- Elder Sinemma gets graphic!
We had our 3rd “congregational meeting.”
The reason for the “quotes” is because we are not a full-fledged, particularized church — we are a mission church, an outpost for our denomination, working to become an “official” church.
If you visit us, you would think we’re a church. We have a pastor, a board of elders (the session) and everyone in our fellowship is a “deacon” (we all serve the body in any way we can.)
But we are missing a key ingredient of a Presbyterian church = The congregation elects their own leadership!
As a “mission” we have been supervised and supported by a presbytery which has appointed the present leadership. Our elders (both teaching and ruling elders) are “provisional,” serving until the “elected” leadership is raised up. We have been existing with this organization for nearly 3 years now. We have also been following a Church Plant Proposal first submitted to the presbytery and our launch team (this document explains our philosophy of ministry and includes annual budgets).
Well, now that we are close to the end of a 3 year period outlined by our proposal; it’s now time to consider “particularization.” But are we ready?
Almost. As far as sustainability is concerned, we could use a few more key families to help us meet our modest budget. If our current rented space, program budgets, and financial obligations stay the same — we would be in survival mode for well over a year. But we would really like to grow! We’d eventually like to find a place of our own too (but that kind of commitment, the purchase or long-time lease of a property, should really be a ”congregational” decision, and why we are now entertaining particularization.)
We would also like to expand our leadership. Our provisional session has been tremendously faithful and well qualified for the task. But there are only three elders at present. It would be great to bring on more elders to help with the needs of the church and to promote the further growth we desire. But new leadership should be elected by the congregation (again, the reason for particularization.)
So we pray that the Lord will accomplish two things for us: Allow us to grow so that we can continue to minister as a church in our community, and secondly, along with that growth, allow our congregation to discern who our future elders should be.
When we get closer to actually “particularizing,” we’ll outline how that process goes forward (Remember, it concludes with a huge balloon drop, so it’s pretty exciting 
. Thank you for your support and prayers on behalf of Communion Presbyterian Church!
Tags: Congregational Meeting, Mission Church, Particularization
