Met with Vera White who is the Presbytery Director of NCD's. She suggested that the core team of our church plant use the PCUSA "Starting New Churches" discernment guide to give us more direction in our discernment process. It's 17 sessions and some churches have done retreats at the beginning, middle, and/or end to get a couple of the session done in one shot. She said it would help us get to a more concrete idea of what we believe, who we wanted to serve, and what we would need to do to serve them. She also mentioned that the GA offered some grants for NCD starts even if the Presbytery didn't.
I think possibly the most interesting thing she said was that she sees her role as the left tackle (in football) for the NCD pastor who is the quarterback. She sees her role as advocating for the NCD and in particular explaining why the Presbytery needs another church when it already has so many (and when many of them are struggling). She said that she takes a lot of flak on behalf of the NCD's (from established churches) but she gives them the space they need to do what they need to do.
We also talked a bit about the balance between living in ambiguity and structure and of all the potential dangers that ego can play.
Our visit was really encouraging. Please pray for Vera as she discerns what's next for her after she leaves her position in July.
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