The National Presbyterian Church of Mexico (known as INPM) has voted to end its 139-year partnership in mission with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), in response to the PC(USA)’s decision earlier this year to allow the ordination of sexually active gays and lesbians.
Let’s all take a deep breath. In the run-up to our time in Minneapolis, we must ask ourselves what has changed and what has remained the same.
What has changed is that a majority of PCUSA presbyteries have voted to remove the requirement from our Book of Order that all ministers, elders and deacons practice fidelity if they are married and chastity if they are single. The substitute language that is now part of our constitution calls upon leaders “to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.”
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (PNS) As anyone who’s ever been to a church potluck knows, food that looks good can taste terrible. The same can be said for our lives, said Kim Hammond, speaking Aug. 11 at the New Church Development Conference here.
Six newly appointed Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission workers, along with another mission worker who is assuming a new role, attended orientation last month in preparation for their assignments.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (PNS) Although the term tentmaking — serving as a minister while earning a living in another field — is often only applied to church leaders, all Christians should be tentmakers, said the Rev. Dan Kimball, speaking at the Engage Conference for new church development leaders here Aug. 10.
Cal (Steve Carell) is an oblivious dad who complacently goes about his home life thinking everything is fine.
The reason we must keep telling the story of the Holocaust is that there are some people alive today who have never heard of it.
LOUISVILLE (PNS) Sixty-eight young people will gather at Stony Point Conference Center later this month for orientation as Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
BAJA CALIFORNIA, Mexico (Special to PNS) Twenty years ago, the ideal candidate for a church-planting pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was a 34-year-old married male with two or more kids, a dog and a mortgage. He was a charismatic leader who could draw people to himself, according to research done at the time.
Written by Jack Haberer, Outlook editor
Friday, 12 August 2011 14:55
The Minneapolis gathering of nearly 2,000 Presbyterians on August 25 and 26 looks to be a potentially historic event, perhaps the beginning of yet another denominational division to rock the Presbyterian world. Yet leaders of what formerly called itself “Fellowship PC(USA)” and now is using the name the “Fellowship of Presbyterians” are acknowledging that unity among its own supporters will be tested, given that the participants come to Minneapolis with a diverse set of expectations of what they hope will result.
They are coming to Minneapolis like stars flooding the night sky.
If, as Charles Finney claimed, the devils of hell rejoice when the Presbyterian General Assembly is in session, do they rejoice doubly when other Presbyterians gather near the site of the previous assembly? The upcoming, two-day, Minneapolis gathering called by Fellowship PC(USA) has generated about 2,000 registrations, mostly from Presbyterians disheartened by recent constitutional changes that signal to them a turn toward hell. As they gather the devils have reason to hope and much to fear.
JOPLIN, Mo. (General Assembly Mission Council) The scores of spring
tornadoes that swept through Eastern and Midwestern states this year left
widespread devastation, nowhere worse than in Joplin, Mo.
Louisville, Ky. (Office of the General Assembly) I am now a little more than halfway through my term as Moderator of the 219th General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). What have I learned over this past year?
London (ENI) Many faith communities in England are working
together on the front line this week after days of rioting in which
hooded youths ransacked hundreds of businesses and shops in many parts of
London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham and smaller towns.
Nairobi, Kenya (ENI)- As Christians in South Sudan mark one
month after independence, churches in the Muslim North are facing pressure
from government officials and members of the public who are demanding their
closure.
STORM LAKE, Iowa (Office of the General Assembly) Life after disasters is full of stories of tragedy and miraculous survival.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (Special to PNS) “The extent of the damage is just stunning,” said General Assembly Mission Council Executive Director Linda Valentine after a recent visit to Tuscaloosa and Culllman, Ala., with a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders.
It requires a certain amount of chutzpah — and certainly faith — for my congregation to begin a strategic planning process to figure out who and what it wants to be and do in three to five years.
WASHINGTON (RNS) Christian missionaries should renounce all “deception and coercive means” of winning converts, according to an agreement released June 28 by a World Evangelical Alliance, the World Council of Churches and the Vatican, which together represent 90 percent of the world’s Christian population.
Landon Whitsitt, vice-moderator of the 219th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and a pastor from Missouri, has been elected as the new executive and stated clerk of the Synod of Mid-America.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. Charlotte’s Presbyterian seminary has broken ground on a campus in the heart of the SouthPark area — a $6.5 million development that will give the school its first permanent home.
C. Benton Kline, Jr., a former president of Columbia Theological Seminary, died June 20 following a brief illness.
Journey in the Wilderness: New life for Mainline Churches
by Gil Rendle
Abingdon Press. 2010. 176 pages.
REVIEWED BY Allen D. Timm
Last year a group of more than 100 young adults gathered for dinner once a month in a room over a bakery in inner-city Detroit. The Detroit Soup Project invited participants to donate $10 each and to present a project to improve Detroit. They would listen, debate and vote. After each meeting, one of them went out with $800 as a grant for a project that would improve the city of Detroit.
Sharing Possessions: What faith Demands (Second Edition)
by Luke Timothy Johnson
wm. b. eerdmans Publishing company. 198 Pages.
REVIEWED BY ANDREW FOSTER CONNORS
Luke Timothy Johnson, a first-rate New Testament scholar, begins with a plodding reflection on what it means for human beings to possess anything. Despite this beginning, this book deserves a serious reading. Johnson argues convincingly for an expansive definition of “having” that includes anything over which we claim ownership — relationships, time, principles, values and things.
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