Reinvent the church; now that's a fascinating idea.  Repackage it, spiff it up, put some tattoos on it for a with-it feel, park it in a strip mall, drop it in a coffee shop, paint it, decorate it, update it, down-size it, right-size it, up-size it into a mega-meal, add large fries and a drink.
All striking thoughts.  But no where is there a glimmer of a thought that real-honest-to God discipleship and a deeper grasp of the gospel might be in order.   It's all about packaging.   I'll pass the super-size meal myself.  I suspect that God is at work in the humbling of the church in North America, and we're still not coming to terms with that reality.

Hart Edmonds

Really looking forward to the NEXTChurch blog.  So glad that the Outlook is helping fill this need in the movement.  Very fitting.

Also wanted to say that as a full-on Myers Briggs EXtrovert, who's age-induced wisdom is helping me learn the value of "gray" in an increasingly black & white world, I believe that the polar differences we find among each other are part the mystery of God's creation.  They are part of who God created us to be, and once we accept and value them in ourselves and others, the process of learning from and embracing them may hold the key to discerning who the NEXTChurch is supposed to be for this broken world.

Julie Lehman

As an ESTJ working in a P world one aspect of J's is their greater adaptability to ambiguity  and "messiness"  of life as opposed to the structure and order J's tend to appreciate. As I am sure we J's tend more to react more to the relative chaos and dysfunction  of the PCUSA than P's who at times embrace the chaos. Though if the Next folks tend to taylor themselves to the Gen Y crowd (born 1983-2000) the defining feature of this generation is and will remain debt. Not so much their educational debt, which is staggering, but also the societal debt as Boomers will tend to balance their medical/retirement social nets upon their backs. Gen Y's exist in world of diminished economic opportunity, even relative to their Gen X older siblings.  But if generational theory hold to be true, Gen Y will mirror the great Missionary  generation of (1870-1895) in their optimism and desire to go out there and change the world. God bless them.  They will need all the hope and energy they can muster.

Peter Gregory

Agreed! I think this new congregation (OPC) has a future waiting for it that will be equally amazing and inspiring. And the fact that both congregations (OPC and FPC) are willing and able to go forward in a way that is productive and peaceable? How great is that! It is a gift to the rest of the denomination and the larger church. God bless the mebers of OPC as they make their way into that future.

Steve Frazier

What a great story!  Some will bemoan this as a sad example of schism.  To the contrary it's a marvelous example of the type of authentic unity God desires, unity in mission.  Both First Presbyterian and Orlando Presbyterian are in total unity on their mission to exalt the Savior in Orlando.  And they're pursuing their common mission in irreconcilable but amicable, Christ-honoring ways.  Thanks be to God.  

Jim Caraher

This is insightful, if not new, information.  Sadly the last few lines perpetuate the old myth that a vital young pastor will turn things around. I have had the privilege, in the last quarter century, of working with 4 talented, committed new seminary grads who have fought the good fight as hard as anyone. And those congregations are still in decline. We need to accept that many congregations are simply too old, too tired, or too disinterested to consider transformation. In some geographical areas there are simply too many congregations- now that most of us don't arrive by horse and buggy. We need to also life up congregational hospice ministry as a valid speciality and train people  for it.

Kathleen Davis

A comment on a couple of the underlying questions, and making little comment on what seems to be a curiously narrow view of the church’s mission  in the world:

The notion of labeling advocacy for peace in Palestine as “partisan, political commentary” is far more accidental than substantive.  Military aid to Israel has flourished under both democratic and republican administrations and legislatures.   Continued military aid to Israel may at the moment be a particular interest of much of the American right wing because their religious base of support has conflated the state of Israel with Biblical Israel and a certain unorthodox view of apocalyptic scripture.  Nonetheless, elements of the tea party endorse the same withdrawal of military aid from Israel that is a primary goal of the campaign promoted by the bus ads.  And although, correctly or not, secularism is more often identified with progressives, there are many strong advocates of a religious Israeli state calling for an end to the occupation as a necessary practical step for the survival of that state, since the current state of affairs occupying territory that overall is now or will soon be minority-Jewish is untenable.   

