Commissioning Sunday

What are we doing when we “commission” our newly-called ministers?  Good question—let’s think about it.  This morning we’re focusing attention on the Lord’s calling of Pete Manni and DJ Cronrath to serve and lead here in the Goshen church family.

We do this to slow down.  The pace of church activity at Goshen can get pretty swift—with all the great GBP-M2M-EG-AB-YG-YA-SSC-UBBC-etc. stuff going on (did you get all those acronyms?), and with all that goes into the administrative prep for such good works, it’s easy to just fly through week after week and never take a breath.  And it’s easy to put Pete and DJ to work, get the ball rolling, and just carry on:  no shortage of important caring / serving / leading to do!  But if we rush ahead that way, we’re not going to realize where we’ve come from or where we’re heading.  A leadership transition moment is a great time to slow down, take stock, remember who we are, renew and refine our priorities, and then re-commence the Good Work together.

We do this to look up.  Even though Pete and DJ will be the focus of attention up on the platform, it’s God to whom we direct our minds and hearts on this occasion.  Church leadership is a work of God—he’s the one who “gives” pastors / teachers / leaders to his church, so that they’d equip his people to carry out a faith-building ministry (Eph 4:11-12).  Our question today is NOT, “What do we want Pete and DJ to do?” but “What is the Lord calling them to be and to do as he now sends them into their vital roles?”  This commission­ing is a worship event—we look up in trust and thanks to Christ!

And we do this to encourage.  That is, we listen to God’s Word care­fully, patiently, with open hearts and ready hands—all so we can encour­age these leaders to shape their ministries in keeping with God’s vision for his church.  They’ll be tempted to tilt their work toward the world’s approval, so we focus on God’s vision for his church regard­less of the way the winds of culture blow.  Thus we encourage Pete and DJ to “preach the word,” “shepherd the flock,” and “guard the good deposit.”  And then they encourage us to use our spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ (1 Peter 4:10); they exhort us to embrace the church’s mission to help others know and follow Jesus (Matt 28:18-20).