Leadership Connexion Winter 2022

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GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | JESSICA JONES | Lead Pastor at Faith Assembly of God in New Cumberland, PA 12 JESSICA JONES was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Jess is passionate about sharing Jesus with the community in creative ways. Jess has served as a Youth Pastor, Associate Pastor, and Project Manager at the PennDel Network Office. Most recently, she serves as Lead Pastor at Faith Assembly of God in New Cumberland, PA. She serves on the PennDel Youth Committee and the PennDel Network of Women Minister’s Committee. When Jess isn’t engaged in ministry, she is most likely exploring new places and drinking good coffee! *If you would like more information about Dinner Church, you can visit penndel.org/ church-planting. Obedient Editing In July 2020, I stepped into a story that had been written and re-written many times since 1956. In the sixty-four year history of Faith Assembly of God, the story had exciting chapters, diffi cult chapters, effective chapters and dim chapters. As the newly elected lead pastor, I wondered and prayed what the next chapter of this church’s story would hold. When you write a story, you start with a blank page, full of possibility. When you step into a story, the pages are fi lled with history and a few crazy characters who have endured some insane plot twists. It quickly became clear to me that the job of a leader is to be an editor. Our task is to identify problems and remove them, recognize good things and keep them and determine the mediocre replacing it with something better. A good editor handles the story and characters with care while being honest, intentionally evaluating areas in need of improvement. On the very fi rst Christmas, Jesus stepped into a story with history, crazy characters and plot twists. He entered the story not merely becoming a character but changing the direction and focus of future chapters. Jesus simultaneously lived in the story and directed the story, editing out the bad, keeping the good and replacing the so-so with intention and direction. Determining good and bad is much easier than the process of replacing the so-so with intention and direction. For Jesus, that looked like replacing the Law of Moses with the Law of Christ. The Law of Christ is summed up in Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV), “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the fi rst and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” For Faith Assembly, replacing the so-so meant taking the red pen to the way we interacted with our neighbors. We collectively prayed, asking God to give us opportunities to be the best neighbor in our community. Loving our neighbors well meant replacing our mid-week service, a tradition that had become so-so in our context, with a weekly presence in our community. We planted The Table Dinner Church in October of 2021 at our local Fire Hall. Each week, we serve dinner to 65-75 of our neighbors, most of whom are unchurched. We’ve had the opportunity to build relationships with live-in fi refi ghters, resource neighbors in need and share Jesus through authentic relationship. This edit was a big change to our church story resulting in increased discipleship of those in the church and increased opportunity to share Jesus with those outside of the church. Unlike the pages of a book, our story is in the middle, the writing and editing occurring in real time at the same time. A red pen to an already written page is less messy than a red pen to a story with no pages and characters with free will. Editing is messy work, just ask Mary who delivered a baby in a stable or Jesus who washed feet and shared meals with sinners. I pray that God gives you divine discernment concerning necessary edits in your context and divine wisdom to handle your story and unique characters with care. Through our obedient editing, God continues to write the story He began in the beginning.
Recently, our family needed to take a trip to Philadelphia for a medical visit. As we entered the city, my three year old son, Westyn, began to scream and shout, ”Look at that, Dad! Wow! Those are big buildings! There’s a train… there’s a fi re truck… there’s police cars. What is that over there?” He was in wonder at the sights he was experiencing in Philadelphia. The word “behold” simply means to see or observe. My son was seeing, observing or beholding many things he had never seen. He was in awe! I, on the other hand, have been to Philadelphia so many times that I often don’t pay attention to the sights. They have become familiar to me. I often forget the scale and wonder of the city, the cool buildings, and the fi rst-time observations that my son was thrilled to experience. Mark your calendars to join us for these exciting events in 2023: Behold… A CHILD’S PERSPECTIVE The Christmas story is one that most people have heard many times. However, just as I have become so familiar with the sights and sounds of Philadelphia, I am afraid that we are guilty of becoming too familiar with the miracle of Christ’s birth. Often, we forget to stop and behold the wonder of this world changing event. This year, I encourage you to take a step back and marvel at the greatness of God sending His Son to be Emmanuel, God with us. Come to Christ with child-like faith. Soak in and behold the magnitude of God’s profound love as if you’ve never experienced it before. “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11 CHILDREN AND DISCIPLESHIP | Jeremiah Gruber | 717.795.5921 | jeremiah@penndel.org Children’s Ministry Summit (BCC) January 23 – 25 January 6 (6-9 pm) • Roaring Spring, PA January 7 (12-3 pm) • Irwin, PA February 10 • Pottstown, PA February 11 • Dover, DE New Kids Camp Dates and Format July 10 – 13 #1: Monday evening – Thursday at Noon July 13 – 16 #2: Thursday evening – Sunday at Noon July 17 – 20 #3: Monday evening – Thursday at Noon July 20 – 23 #4: Thursday evening – Sunday at Noon For more info: penndel.org/kids LEADERSHIPconnexion | <strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2022</strong> 13
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Page 15 and 16: MEET OUR NEW NETWORK YOUTH DIRECTOR
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Leadership Connexion Winter 2022

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