The 36th General Assembly, after many hours of committee and floor debate, answered Overture 9 in the negative, declining to establish a study committee. This action was taken in spite of a minority report that attempted to persuade the assembly to answer in the affirmative. As the coordinator of...
Category: Church Leadership
What About Liberation Theology?
In liberation theology, God is seen as the God of the oppressed - and therefore against the oppressors and their false god. Jesus is found in the movement for liberation and freedom. Jesus came as a liberator, and he identifies with those mobilized for...
The Future of the Church?
Given the overwhelmingly negative statistics concerning young adults and church involvement, I am willing to go out on a limb here and suggest that engaging teenagers in the life of your congregation is one of the more important things you can ...
A Believing Community Learning to Live in Communion
In this particular article, I want to focus your attention on the theme expressed in the title above; the church as a believing community learning to live in communion. As our Westminster Confession of Faith says in 26-1, "All saints that are united to Jesus Christ their head by hi...
Children in Communion
What does this have to do with the church today? There is a big emphasis currently on "intergenerational worship," but what does that mean? What place do children have in worship, other than feeling like ignored spectators? Communion can be one of those important times when a child can be made to...
Missional Church: What Does it Mean?
I am being asked more and more what the term "missional church" means. Does it mean what we have generally thought regarding missionaries leaving and going to other parts of the world to evangelize and church plant? Often those questions have been asked in relation to discussion on the negative a...