The Fellowship Community - Together August 2023

August 2023 A word of welcome Welcome to the August 2023 edition of Together, the online newsletter of The Fellowship Community.  Did you see this article in Christianity Today last week? In "What If Churches Ask for More and No One Says Yes?" Bonnie Kristian reports that "More than 1 in 10 Americans—around for million of us—stopped attending church in the last 25 years. New research using cell phone location data suggests weekly church attendance (defined as 36 weeks of the 47 studied) is at just 3 percent. And even where church attendance has rebounded since pandemic shutdowns, congregational involvement still lags." The reality of those numbers may be different in each of our contexts. But we all know that things have shifted and that doing church, being church, and leading church is as challenging as it has ever been. It requires a different kind of personal and collective renewal to remain faithful to our calling. I've made walking the Camino de Santiago the focus for sabbatical and study leave since 2018. I need time to listen to God's voice, pay attention to my deep longings, reflect on God's word, and be in awe of the beauty of God's creation. For me, being stretched physically, emotionally and spiritually for two weeks on a new section of the historic route provides an invaluable opportunity for renewing my heart for God one step at a time.  But I also need others. One of the great surprises of pilgrimage is meeting others who are on the journey with you--sharing stories, supporting, struggling and celebrating along the same way. Through the pandemic, the TFC board became convinced that by deepening our relational connections through regional networks, the national gathering (save the date for April 23-25 in Nashville) and online resources, we would accomplish our mission of being   a network of leaders and churches who are called together to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ by growing in Christ’s likeness, living by God’s word, and joining in God’s mission in the world. Every area of the country has a team of board members and leaders working on developing their regions in ways that are organic, encouraging and sustainable. We want to create spaces where honest and transformative conversations take place and help each other to lead more faithfully. Would you help us? Send us an email at office@fellowship.community and we'd love to get you connected. Together on the journey, Mike McClenahan, Board President   Regional Connections Opportunities to Connect with TFC and our Partner Organizations Zoom Gathering Thursday, August 17 11:00 t0 12:00pm eastern Link to Zoom Dallas/Fort Worth Area (and friends) Zoom Gathering Thursday, August 17 2:00 t0 3:00pm central Link to Zoom Midwest      Save the Date! October 27-28 "Centered and Soaring" with Dr. E Stanley Ott A training time for Session. This will be offered in three locations and on zoom. More information to come. Pastors' Lunch Thursday, September 14 12:30 pm Pine Grove Presbyterian Church 4263 Delta Road, Airville, PA 17302 Pastors Lunch Thursday, August 17 12:00 to 2:00pm pacific La Cañada Presbyterian Church Join us for lunch, devotions, and fellowship. Cost: $15 Register by Aug. 15 Wee Kirk Conferences October 9-11 Laurelville Mennonite Church Center Mount Pleasant, PA More Info October 16-18 Montreat Conference Center Montreat, NC More info Both Wee Kirk conferences are independent organizations and not affiliated with The Fellowship Community. Resources from the National Gathering One of our exhibitors at the 2023 National Gathering was Frontier Fellowship. Frontier Fellowship invites believing communities to engage people groups where the Good News of Jesus and His Kingdom is not yet known. Click on the links below to find out how you can partner with them in their work. Partners and  Projects Prayer Guides for the World Keeping it Simple We live in a complicated world. You don’t need me to tell you that. The overwhelming speed of technological advances, climate change requiring unprecedented international cooperation to reverse, wars and famines, bitter polarization and on and on. It’s a confusing world which seems to spin faster and faster. Followers of Jesus get caught in the vortex as much as everyone else, it seems. Churches and church leaders feel the need to stay relevant, adapting secular strategies and distorted theologies designed to keep people in the seats but bearing little resemblance to the biblical story or God’s call to life. Dan Baumgartner encourages us to keep our prayers simple in a complex time. Read More in English 한국어로 더 읽기   Find a call TFC is committed to helping churches find compatible leaders - and vice versa! To that end, we invite you to check out the "Find a Call" page on our website, where you can see a variety of open positions throughout the country. We have received quite a few new postings recently, so be sure to stay connected! If you would like to post a position on our site, please send us an email. We are also looking for ways to improve this feature, so please think about how we might serve best in this area and send us any ideas or feedback. Find a Call   Prayer Where there is separation, there is pain. And where there is pain, there is story. And where there is story, there is understanding, and misunderstanding, listening and not listening. May we -- separated peoples, estranged strangers, unfriended families, divided communities -- turn toward each other, and turn toward our stories, with understanding and listening, with argument and acceptance, with challenge, change and consolation. Because if God is to be found, God will be found in the space between. Amen. "A Prayer for Reconciliation" from Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community Email Us Connect with us! Do you have an idea for a future story? Are you involved in a ministry others need to know about? Let us know, and we'll include it in a future month's Together! Are you interested in learning more or becoming part of the Fellowship Community? Click here for more information.