Kirkpatrick will not seek fourth term; Committee seeking nominee

Clifton Kirkpatrick -- tall, ecumenically-minded, a nimble public speaker, and sometime lightening rod for controversy -- has decided not to seek a fourth term as stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Kirkpatrick's term of service will be completed at the close of the General Assembly meeting in San Jose in June 2008. His departure leaves the field open for a new leader of the Office of the General Assembly -- the chief constitutional officer of the denomination and its representative in meeting with religious leaders from around the world.

Search begins for Stated Clerk nominee

LOUISVILLE -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Stated Clerk Nomination Committee (SCNC), elected at the 217th General Assembly in 2006 in Birmingham, AL, is now accepting applications for the position of General Assembly stated clerk, the top ecclesiastical post in the 2.3-million-member denomination.

Next summer's 218th General Assembly in San Jose, CA, will elect the successor to the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, who announced last month that he will not seek a fourth three-year term.

Mission leader: New directions needed for mission work

LOUISVILLE -- Hunter Farrell, the new director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), calls this a crossroads time for Presbyterians -- with the health and vitality of the denomination at stake.

"I believe we in the Presbyterian church are at a crossroads, a kairos moment, a time when we're going to have to choose which direction in which to go," said Hunter Farrell, director of World Mission for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Farrell was speaking to more than 600 people who gathered in Louisville Oct. 2-5 for the World Mission '07 "Celebration of Grace" convocation -- an effort by the denomination to jump-start enthusiasm for international mission and to build closer connections between the national staff and Presbyterians involved in world mission at the local level.

Conference commissions 48 itinerating missionaries to “light a fire”

         LOUISVILLE -- It was a moment of pure celebration: the commissioning, during an evening worship service, of 48 missionaries as they embark on a month of itinerating, telling Presbyterians in churches around the country of the impact that Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) international mission efforts are making.

         These missionaries -- who serve from Asia to Africa to South America -- teach in seminaries and heal the sick and work with church partners around the world to provide jobs and education and justice to the suffering.

         They were sent off for what's being called Mission Challenge '07, a month of "telling the story," sent off with blessing from a national gathering of Presbyterians who are dedicated to supporting mission around the world -- and to doing it right, in an atmosphere of partnership and mutual respect.

Opponents of US Episcopal Church’s direction, eye alternative

New York, 1 October (ENI)--A group of North American Episcopal (Anglican) bishops has joined in a partnership to usher in an 'Anglican union' they hope will serve as a formal ecclesiastical alternative to the US Episcopal Church.

General Assembly committee begins its search for a Stated Clerk Nominee

The Stated Clerk Nomination Committee (SCNC), elected at the 217^th General Assembly in Birmingham, AL, is now accepting applications for the position of Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Belated (35 years) letter to the editor happily corrects Outlook’s dire prediction for Big Bay Church

In the December 31, 1972 issue you wrote about "St. George of Big Bay" -- the story of an elderly man in Upper Michigan and his faithful service to a small town and its Presbyterian Church.  The article ended:  "He is a tiny man, giving life to a dying church, in a forgotten town.  This is St. George of Big Bay."  The church cut out the article and framed it, placing it on the wall of pictures of their history.  I found it when I candidated to be their first installed pastor in their 75 years of existence.

Columbia Seminary Offers Pastors Expense-Paid Holy Land Pilgrimage

Decatur, GA--October 22 is the application deadline for a unique spiritual renewal experience offered for mid-career pastors by Columbia Theological Seminary's Center for Lifelong Learning. Journey of Faith: A Pilgrimage of Discernment for Ministry includes a two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land and two short retreats--one before and one after the pilgrimage. Participant costs for travel, accommodations, meals, and materials for the pilgrimage will be paid through a grant from the CF Foundation, through its Holy Land Pastoral Renewal Program. The only cost for those selected to participate will be a registration fee of $250.

Evangelism: Loving God and saying it out loud

NASHVILLE -- In mainline congregations doing a good job with evangelism, what's happening -- what's the secret to success?

