CDM Archive

Discipleship Ministries of the PCA

Women's Ministries

The Task of Christian Education

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Editor’s Note: This past summer the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, with whom we partner in our Great Commission Publication venture, celebrated its 75th anniversary. The OPC and the PCA formed the partnership in 1975. The following comments are from the oldest living OPC Minister and a former member of the GCP Board. With the permission of New Horizons, we have excerpted a portion of an address Dr. John Galbraith delivered at that assembly on the topic of Christian Education.

Christian Education…One thing that was very important to that first Assembly (OPC) was the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. And to do it, the assembly immediately set up three committees to help the congregations as then existed and those that would be formed. Those committees were the Committees on Home and Foreign Missions and Christian Education. The Committees on Home and Foreign Missions had one message. They were obeying Jesus Christ, who said specifically what we were to do. He said in Acts 1, “Ye shall be my witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In Matthew 28, he said, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach.” That was not just a missionary goal. That teaching included the Bible, the entire content of the Word of God. We came to think of that then, and to call it the Reformed Faith, after the Reformation.

Now, there is a difference between the two missions committees and the Committee on Christian Education that should be noted. Those two missions committees do their work and carry on their ministries outside the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. They preach to those who are without. The Committee on Christian Education, however, teaches and preaches to those of us who are within. This is a monumental task because it means the Committee on Christian Education teaches those who are to teach. It is a committee to teach teachers.

Read entire issue of Equip to Disciple, 4th Quarter 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

But, a lot more than that, it is a committee that goes from the cradle to the grave. It picks up through the ministry of Great Commission Publications. It picks up through children who haven’t yet gone to school and it leads congregations to teach the scripture to those little, tiny tots. It teaches the scripture itself, and what we believe the Scriptures teach, in the Catechisms…

Christian Education…I say to you that the work of the Committee on Christian Education is the basic agency of the General Assembly. It is not more important than missions, not at all. How could you beat the importance of those words of Jesus, “Go and teach”? Those are not just important; those are essential, and we must not give them up. But what I am saying is that the Committee on Christian Education has helped our churches to teach those people who go out as missionaries and teach the Word.

We should be thankful on this occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of our church. God has been good. We have missed many times in our aims. We have sinned. Let’s not forget that. We cannot boast that we are the perfect church. We are so far from it. But there is one thing for which we can give God thanks: for moving us to desire, seek, and be faithful, as far as we are able, to God’s Word.

God has given us a promise in Isaiah and in Habakkuk that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the water covers the sea. The hymn writer picks up that thought. He changes the venue a bit. He says, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does his successive journeys run.” We believe that. We sing that. God has called upon us to maintain a faithful and energetic Committee on Christian Education….

…I say to you, “Keep standing fast.” That doesn’t need any exegesis. You know exactly what it means. Stand fast in the faith once delivered to the saints. Stand fast on the Word of God, and then get going on the things that God has given us to do. Teach our people well. Teach them to do their job, and to do it well. And to that I think I can say only my own amen and say also, to God be the glory…

2,000 Participants Gather in Atlanta of the Amazing Grace 360 Conference

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Amazing Grace 360

There were 2,000 participants who came together at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Ga., Friday, Saturday and Sunday, for the PCA’s 5th Christian Education and Publications Women’s International Ministry Conference, Amazing Grace 360, emphasizing the whole Gospel for the whole life and whole world. Older women and younger women came from across the PCA with representatives from several countries where PCA ministry is realized. 200 of the participants were under 20 years of age and 200 were over 66 years of age.

Amazing Grace 360With the confusion abroad about “grace” the conference sought to present a program that would encourage and enable the participants to understand the “it is all about God” who is a God of grace and mercy. That theme was carried throughout the conference with Nancy Guthrie leading the plenary sessions unfolding the whole story of: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation (covered by Brian Habig mentioned below). Her messages were clear and set the stage for the more than 30 seminars on different aspects of the whole story.

