Reformed Presbyterian Minutes of Synod 1993

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 115to seek him to be honored as lord in all human relationships."We pledge ourselves by your grace to encourage your people to be ofone mind and to work together with those of like faith to bring greaterhonor to you through closer co-operation and confession."As Reformed Presbyterians in Scotland, Ireland, North America andAustralia, we testify to God's grace preserving a testimony common to usand the New Testament church and rejoice together in the special fellowshiphe has given us deriving from a common historical bond with thecovenanting church of Scotland, England and Ireland."We commit ourselves to one another's welfare in Christ and toworking for more faithful and complete confessional unity among us."Out of love for the whole church of God we propose to prepare, declareand uphold common statements of the truth which express the things webelieve together and to invite faithful Christians to join us in this task."To the world we present a call to believe in Christ as the only rescuerfor the whole world and the one king over all. We commit ourselves toemploying together the resources God gives us in a global effort atbringing the good news to every land. In order to facilitate these joint taskswe promise, at least once every year from now until Christ returns, to bringwords of encouragement to one another, to confess our failings to oneanother, and to state together God's immediate and peculiar purpose for usas a covenanted part of his people."The report of the Committee Regarding the Renewal of DecliningCongregations was taken up, approved and is as follows:REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE REGARDINGTHE RENEWAL OF DECLINING CONGREGATIONSYour committee would respectfully report that we planned and conductedthe seminar on declining congregations at the 1992 CarletonConference as directed by the Synod. We have not completed theremainder of our assignment "to propose to the 1993 Synod a means ofleadership regarding the renewal of declining congregations."The seminar at Carleton Conference was well attended. Those attendingresponded well both in a brainstorming session and to survey questionsfrom the committee. Written responses were given to the committee afterthe seminar.Each of the committee members presented some ideas at the seminarto stimulate the discussion and encourage written responses to the survey