Company of New Pastors group supports first-time pastors

The young woman told the story of her first call, as the associate pastor at a mid-sized church. She was learning a lot, starting to hit her stride, beginning to earn respect from the congregation. That's about when the senior pastor started showing -- sometimes in not-so-subtle ways -- that he didn't much appreciate her being in the limelight.

She began to wonder, "Is this really where God has called me to be?"

That experience, which the woman shared during a workshop recently, may not be all that unusual -- first calls often bring some jolts, some rough roads along with the thrills and adventures.

And now some serious work is being done to help first-call pastors deal with the bumps -- to put them in networks with mentors seasoned in the ministry and with peers who are also starting out; to give them a sounding board to figure out what's typical and what can't be tolerated; to help them develop spiritual disciplines that can last a lifetime.

Christian Reformed leader suspension lifted

(RNS) A minister who was forced to step down from the top executive post in the Christian Reformed Church last year because of alleged inappropriate conduct has been reinstated to active ministry.

Expectations, realities hit first-time pastors

For Christopher Crotwell, a Columbia Theological Seminary graduate who's pastor of New Providence Church in Raphine, Va., the Company of New Pastors "allowed me to fill a hole I wasn't sure how I was going to fill" after graduation.

Peacemaker tells presbytery about CPT work in Iraq

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -  Beth Pyles, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams group that suffered the loss of member Tom Fox in Iraq, recently described her spiritual journey at a workshop during the Presbytery of West Virginia's annual Festival of Faith educational event.

The decision to join CPT was "mostly spiritual, partly political," acknowledges Pyles, who set aside a 22-year legal career in Parkersburg, W.Va. to attend Princeton Theological Seminary. It was spiritual because "we follow a Savior who was killed for the greater good for the greater number. We are a people who do not follow a cause, we follow a person," she said. It was political because "what we're doing in Iraq is problematic," Pyles stated.

Law and Gospel

Editor's Note: This essay is Part 2 in a series aimed at giving a voice to the center in the current theological debate within the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. 

The General Assembly's Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church has called us to the task of theological dialogue, and its report has given us a lead in starting the discussion. We might be tempted merely to re-polarize around this report, as some have done. A more constructive response is to reconfigure the issues with which we are dealing, and press forward--together.

GAC releases names of those laid off

LOUISVILLE -- General Assembly Council Executive Director John Detterick today (May 2) formally released the names of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) national staff employees who have lost their jobs in the "reduction in force" needed to reduce the 2007-2008 General Assembly mission budget by $9.15 million.

Seventy-five employees lost their jobs May 1, the largest single layoff at the Presbyterian Center since 1993, when 140 jobs were eliminated.

GAC approves 2007 budget; details on cuts May 1

LOUISVILLE -- Without releasing any specifics of a $9.1 million budget cut, the details of which are expected to emerge May 1, the General Assembly Council of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has unanimously approved a budget of $97.2 million for 2007 and of $95.9 million for 2008.

What exactly that will fund -- what programs will be kept and which will be cut -- remains to be seen, as virtually all the council's budget discussions over four days took place behind closed doors.

When the council finally pushed open the doors, about a half-hour before they were scheduled to adjourn for worship April 29, they handed out only overall budget figures they had approved. More details will be released May 1 after employees being terminated are informed.

GAC requests diplomatic response to divestment

LOUISVILLE -- The General Assembly Council is asking the General Assembly in Birmingham to respond to more than two dozen overtures on Israel, Palestine and divestment by setting up a process for monitoring what's happening in the Middle East.

The council wants the assembly not to jump to action -- but to set up a seven- member "working group" that represents a range of views on divestment. That group would spend time listening carefully to Christians, Jews and Muslims concerned about the difficulties in Israel, and would "develop guidance that honors each of their concerns" to present to the assembly in 2008.

PDA hurricane response plan

LOUISVILLE -- Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is proposing a long-term strategy for responding to the hurricanes of 2005 -- a plan that would organize the Presbyterian response for five to seven years in Mississippi and for eight to 12 years in Louisiana.

"The affected area is so large that responding to all communities is not feasible," states a report to the General Assembly Council outlining the plan. 

