Dear Edgeboro Friends & Family,

Within the last week or so, I’ve been catching myself saying, “where did the summer go?” multiple times a day, which must mean fall is here. Starting with the second week in September, the church calendar is off and running until Easter. There’s so much that’s going to be happening here in the months to come, and with the busyness of it all, it can be easy to fall into the routine of doing things how they’ve always been done without thinking about why we do what we do in the first place.

Knowing why we do what we do helps us remember what’s important and keeps us open to change when (not if) it comes. It keeps us from simply going through the motions or getting too caught up in the details, which can lead to us losing sight of the mission.

As the events, activities, meetings, and other church duties fill the church calendar, let’s remember why we do what we do.

To that end, let’s talk about Edgeboro’s mission statement. These are words that clearly describe what we do. To find why we do it, some background is needed.

Here’s the statement: The mission of Edgeboro Moravian Church is to love God, grow in Christ, and share the Holy Spirit through Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry and Evangelism.

This statement was adopted by the Joint Board in 2004. It was heavily influenced by a book titled The Purpose Driven Church (1995) by Rev. Rick Warren, founder and former pastor of Saddleback Church, a former Southern Baptist church with 54,000 members and multiple campuses in southern California. Though his context and beliefs are different than most Moravians around here, his thoughts on this particular matter have influenced a lot of churches in positive ways, Edgeboro being one.

In his book, Warren identifies these purposes of a church (this will sound familiar): Worship, Fellowship, Discipleship, Ministry, and Evangelism. These are very “churchy” words which might not mean a whole lot taken out of context, so I’ll tell you where Warren got them from. These five words are derived from the Greatest Commandment and the Great Commission. I’m going to include them here while noting where Warren saw each of these words in these verses:

The Greatest Commandment (Matthew 22:37-39): Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Worship) This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Ministry)

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20): Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples (Evangelism) of all nations, baptizing them (Fellowship) in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey (Discipleship) everything that I have commanded you.”

From here, it’s really easy to say that the reason why Edgeboro does worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism is simply because Jesus told us to! While it’s really good to root our mission in two of the “greatest” things that Jesus told us to do, let’s go a bit deeper. Through the centuries, people have faithfully responded to these words. It’s how Jesus and his love became known to those who would become Moravians, and who would become members of Edgeboro. As that ripple effect widened, it impacted us. In our lives, the love of Christ has given us inner peace, brought us comfort, moved us to compassion and empathy, inspired us to grow, given us our most cherished memories, provided opportunities for us to form some of our most meaningful relationships with others, and so much more. Why do we do what we do at Edgeboro? We do it because we want others to feel all this, and Jesus wants others to feel this!

As we head into the church fall calendar and beyond, let’s remember why we do what we do!

Remembering why with you,
Pastor Dan