And regarding treating this church as a tax-exempt entity:  the organization behind the campaign supported by the bus ads is itself a tax-exempt non-profit.   It is not difficult for critics to question the tax-exempt status of churches, since a very large portion of our giving pays for things that directly benefit us the contributors; salaries and benefits for employees who mostly provide us with services we want, the buildings where we meet, the music program, and so on.   I am pretty certain that is as true of Pastor Gregory’s church as it is of any other.   This particular expenditure by the Chapel Hill church does nothing of the sort.

D Carothers

Perhaps if the denomination would help the local church to go out and make disciples instead of all the other stuff, we would not have this problem?  Just a thought. 

Bill Wisneski

I wonder how Peter Gregory knows exactly who is or is not "on the right side", though I do suspect that he does come from the right.  I do not pretend to have certain knowledge of that ultimate judgement.  It is my opinion that how we treat each other is both a cause and an effect of an enlightened spiritual life.  I have no interest in dogma or judgmental rhetoric.  I am trying to learn the truth, promote justice and live peace.  That, it seems to me, is the aim of the Church of Reconciliation ad.  There is nothing, whatsoever, political about it.  There can be no peace among us without justice and there can be no justice without truth.

Jon Paul McClellan

In the great divorce of liberal and pietist streams of american protestantism since 1933, the fault lines are indeed political and ideological. But at the center is a matter of Christology or Christological. In essence WWJD.  The whole cloth the naked, feed the hungry can be read by both sides in totally different ways.  Was feeding the hungry, cloth the naked a matter of simple human compassion, a no-brainer, a biblical imperative, a political statement against the lack of a social safety net in Roman culture, was it a cry for workers rights and an index minimum wage to inflation, was it a call to work for the greater "peace and social justice" agenda which the left sort of claims as it own, as the other side does evangelism and born-again?  Good questions all.  

  Both sides assume of course they speak for Jesus in all matters, and of course Jesus agrees with them. As I am sure Mr. McCellan feels he is on the right of side of history and faith. Suffice to say I beg to differ.  There are many political parties one can join, many good and worthy organizations one can affiliate with to do good works, from the Red Cross to Girl Scouts. But there is only one church, one Body of Christ, whose core mission is bring all to the saving grace of Jesus and know him as Lord and Savior, period. The church has no mission apart from that.  The whole feeding the hungry and cloth the naked comes out of a result of that, not the other way around.

  The religious left never really got over the romanticism and sentimentality of the social gospel of the 1880-90's. A Jesus as your best friend and one who marches besides you on the picket line or protesting the latest injustice. Nice Jesus to have in your pocket,  but that God is far too small and cannot save.  No matter how much money they spend on bill-boards on buses saying Jesus is a friend of little school kids in Ramadi.  Free to do it of course, it is indeed a free country, but it makes absolutely no difference to the cause they believe in.  Much like churches putting "gun free zones" up on their property after Newtown. Makes the folks feel better, but does nothing in the greater good.

Peter Gregory

Using Peter Gregory's logic, Jesus was a partisan when he said feed the hungry and clothe the naked.  There is nothing partisan about advertising for peace and justice.  It is Peter Gregory's comments that are both naive and foolish as well as transparently disingenuous.

Jon Paul McClellan

Since the 1960s the liberal/progressive protestant  establishment has confused ideology/politics with mission/evangelism and public witness.  Thinking  the former a cheep substitute for the latter.  I am sure the church in question is wealthy enough with progressive minded folks from the research triangle to make their own informed decisions on how and where to spend their money. Its not my money. But make no mistake whatever message they chose to send out on a public bill-board, bus, the public square,  was a partisan, political commentary, meant to cut as a wedge issue in regard to the morass in the middle east. As such they make themselves no different from the JDL, ABA, or a host of other public entities that make certain comments on a variety of matters and open to public comment and feedback, both positive and negative. To claim a special privilege as a church, house of worship, that they should not be subject to such commentary, good or bad is both naive and foolish on their part.  My only question is why treat this church as a tax-exempt entity.  One wants to make statements like everybody else, pay the freight, like anybody else.

