The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) | cmalliance.org
On Sunday, September 20th, we celebrated Trinity West Seattle joining the Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA). After five years of prayer and discernment, we were privileged to have Monty Wright, District Superintendent of Alliance NW, with us to celebrate this moment in our church's story and to prayerfully consider the life ahead of us.
“Remember & Reimagine” gave us the language for the day. We’ve received so much from those who have gone before us: their prayers, their service, their commitment to follow Jesus here in West Seattle. As we remember God’s faithfulness in their lives, we consider what we have been entrusted to carry forward. What we nurture today will be the very thing that the next generation will inherit.
Joel spoke to that responsibility as he explained why Trinity had decided to join the Alliance. The two drivers of that decision over the years of discernment were (1) a desire to have external accountability and (2) a desire to be part of a shared mission.
Accountability starts with our own need. Our leaders need people who can bring wisdom, ask the hard questions, and be willing to hold them to account in their care of the church.
The desire for a shared mission comes from a shared recognition that we need one another. We are called to love and serve West Seattle as part of the wider body of Christ, receiving encouragement from others and offering our own gifts. The Alliance gives us relationships with churches and ministry partners across the Northwest and around the world, with whom we can learn, serve, and make Jesus known.
At the affiliation ceremony, Monty led our staff, our elders, and the congregation in a prayer of blessing and dedication. We all stood together and placed this new phase before God, asking Him to bless and guide the relationships we were about to enter into and the work we were going to do together.
Monty's "Unreasonable Grace" was a perfect word for the occasion. Drawing from David’s welcome of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9, Monty pointed us toward God’s covenant faithfulness in Jesus. The life of the church begins and is sustained in the grace we receive from Him. As we learn to receive that grace, we are also learning to extend it to one another.
We enter this new relationship with thanks for the warm welcome of the Alliance family and with hope for what we may be able to share. Please pray with us that these relationships will increase our faithfulness to Jesus and deepen our love for the neighbors He has given us, both in West Seattle and beyond.
Photos courtesy of The Christian and Missionary Alliance.
