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The Presbyterian Outlook

Creating and curating trustworthy resources for the church, the Presbyterian Outlook connects disciples of Jesus Christ through compelling and committed conversation for the proclamation of the Gospel.

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Presbyteries and churches struggle with dilemma of withholding per capita from the GA

Kirk Johnston’s congregation decided years ago that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gets it wrong way too often, and that it couldn’t trust the denomination to make good choices about what it funds. So the congregation, First church of Paola, Kan., stopped sending money. Since the controversy over the Reimagining Conference a decade ago, it has withheld the part of its per capita payment that goes to the PC(USA) offices in Louisville, and has used that money instead to fund mission programs that the Paola church selects.

The Story has only just begun

A recent survey of public expectations claims that pessimism prevails in opinions about ethical values. According to a report cited in the Christian Century, more than two-thirds of Americans feel that general morality is on a downhill slope. A vague and unspoken assumption seems to be that American society was once much more keenly centered on high and praiseworthy ideals, but that with the slippage in attention to religious and noble motives, and the seductive attractions of consumerism and a newly permissive amorality, we are gleefully submitting to social corrosion.

Leader of Mosaic says he almost tore his church apart to make it successful

PORTLAND — It sounds like a success story now: a young, growing, multicultural congregation in Los Angeles that’s reaching all kinds of people for Jesus.

But there was a time in that Mosaic ministry when people were so upset, when there was so much change and conflict, that Erwin McManus couldn’t sleep and he gained 30 pounds and his right eye twitched uncontrollably for a year from the stress.

Outlook Reporting

Gracious Separation: just an idea for now

PORTLAND — A sprinkling of people wore buttons that said: "Gracious Separation, A Faithful Choice," and a workshop to discuss it was packed, but it was far from clear whether people were just curious about the idea or willing to actually support it. The Presbyterian Coalition board has not endorsed it — it’s presenting options but not pushing openly for any — and the Lay Committee, where the idea reportedly has some support and some opposition, hasn’t voted yet.

Coalition talk options, including schism but comes to no decisions about future

PORTLAND — Think of Neapolitan ice cream. A stripe of outrage (an old evangelical specialty). A stripe of good news (always a pleasure). A stripe of intense confusion.

Three flavors side by side, ending up all mixed together. That’s pretty much the taste of the Presbyterian Coalition’s recent national gathering here Oct. 6-8, where everything got talked about, from leaving the denomination to godly visions, and nothing got decided.

Two Differing Viewpoints from the Presbyterian Coalition

PORTLAND — Bob Howard used to think the right thing to do was to stick around, to try to change the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) from within. Now he thinks that’s wrong, that it’s time to admit that the denomination can’t be fixed, that the wide Presbyterian family can never agree about theology and that it’s time to split it up. He calls it "gracious separation."

Teach the Confessions

Not least of the problems in the PC(USA) is that we Presbyterians seem unable to talk about our faith in clear and useful ways. If we do have a confident message to share, I suspect it is often different from the faith of the Reformed tradition.

Half-full or Half-empty

He and I hold so much in common. How can we see things so differently? We are both pastora of vital PC(USA) churches. We both proclaim the gospel with passion. We both serve boards of renewal organizations. Yet whenever news breaks in the denomination, he seems to see it as a harbinger of doom, whereas I often see the hand of the Holy Spirit. Time and again, in board meetings we argue against one another and vote in opposition to each other.

Council sets areas of focus for next two years

MONTREAT, N.C. — Moving quickly and with great waving of orange and blue cards, the General Assembly Council polished up its lists of "key areas of focus" on which it wants the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to concentrate its work over the next two years.

Minister Shortage in the PC(USA): Myth or Reality?

"So what is the answer, Lucy?" is the response I receive when folks learn I spent a three-month sabbatical (Winter 2003) at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville exploring this topic with Marcia Clark Myers of Churchwide Personnel Services and Jack Marcum of Research Services. The answer: "Both!"

Before addressing the issues surrounding the availability of clergy, one must first look at the number of congregations and members to be served. The statistics are somewhat startling.

Council members say PC(USA) needs to do a better job selling mission needs to churches

MONTREAT, N.C. — The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) needs to do a better selling job to convince congregations to give money to the denomination with no strings attached — and to make the case that it causes problems when 70 percent of the money comes in with restrictions on how it can be spent.

Council hears about ‘devastating’ results of investigation into missionary sexual abuse

MONTREAT, N.C. — Near the close of its meeting here Saturday, the General Assembly Council received a presentation regarding the PC(USA)’s response to the recommendations of the Independent Committee of Inquiry, which investigated allegations of physical and sexual abuse involving the children of missionaries in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and determined there is "overwhelming" evidence that one charismatic, well-respected Presbyterian missionary, who is now dead, sexually abused at least 22 girls and women over nearly a 40-year period, both in Africa and in the United States, from 1946 through 1985.

