There seemed little reason to be meeting in a space as large as the Portland Convention Center as the exhibit hall was nearly empty as were the bleachers and most of the chairs in the section for observers of the 222nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Press row was a mere 11 chairs,…
By Jeffrey Walton, Juicy Ecumenism. Advancing the Kingdom of God includes establishing justice, love and good works, but is not limited to these things, according to speakers at a major conference of Anglican missionaries. “We also need to ‘tell the story’: minister the power of the Gospel and disciple new believers,” declared Anglican Bishop of…
Press Release: Presbyterian World Mission Faces Potential Funding Shortfall in 2016 & 2017 Louisville—While work is fully funded for 2015, based on financial projections using 2014 actual receipts, the Presbyterian Mission Agency is facing a significant financial challenge for 2016 and 2017 in World Mission. By 2017, the result could be the recall of 25…
By Ed Stetzer The Great Commission. Neither the words “great” nor “commission” are in the text, but the descriptor fits. This “authoritative order, charge, or direction” is “unusually large, extreme, and notable” (borrowing phrases from textbook definitions of both words). But why? The sheer scope of the assignment is embodied in the two little words:…
Over the fifteen years since the publication of Darryl Guder’s landmark book The Missional Church, North American Christianity has become enamored of the word “missional.” This is no bad thing, but Mike Breen observes in this post that the future of missional may not be quite as bright as we hope. Could it be that in…
Divisiveness has become more and more common within the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination, and a Virginia church experienced it in such a way that it led to a fracturing that resulted in two congregations. First Presbyterian Church of Waynesboro, located west of Charlottesville in Waynesboro, Va., broke into a pair of congregations after an Administrative…