Greetings from Our Pastor

June 2007

The above saying is the proposed mission statement for Reading Moravian Church. It came out of one of the small groups at our congregational retreat held on May 12th at North Heidelberg Church. We are hoping the whole congregation will accept this statement as your own, individually and as members of a team with a purpose. It's easy to remember and easy to understand. It is also easy to take one line at a time. Jesus came to earth as God incarnate to live as a human being among his people. He lived with and taught many disciples about the love of God that came through him. The disciples came to know him and to know his love, and in that experience they came to love him. That took at least three years. Living, learning, loving.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus, he told his disciples to go and tell, tell of his love, show his love, to all nations, all peoples. And that's just what they did. They began in their home towns and from there they spread out to the rest of the world. And only by showing the world his love were they able to bring in converts to the Christian faith. And that's why the above proposed mission statement is so important and to the point. To make known the love of Jesus Christ means to love as Jesus loved, or at least to strive to love His way. We ask you to pray about this proposed mission statement, try it out on yourself and see if you can claim it as your own mission statement, and as your Reading Moravian Team's mission statement.

But what is our purpose? And where is God leading us? Are we to stay here in this neighborhood where there is no parking and no neighbors interested in attending our church? Our members have moved away from this neighborhood, they are aging, losing interest and/or just falling away. Do we sell the building, meet in a borrowed building, get involved in a new church start, share another church's building like Path of Holiness is doing with us, or...? I don't know the answer at this point, but our future here in Northeast Reading looks bleak and some are losing hope, feeling discouraged and becoming rather pessimistic.

But we do have hope as long as we believe that God does indeed have a purpose for us. And we have hope if we remember that we can take our mission statement with us wherever we go, live it out with whomever we meet, wherever we live and wherever we work. Wherever the love of Jesus Christ calls, will you follow?

In the love of Jesus Christ,
Pastor Barbara

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