In a recent budget discussion, I noted that the future of our church didn’t depend on spending. We can’t buy health or growth or a mission worth pursuing. Instead, we must encourage people to give away their lives on behalf of others. That will include money, but the heart of it won’t be expense items. The heart will be community, acceptance, sharing, listening, engaging, loving.
In the midst of chaos strong leaders take time to see beyond worrisome symptoms and distressing situations by recognizing emerging opportunities and rising leaders.
Seminaries: the schools you hate to love.
Most pastors deeply appreciate their respective theological alma maters (see report on p. 10). They thank God for the superior scholarship, for their favorite faculty-mentors’ attentiveness, and for the community spirit they experienced.
I must have Beijing on my mind. But if you can stand a sports metaphor, church management is more like a basketball game than a gymnastics exercise.
So where does that road go that’s paved with good intentions?
Sister elder, brother deacon, do you get it? Do you understand how radical it is for you to have been ordained to your position of leadership?
Measuring results might seem dull ministry compared to membership development, leadership development, spiritual development, and other hands-on ministries of the healthy church.
For those who love people and want to follow in the ministry of Jesus Christ, there is no better office to assume than that of deacon in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
As editor of a magazine that speaks to the whole church, I feel compelled to speak to friends of various convictions — while allowing all others to overhear the conversation. Two weeks ago I began with the group that has most nurtured my faith: conservative-evangelicals. Last week, I wrote to those who have broadened my vision: liberal-progressives. This week, I address those who have grounded my churchmanship, centrist-ecclesiasts.
To be healthy, not every church needs a demographically correct suburban location, a 30-something pastor with 20 years of flawless experience, a denomination free of bickering and embarrassment, a pot of gold, and a doctrinal package so compelling that God himself applauds.
SAN FRANCISCO — In just a few weeks since the end of the218th General Assembly, it is safe to say that serving as moderator already has been an incredibly meaningful experience.
As editor of a magazine that speaks to the whole church, I feel compelled to speak to friends of various convictions — while allowing all others to overhear the conversation. Last week I began with the group that has most nurtured my faith: conservative-evangelicals. This week, I write to those who have broadened my vision: liberal-progressives. Next week, I’ll address those who have grounded my churchmanship, centrist-ecclesiasts.
The Internet age gives you a tool of immense reach and power: “viral marketing.”
When it comes to policy issues related to Israel/Palestine, the 2008 General Assembly made significant movement back toward the positive, prophetic peacemaking approach the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) employed prior to 2004. This is a good thing.
As editor of a magazine that speaks to the whole church, I feel compelled to speak to friends of various convictions — while allowing all others to overhear the conversation. This week I begin with the group that has most nurtured my faith: conservative-evangelicals. Next week, I’ll write to those who have broadened my vision: liberal-progressives. Then I’ll address those who have grounded my churchmanship, centrist-ecclesiasts.
Like all buzz words, transparency can be overused. I understand why a colleague said recently, “I am so tired of the word ‘transparency.’”
I think the 218th General Assembly which met in California should be called “The Oprah Assembly.” It was so postmodern. So open. So culturally attuned. So worldly. So tolerant. Just so “Oprah.”
June was a month of excitement for me. I was excited about the new call I received, I was excited about returning to California, for I had been in Iowa for the last seventeen years, and I was excited because the timing of my move coincided with the General Assembly in San Jose.
Church musicians walk a delicate line. Many are classically trained. Their tastes might be broad, but at some level, many believe that “serious music” is better than “popular music,” and it is their job to defend musical excellence.
SAN JOSE — “It is no accident that the Committee on Peacemaking and International Issues takes so much time,” said outgoing Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick.
Call me crazy, but it’s time for us Presbyterians to act like Congress. Yes, I know that the voter approval rating of the U.S. Congress — 19% in mid-June, even worse than the president’s — is the lowest in recorded history. But Congress does have three attributes we do well to emulate.
To keep up on calendar management — a true art form in New York City — I recently switched my calendar to the “cloud,” a/k/a the Internet.
“It was his youthfulness.”
“He’s the new Rick Ufford-Chase.”
The initial reactions to the Authoritative Interpretation of G-6.0108 approved by the General Assembly in San Jose were dramatic. Some were rejoicing, others despairing, because they believed that the General Assembly, in approving the overture submitted by the John Knox Presbytery, had removed the impediment to the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians that had been declared by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission in the case Bush v. Presbytery of Pittsburgh.
Editor’s Note: This sermon was preached recently at First Church in Dubuque, Iowa. The Scripture references include Psalm 146:1-7, Romans 13:1-7, and John 18:33-38a.
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