If there weren't a Presbyterian Church in your neighborhood...

I've been pondering recently Cynthia Campbell's question to me a few months ago. She asked, "If there weren't a Presbyterian Church in your neighborhood, why would there need to be one?" This seems to pose really two issues.

First... We need to know our neighborhood! We need to be aware of the people in our neighborhood, the demographics of our neighborhood, the needs of our neighbors. In other words, we need to be involved in our neighborhood! It used to be, of course, that most all congregations were "neighborhood churches." But as mobility has increased exponentially in the past several years, this usually is no longer the case. To be sure, we have many folks in the neighborhood of Central Pres. that come to church here. But our members come from all over Omaha, and even neighboring communities. As a result, our church is not in touch with our neighbors. I sometimes wonder, what do our neighbors think of us? What do they think - if anything - as they walk and drive past our church each day? What I know is that our church needs to explore ways to get to know our neighbors and to know what their needs are. Then we need to design ways to meet their needs, not always expecting (and certainly not requiring) that they come into our church building, but that we reach out to where they are.

Second... We need to understand who we are uniquely as Presbyterian Christians. What do we have to offer our neighborhood and community, not just as a church, but as a Presbyterian church? We need to celebrate and live out some of those things that are distinctive to our tradition. Those things include a belief that the church is a community of individuals that live in a covenant relationship together. It includes a belief that the world and its concerns matter to God, and they therefore matter to us, and they demand our involvement in the affairs of the world. It includes a belief that God took the initiative to love and claim us as God's own children, and God's love is both unilateral and unconditional. It includes a belief that we are to live our lives in a response of gratitude and faithfulness to God, being good stewards of all that we are and all that we have. It includes a belief that we also are stewards of God's creation, and we therefore have a responsibility to care for the world that has been entrusted to us. It includes a belief that faith is a matter of our intellect as well as of our heart, and that it is not antithetical to question, examine, debate, and discuss issues of faith that are dear to us. It includes a belief that we do not demand a uniform code of belief in order to be a Presbyterian, but that we are free to differ in our beliefs, as long as we are still within a Reformed understanding of the Christian Faith, and that those differences make us stronger.

We Presbyterians offer unique perspectives to God, faith, Scripture, worship, and the world, and we need to claim and celebrate those perspectives as we go into our neighborhood and get to know the people around us and their needs.