To the Congo!

This newsletter article is definitely written for our church congregation and local readers. However, I am still sharing it on the blog because I hope our future holds many updates about how God is moving in the Congo and if any of us reading this are lucky, we will witness the power of God in Congo with our own eyes!

Notes from the Pastor…

On June 25th, the Rev. David Owen will inform representatives from area Christian Churches about a potential partnership with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Congo.  The key word for David Owen, and any mission activity we may be involved in, is “partnership”.  Your Elders and Ministers are giddy with excitement over this opportunity!

Sometime in the recent past, doing the work of Christ abroad (foreign missions) turned from long- and short-term deployments of westerners sharing the gospel for the first time in cultures strikingly different from their own, to “partnering” with Christians in their home context to assist their work as missionaries to their own people.  And so, we as the Tres Rios Area and we as the First Christian Church in Ruidoso have an opportunity to form a “partnership” with Christians in the Congo sharing Christ in their native context.

“Partnership”  is not about money.  Doing missions as proxy leads to a false ideology for those that give and a dependent relationship to those who receive.  Yes, money is involved in forming relationship (travel and communication expenses), but “partnership” does not initially entail funding Billy Graham style crusades or publishing evangelistic material.  “Partnership”  is about relationship.  Like any good relationship there is a give and take; both the Americans and the Congolese are mutual students learning from one another Christian practice and theology.

Please place Saturday, June 25, on your calendar; (1) come and hear David Owen, and (2) pray for those who are discerning God’s will in this opportunity.  As your Pastor, my prayer is that the congregation of Disciples of Christ gathered in Ruidoso will learn from the congregation of Disciples gathered in the Congo, and that we may constantly pray with joy because of their sharing of the Gospel!  To continue to paraphrase Paul, “I am confident that the One who began a good work among the Church will bring it to completion in
the day of Jesus Christ.”  (Philippians 1)
Grace,
Pastor Ryan