500 of the participants came for the pre-conference events which featured Lydia Brownback as the plenary speaker and breakout seminars for that “pre-con” event. Kevin Twit and Indelible Grace (above, bottm left photo) effectively led the conference in the worship sessions. Kevin Twit is a PCA teaching elder and has assisted CEP and the women’s conferences on previous occasions.

One of the highlights of the conference, along with the good solid teaching and warm fellowship of the participants, was a Friday night concert, featuring Laura Story (second from right) an accomplished singer and songwriter and winner of the prestigious Dove Award for her album Great God Who Saves, and who serves on the worship leadership team at Perimeter PCA Church in Duluth, Ga. And Saturday night there was a concert featuring Kevin Twit and Indelible Grace.

Indelible Grace has produced a number of CDs, featuring some of the great hymns often set to new music. Kevin is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary. He is also an RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) campus minister at Belmont University in Nashville, TN.

Read entire issue of Equip to Disciple, 4th Quarter 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

Another highlight of the conference came following the Saturday night dinner, as PCA women from across the country and from more than eight countries were introduced who brought greetings from such locations as: United States, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Germany, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, China, Canada, West Africa, Greece, Korea, Latin America, the Caribbean, Far East Asia, and Europe. The evening session was narrated and led by Barbara Thompson of Zachary, Louisiana, and Susan Phyllis of Hendersonville, North Carolina. The theme for the evening was appropriately called, “faces of grace.” During that evening session the wives of PCA military chaplains, especially those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, were asked to stand to an auditorium filled with a standing ovation for their families’ service to God and our country’s security.

Joni Erickson Tada addressed the conference via video and brought encouraging words to those who have known suffering and the Lord’s faithfulness in sustaining them through difficult times. Nancy Guthrie (above, fourth from left) who had experienced the pain of losing two children was able to meet with many of the mothers present with similar experiences. A fitting climax of the Saturday evening event was remembering Georgia Settle, now with the Lord, who served as the first coordinator of women’s ministry with CEP and the PCA. Her husband Paul, a former coordinator of CEP, was welcomed. He brought a brief message and prayer for the conference.

Brian Habig concluded the conference in the Sunday morning worship with a message from Romans 8 entitled “Home.” The morning message drew together the “consummation perspective,” in a most effective way- the theme and the variations on that theme went throughout the conference. Habig, a former RUF minister, presently serves as pastor of Downtown Presbyterian Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

Amazing Grace 360Another of the highlights of the conference was giving the participants an opportunity to see the more than 50 exhibits, featuring a variety of “Christian” ministries in the church, and other church related ministries. They also had an opportunity to see and purchase the many training resources and study materials that were available from CEP. One of the participants remarked, “I have never seen so many good resources relating to women’s ministry in one place.”

CEP Coordinator Charles Dunahoo said before the conference, “We have carefully designed the entire conference around the theme Amazing Grace 360- focusing on God’s grace, not from an ‘easy believism’ concept of grace, but from a biblical historical redemptive focus on Christ and his sufficiency. The conference highlighted, “The whole Gospel, the Whole life, and the Whole World.” As the conference ended, Dunahoo said “God allowed us to experience that purpose in even greater measures than anticipated.”

Jane Patete, CEP’s women’s ministry coordinator said, “Our prayer was for the Triune God to be lifted before the conference in teaching, fellowship, prayer, and singing the songs of the Kingdom, and that we all would be reminded of his redeeming grace and equipped to live and serve as the citizens of His Kingdom.” As the conference closed, she remarked, “God answered our prayer, to Him be the glory.” DVDs of Nancy Guthrie’s sessions, along with audio of the entire conference, are available from the CEP Bookstore.

2011 WIC Love Gift – Covenant Theological Seminary

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2011 WIC LOVE GIFT DVD-Covenant Theological Seminary

WIC Love Gift

Publisher: Covenant Theological Seminary

Item #: 8436

DVD

5 minutes long.

Order the DVD

Also available are free bulletin inserts.