Consensus approach being tried in budget-building

MONTREAT, N.C. — The hope is that by the time they leave this weekend, the General Assembly Council will have set some priorities around which the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) budget for 2005 and 2006 will be built.

The details of the budget won’t come until next year — including decisions, if it comes to that, of what jobs and programs might need to be cut.

Proposal to charge fee on restricted giving tabled in wake of considerable criticism

MONTREAT, N.C. — Faced with a blast of criticism and the possibility that angry Presbyterians might stop giving money to the denomination altogether, John Detterick, executive director of the General Assembly Council, said he wants the council to delay acting on a proposal to start assessing a 5 percent administrative fee for restricted donations given to the denomination.

Council members share their dreams for the PC(USA)

MONTREAT, N.C. — One of the jobs the General Assembly Council has at its September meeting is to start working on priorities for the two-year budget, the budget for 2005 and 2006, which must be approved by the General Assembly in Richmond next summer. As part of that process, council members spent some time talking in small groups about their dreams for what the denomination might look like in 10 years.

Moderator shares her joys and concerns for PC(USA)

MONTREAT, N.C. – She calls them joys and concerns.

Things she’s seen and heard as she travels to Presbyterian churches, things that excite her and give her hope, things that have given her some pangs.

Susan Andrews, moderator of the 215th General Assembly, talked to the General Assembly Council Sept. 24 about what she’s noticed so far, based on her first four months on the job and talking to everyone from the national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to the faithful in some of the smallest churches.

Endowment-driven seminaries seek to secure future despite poor economy

Editor's Note — This report was prepared by the Office of Theological Education of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Recent economic events have had a major impact on Presbyterian theological institutions. Many seminaries have been affected by falling markets, because they are heavily dependent on endowment and other invested assets. As President Thomas Gillespie of Princeton Seminary explains, "Endowment plays a more critical role in theological education than it does in the funding of colleges and universities, which are largely tuition driven."

Council to consider fee on restricted giving

MONTREAT, N.C. — When folks are out trying to raise money for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), one of the selling points they sometimes use is that all of the money given will go for a particular cause — to help hungry people in a particular part of the world, or the victims of a hurricane or drought or some other natural disaster.

GAC Chair Carroll seeks more than status quo

MONTREAT, N.C. — Vernon Carroll, chair of the General Assembly Council, has a vision for what that group can be, for how it can lead the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) And it’s not, Carroll says, that "we’re just custodians trying to maintain the status quo."

Seminary offer specialty programs to meet needs, attract students

The University of Dubuque Seminary, in the heartland of the country, offers programs both in rural ministry and in the church and technology, tying theology to the land and to the wireless world.

Both San Francisco and Princeton seminaries have programs focused on spirituality and young people — recognizing, perhaps, that the music and preferences and questioning of teen-agers and young adults signal both a real hunger for God and a desire for things in churches to change, not later, but now.

Remembering and Re-membering an Essential Ecosystem

Let me begin with an act of memory.

I remember — I’ve not just read about, but I remember — a time in the life of the American mainline church when there was a vital understanding of, and deep confidence in, the language of vocation. I can actually diagram the way in which, at various junctures, this language got spoken in practical ways, to the end that a whole churchly ecosystem participated in the discernment and encouragement of my own sense of vocation.

The Gift of Theological EducationL Learning to Read before Learning to Talk

Deep in the South Georgia forests, perched up on the fender of a Ford tractor at eight years of age, I was surprised when Henry slammed it to a halt. Moving carefully, he took his single-shot .22 rifle from where it had been stowed behind his seat and fired a bullet through the brain of the largest rattlesnake that I had ever seen. We carried the dead snake with us back to the house, where Henry, the plantation superintendent, proceeded to skin it and cut off its rattles for all to see.

Paul and Theological Education for Mission Funding

In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) we are short on members but still have substantial funds for mission. Churches in the "Two-Third’s World" have greater and greater numbers of people but are short on funds for ministry. How can we best become partners in mission? Surely some special "theological education" is required.

Short-term mission trips are a popular form of ministry that bring different parts of the body of Christ together.

A Strategic Business Plan for Placing the Best Minds in Pulpits

Recently a religious fortnightly heralded a certain conservative school’s organized deployment of its best M.A. graduates into prestigious philosophy programs nationally and internationally. From there, earned doctorates in hand, these same students are assisted into the academy becoming leaders in the current revival of metaphysics, philosophy of religion, business ethics and philosophical theology.

Mission co-workers learn about the world while answering the call to serve abroad

It is difficult, in the comfort of an America of Wal-Marts and democracy, to imagine what life is like in other parts of the world. But each year, some of the mission co-workers for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gather for a Sharing Conference, in which they talk about their work, their calling, their difficulties and joys.

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