PRRMI offers ‘A Covenant of Faithfulness to Jesus Christ’

Presbyterian & Reformed Renewal Ministries International (PRRMI) has distributed 22,000 copies of "A Covenant of Faithfulness to Jesus Christ," offering the document as "a way of healing and new vision for the Presbyterian Church."

By Robert P. Mills

The initial mailing went to all active and retired PCUSA ministers. The February issue of PRRMI’s Renewal News will place the covenant in the hands of ministers and lay people around the world.

A Covenant of Faithfulness

The Covenant declares, "As individual Christians, sessions, congregations and organizations, we covenant with one another and with God – in submission to Scripture, in conformity to the creeds and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – to engage actively in the following courses of action:

"1. We covenant to live in faithfulness to Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture, confirmed by the historic creeds of the Church, and to do ministry that honors Jesus Christ as active and faithful Presbyterians.

"2. We covenant to do the work of prayer, asking God to pour out the Holy Spirit on the Church for the advancement of the gospel in the world, that Jesus Christ may be known and glorified.

"3. We covenant to do the work of evangelism, that men and women may be brought to saving faith in Jesus Christ, beginning within our own congregations until the Great Commission is fulfilled.

"4. We covenant to work for social righteousness according to the biblical vision of the Kingdom of God.

"5. We covenant to discern where God is working, with Scripture as our guide, and to invest our financial giving and personal involvement in those works which promote purity, holiness, and truth in the Church and which extend the gospel throughout the world."

On a facing page, each point of the Covenant is given a basis in Scripture and the Book of Order.

The mailing also includes a prayer guide for the Covenant, which can be reproduced as bulletin inserts, and a response form to be signed and returned to PRRMI.

PRRMI

PRRMI’s vision statement is: "Exalting Jesus Christ, igniting the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit – through prayer, leadership development, congregational renewal and mission outreach – so that the Church may be empowered to do all that Christ commands."

The organization was founded in 1966 under the leadership of Dr. Brick Bradford, and renamed PRRMI in 1980. In 1990 Dr. Zeb Bradford (Brad) Long, a graduate of Davidson College and Virginia’s Union Seminary, was called as Executive Director.

Long and his wife Laura, also a PCUSA minister, came to PRRMI following nine years of service in Taiwan, where they had been appointed by the PCUS as evangelistic/educational missionaries.

Asked why PRRMI is investing so much energy and money in the Covenant, Long told the Layman, "PRRMI has undertaken this massive project because we believe that as congregations and individuals make this Covenant and seriously begin to act upon it, God will send reformation and renewal to the PCUSA."

For more information about the Covenant, or to support the work of PRRMI, contact PO Box 429, Black Mountain, NC 28711-0429, 704-669-4880, www.prmi.org, e-mail: prrmi@prmi.org.