Shaping a Community of Grace Today for a Stronger Church Tomorrow

Fully equipping pastors to face today’s ministry challenges means going beyond mere classroom training. Covenant Seminary aims to engage the whole person-as well as the whole family-by continuing to shape a vibrant community of faith in which future church leaders can experience firsthand the life of grace they are called to embody. The Seminary seeks to encourage such growth in grace by enhancing the campus environment through needed updates and improvements to two key community gathering spaces: the Edwards Hall Community Center and Rayburn Chapel. The financial support and prayerful partnership of our PCA churches is essential to the success of this Kingdom-building endeavor.

Community Center Improvements-Estimated Cost: $1,500,000

2,000 Participants Gather in Atlanta for the Amazing Grace 360 Conference

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AG3602,000 participants came together at the Cobb Galleria, Atlanta, Ga., Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in Atlanta, for the PCA’s 5th Christian Education and Publications Women’s ministry conference, Amazing Grace 360 emphasizing the whole Gospel for the whole life and whole world. Older women and younger women came from across the PCA with representatives from several countries where PCA ministry is realized. 200 of the participants were under 20 years of age and 200 were over 66 years of age.

With the confusion abroad about “grace” the conference sought to present a program that would encourage and enable the participants to understand the “it is all about God” who is a God of grace and mercy. That theme was carried throughout the conference with Nancy Guthrie leading the plenary sessions unfolding the whole story of: creation, the fall, redemption, and consummation (covered by Brian Habig mentioned below). Her messages were clear and set the stage for the more than 30 seminars on different aspects of the whole story.

500 of the participants came for the pre-conference events which featured Lydia Brownback as the plenary speaker and breakout seminars for that “pre-con” event. Kevin Twit and the Indelible Grace effectively led the conference in the worship sessions. Kevin Twit is a PCA teaching elder and has assisted CEP and the women’s conferences on previous occasions. One of the highlights of the conference, along with the good solid teaching and warm fellowship of the participants, was a Friday night concert, featuring Laura Story an accomplished singer and songwriter and winner of the prestigious Dove Award for her album Great God Who Saves and who serves on the worship leadership team at the Perimeter PCA Church in Duluth, Ga., and a Saturday night concert featuring Kevin Twit and the Indelible Grace.

The Indelible Grace has produced a number of CD’s especially featuring some of the great hymns often set to new music. Kevin is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary. He is also known as a RUF (Reformed University Fellowship) campus minister at Belmont University in Nashville, Tn.

Another highlight of the conference, following the Saturday night dinner, came as

PCA women from across the church and from more than eight countries were introduced who then brought greetings from such respective locations: North America, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Germany, Ukraine. Etc. The evening session was narrated and led by Barbara Thompson of Zachary, La., and Susan Phyllis of Hendersonville. North Carolina. The theme for the evening was appropriately called, “faces of grace.” During that evening session the wives of PCA military chaplains, especially those serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, were asked to stand to an auditorium filled with a standing ovation for their families’ service to God and our country’s security.

Laura StoryJoni Erickson Tada addressed the conference via video and brought encouraging words to those who have known suffering and the Lord’s faithfulness in sustaining them through difficult times. Nancy Guthrie who had experienced the pain of losing two children was able to meet with many of the mothers present with similar experiences. A fitting climax of the Saturday evening event was remembering Georgia Settle, now with the Lord, who served as the first coordinator of women’s ministry with CEP and the PCA. Her husband Paul, a former coordinator of CEP, was welcomed. He brought a brief message and prayer for the conference.

Brian Habig concluded the conference in the Sunday morning worship with a message from Romans 8 entitled “Home.” The morning message drew together the “consummation perspective,” in a most effective way, the theme and the variations on that theme throughout the conference. Brain, a former RUF minister, presently serves as pastor of the Downtown Presbyterian church in Greenville, South Carolina

One of the highlights of the conference was giving the participants an opportunity to see the more that 50 exhibits some featuring a variety of ministries in the church and to see the many training resources and study materials available from CEP. One the participants remarked, “I have never seen so many good resources that relate to women’s ministry in one place.”

