Evangelism conference encourages global outreach
By Robert P. Mills, The Layman Online, September 22, 2000
Inviting Presbyterians to “climb out of their box and into the world,” Frontier 2000 drew more than 500 participants, including 21 PCUSA mission personnel, to San Diego September 15-17. The event, sponsored by the Worldwide Ministries Division of the PCUSA with support from Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship and The Outreach Foundation, was designed to network Presbyterians interested in evangelism and church planting among unreached people groups.
At the opening plenary, Harold Kurtz, founding executive director of Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, spoke about “Recovering our Roots.” He challenged Presbyterians to recover the passion, fire and conviction of previous missionaries who long have labored to spread the Good News to peoples and cultures who have never heard the Word of God proclaimed. PFF has recently announced that Kurtz will be succeeded as executive director by David Hackett, who has been with the ministry for seven years.
In other plenary addresses, Oswaldo Prado of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, explained the growth of mission vision in Brazil. The final speaker was Marian McClure, director of the Worldwide Ministries Division, who encouraged her hearers to be willing to share what God has done in their lives.
In addition to the plenaries there were more than 30 seminars, including “The Nuts and Bolts of Frontier Mission,” “Basic Help for Mission Committees” and “Uncovering the Evangelist in You.”
A “Networking Preconference,” held Sept. 14, surprised organizers by drawing 230 participants, more than twice as many as expected, to discuss ways in which Presbyterian congregations can become directly engaged in mission among unreached cultures around the world. Christian educators who, by training, are well prepared for an ordained ministry of education and who, by call, believe they are called to that particular ordination.”