The bank needed to have minutes showing who was authorized to write checks on the Deacons’ bank account, so we had to have a special meeting of Session today. That’s exactly 1/100th of a second less than a minute. We opened with prayer, then the authorization was moved, seconded, and carried, as was a proposal … Continue reading »
Tagged with church …
The Catholic Church (Part 1)
I’ve mentioned that “Orthodox” is a word I’d like us Mainline Protestants to reclaim. Another word like that is “Catholic.” The word “catholic” means “universal” or “entire.” It comes from a Greek word that means “according to the whole.” Unlike “orthodox,” this word actually appears in Scripture, where members of the high priest’s party examine … Continue reading »
Christianity a ‘Faded Memory’
The Christian Post reports today that for most young Britons, Christianity is “a faded memory.” This is from a survey of 300 people born after 1982. Most young people in Britain consider Christianity irrelevant to their lives but they are not as hostile towards religion as their parents’ generation, researchers in the Church of England … Continue reading »
Picking Elders
It’s time to pick new elders. If someone on the nominating committee calls you and asks you to serve, and you ask what you have to do, they might go to that horrible laundry list in G-10.0102 that enumerates all the specific areas of responsibility held by Session. But that’s the wrong place to start. … Continue reading »
Radical Reformission
I just finished reading Mark Driscoll’s Radical Reformission. He’s right on about the missional character of the church and some of the things that prevent us from being faithful to that calling. It’s also very enjoyable reading. The problem with my pastoral job is that I don’t really know what I’m doing. So I read … Continue reading »
Eye Contact
There’s something shocking in Song of Songs. I know, that’s kind of a commonplace these days. “Song of Songs says things you’d never believe were in the Bible.” For example, one of my favorite parts of scripture is Song 7:7-8, which I can’t link because then this blog would be NSFW. I understand: if you’ve … Continue reading »
Jim Collins on Excellence in Church Employees
I happened on an excellent session from Catalyst 2008 with Andy Stanley interviewing Jim Collins about keeping employees who are a poor fit in a position. Andy says that churches are all about mercy — so sometimes, out of compassion for the employee, we keep people in positions for which they aren’t a good match. … Continue reading »
Checking Our Heads
Yesterday, I enthused about the PC(USA) website’s makeover, and one of my Facebook friends went to see it. He’s a Southern Baptist, and he wasn’t impressed with this quote on the home page: The pull quote you see here isn’t quite a quote; if you watch the video you’ll see they “punched it up” a … Continue reading »
New PC(USA) Site
Hey, cool. The PC(USA) has updated its website. It looks like a huge improvement over what we’ve had the last umpteen years. Congratulations to whoever put this together.
PC(USA) ordains 1st Iranian Pastor
Hey, this is a small world. Mansour Khajehpour was just ordained by Seattle Presbytery as the first Iranian to become a PC(USA) minister of Word and sacrament. I knew Mansour (a little) in seminary. He was in the class two years after mine, so we didn’t have any classes together. One of my kids was … Continue reading »