CEP Coordinator Charles Dunahoo said before the conference, “We have carefully designed the entire conference around the theme Amazing Grace 360-focusing on God’s grace, not from an “easy believism” concept of grace, but from a biblically historical redemptive focus on Christ and his sufficiency that will highlight, “The whole Gospel, the Whole life, and the Whole World.” As the conference ended he said “God allowed us to experience that purpose in even greater measures than anticipated.”

Jane Patete, CEP’s women’s ministry coordinator said, “Our prayer was for the Triune God to be lifted before the conference in teaching, fellowship, prayer, and singing the songs of the Kingdom, and that we all would be reminded of his redeeming grace and equipped to live and serve as the citizens of the his Kingdom.” “God answered our prayer,” she said as the conference closed. “To him be the glory.”

DVD’s of Nancy Guthrie’s session, along with audios of the entire conference are available from the CEP Bookstore.

Amazing Grace 360 – An Invitation from Susan Phillis

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Amazing Grace 360

To help ignite enthusiasm, we have included an Amazing Grace360 announcement in a local PCAchuch. Ahusband and wife team were asked to share with their congregation why this conference is important and to share some of the spiritual benefits they have expereinced – it is worth the read!!!

A Husband’s Remarks: I think of this conference – and any other Susan has attended – as an installment in Extreme Makeover Kingdom Edition. When Susan comes back she is all the more excited about the Savior and extending His kingdom. She is more beautiful to Jesus – and more beautiful to me – and it is all the sweeter to be with her. This is part of my responsibility in fulfilling Ephesians 5 to Susan – to prepare her as a beautiful bride for Christ. Gentlemen – I urge you urge your wives to attend. And be the husband and father at home that enables this to happen.

~Jim Phillis, Teaching Elder

Ladies – pack your weekend bag – because something exciting is happening!

This fall there is a perfect opportunity for you to attend a weekend planned just for you – a woman in the church. Amazing Grace 360 is thePCA’s International Women’s Conference, to be held October 7-9, 2011 in Atlanta, Georgia.

I love this title! It tells us the weekend has a great purpose – to take “agrand and glorious look at the grace of God….whole gospel, whole life, whole world”.

I know…you are busy and you have children to care for and a weekend away is a hardship at times and really, why should you give up three days for this event?

Because you will reap eternal benefits. And if that’s not enough –

*You will hear from speakers Nancy Guthrie and Brian Habig (pastor of Downtown Pres. Church in Greenville, SC).

*We will worship with Laura Story (“Indescribable”) and Indelible Grace.

*There will be workshops with teaching topics ranging from singleness to parenting, from peacemaking to bioethics.

You will see “Faces of Grace” as we celebrate God’s faithfulness in the lives of ordinary women in the PCA – just like you and me!

The Friday pre-conference offers an opportunity to slow your pace, prepare your heart, and gain perspective as we head into the Friday night session of Amazing Grace 360.

And honestly – sometimes we need an organized event to allow us to reflect on God’s grace in our lives. You need make no apologies for taking time for this eternal investment.

Personally, I am going to this conference to:

  • get a glimpse of God’s kingdom here on earth
  • re-energize my calling as a daughter of the king
  • be encouraged by fellowship with women who have invested in my life – that I may invest in the next generation.

Come with me! Bring a friend. This conference is for women ages 13 and older. It is the perfect venue to build a relationship with an old friend, or start a new one!

Join us as we share with each other “not only the gospel of God but our lives as well” (1 Thess 2:8).

~Susan Phillis

The Kingdom Misunderstood, Part 1

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The Kingdom Misunderstood

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two part article dealing with the misperceptions many Christians have of the kingdom of God. What is ther ole of believers in the kingdom, how are they to impact the broader kingdom? Are there really two kingdoms?

