A Vision for PUMC
A church member called a pastor and asked for a meeting. When the meeting took place, the pastor was surprised to learn that the member wanted to donate a sum to the church, but first the member wanted to hear the pastor’s vision for the church. The pastor stumbled and bumbled his way through his answer and finally blurted out that he wanted to make disciples.
“But how?” the parishioner responded. “What are we doing here that’s different from the church down the road?”
Some time later, the parishioner called a local college and asked to speak with the president. When the parishioner asked the college president for his vision for the school, the president unrolled a blueprint of a performing arts center and explained how the arts center would transform the lives not just of the students but also that of the surrounding community, which could be culturally enriched through the plays and musical performances.
Predictably, the money went to the college.
On Nov. 4, we will hold Commitment Sunday, where we ask members to make a financial pledge for the coming year. My vision for our church isn’t some arcane platitude about making disciples. Rather, it’s the concrete knowledge that what has been put together here over many years are a series of ministries that are transforming lives. When you pledge to PUMC, you are investing in the future of our faith!
Most churches do some mission work and reach out to their communities. But very few offer mission camps that draw young people from hundreds of miles away, then provide life-altering experiences for them. Credit Joe and Susie Pokorny for shepherding this program for more than a decade.
Wyatt Robinson, who grew up here and recently took a job as a youth director at a Florida church, said he first felt his call to ministry through our mission camps. “God is reaching many young people, who are critical to the future of our church, each summer and calling many more into the service of God’s Kingdom through these mission camps.”
Sydney Hopps, now a student at the University of Missouri, worked last August at a children’s hospital in South Africa. Here is what she had to say about our mission camps: “Your Obedient Servant Mission Camp, in my own little hometown, set me on fire for Jesus and kick-started a lifestyle of love for God’s people and a drive to serve the ones around me.”