Peter Gregory

Inaccuracies there may be but the people I am hoping that watch the movie may not be church goers.  This may be an intro for them.  The real story still has a chance of being told when they investigate further.  Hopefully they will understand that God wants a relationship with us in spite of the inaccuracies. Picking the movie apart is sort of what some Christians do to others...we need to look past the warts and scars and race and sexual preference, and simply LOVE one another!

Karen Edwards

In all the articles I've read about the shortage of full-time jobs for new seminary graduates, I almost never hear about other paths in ministry to be taken.  After I graduated, I did three additional units of CPE and am now ordained and employed full time by a retirement community as a chaplain.  Chaplains have an opportunity to do real missional work - literally being where people live.  Chaplains also have the opportunity to minister to those who have turned away from the church, and those who have never set foot in a church, along with people of other faith traditions.  I think this is an area the PC(USA) should delve into - we can be a bigger influence in the world working in retirement communities, hospitals, schools and the military than we can ever hope to in our shrinking churches.

Bev Franco

Did Solomon write Ecclesiastes?  The TV show is emphatic that he did.  But scholars think it reflects a much later time.

Jim Goble

Glad to see another effort to bring Belhar into the life of the church - it's a confession needed as we look into the 21st Century. Things are changing dramatically all around the world - from a Global South Pope to the remarkable transformation of evangelical youth who are adopting a keen sense of biblical justice. Those who wrote the Confession wrote with their boots on the ground, so to speak. Nothing theoretical, but life and faith hammered out in the strife of apartheid. Sure, we have plenty of confessions, but the work of confessions never ceases, because time marches on. I voted for Belhar at the last go, and I'll be pleased to vote for it again.

Tom Eggebeen

Peter Gregory is absolutely correct.  It is imperative that COM's and seminaries tell candidates the truth about the future of ministry.  Somehow we need to begin to model the tent maker pastor as more normative.  It is simply immoral to continue to deceive candidates into thinking that they will have a guaranteed job in their future that will pay them a living wage.  In my experience, however, COM's are more oriented toward the institutional church than they are fairness to seekers and candidates. For shame.   

Tony Augusta

I can imagine Rev. Johnson and Mr. Jefferson sitting by the fire at Monticello each with their exato-knives cutting out passages of the Bible that offended them. In Rev. Johnson's version it is not Mary who appears at the empty tomb but a rainbow and unicorn, and Jesus blessing the babies, little birdies and rabbits. His theological presuppositions represent so well the decent of the PCUSA into Unitarian nothingness and not worthy of further comment.

   As to the morphing of the PCUSA into a "peace" church, yes that is the trajectory. But not in the form or substance of the historic peace churches, Quakers, Mennonites, Amish sects, but in the more contemporary New Age, secular fashion of the political left.  Again, look at the clergy employment crises, health care crises, synod death march crises,  per capita, property revolt, money,cash flow crises, the slow motion collapse of the church.  One reaps exactly what they sow. And for the PCUSA they are reaping the fruits of their labors over the last 40 years.

Peter Gregory

The Earth Care Ministry at Jacksonville PC which is about 30 minutes south of Princeton will be getting together on April 26th to enjoy a meal together and then write letters to the President, encouraging him to oppose the Keystone XL pipeline and step up the efforts to combat climate change.  You would be welcome to join us.

Dana Eglinton

So now David is on the black list? Yet God still blessed him. Sounds like the pc gestapo is alive and setting up office in the PCUSA. Jesus chased the money changers out of the Temple, is he next?

Irvin Porter