This story located at: http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2006/06304.htm
Rising to the challenge
Mission Initiative helps new Florida church find mission identity
by Emily Enders Odom MIJHH communications officer
LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL - Rev. Elizabeth Deibert was called to break down barriers.
Even if she didn't always think so, and even if those barriers weren't always obvious to her at first.
Her first clear challenge came when she and her husband, Richard, both fresh out of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, accepted a call to new church development work in Montgomery, AL.
"Like the prophet, Jonah, I had the urge to get on a boat headed in the opposite direction," Deibert said. "But we had a vision for that
city, with its difficult history, of an interracial church that would embrace all people."
Remembering their years of committed struggle in Montgomery, Deibert reflected, "We are most faithful when we believe that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, nor any other lines we draw in the sand," referencing Galatians 3:28. "The 'thinking faith' that is required
of us as Presbyterians doesn't rush to conclusions, and listens to all the voices, even those with whom we disagree."
Because of the Deiberts' intentional leadership throughout their nine-year pastorate there, Immanuel Presbyterian Church became known in Montgomery as a "haven for people with diverse experiences," a congregation that modeled and promised the peaceful kingdom prophesied by Isaiah.
It seemed especially fitting, then, that God would call her from a hard won peace in Montgomery to a serve a "peace" of a different kind,
specifically the "Peace" New Church Development in Lakewood Ranch, FL,
one of the new church developments designated to receive funding from the Joining Hearts & Hands: Peace River Presbytery campaign.
The presbytery's campaign is part of the Mission Initiative: Joining Hearts and Hands (http://www.pcusa.org/joiningheartsandhands/)- a five-year, $40 million national Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) effort to raise funds for mission personnel overseas and church development in this country, particularly racial-ethnic and immigrant congregations.
"The opportunities for church growth in Peace River are unparalleled,"
said the Rev. Graham Hart, general presbyter of Peace River Presbytery. "The time is now for our faithful response."
Deibert concurred. "The new church was excited, and the people so enthusiastic about the potential for our ministry together," she observed, "But after my experience in Montgomery, I wondered what challenges God would show me in the carefully planned, homogeneous community of Lakewood Ranch."
Listening to her members quickly revealed to Deibert the very barriers that the new church would be called to overcome together.
"The common refrain I heard was that there were already plenty of churches out there offering 'church lite,'" said Deibert, "Our members wanted to be challenged. True to our Reformed heritage, they wanted to be a missional body in order to make a real difference in our community."
Peace's evolving self-definition as a body with an intentional, outward focus has been, according to Deibert, "liberating and surprising." Determined to foster a generous spirit, church leaders have dared to commit to a budget that includes 20% benevolence. And beyond the dollars, church members are also hands on. Peace is already deeply involved in building Habitat houses in Manatee County and in supporting the Beth-El Farm Worker Ministries at Wimauma with personal and financial resources.
"This congregation by its words and actions," Deibert said, "is holding firm to a great interest in serving the underprivileged in our midst."
"It was for us a defining moment," she continued, "when the church's mission outreach programs became for us not just external projects, but were woven into the seamless fabric of who we are as a congregation."