On the bulletin board in the choir room at the Pasadena Church, there was a poster with a line drawing of someone in a choir robe and the caption: “The one who sings prays twice.”
So, after three years of talking about the new Form of Government Task Force project, the Outlook has finally succumbed to the temptation to put fog on the cover. Our self-restraint grew faint. Ah, well...
Last summer, the General Assembly essentially decided that the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was not ready yet to make a clear decision on the recommendations of the Form of Government Task Force.
Effective planning requires both high-level strategy and ground-level tactics. Today let’s “get granular” and examine a tactic in Membership Development.
Editor’s Note: The OUTLOOK reported recently that the membership losses that have been shrinking mainline denominations now appear to be impacting the Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists.
On a cold January Sunday morning in Austin, my wife and I woke up wanting bagels — warm and fresh from a local bagel shop near the University of Texas.
March 9, 2009 - So now I better understand the frequent complaint of Parker Williamson arising from times when he has been..
Christian educators don’t gather at their annual APCE conference (see p. 6) to hear statistical analyses of denominational growth trends.
The heart of any effective Communications Strategy is a radical commitment to communicating information. You have to believe that constituents need and deserve information in order to participate effectively.
Mark 8:31-38
Editor’s Note: This devotional is the second of seven to run in the Outlook in observance of the 2009 Lenten season. They are based on the lectionary texts for each week.
In this season of leadership retreats, it’s important to focus on trust and communications.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, how much our lives have been shaped by conversations — from those first listening-only conversations with doting parents to the pastor’s final visit at our bedside; from the teacher showing us how to draw to the police officer asking if we know how fast we were driving; from comparing Christmas gifts with neighbor kids to the domestic disagreement between spouses; from the class discussion to the flirty introductions with the eHarmony date; from the lengthy love letters to the telegraphed text messages. Conversations define our lives.
The presbyteries are beginning to debate and vote again on the controversial “fidelity-and-chastity statement” in our Book of Order (G-6.0106b).
Now he’s gone and done it. Clark Cowden, the executive presbyter of San Diego Presbytery has questioned the structure of our General Assemblies. He has said that the whole week of deliberation and decision-making is broken (p. 11).
They say a pastor at Church of the Heavenly Rest, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, built his congregation by standing outside the doors on Sunday morning and inviting passers-by to come inside.
The most effective Membership Development Program will be balanced.
Churches will give equal emphasis to recruitment, retention, and transformation. Put another way, that means equal emphasis on helping people through the front door, helping them to avoid the back door, and helping them to discover the new life that they probably came seeking.
Mark 1:9-15
Editor’s Note: This devotional is the first of seven to run in the Outlook in observance of the 2009 Lenten season. They are based on the lectionary texts for each week.
Here’s the situation. Available houses on the market have outgrown the number of homebuyers, producing an excess inventory of 1.5 million unsold homes.
When we use the term “customer-driven,” as opposed to “provider-driven,” to describe best practices in church management and program, we aren’t redefining church members as paying customers in a profit-making enterprise.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is shrinking in membership, because we have fewer members in nurseries than in nursing homes. We’re dying faster than we’re birthing. Our demographics are working against us.
Reading and reflecting on Erwin C. Barron’s three-part essay on the perennial controversy over ordination of gay and lesbian pastors — (November 10, 17 and 24, 2008 issues of The Presbyterian Outlook), as well as subsequent related letters from readers — has been a discouraging experience for this observer. A highly contentious vote of the presbyteries is coming, and a basis for genuine consensus does not exist. No matter which side “wins” the presbytery balloting in coming months, the issue will not be settled and will not go away. It seems probable that continuing contention in the short term will only delay the adoption of a widely accepted way forward, but that forbearance in the short term could favor success over time.
I was five when I was baptized. I don't know why they waited, but one Sunday my parents took me and my little brother to the local Presbyterian Church. I vividly remember standing in front of the congregation, excited, knowing something very special was happening but entirely unsure of what it was. An elder from the Session gave us each a tiny embroidered rainbow as a reminder of God’s Covenant. It still hangs in my childhood room in my parents’ home.
In an age of “TMI” — “Too Much Information” — it is critical that all church communications acknowledge “brevity (as) the soul of wit.”
If the chief end of man [and woman] is to glorify God, then the central purpose of worship must be the same. While pursuing that purpose, would it be inappropriate for worshipers to enjoy God as well? Reformed worship proclaims God’s greatness. It also teaches participants to order their beliefs and behaviors in godly ways. It calls believers to gather in community and to scatter into mission. But enjoy God? Not in First Presbyterian Church!
Hey You –
Close to real skin color David —
What slingshot will you use to fight our ailments?
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