The members of the General Assembly Council (GAC) have taken great strides to enlarge our world mission work. In the process, they and Presbyterian Foundation together have sought to deploy all available funds for use in mission and ministry.
However, three proposals coming before the San Jose GA this June 21-28 could alter the way those funds get invested and deployed (see p. 8). If the commissioners handle these proposals well, the mission of the church will be advanced. If mishandled, controls built into the system to ensure proper allocation of funds may be compromised.
How are your teeth? The Form of Government (FOG) section of the Book of Order will climb onto the dentist’s chair for commissioners’ diagnosis when the 218th General Assembly gathers in San Jose, Calif., this coming June 21-28.
I can’t wait for GA. I can’t wait for this General Assembly 36% more than I couldn’t wait for the past GAs. That’s because we’ll have 36% more commissioners (see p. 6) who will generate 36% more excitement.
He didn’t include you or me in his will, but his legacy has made us rich, and his vision continues to illumine our eyes years after his death — August 6, 1998 and one hundred years after his birth — May 7, 1908.
They’re off! The race is on. The kickoff is in the air. The puck is on the ice. The first pitch is thrown.
Choose your favorite athletic metaphor. Easter is behind us and the 218th General Assembly looms on the horizon — awaiting us on June 20 in San Jose, Calif. The season of contesting legislation and campaigning leaders has been launched.
One colleague calls it "Amnesty April." Others call it "data cleanup" and "data scrubbing."
Whatever the name, this month at the church I serve we will initiate a thorough cleanup of our membership data. That may seem a small and mechanical matter, but I think it cuts to the heart of what we do.
So how do you respond to the Jeremiah Wright episode? Most pastors would be thrilled to discover that after one's retirement from pastoral ministry millions of people watch videotaped excerpts of their sermons. Wright probably isn't thrilled.
The broadcast on YouTube of excerpts from some of Wright's sermons has generated widespread
Baseball is often rhapsodized as a religion in America. It makes sense then that Yankee Stadium is a stomping ground for popes.
The only two who have set foot on U.S. soil have celebrated Mass in the Bronx, in the most famous sports arena this side of the Colosseum.
On April 20, Pope Benedict XVI was set to become the third.
The crisp, hot, late afternoon sunshine in Nicaragua is perfect for playing baseball. Who might want to play?
We notice that the construction crews seemed to finish up the day's work with a bit more energy and gusto; several of them asked me as the work for the day wound down, "Baseball?" Just that one word, with their deep Spanish language accent, and the interrogative lilt rolling up at the end, turned a word into a question. "Si," I would readily reply, wondering what I was getting myself into.
Recent studies indicate that only about half of our church members grew up Presbyterian, and many of these left our Presbyterian congregations during their teen years only to return later as they begin to establish families. As a result, an understanding of our Presbyterian heritage and the tenets/themes of our Reformed faith is not part of the background or memory of most of our members.
As folks make a commitment to the ministry of teaching children or youth, they often come to the task with a sense of call, a love for young people, a desire to pass along the stories of our faith, and an earnestness to teach with creativity and age appropriateness. However, many are unaware that being Reformed implies particular things about the ways that we teach the children and youth in our care. To that end, we look to the major tenets our tradition to consider how they inform our teaching.
Much hand wringing and pessimism -- maybe fatigue? -- is evident as we seek to engage our congregations in vital, faithful, effective Adult Christian Education. Also evident are the attempts to understand how and why things are different. Contributions from those versed in demographics and sociological realities have been useful. People who study leadership and systems theories have provided keen insights into our current situation and challenges. Generational theory has been a powerful lens through which to evaluate our context and relationships. Examining postmodernity and its effects on educational ministry can be helpful as well.
This article offers some of the ideas presented at my workshop, "Brain Research Comes to Sunday School," at the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators conference in February. The good attendance at this workshop is an indication that Christian educators want to learn about brain research and ways it might help them be better teachers. In Our Spiritual Brain, Barbara Bruce wrote that religious educators need to know how the brain functions and how to translate that information into better, more usable lessons to help students continue their journey of faith.
"There you go, God, here is some Play-Doh for you," a four-year-old announced, placing a blob of yellow Play-Doh on the table and then scooting an empty chair next to her own so that both touched. She continued to roll and mash the Play-Doh, every so often adding a bit more to the handful for God until her mom arrived. As she said goodbye to one of the adult leaders, she held up her hands closed tightly together and whispered, "All you have to do is hold your hands like this and God is with you. God likes coming to Sunday school with me and he's holding my hand now to go to church with me." Although resembling the imaginary friend of a young child, God truly existed in the heart and mind of this young child. A few years later in a kindergarten through fifth grade Sunday school group talking with the leader about fears, her connection with God gave her the confidence, despite being one of the youngest in the group, to share with the others, "I know God is always with me even if I can't see him and when I am afraid at night I just talk to God."
I have seen the dream. Three times. And since it takes two or three witnesses to confirm, I now believe it to be true. The APCE folks are pointing the way to a vital, healthy future for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The energizing and edifying General Assemblies of the future may well resemble the APCE conferences of today.
