Values - February 8, 2023
Today I would like to share with you a few things that I find myself repeating, in some form or another, regularly. I would call these expressions of my values. Some are a big deal – they are about how I think ministry works. Others are smaller – they are personal idiosyncrasies that it might help you to know about me. Here they are in the order that I thought of them.
1. “If someone who is a member of Mountainview has visited you then your church is visiting you.” I say this because in a congregation this size, we all recognize that I can’t be everywhere. I also say this as a celebration of all the wonderful ways that care is happening in this congregation. Pastors, elders, deacons, ministry of service people, small groups and of course friends, all visit us at different times. We are blessed with many opportunities to be in relationship. Join me in being thankful that when anyone who is a member of Mountainview visits with you, your church is visiting you.
2. “Call me on my cell phone, please.” I prefer to have any and every phone call come to my cell phone. 416 689 8721. My office phone in the church is on the ground in the corner. My cell phone is with me all the time. I understand that some people like to differentiate between work and personal calls. I don’t. My work is very personal. And the line between social interactions with fellow church members and work interactions is somewhat blurry. And I am fine with that. Please help keep my life simple. Call my cell.
3. “We are communicating everything we can in the best way we know how.” The staff at Mountainview has regular conversations, often even, about how things are communicated and what things are communicated and when they are communicated. This is trickier than you might think. Everybody wants their information to be highlighted. If you highlight everything equally nothing is really being highlighted. We communicate a lot of information in a week. Nobody reads everything we communicate in a week. There is nothing we can do about that. However, we keep assessing and adjusting and trying and we are quite comfortable with whatever level of success we can have. There are other ways of doing it, but we are communicating everything we can in the best way we know how.
4. “People grow in authentic relationships of spiritual accountability.” This has been my ministry mantra for a long time. It means that I think you need to be deeply engaged with others in a small group or a ministry or other relationship. If church for you is attending a worship service and nothing more, you are short-changing yourself on the opportunities available for spiritual growth and support. If you go to “groups” on our website you will see 18 icons you can click – and this isn’t even every group available at Mountainview. The basic command is to love God and love others; that happens when we are in authentic relationships of spiritual accountability.
5. “Don’t let me have all the fun.” Praying with people, meeting new people, connecting with people at meaningful moments in their life – these are amazingly powerful experiences that happen all the time in a church community. Don’t let me hog them. A lot of you are onto this. You find ways to welcome people, meet together, and engage in prayer ministry. There are a lot of really great ways to see and experience God at work. Jump in, bump me out of the way if you need to. I will try not to complain.
Pastor Erick Schuringa