A PROMISE

i've been meaning to post this...it is a copy of the liturgy of pastoral covenant that my new congregation and i went through a few weeks ago for my installation service. i used the framework of another liturgy and made it my own...may God help us keep these promises. Amen and amen.

Liturgy of Pastoral Covenant

Leader: Pastor, we, your people, charge you to remember your ordination vows.

Congregation: Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. Endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministries. (2 Timothy 4:2-5)

Leader: Pastor, will you affirm this vow and accept again the invitation to be the spiritual leader of this flock?

Pastor: I will.

Leader: Will you, the members of this church, accept, support, and uphold our pastor as she leads you?

Congregation: We will.

Leader: Will you affirm your belief that this pastor and this church are to be workers together in the providence of the Most HIgh God?

Congregation: This we do believe and affirm.

Leader: Will you continue to support this pastor with respect, loyalty, love and fervent prayer?

Congregation: We will, with God’s help.

Leader: Will you continue to receive the pastor’s family – especially Beau - as members of this family of faith and love and pray for them as your own?

Congregation: We will, with God’s help.

Leader: Will you continue to give sacrificially of your means so that this pastor can be relieved of the temporal cares of this life so that she may give full attention to prayer and the ministry of the Word?

Congregation: We will, with God’s help.

Leader: Will you respond to the pastoral leadership by vigorous participation in the congregational life of this church as it carries out its mission of worship, evangelism, nurture, and service?

Congregation: We will, with God’s help.

Pastor: In response to the gracious call of God, and in gratitude for the confidence you have expressed in me, I covenant with you to continue living together as an authentic expression of the Kingdom of God in this world. I promise:
• To lead you in worship, that in our unselfish focus on God we might be shaped in the image of Christ Jesus and truly become His body.
• To spend time listening to the voice of God, believing that only in hearing Him will I have anything of substance to speak to you.
• To preach the Word with boldness and grace, unafraid to be the mouthpiece of the Lord in this place and among these people.
• To study the Scriptures and the teachings of Christ’s followers through the ages, that we might be a community of faith rooted in the Truth of God and in the historic Christian faith.
• To intercede for you, spending the necessary time to lift you to the throne of God’s grace that you might “be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of Go0d and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13)
• To give you pastoral care and spiritual direction
• To lead you in becoming a true community where “each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:6).
• To lead you in serving others, taking up our responsibility to our neighborhood, this community, and to the whole world.
• To live before you not only as a pastor, but also as a spouse who keeps promises and who lives a balanced life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Pastor & People in Unison:
• We will follow the Bible in living together as a community of faith
• We will love one another with sincerity of heart, choosing to live in grace and forgiveness.
• We will honor one another above ourselves.
• We will not become lazy or apathetic but will keep our spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.
• We will be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.
• We will share with God’s people who are in need and will practice hospitality.
• We will live in peace and leave revenge in God’s hands.
• We will overcome evil with good.
• We will move with the Spirit, allowing God to move us out of comfort and into the glorious freedom of His powerful Love.