But Presbyterian Disaster Assistance is working now in 15 communities in Mississippi and seven in Louisiana. It has set up six "Volunteer Villages" where volunteer teams from churches across the country stay when they come to assist with the relief work.

The volunteer tent villages each cost about $8,500 a month to operate. And the response from churches has been terrific, said Susan Ryan, who leads Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Volunteers have come to help from 40 states and three other countries, she said in an interview. In March alone, the villages hosted 1,890 volunteers who gave 12,372 days of work valued at $1.48 million.

Auburn Seminary launches the Auburn Coaching Institute

Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City introduces a new program bringing the best of business and professional coaching into the sphere of theological education and ministerial support. 

The Auburn Coaching Institute is designed by and for people dedicated to furthering the mission of the church through effective leadership and ministries. Church leaders from across a spectrum of backgrounds and locations have experienced coaching through classes at Auburn and through the New York Sabbatical Institute, a program funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. and administered by Auburn in partnership with Union and New York Theological Seminaries. 

Immigration in America: What will churches do?

Presbyterians concerned about immigration, who are watching closely the Senate debate over immigration reform and feeling the press of an estimated 12 million undocumented workers on cities and congregations, know this: whatever legislation gets passed, this issue won't just go away.

A new "Presbyterians for Just Immigration" e-mail network https://www.pcusa.org/acrec/immigrationreform.htm  is jumping with conversation about what's happening -- with folks tracking the status of proposed legislation and lobbying efforts, and brainstorming about what, in local communities, can and needs to be done.

If legislation is put in place that would impede churches from helping undocumented immigrants -- a version of this has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives -- then "we aren't going to obey," said Mauricio Chacón, pastor of Iglesia Presbiteriana de la Misión in San Francisco. "We are going to have civil disobedience. ... as Christians, we have a higher law than the law of man. ... This goes against my principles, against my beliefs, as a religious person."

Bill would ban protests at soldier funerals

(RNS) Legislation that would slap protesters at funerals of U.S. soldiers with hefty fines and federal jail time is on the fast track in Congress.

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., the bill's main sponsor, said he hopes the House and Senate will approve the bill by May so President Bush can sign it into law before Memorial Day.

In the last month, protests at military funerals around the country have angered state and federal officials. The protests were led by the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., which argues that the war in Iraq is God's way of punishing the United States for tolerating homosexuality. The church is led by its controversial pastor, Fred Phelps.

Immigrant Resources

How can your church learn more about immigration issues and the challenges they raise for Christians? Here are some resources:

The General Assembly in 2004 passed a "Resolution Calling for a Comprehensive Legalization Program for Immigrants Living and Working in the U.S." https://index.pcusa.org/NXT/gateway.dll?fn=default.htm$f=templates$vid=GA216:10.1048/Enu$3.0

Communicators should challenge ‘false religion’

CLEVELAND -- President Michael Livingston of the National Council of Churches (NCC) has urged church communicators to "tell our story -- by any means necessary."

Livingston, a Presbyterian minister who also serves as executive director of the International Council of Community Churches, said: "Mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches have been pounded into irrelevancy by the media machine of a false religion."

He described what passes as religion to be "a political philosophy masquerading as gospel; an economic principle wrapped in religious rhetoric and painted red, white and blue."

Does prayer help healing? No benefit, says study

c. 2006 Religion News Service

It's a profound if unanswerable question for many who ask God to heal the sick: Can prayer actually help another person recover from disease?

A group of prominent scientists recently sought at least part of the answer, in the largest study of its kind, and concluded that prayer from strangers had no effect on whether people suffered complications from coronary artery bypass surgery.

"The effect of intercessory prayer was neutral. It showed no sign of any benefit," said Charles Bethea, an Oklahoma cardiologist and researcher who participated in the $2.4 million study by the John Templeton Foundation, which supports exploration of ties between religion and science.

Not only were effects of prayer by strangers neutral, the study said, but a selected group of patients -- who knew with certainty that strangers were praying for them -- experienced complications at higher rates than did two other groups who were told only that they might receive prayer. The group faring best was the only one not to receive strangers' prayers.

The researchers acknowledged their study was not definitive and called for more research on the subject.