This past month, I attended my third-in-a-row conference of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators, a gathering of 1,000+ leaders from around the PC(USA) -- plus counterparts from the Presbyterian Church in Canada, Christian Reformed Church, and the Reformed Church in America. For the third time in a row the conference I attended overflowed with authentic worship, superior skills enrichment, warm fellowship, and thoughtful ideas engagement (see p. 9).
Power plays and political maneuvering were conspicuously absent.
How can this be? How do they avoid the political wrangling that overwhelms General Assemblies?
Consider the following familiar scenario. A pastor takes a new call in youth ministry. He begins enthusiastically, on fire to gather young people into Christ's fold. Youth ministry begins to flourish over the course of the next two years, and then suddenly he resigns. The youth are devastated. The congregation is at first bemused, then shrugs its collective shoulders, and re-gathers itself for another mission study, another search committee, and hopefully a better match. Perhaps the next associate pastor will last a little longer.
As corruption clouds politics, as public figures deny and then confess, as people become increasingly suspicious of basic institutions like their banks, schools and, yes, their churches, the need for transparency becomes critical.
People don't expect perfection from their churches. They know that clergy are overworked and underpaid. They know that lay leaders are overworked and not paid at all. They know that people renege on commitments and don't give what they should. They know that weather, basketball tournaments, and human orneriness can undo the best-laid plans.
Early one Sunday morning in the spring of 2003, in the quiet hours before services would begin at the evangelical church where I worship in Charlottesville, Va., I opened files compiled by my research assistant and read the statements drafted by Christians around the world in opposition to the American invasion of Iraq.
It is very much a part of the Reformed faith to be muddling about in the public policy decision-making process. John Calvin himself wrote in the 20th chapter of the Fourth Book of the Institutes of Christian Religion, "Wherefore no man can doubt that civil authority is, in the sight of God, not only sacred and lawful, but the most sacred, and by far the most honorable, of all stations in mortal life." Scripture reminds us of the necessity to speak out on behalf of the poor, the hungry, and the vulnerable.
I once worked with a congregation whose members were divided from one another over various issues. It was, more than anything, a power struggle. Both sides knew they were right. Neither side would agree to sit down with the other. One Sunday, an elder volunteered to offer the prayer after the sermon as was their custom. She then prayed that God would make the rest of the congregation come to realize her side was right.
Of course, we all know that elder was wrong. But how often do we pray for others, entreating God to change them so they will agree with us, not necessarily so they will agree with God? I imagine we have all done this on occasion. That is why it is so important to stress Paul's (or the author's) words in 1 Timothy 2:1, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone. Paul goes on to support this by saying that God wants all to be saved and that Christ died as a ransom for all. If we, as Christians, truly believe these statements of God's love and care, the way we pray for others must be transformed from our selfish motives into legitimate love and concern for the other person, whether that person is your granddaughter or Osama Bin Laden.
"I don't believe that change comes from the top down," Barack Obama has said throughout his presidential campaign. "It comes from the bottom up."
Voters are debating whether Obama has the experience necessary to be president, but he certainly has experience as a community organizer. In the mid-80s, he was hired by a small group of churches on the south side of Chicago to organize low-income people. He helped them to define their mutual interests, work together to change their communities, and improve their lives. He came to believe that real change comes "from the bottom up."
Can human rights survive secularization? Nicholas Wolterstorff really wants to know, because he's not sure they can.
Wolterstorff, the Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School recently presented a lecture at the National Church in Washington, D.C., to address this question. Sponsored by the Reformed Institute of Metropolitan Washington, his comments reflected research presented in his most recent book, Justice -- Rights and Wrongs (Princeton University Press).
Not everyone processes information the same way. Few of us receive it the first time we see/hear it.
Some hear, some read words, some see images, others do best with word of mouth. No one method catches everyone.
Happy holidays. Yes, the Christmas season is behind us. Easter, too. So, without all the Advent energy swirling around, let's talk about the "Merry Christmas controversy." Should we Christians be wishing strangers a merry Christmas next December? Should we be urging store clerks to say, "Merry Christmas" and not the maligned "Happy holidays"? Should we be expecting others to honor our Savior's birth as we do?
Of course, the underlying issue here is the matter of faith and culture. Is our culture basically a Christian one? Was our nation founded by believers like us and for believers like us?
The National Anthem's lyrics gained fresh meaning five years ago when the United States attacked and invaded Iraq. On TV we saw Baghdad aflame with bombs exploding and tracer bullets lighting the night sky. With apologies to Francis Scott Key for revising his lyrics, "The rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was firmly planted in Baghdad." For maybe 100 years, say John McCain.
Why did our nation invade Iraq?
President George W. Bush, soon after occupying the White House, boldly announced he "had a clear vision of where I want to lead America." Sometimes he fumbled syntax and mispronounced words. The late arch-critic Molly Ivins, who rarely came to his rescue, told mocking pundits, "You can usually tell what he meant to say."
It stands to reason that a denomination named after its older members would have a lot of older members. Given that the word presbyter means "elder" we ought not be surprised to hear that the median age of Presbyterians is 58 and that 39% of our members are retired [according to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Research Services.]
For all the talk about our failure to reach and mobilize young adults -- a hobbyhorse I ride with regularity -- many of our congregations have directed their efforts to make older adult ministry a specialty.
© Copyright 2026 The Presbyterian Outlook. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement. Website by Web Publisher PRO
