It has been a busy summer this year for me professionally with my second vocation and equally exciting with this year’s ministry activities.Part of our local cluster ministry is taking advantage of our sister church’s activities. Being a small country church, New Hope cannot offer as much as other larger churches, yet through MMA, we get to benefit from what others are doing. Brisbin Baptist has invited us to join them for their 40+ year Summer Teen Camp and our teens look forward to it every year. Another cluster church has a local after-school teen ministry which hosts a winter camp we have been sending our teens to for several years now. At monthly meetings, our cluster gets to share our struggles and difficulties, as well as our victories and glad tidings. It’s a true sharing of best/worst practices. It’s a time of heartfelt sharing and caring. Because of our love, we even have other leaders from outside the MMA association benefit from our monthly meetings. It’s a great time and, as we share about our lives, we realize that our support systems are important.
Realizing that, we strive to gather together twice a year to break bread…once in the summer months June-August (when we often take a break) and again in January after all the Christmas special activities finish. We purposefully include our wives in these two gatherings, acknowledging that our wives need the same community of fellowship. It’s always good for pastor’s wives to get together and share life from their unique perspectives.
It’s my encouragement for our other clusters to plan a date night as well. Open up a church hall and “potluck it” or really treat everyone by meeting at a local restaurant to share life in Christ together. I’m looking forward to our 2019 Annual Meeting and hope that we can see and plan to benefit from sharing life together…and maybe even do it more often in 2019!
Happy Thanksgiving Sister Churches!
-Aaron Nygren-New Hope Bible Fellowship, Homer City, PA
