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Written by PFR
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Friday, 13 April 2012 13:08 |
 The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord … This great hymn of the faith speaks powerfully to both the reality of the circumstances disciples of Jesus face and the more powerful reality of the strength and tenacity of the spiritual community that is his body, the Church.
In Living Stones: The Making of an Eternal Fellowship, author Becce Bettridge carries the metaphor of “living stones” throughout a nine lesson exploration of the great pastoral letters from Peter, John, and Jude, ending up in a powerful reminder of our hope in Jesus Christ.
Your congregation will be enriched and strengthened by this study. Use it for small group discussion or adult education classes. It is just one more way that PFR is mobilizing leaders of congregations who are biblically faithful and missionally minded in our service to Jesus Christ.
Download the TABLE OF CONTENTS
Download LESSON ONE
Download LESSON FIVE
Living Stones will be available in early May at $8 per copy plus shipping. To place your order either call PFR at 502.425.4630 or email us at
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Written by PFR Issues Ministry
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Friday, 16 March 2012 15:34 |
Analysis and Reflection
This is the first installment in a series on the upcoming 220th General Assembly of the PC(USA). This series will highlight issues judged to be of importance to the faith and witness of our denomination and of greatest contention. We will look at the shape of these issues and offer the perspective and conviction of PFR. Our intent is to help focus our prayers and to offer clarity to commissioners. Future installments will address provisional non-geographic presbyteries, the Board of Pensions coverage for same-sex domestic partners, and overtures related to Israel-Palestine. (Downloadable pdf)
The 220th General Assembly, meeting June 30-July 7 in Pittsburgh, is enormously important. There may not be another that has the same opportunity to make a vital course correction and to stem a swelling tide. We will likely soon learn that the PC(USA) has dropped below two million members since our high of over four and a quarter million in 1967 (combining the numbers of the then PCUS and UPCUSA). We are losing not only members but entire congregations. While there are many reasons for this precipitous decline, the consistent move away from the historic orthodox witness of the Christian faith over the same time period is certainly one of the most central.
Issue 1: Ordination and Marriage
These issues go together. The question is not one of love for all persons nor of civil liberty. We remain consistent in affirming both our love for all people and our commitment to equal civil liberties for all people. The question is whether in the church sexual practices specifically condemned in Scripture will be condoned and, beyond that, affirmed as aspects of life that may be blessed by God.
By now it is well known that in May of 2011 a majority of presbyteries approved a change in the Book of Order opening ordination to the offices of the church to those who unrepentantly live in homosexual relationships or heterosexual relationships that do not conform to God’s revealed plan and purpose. As PFR has repeatedly said, we believe this action crossed a line. Our denomination has compromised scriptural and theological integrity and has departed from the great tradition of the Christian faith.
At the 220th General Assembly, this action is being challenged by some presbyteries while others are seeking to advance this error to the next level.
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Written by PFR Issues Ministry
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Tuesday, 10 April 2012 15:23 |
Analysis and Reflection
This is the second installment in a series on the upcoming 220th General Assembly of the PC(USA). This series will highlight issues judged to be of importance to the faith and witness of our denomination and of greatest contention. We will look at the shape of these issues and offer the perspective and conviction of PFR. Our intent is to help focus our prayers and to offer clarity to commissioners. In this article, we look at proposed structural realignment (especially the relationships of congregations and presbyteries) as it will come to the Assembly through overtures and also through the Report of the Mid-Councils Commission (MCC). (Downloadable pdf)
The possibility of the realignment of congregations and presbyteries has seemed to some a hope worth investing in and waiting for since 2008 when PFR launched an aggressive proposal for an additional non-geographic synod. The possibility envisioned has been that congregations might be free to join non-geographic presbyteries, and that presbyteries might be free to form or re-form in order to nurture positive connectionalism and missional ministry.
This possibility has been attractive to many for a variety of reasons:
- the opportunity for closer relationships, mutual support, and accountability in smaller presbyteries (of, for example, twenty to thirty congregations);
- the opportunity to put more energies and resources into common missional endeavors;
- the opportunity to identify and clearly articulate core theological and ethical convictions, and to abide by those convictions in a meaningfully connected common life.
Many have found this possibility to be the best and last path toward continued membership in the PC(USA) -- a way to differentiate from convictions and practices that are not biblically faithful and to identify with convictions and practices that are taught by Scripture.
As of this writing, there are seven overtures related to changing presbytery and synod structures. Most ask for more flexible boundaries. One of these (from Baltimore) asks that no action on non-geographic presbyteries be taken until at least 2016. In addition, an overture (from San Diego) asks for the Mid-Councils Commission (MCC) to be extended and given more time to prepare their report.
The Report of the MCC has been released and will receive a great deal of attention. It is likely that whatever the Assembly does in response to this Report will also be the answer given to the presbytery overtures. For this reason, the remainder of this article will focus on the report of that commission.
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Written by PFR
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Tuesday, 13 March 2012 09:40 |
In 2007, PFR published a 12-part series "Why Stay in the PC(USA)?". Recently we have discovered that these thoughtful articles, appropriate to their time, are being resurrected and used in ways PFR never intended. Are there still reasons for evangelical congregations to remain part of the PC(USA)? Yes--for people who are called to a specific type of ministry. But those reasons are quite different now than they were five years ago, and so are the available options.
In the next several weeks, PFR will be addressing this question within the context of 2012, examining the options and possibilities of ministry within and beyond the PC(USA). We look forward to an active conversation as we move through these challenging and fertile days together. |
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