's direction for the future.

In 2009 the General Synod Council directed the general secretary to form a discernment process planning team. This team was intended to help facilitate a process that creates connected and collaborative environments for hearing how the movement and work of God is underway in the RCA.

The team came together and sought: To develop a plan that engages the assemblies of the church (consistories, classes, regional synods, and the General Synod) in a process of discernment of the RCA's continuing call to mission and ministry.

The plan that has emerged is envisioned as a process to enable the entire RCA to engage in an evaluation of how the commitment to Our Call has shaped us as God's people, and how it is moving us forward into new horizons of mission and ministry.

In addition, it is designed to be a process that engages all of the assemblies of the denomination--consistories and the local congregations that they govern, classes, regional synods, and the General Synod--in a process of discovering where their stories and God's story intersect. Through this process of discovery it is expected that the RCA will emerge in 2013 with a clear sense of direction for our life together following the conclusion of Our Call.

The Big Picture . . .

At the center of this process of discovery are three questions, all of which build on the faith and conviction that our God is a God of mission and is already at work. Those questions are:

How is God working within you?
How is God working through you?
How is God working ahead of you?

As consistories and congregations gather to engage these questions stories and responses will be gathered and shared at a denomination-wide gathering in early February in Orlando, FL. A series of additional conversations shaped by key questions will guide the denomination-wide discovery process in our assemblies. Those conversations will be times of listening, discerning, discovering, and engaging. We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the conversation. For additional information regarding "Conversations", click here

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