Martha Grace Reese, a lawyer and Disciples of Christ minister, asked that question and set out to answer it in a four-year study funded by the Lilly Endowment. Through that project, she and her team conducted a statistical analysis of 150 mainline congregations that do well in reaching people with no church background.

And they interviewed more than 1,400 people and visited 50 congregations from seven mainline denominations, trying to discover what congregations successful at evangelism were doing and what was motivating them.

The results have just been published in a new book, Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism. And Reese shared some of what she learned at the National Presbyterian Evangelism Conference, a gathering of about 500 in Nashville Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

Wallis challenges Presbyterians to call for “justice conversion”

NASHVILLE -- The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has taken the right positions on social justice issues for years, Jim Wallis contends.

But that doesn't accomplish much, he says, if no one is listening.

Wallis is the editor-in-chief of Sojourners Magazine and an organizer of Call to Renewal, an interfaith advocacy group trying to bring people of faith together to work on issues such as poverty and the environment. Wallis travels the world speaking widely and provocatively, trying to change the political winds.

He wants to convince the politicians and the people with power that the grassroots is shifting -- that enough people care about things such as global warming or about children dying by the thousands each day because they don't have food or medicine that the politicians need to pay attention.

Wallis was the kick-off speaker at the National Presbyterian Evangelism Conference Aug. 31-Sept. 3 in Nashville -- part of a renewed emphasis the PC(USA) is trying to place on the importance of spreading the gospel. And he challenged Presbyterians, whose long suit historically has not been evangelism, to call for a "justice conversion," to overtly link religious faith and work on behalf of justice.

‘Claim ministry for your own,’ first-ever national conferees told

NASHVILLE -- Gradye Parsons, director of operations for the Office of the General Assembly, laid down the challenge from the very start of the first-ever National Elders Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) August 29-31 with the theme "Elder as Spiritual Leader: Reclaiming the Call."

"We want to create a bunch of dangerous elders," Parsons said, elders "who know what the ministry of being an elder is about and want to claim that ministry for their own."

The 330 elders attending the conference faced a number of encouraging and challenging speakers on the facets of their ministry.       

Elders should be worship leaders, according to co-presenters Melva Costen and Rhashell Hunter. They thanked the elders in attendance for "saying yes" when pastors call on them to lead out in church ministries.

New ways to communicate with members

One of the major problems in modern congregations is discovering how to communicate effectively with members. If the pastor gives a sermon on Mother's Day, for example, about family life and ways for parents and children to grow together spiritually, chances are that many young parents will never hear it. They may be visiting their own families, attending the regional Junior High track meet or band festival, be at a picnic at the lake, or squeezing in time to get groceries and purchasing a new prom dress at the mall. On any given Sunday, it is unlikely that most churches will have more than 25 percent of the congregation in one place at one time.

One of the challenges for the modern church, therefore, is finding innovative ways to communicate outside of the Sunday service. In the case of Mother's Day a targeted mailing might be the answer. Instead of expecting parents to attend the service why not send the service to them? Acknowledging how busy they are, why not mail (or e-mail) a copy of the pastor's sermon on family life along with a reading list of recommended family devotional guides. Offer to give parents a free copy of the book they would like to use to foster discussion, prayer, and Scripture reading around their dinner table. Better yet, why not send them a DVD of the whole service or make a podcast available for downloading?

James Goodloe IV named executive director of Foundation for Reformed Theology

The Board of Directors of the Foundation for Reformed Theology has appointed James C. Goodloe IV to serve as its executive director, beginning November 1.  Based in Richmond, Va., where Goodloe resides, the Foundation provides funding, programming, and other resources "to renew the theology, ethos, social vision, and hope of the Reformed and Presbyterian community," their statement explains.

Response to grace should be gratitude, not pride, Nyomi says … WARC leader addresses GAC, governing body executives

LOUISVILLE -- God's assurances in 1 Peter that believers are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation" are dangerous words if they are misconstrued, World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) General Secretary Setri Nyomi told a gathering of General Assembly Council members and middle governing body executives here Sept. 17.

         In the dangerous world in which we find ourselves, claiming these words as proof that we are right and those who disagree with us are wrong can be very dangerous," Nyomi said. "Such a reading has too often led to hatred, violence and war."