Reaching: Our Second Core Value

Reaching Out: Core Value Two

    The football teams come out onto the field. They huddle up. The clock begins to tick but nothing happens. They remain in their huddles. Mercifully the first quarter ends and the teams switch ends of the field but still they remain in their huddles. Not long thereafter halftime arrives, then the end of the third quarter and finally the whistle blows ending the game. At long last the players emerge from their huddles, congratulate each other on a great game and go home. If we had been sitting in the stands watching this event we would not have called it much of a game…which was the point being made by Harvey Carey the pastor of Detroit's Citadel of Faith Covenant Church (http://citadeloffaith.org/) at last week's Willow Creek Leadership Summit (http://www.willowcreek.com/events/leadership/2009/index.asp). Pastor Carey used the illustration of describe many churches whose entire life is focused inside the Sunday huddle and who never venture out to impact the world.

    The second core value which we as First Presbyterian Church proclaim is that we commit to break the huddle and get into the messy game of life by "reaching out." Both our Mission and Focus statements remind us that we are to be not only an outward looking community but that we are to be an outward reaching people.

    Reaching out is perhaps one of the most Biblical of values. God was always the one reaching out. God did not remain a remote and distant deity. God's reaching out began with creation itself. God reached out from God's own self and brought something new into being. Next God reached out for a people through whom God would bless the world. The rest of the scriptures are a series of stories in which God reaches out through prophets, priests and kings to impact the world. The pinnacle of this reaching out was when God reached out through Jesus of Nazareth. Finally the Book of Acts and Paul's letters remind us of God's continual reaching out through the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Reaching out by First Pres-ers takes many forms. It has been as simple as letting people know that we exist and that we would love to have them come and join us in ministry and mission. It has been as daunting as reaching out by sharing our faith stories with those who do not know the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. It is as humbling as serving communion to a shut in. It can be as rewarding as mentoring a child or youth through the Pontiac Project. Regardless of the form this reaching out takes we have committed ourselves to be a family of faith that remembers that we have been blessed in order to be a blessing.

    The PCUSA Book of Order puts it this way:

"The church is called to be Christ's faithful evangelist by…Going into the world, making disciples of all nations…healing reconciling and binding up wounds; ministering to the needs of the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the powerless; engaging in the struggle to free people from sin, fear, oppression, hunger and injustice; giving itself and its substance to the service of those who suffer; sharing with Christ in the establishing of his just, peaceable and loving rule in the world" (summarized from G-3.0300c)

    The challenge for us is to continue to ensure that we break the huddle and reach out into the world in the name of our risen and reigning Lord, Jesus Christ.

John