(Written by the Rev. Dana Allin, ECO Synod Executive). Last year I was at a meeting for all of the denominational leaders who are part of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). We met right after the election. As a result, there was significant dialogue about how the words evangelical and evangelicals have had negative associations. One denomination was…
(By Dana Allin, Synod Executive for ECO). I was recently re-reading Les McKeown’s book Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization on the Growth Track and Keeping it There. He talks about the life stages of a startup organization. The initial stage is called “Early Struggle” and it is about the challenges that an organization faces in getting off…
(By Dana Allin, Synod Executive for ECO). In the last six months, I have tried to ascertain what are the greatest needs of ECO churches. I have conducted informal and formal questioning around this subject with various pastors and congregational leaders. I have compared their answers with my own observations from personal interactions. While all of…
By Dana Allin, the ECO blog. At ECO’s national gathering in Newport Beach this past January, I led a breakout session called, “In ECO, Now What?” This question often gets asked in a variety of different ways. I will get phone calls or e-mails stating that a congregation has been in ECO (usually for 6…
National Association of Evangelicals press release. The National Association of Evangelicals is pleased to welcome ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians as its newest denominational member. ECO joins with nearly 40 other denominations, as well as thousands of churches, schools, nonprofits, businesses and individuals who comprise the NAE community. “ECO: A Covenant Order of…
While one Presbyterian denomination celebrates last Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriages legal in all states, another one grieves, a third states that it does not regard the decision “to be in keeping with God’s intentions for marriage,” and a fourth affirms that marriage is a gift from God between one man and one…
By Dana Allin, synod executive of ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians. Over the next several months, in preparation for our national gathering, we will be focusing our Thursday blog posts on ECO’s eight core values. We will spend a month of Thursdays on each of the values, where I will write an introductory blog…
By Dana Allin, Synod Executive for ECO. Over the next several months, in preparation for our national gathering, we will be focusing our Thursday blog posts on ECO’s eight core values. We will spend a month of Thursdays on each of the values, where I will write an introductory blog post and then other authors will expand…
After the official Synod meeting of the ECO: Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians, the Dallas Gathering continued for another two days and included The Fellowship of Presbyterians, which birthed ECO, but which is now conjoined with Presbyterians for Renewal (PFR) as the Fellowship Community. That admixture made for awkward moments, like when Paul Detterman, who…
The Synod Executive of ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians has written to the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s middle governing council leadership to “both clear up some misconceptions that were stated in [a recent] letter as well as encourage each of us to adopt a more gracious tone and posture than was conveyed.” “An unkind…