Calvin Synod Herald, 1973 (73. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1973-04-01 / 4. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD EASTER On Easter morning a great and extraordinary piece of news spread throughout Jerusalem: Christ has risen! that very same one who had been crucified on Friday. The news was first spread by those women who belonged in the circle of His life and by His disciples. If their words were not acceptable, see the report filed by the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb. However the report of the soldiers was falsified and they were told to say that there was no resurrection, the disciples had come and taken His body. The proof of Jesus’ resurrection however, is not the empty tomb, it is the living Jesus, the resurrected Christ, and many met the risen Lord. The Easter news divides mankind into two groups: Those who believe and those who do not accept the resurrection. The Easter message therefore compells us to make a definite decision. To which group do you belong? To that of Thomas or that of Peter? You know that your decision has been made already! You know if you accept the validity of the news of resurrection, but what of your future relationship with Jesus? Jesus came to show the way, to help and in the end, He died for you. Remember also that He arose, He has risen to bring you back to your Heavenly Father and into eternal life. Come and join the resurrected Christ! Let your heart resound the greatest news there is: Christ has risen! He lives! Francis Vitéz-o-EVANQELISM — RESHAPING THE CHURCH There can be no renewal of local churches apart from a comprehensive social vision and a general strategy. We have seen how local churches relate to emerging strategies for peace (shalom). What about those local churches that still find themselves isolated and alone? In the past, churches were formed around the Sunday morning service as the central organizing principle. Evangelism was, in essence, bringing people to church on Sunday morning. For many in the church, the Sunday service remains as the most important event in the church’s program. For others, both in and outside the church, the central event may be education, or fellowship, or mission planning. The church of the 1970’s needs several foci, each important to particular people and all important to the whole. A sense of the whole can be generated through increased communications within the fellowship. We find increasingly that new churches organized in the traditional pattern reach a peak growth of 50-100 persons very quickly, and then level off, unable to reach the goals established by earlier church starts. Those churches adopting a pluralistic style and making place for a wide variety of persons can grow and develop into influential expressions of the faith in our time. The three keys to growth today are vision, diversity, and communication. The vision of peace (shalom) is a powerful force locked in the hearts and consciousness of people everywhere. There is increasing diversity of life-style in every community, although we prefer to ignore it or to put it down. The communication potential for churches has never been greater, although we continue to rely on word of mouth and mimeographed newsletters. Some very large churches have the capacity to diversify within themselves. But most churches will need to take stock of their communities, their resources, and their relationships. Releasing the visions, increasing diversity, and mobilizing communication resources means that a wider fellowship and a network of leadership support relationships will have to be initiated. This does not necessarily mean restructuring! Experience shows us that we cannot restructure ourselves into new relationships. We need to act ourselves into meaningful and supportive relationships, often within existing structures and not locked tightly within them. The local congregation can be a special custodian for wholeness and a basis for action in the locality where we live. To do so most effectively, several churches may need to reach out to each other and become a clustered parish in which there are centers to honor the functions of nurture and mission, especially Kerygma, Diakonia, and Leitourgia. The clustered parish would remain a whole with, for example, a parish council, opportunities for parish meetings to plan and evaluate parish life, and the like. For each of the functions, there would be a center in a given locale where people might focus their participation. Each center would include the inreach/nurture and the outreach/mission thrust. The center for telling (Kerygma) would stress education and evangelism. The center for doing (Diakonia) would stress care for the brethren and risk-taking involvements in the world. The center for celebration (Leitourgia) would include coordination of all other functions and parish relationships as well as a full range of both traditional and new forms of worship and celebration. Professional resource staff would be needed for each center — persons who are enablers and catalysts, committed to helping the laity find and express word-in-deed sharing of the faith. Many different kinds of procedures and activities could be used in developing the life of each center. In such a clustered parish, being together and the life of presence (Koinonia) would emerge around the tasks/involvement in which the partici
