Recently Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announced that they will become the first mainline seminary to charge no tuition for "students in its master’s degree programs in divinity, marriage and family therapy and religion beginning in 2015." Rather than cutting costs or quality, the school intends to finance this initiative by increasing its endowment and decreasing the number of students admitted (moving from 150 to 130). So What? Many students begin their seminary Read More …
PCUSA
A New Day in the PCUSA (#0516)
The Presbyterian Church (USA) or PCUSA has been in the news more this past week than any time this year. The denomination officially amended its constitution earlier this year to allow gays and lesbians to serve as ministers and lay leaders. Last Saturday, the Rev. Scott Anderson was ordained as the denomination's first openly gay pastor. He told CNN: "It's an exciting time for me personally to be the first openly gay person ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and Read More …
Where Do New Members Come From? (#0448)
Deborah Bruce and Joelle Anderson recently co-authored an article exploring research about the makeup of new church members. More specifically, they considered who is joining Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregations. They report that "in the typical PC(USA) congregation about three in ten worshipers are new people who began attending there in the past five years." These newcomers can be grouped into four categories: First-timers with no church background. Only 8% Read More …
You Might Be a Progressive Christian If . . . (#0415)
Bruce Reyes-Chow is a consultant who served as founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, until May of this year, and was the former moderator of the General Assembly of the 2.3 million member PCUSA. He recently wrote a piece about what Progressive Christianity is for Patheos' new Progressive Christian portal. In the article, he suggests: “You might be a progressive Christian if . . .” You can be described, but not defined . . . The Progressive Christian Read More …
Sowhatfaith.com – The First 2 Years (#0391)
Happy 2nd birthday to sowhatfaith.com! Over the course of the last two years, a great deal has changed in my life and with this site. I have transitioned from full-time to part-time ministry in a local congregation transitioned from serving a Presbyterian (PCUSA) parish to serving one affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC) started working full-time for a university Sowhatfaith.com has transitioned from posting new content twice a week (101 posts in the Read More …
The End of Gender-Segregated Ministries? (#0387)
Adam J. Copeland recently transitioned from serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hallock, MN to serving as mission developer of the ELCA affiliated Project F-M, which is a new "faith community for young adults and the young at heart" in Fargo-Morehead area. He recently blogged about the limitations of gender-segregated groups, suggesting: Gender-segregated groups seem very old school — glass ceilings are being broken left and right, though we still have a Read More …
Imagine an Institution (#0386)
A short illustration, posted on April 20 by Jerry Bowyer on the forbes.com blog, was printed in the May 31, 2011 edition of the Christian Century: Imagine an institution that requires its leaders to attend not only college, but graduate school. Imagine that the graduate school in question is constitutionally forbidden from receiving any form of government aid, that it typically requires three years of full-time schooling for the diploma, that the nature of the schooling bears almost no Read More …
Youth Minister/Director as Advocate (#0378)
Lars Rood is the Lead Youth Minister at the 4700 member Highland Park Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and the author of the forthcoming book Youth Ministry on a Shoestring: How to do More with Less (2011). Recently, he blogged about youth ministry job descriptions. In contrast to the common expectations of job descriptions that emphasize either a youth director/minister's relational skills or programming and administrative skills, Rood proposes a third way: . . . I want to throw out Read More …
One Big Step for the PCUSA (#0361)
After many years of debate and movement toward change, this denomination has now reached the point at which it is certain that effective July 10, 2011, "a person in a same gender relationship can be considered for ordination as deacon, elder, or Minister of the Word and Sacrament." This news comes after many years of discussion and attempted change. So What? I grew up in a Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregation. It was at First Presbyterian Church in Arlington, TX Read More …
Effective Worship Services? (#0358)
John Ortberg is the Senior Pastor of the 4,000 member Menlo Park Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) and the author of multiple books on spiritual formation. In the Spring 2011 edition of Leadership Journal, he wrote an article entitled "What Does God Think of Entertainment," in which he set forth his view on what a successful worship service looks like: The primary criteria for the effectiveness of a church service is not "holding people's attention." It's not compliments after the service Read More …