AREA MINISTRY VISITS - 2007-08

VISITS BEGIN IN NOVEMBER
By Rev. Gerald Mansholt, Bishop

On the first weekend of November our Area Ministry visits for 2007-2008 will begin. As we have done in recent years, I and my staff and our Vice-President will visit a few of the congregations on Sunday mornings. We may lead worship, bring greetings, address adult forums or speak with children and youth in the Sunday mornings. On Sunday afternoons lay and rostered leaders are asked to attend the Area Ministry meeting from 3 to 6 p.m. at the host church. The Monday morning meeting, starting at 9 a.m. will be for rostered leaders and parish ministry associates.

This year’s Area Ministry Visit will have a different look and feel from past years. The Sunday afternoon session will be spent engaging one another–lay leaders, pastors and other rostered leaders--in conversation about our life together. Since some of us have begun the process at our October Synod Council Leadership Retreat, where over 60 persons were present, I can assure you the time together will be well spent and energizing. Do not expect a slow, sleepy Sunday afternoon meeting. Expect a prayerful, playful, participative, and purposeful process.

About one month before the Area Ministry meeting each pastor and congregational president will receive a letter and insert inviting the congregation to begin the conversation. We ask that in some forum in your congregation–in worship, adult class, church council meeting, or even in multiple settings–you prepare for the Area Ministry meeting by participating in the survey, reading scripture, praying, and talking about our life and mission as Christ’s people.

I invite and encourage all our congregations to take part in these Area Ministry meetings. We will be talking together, reading Scripture, and actively engaging one another in ways that could even be fun. The process will get all of us to begin reflecting upon what God is up to–in the states of Kansas and Missouri, in our congregations and personal lives. Over the next 4 months we will be engaging one another all across the synod. From these conversations we expect God to provide some clarity about our participation in his mission in this particular context called the Central States Synod. Because these conversations will take place at the Sunday afternoon meeting, it is vital to have both lay and rostered leaders present at that meeting.

The Monday morning meetings will be for rostered leaders and parish ministry associates only. A service of Holy Communion will begin the day. Then I will address the pastors and other rostered persons and parish ministry associates about matters before us in this synod and the whole of the ELCA.

These Area Ministry visits will conclude the first weekend of March. At the April Synod Council meeting we expect a purpose statement for the synod with some missional directions to be presented. Voting Members to the June 2008 Synod Assembly in St. Louis will receive this purpose statement and missional directions. Then in worship and prayer, in conversation and deliberation, Voting Members will be able to say, in these ways we are participating as in God’s mission from the Arch in St. Louis to the Colorado border.

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