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Being God’s presence: Accompaniers help Colombia’s dispossessed

What does it mean for Christians to accompany those who are in need?

The Bible in the homosexuality debate

Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a three-part article. The first article, “Why do we Presbyterians continue to fight?” appeared in the Outlook issue of Nov. 10 (page 13). The third installment will appear in a later issue of the Outlook with the title, “How a focus on experience can further discussion.”

Churches now and in the future: A 21st century Babylonian exile

In a previous Outlook article, “Winded Thoroughbreds” (published Sept. 11, 2006), I wrote of a disturbing trend that emerged from our annual congregational statistics following the turn of the millennium. Many previously thriving churches began a serious downturn in membership and worship attendance, almost as if on cue. This article seeks to better understand the nature of this trend.

Doctrinal conformity: Not the hallmark of future Christianity

The recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reveals that most Christians do not conform to church doctrine as once assumed. It noted that 70% of American Christians, including 56% of evangelicals and 83% of mainline Christians, agreed with the idea that many paths lead to eternal life. The secular media have more than welcomed this report and lifted it up as the latest insight into Christianity furthering an unwelcomed and unhelpful stereotype, among evangelicals most especially.

By the Numbers

After reading an article detailing how difficult it was for young people to find summer jobs I was reminded of just how instrumental my summer job of waiting tables was in preparing me for the pastorate. I gained humility from having to wear a hideous brown and green plaid shirt (this will happen when you look like a member of the Brady Bunch in the middle of the 90s).

Flip flops and cowboy boots: Signs of a growing church?

When Graham Baird was approached about starting a new church development in Paso Robles, Calif., his response hardly required a second thought. “That’s the last thing I wanted to do,” recalls Baird. At the time he was an interim pastor in Red Bluff, Calif., after leaving a new church development in Texas that, in his words, was a complete failure. But, the request was a persistent one.

PC(USA) researcher studies “spiritual but not religious”

One of the first and most frequent statements Americans hear when conversation turns to religion is “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

Survey: Megachurches more intimate, believers less gullible

WASHINGTON (ABP) — A new survey by Baylor University researchers suggests that megachurches are more intimate, believers less gullible, and atheism less prevalent than popular stereotypes would suggest.

Survey suggests ‘unchurched’ are a fluid group

(RNS) A new survey shows that “unchurched” Americans may be worshipping more, and “churched” Americans worshipping less, than many people might think.

We need a revision of our Form of Government NOW

Copyright ©2008, by Merwyn S. Johnson. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Editor’s Note: This article is the first in a two-part series on the proposals to revise the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Order, Chapter 1, relating to the Form of Government (FOG) provisions. The author says, “Current/1983, PC(USA)  Form of Government (FOG) may not have caused our present polarizations and conflicts, but after 25 years it certainly has channeled and reinforced the worst dynamics at work among us now.

Phil Leftwich has posted a new blog: Beyond the Labels

To read the full article and respond please click here to visit The Presbyterian Outlooks Blog Page.

Beyond the Labels

A friend and colleague in ministry with whom I share a number of theological and cultural differences recently commented that I was..

S. African churches mourn globally-known, anti-apartheid singer

Cape Town — (ENI) Miriam Makeba has stopped singing but the ongoing music and spirit of the legendary South African singer who was driven into exile under the apartheid regime has touched the religious community of her native country.

WCC warns: culprits for financial meltdown seek to solve it

(ENI) — The World Council of Churches has warned that a meeting scheduled to discuss the current global "financial meltdown" in Washington, D.C., includes many of the people, governments, and institutions whose policies are responsible for the crisis.

Premature to say racism finished says pastor at Obama’s former church

(ENI) — Otis Moss III, the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, which the U.S. president-elect once attended, has said that even with the election of Barack Obama, who is of black African and white American descent, it is premature to talk of the end of racism in the United States.

An evangelistic future?

After three days of making friends, comparing notes, hearing testimonies, and brainstorming their dreams, might 75 Presbyterians hope to create an evangelistic future for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)?  Most of those attending the Grow the Church Deep and Wide:  Evangelism Consultation at Stony Point Center on November 10-12 hoped for that very thing.

Jim Currie posts blog on Outlook

One church in our presbytery has left the denomination and another is threatening to do so.  The bitterness, the suspicion, the anger..

One church has left and another is threatening to do so.

One church in our presbytery has left the denomination and another is threatening to do so.  The bitterness, the suspicion, the anger..

Reframing Hope WEBINAR

Reframing Hope Featuring Carol Howard Merritt 2010-04-13.wmv from Pres-Outlook

Same old, old story

We sing that we love to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love, but Presbyterians notoriously keep the story to themselves.  So reported Eric Hoey, the associate director for evangelism for the denomination’s General Assembly Council, to conferees at the Grow the Church Deep and Wide: Evangelism Consultation at Stony Point Conference Center on Nov. 10. 

Reporter’s tragic death

I'm stunned by news of the death of reporter Evan Silverstein, a friend and colleague from Presbyterian News Service whom I've known..

Evangelism lessons from 10,000 miles away

STONY POINT, N.Y. — If we’re going to do evangelism well in the US, who better to train us than a veteran mission co-worker fresh from the foreign mission field? About 80 participants at the Grow the Church Deep and Wide: Evangelism Consultation at Stony Point Center soaked in a tour de force collection of lessons from one such worker on Nov. 10.

Deep and wide: Growing via evangelism?

STONY POINT, N.Y. — Mainline Protestant denominations have being shrinking for the past 40 years because they’ve scaled back what they did so well for decades before:  birthing babies. Growth surged during the baby boom of the 1950s, but when that faded so did membership.