The Spiritual Roots of the ECC - as "Mission Friends"

“Living as MISSION FRIENDS embodies:
(1) a commitment to the biblical narrative,
(2) the new life in Christ,
(3) missionary fervor, and
(4) covenantal relationships;
these have been the key values of the Covenant from its earliest days to the present.

This way of life also calls for a continuing missional imagination from which new denominational practices and structures might emerge.”

(from The Covenant Quarterly, May 2008, “The Evangelical Covenant Church as Mission Friends: Missional Imaginations for a Denominational Future” by Kurt Fredrickson – pg 18)

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I am intrigued by Kurt’s use of the words, “missional imagination”. I have come to perceive the United States, and certainly the western states, as a vast mission field.

Young parents who are now raising their children have themselves no memory of being in church or knowing/valuing Christian spiritual roots. Pastors and lay people need to think of themselves as missionaries and learn to use the creative imaginations that are the working tools of anyone who works cross culturally to reach others with the good news of salvation.

Can we learn from congregations led by pastors with missional imagination? Their stories need to be told.

- John C. Notehelfer