BALTIMORE – Closing worship – but not the final event – of the Big Tent conference held in Baltimore 1-3, focused on remembrance and celebration. Rhashell Hunter, director of Racial Equity & Women's Intercultural Ministries, invited Big Tent participants to give thanks for Tom Hay, director of assembly operations with the Office of the General Assembly, as he prepares to retire this fall.   Youth participants sang “Over My Head” — Over my head, I hear music in the air; There must be a God somewhere.   A prayer of confession (with the refrain: God of grace, forgive us) and declaration of forgiveness was shared from the baptismal font. Youth lead the prayer for illumination and read the Beatitudes (from Matthew 5). Renita J. Weems, co-pastor of Ray of Hope Community Church in Nashville and author of several books, including “Just a Sister Away: Understanding the Timeless Connection Between Women of Today and Women in the Bible,” … [Read more...]

Folks attending Big Tent 2019 were asked to sign prayer boards for leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) – for stated clerk J. Herbert Nelson and General Assembly co-moderators Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and Cindy Kohlmann. So the Presbyterians wrote their prayers – for courage, grace, strength, for a continuing prophetic voice, of thanksgiving for all the travel and commitment and time away from families, early mornings and late nights. For shalom. La paz de Christo. Amen … [Read more...]

BALTIMORE – Day two of Big Tent culminated with a rousing call to action delivered with conviction and clarity by Amantha Barbee, senior pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia. Barbee, after reading 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, Psalm 51:10-12 and the text chosen to shape all of the gathering, Romans 12, noted that, “Transformation is an amazing thing, a powerful thing, a life changing thing, but it doesn’t stand alone. It comes in three parts: transitions, truth and transformation.” Naming a multitude of transitions – from a job change to weight gain – Barbee reminded the Big Tent congregation that every change requires us to face the truths that go with them. A new job, for example, may bring with it a geographical move, loss of beloved colleagues and the stress of learning different skills. Gaining weight, if one wants to reverse that transition, entails facing the truth that other changes need to be enacted — ones that do not come without concerted effort. The point? … [Read more...]

Mystery and metamorphosis: What does wonder have to do with transformation? William Brown, professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, invited Big Tent attendees to ponder that question based on the text of Romans 12:2, “Do not conform yourself to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind so you can discern what is the will of God – what is good and pleasing and complete.” (Brown’s translation) During Big Tent Bible study August 2, Brown emphasized our call to be different from this age, this time in which we live.  Projecting a series of images from recent events on the screens, Brown invited participants to call out adjectives describing our current age. Words like “tragic,” “sad,” “violent” and “broken” resounded through the ballroom, making the need to somehow be different for our current time period abundantly clear. Noting that the Greek word for “transformed” is the same as that for “transfigured,” Brown pointed to texts like that from 2 … [Read more...]

BALTIMORE – In a time of intense partisanship and a dangerous moment for the country politically, “there’s no more important time to be a pastor in a local church.” That’s part of the message that Robert P. Jones – a researcher in religion and trends in American political life, and the founder and chief executive officer of the nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute – delivered Aug. 2 at a breakfast at Big Tent 2019 sponsored by the Presbyterian Foundation. Jones won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book “The End of White Christian America.” Journalists from around the country call him for his take on the influence of religion on elections and American political life — particularly the role that white Christians played in electing Donald Trump as president in 2016, and the prospects for what might happen in 2020. For example, Jones wrote in the Atlantic this summer about how white Christians are no longer the majority in America (just 41% in 2018), but … [Read more...]