As this issue of The Banner reaches you, Partners Worldwide, an outreach by Christian business professionals affiliated with the CRC, is holding its annual conference.
It is too late to encourage you to attend the conference, even if you were so inclined, but it is not too late to celebrate PWW’s innovative outreach. I have mentioned them before in this column, but I gratefully do so again.
What is so exciting about Partners Worldwide is the opportunity for people in many different professions to offer their gifts and skills in a variety of ministry contexts—teaching, mentoring, consulting, coaching, and encouraging—in Canada, in the United States, and in other places around the world. This is what Partners does, through volunteer short-term involvements that may amount to a few days per year.
In many ways Partners’ assignments are similar to those available through ServiceLink, the volunteer program by which the Christian Reformed Church connects people to hands-on opportunities of service with the denomination’s agencies and partner organizations or to disaster response assignments with CRWRC.
Together, these provide wonderful opportunities for members of the church to serve in very specific ways, often cross-culturally. I encourage you to be open to possibilities for service. Such involvements provide fellowship and meaningful exposure to others who also are engaged in working for the kingdom.
Most of us live busy lives. I know that some congregations struggle to find enough volunteers. Perhaps the issue is more related to the choices we make than the time we lack. Yet involving ourselves in kingdom service is not only spiritually renewing but also provides an important model for our children and youths. Belief and faithfulness in action make a greater impact than words or rituals.
I am writing this column as I travel home from the annual meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). A speaker at the meeting made the point in dramatic fashion that Christian adults need to be more intentional about living out our Christian values if we are to be credible to the generation of 20-year-olds and younger.
In North American society we are at risk of losing a whole generation of youths from the evangelical and Reformed faith unless we can, by God’s grace, do a better job of showing the path we pray for them to travel.
Believing the right things is important. Showing the way is essential to putting our faith into action so that all of us become the “church at work.”
About the Author
Rev. Peter Borgdorff is Executive Director emeritus of the Christian Reformed Church.