Introduction

I begin by introducing you to Bill and Mary Wright. Bill is a 34 year old husband and father of two children, Terry 10 and Susan 7. Mary is a stay at home mom and has home schooled her children for a couple years, though they are presently attending a Christian school that meets in their church. Bill and Mary are active church members and clearly demonstrate a love for the Lord that is obvious to others.

Bill is a member of a successful law firm. He teaches a young adult Sunday school class in his church and is very active in civic events. He is on the church’s board of officers. You might call the Wright’s the quintessential Christian family.

Bill majored in political science in college and later entered law school. Presently, he is an active member of the bar. For several years Bill has had a desire to become more involved in politics. His friends have suggested that on a number of occasions, so has his wife Mary. He represents the more conservative line of political thinking and is certainly an advocate for rule of law in our country.

Read entire Equip 3rd Quarter, 2011 (Acrobat Reader required).

But as Bill thinks about this, he wrestles with a dilemma. He is a Christian and believes in church and state separation; therefore he wonders how he can be a good Christian and involved in politics at the same time. He has been taught by the system to think of religion as belonging to the private area of his life, including family and church, but politics is more for the public arena. He does not want to compromise his Christian faith by involving himself in an area that would require him to keep his religious beliefs, his Christian faith, to himself.

Bill’s situation reminds me of another occasion when I was teaching a seminar to leaders from several churches. The topic for the day was making kingdom disciples. I spent some time developing the point that there is actually more involved in making disciples than is often reflected and practiced by many today. I was explaining how being a Christian involved more than merely having a personal relationship with the Lord, than reading the Bible, praying, and witnessing. My point was that Christianity is a way of life, a total way of life, which many Christians fail to understand, especially today.

Christianity is a way of life, a total way of life

In trying to be as clear as possible, I said there is a sense in which you are no more spiritual when teaching a teenage Sunday school class on John 3:16, than you are teaching an eleventh grade mathematics class. The Bible teaches God’s special truth in what we would call the spiritual realm and the mathematics class teaches God’s truth in that broader realm. I continued–the only way you can know what John 3:16 means is for God to teach it to you and the only way that you can know that 2 plus 2 is 4 is because God is the author of all truth. Both are true because they come from God, as the God of all truth. Jesus commanded us to “make disciples” and we do that according to him, by teaching to observe all things whatsoever he has commanded, and by necessary inference, he has taught us. (Matthew 28:19 & 20).

If we see God’s truth wholistically, we are to be spiritual in everything that we do, 24/7 both in an out of the church. I am aware in saying this, many Christians do not understand this discipleship process. Their paradigm has been based on a wrong view of the church and kingdom, as well as discipleship itself. We will show this later, but for now, some see the church and kingdom as two separate entities while others see them as one and the same. While we believe neither of those are representative of the Bible’s teaching on the church of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, it is so important to understand what the two are and how they are related, especially as they impact our worship and service of God.

On another occasion I was speaking at an annual convention of Christian school leaders. On the program was a young man who had also been influenced by the teachings of Francis Schaeffer. At that time he was serving in a staff position in Washington, D. C. He said in his address, that we would be pleased and amazed at how many of our members of Congress attend regular Bible studies. (This was several years ago). But then he said, you would be disappointed to see some of those same people move into the legislative hall and fail to incorporate those biblical truths into the issues with which they were dealing.

There is a false scenario that has penetrated our western world, including many of our churches, and it has caused people to see life from a dualistic, even fragmented perspective, thus creating Bill’s dilemma and keeping that 11th grade math teacher from seeing himself as a disciple maker in teaching math.

My purpose in this series of articles is to understand and evaluate the fallacy of Bill and Mary’s thinking about politics, and their misunderstanding of the church and Christianity, the false dichotomy reflected in the math class, and the failure of those politicians in Washington to know how to apply biblical truth to their civil responsibilities.

I want us to consider how the above examples have grown out of a wrong paradigm regarding education, especially Christian education and disciple-making but especially a wrong paradigm of the church and the kingdom of God (“The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” Psalm 103:19; “Your Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.” Psalm 145:13).