We are living in the “age of the unthinkable,” declared Australian keynote speaker Alan Hirsch to 1,200 American Presbyterians who also bear..
Church leaders often worry that Sunday morning is the ”most segregated day of the week.” On Sunday, churchgoers gather inside congregations that..
by Laird Stuart For a number of years I taught a course at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary on parish administration and leadership. At..
Prior to deciding to leave the Presbyterian Outlook to take the call to pastor a congregation again, I sought the counsel of..
by Shane Berg, Donald M. Vorp, John Andrew Newgren and Gregory Murray Libraries, since their inception, have focused their efforts on two..
When the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary pulled out of the Interdenominational Theological Center this past June 30th, disapproval..
In a previous column (part one), two strategies were suggested for the first year of a teaching elder’s ministry. What else assists..
When we look back at World War I 100 years after its start, it’s easy to see that public opinion was wrong..
THEY SIT SIDE-BY-SIDE on my dining room table, a plastic dashboard Jesus (complete with a spring and an adhesive base) and an..
by Nancy Benson-Nicol Since 1986, when the Theological Education Fund (TEF) was established by the 198th General Assembly, we in the ministries..
JACK HABERER: Jim, your credentials are impressive: a teaching elder in the PC(USA); current professor of church history and dean at Vanderbilt..
The children’s time is the hardest part of worship. I stress about making that message meaningful far more than I worry about..
“Intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King Jr. was only a..
Of all of the mythical ways to grow a church (Start a contemporary worship service! Call a pastor with a young family!..
The number one goal at summer camp for my teenage son, Garrison, was to skipper a Lightning, a 19-foot-long fully rigged sailing..
I never intended to earn a Masters of Divinity degree. As a 24-year-old, nondenominational fundapentacharisgelical, my faith mentors and peers disdained the..
Guest commentary from Todd McCoy Perhaps many of you have been pondering the same question I have: “Given the ongoing polarization of..
PASADENA, CALIF – “I was 18 years old when God called me to America,” explained Sam Theophylus, born in Hyderabad, India. “I didn’t know what it..
I was at a presbytery meeting recently, and, because all of our options for childcare fell through, I brought my 10-year-old son..
Most American churches have sought to diversify their membership in recent decades so that that the 21st century faith community would better..
In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul urges the church to take care lest their liberty (the liberty to eat food offered to idols..
For a long time I didn’t think I was a very creative person because most of the creative people I knew were..
WHEN YOU GO TO A MEETING of the General Assembly of our communion, as I do every other year as part of..
Some church leaders call it a “challenge budget,” others a “faith budget.” I call it a bad idea. Faced with a gap..
“How big of a cardboard tree could you make for VBS this year?” I love questions like this! As a pastor, creative-type..
© Copyright 2026 The Presbyterian Outlook. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement. Website by Web Publisher PRO
