What is the Philadelphia Presbytery all about?
In planning for the life and ministry of the new Philadelphia Presbytery it is our conviction that we must take into consideration several balancing concerns affecting the health, growth, and functioning of a presbytery. These concerns reflect three main components of the role of Presbytery in the life of the Church: congregation, court, and mission.
§ Presbytery will function as a body effectively providing worship, edification, encouragement, oversight, and accountability to its members and churches.
§ Presbytery will function as a court, efficiently and proactively exercising spiritual justice with mercy and recognizing and confirming God’s calling to Gospel ministry.
§ Presbytery will function as a mission, mobilizing all members to promote kingdom expansion through mercy ministry, evangelism, and church planting.
As our Presbytery is effective as a congregation and efficient as a court, it is able to focus more fully on the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.
Our vision is to see Philadelphia saturated with Gospel-centered churches so that many people come to Christ and together our communities are transformed.
5. The heart of our king also compels us to engage our communities in deeds of mercy and love, of justice and truth.
God's heart moves Him relentlessly to implement His holy agenda through His redeemed people, the Church. Isaiah tells us that when justice is driven back, when righteousness stands at a distance, when truth stumbles in the streets, when honesty cannot enter, when truth is nowhere to be found, when whoever shuns evil becomes a prey...when the Lord sees this and there is no one among His people to intervene, He is displeased and appalled (see Isa. 59:14-16).
Every leader learns this the hard way: you are just one limited person. You are just a man, just a woman. You can only touch a few lives and do a few things. When Moses tried to be "The Man," the only leader of a redeemed but unruly Israel coming out of centuries of slavery, he burned out. His father-in-law, Jethro, watched him work, and gave him wise advice: "What you are doing is not good...The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone...But select capable men from all the people...and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens...That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. If you do this...all these people will go home satisfied" (Ex. 18:17–23). Leaders multiplied at every level: the only way to lead the people and get them home to the promised land. So it is into the New Testament. Paul urges Timothy, his young apprentice who was a leader in the next generation: "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others" (2 Tim. 2:2). To fulfill our calling—to make disciples of the nations until Jesus returns—leaders must be replicated at every level of ministry. Because ministry takes place at every level of life, we need leaders there, too: trained to serve, unleashed to lead, and able to develop new leaders.