Our responsibility is to be faithful witnesses, responding in mission, looking out to the world, and being open to transformation. The rest can be entrusted to God. Faithfulness always yields fruitfulness, but it may come in ways we cannot predict and may not expect. A denomination is only an organizational structure intended to express our belonging to one church in mutual support, accountability, and common mission. Institutional endurance is not the goal.
Encouraging signs are apparent.
Already, over 125 pastors are involved in new networks to foster congregational revitalization. Plans for eighty new churches, expressing a variety of ministry models and locations, are well under way. A focus on urban ministry is spreading with enthusiasm. Congregations, classes, and RCA programs are refocusing around mission and vision. Gregg Mast reminded a General Synod Council retreat that when God's people are called to cross the Jordan River with their sights on new land, they first find themselves trekking through the mud.