The commissioners and delegates need our prayers. They are feeling the weight of a load we are asking them to shoulder during..
I have finally surrendered my Yankee membership card. I’d spent my first 28 years north of the Mason-Dixon Line. But I moved south of that border 29 years ago, so I’m now officially a Southerner. What a difference that has made!
The next edition of the Outlook will launch a four-volume series of articles that will provide in-depth analysis of the major issues coming to the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
"Where in the Bible does it say we’re supposed to organize new churches according to the franchise model?” The question, uttered in a presbytery meeting nearly 30 years ago, stung like a bee — as intended.
When stresses weigh us down, one of the best paths of escape is to curl up with a book. If this spring book issue of the Outlook prompts you to take such a plunge, it will have accomplished a good end. If it draws you to the “Glory to God” hymnal website to read and hum through the “compact theology” contained there (see p. 11), it may even lift the weight making your shoulders droop.
Late adopters are gradually shifting from calling their preachers “Minister of Word and Sacrament” to “Teaching Elder,” as guided by that shift in language in the recently revised Book of Order section of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s constitution. But before the ink dries, we really ought to reclaim another label: pastor.
If I had a nickel for every time a fellow Presbyterian has said, “God is calling me to such and such …
T
he book was published 10 years ago. The traveling show — presenting full-day seminars on the subject by the authors Bill Easum and Dave Travis — circled the country around that time, too. And a big impact was made, if only by putting the title in front of the church: “Beyond the Box.”
I blew it. Here I was up to my eyeballs co-editing two different letters of outreach to many of my disaffected friends in the PC(USA), promising to “sow seeds of grace, kindness, respect and cooperation in every possible way — all toward the end of us all serving as agents of reconciliation before the watching world, as Scripture requires of us.”
LAHORE, Pakistan
If the road to recovery begins with confessing your sins, then the future of Pakistan should brighten.
Here I stand; I can do no other.” I’ve heard those words more times than I can recall — mostly from pastors who were drawing a line in the sand and separating themselves either from a rival faction in the congregation or from their denomination of affiliation or both. However, many of those pastors ultimately sounded a different refrain: “If only I’d known what would have resulted, I never would have started this.”
2011. Good, bad or otherwise? For Presbyterians, 2011 was either the year of the breakthrough or the year of the collapse, either the year of clarifying or the year of confusing, either the year of ending the war or declaring war. It all depends on your perspective.
I’m going to miss Tom Gillespie. Now I’m going to resist getting sentimental, ‘cause sentimental wasn’t Tom’s style. I want to wax substantial, ‘cause that WAS Tom’s style.
The Covenant Network (CN) long has pursued the daunting agenda both “to work for the removal of ordination barriers to the full participation of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] Presbyterians, and to support the mission and unity of the denomination.”
MEMO to elders and educators: Don’t keep this magazine! Please give it to a high school student.
“One shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” ‘Tis a truism for the ages. But does that dictum actually say, “every” word? If so, then how might the humble teaching elder possibly serve one’s spiritually hungry table guests every word of the Lord?
When the Outlook’s full-time associate editor Martha Skelton retired last January, we hired Mike Jennings to a half-time position, tasking him to take over most, but not all, of her duties.
It wasn’t easy surviving the 1960s. Not only did the nation heave after the assassinations of JFK, RFK and MLK. Not only did we convulse over our struggle to integrate.
Most letters to the editor arrive in response to a particular article. The following one came without prompt from Walter Smith of Lynchburg, Va.
What crazy person would accept the call to be president of a Presbyterian seminary in this present, precarious environment?
If, as Charles Finney claimed, the devils of hell rejoice when the Presbyterian General Assembly is in session, do they rejoice doubly when other Presbyterians gather near the site of the previous assembly? The upcoming, two-day, Minneapolis gathering called by Fellowship PC(USA) has generated about 2,000 registrations, mostly from Presbyterians disheartened by recent constitutional changes that signal to them a turn toward hell. As they gather the devils have reason to hope and much to fear.
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