Why is it important to support the Partnership Campaign?

"God has given this Presbytery life and love. Now we have the opportunity to be God's partners in protecting, nourishing and growing our future. It's all about stewardship of those gifts we have already received. The motivation is, quite simply, our gratitude!"

Art Hook, Avon Lake
Moderator of Mission Council, 1999
Moderator of Presbytery, 1998

Called as Partners in Christ's Service
Called as Ministries of Grace

Who are partners in Christ's service?
When we accept our call to follow Jesus, we accept with it the call to discipleship.
Frederick Buechner offers this definition of our vocation in Christ's service:
"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

What are ministries of grace?
Ministries of grace occur when we work out of the place Buechner has described.
Jesus used the parable of the Good Samaritan to teach his disciples that ministries of grace involve performing acts of mercy even to our perceived enemies. (Luke 10: 25-37)
The prophet Micah also reminds us that ministries of grace occur when we do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8)

We Respond with Deep Commitment
Fresh New Lines of Faith to Trace

Deep commitment to God is our response to God's deep commitment to us in Christ Jesus.
Deep commitment lends itself to the leading of the Holy Spirit and relies on both faith and risk.

How is our faith freshened?
Jesus called his disciples to follow him into the diverse world of his ministry. That meant going outside the expected religious realm of the Jewish world; opening to the world of the gentile.
Faith is freshened when it is opened to the realization that God's miracles are capable of occurring anywhere, at any time.
May We Learn the Art of Sharing
Side by Side and Friend with Friend

Why do we need to learn to share?
Robert Fulghum said it best that all we need to know we learned in kindergarten. Sharing is one of the important arts of life we neglect as we grow older. The call as partners in Christ's service is shared by all of Christ's followers encouraged by the diversity of gifts given by God.

Who are the friends with whom we share in partnership?
Frederick Buechner considers a neighbor "to be construed as meaning anyone who needs you."
Jesus, in the parable of the Good Samaritan, shocked his listeners by declaring that we show ourselves as neighbors whenever we show acts of mercy; regardless of who that person appears to be.

Equal Partners in Our Caring
To Fulfill God's Chosen End

How does our partnership equip us to care?
Christ calls us to minister to and with one another.
Our ministry is one of hospitality. Breaking from our self-interested lives into partnership, we open the doors of our spiritual homes to the needs of our neighbor.

How do we fulfill God's chosen end?
God's chosen end is that all may be made whole by the knowledge of God's deep love for us. God's chosen end is fulfilled in the marriage of the two great commandments: to love God with our whole selves and to love our neighbor in the same manner. We do this by following the call into committed partnership in Christ's service.

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