AssociationForChurchRenewal.com

What? Answering the Call: New Life in the Mainline Church

When? August 5-8, 2010

Where? Elmhurst College (Chicago, Illinois)

Why? to issue the call for a new generation of ECOT (evangelical, conservative, orthodox, traditional) pastors and leaders in the historic mainline churches

Who will speak? Jim Harrell, John Armstrong, Jim Tomberlin, Bob Thompson, and a growing list of Evangelical, Congregational, Orthodox, and Traditional (ECOT) scholars and pastors in mainline settings.

Who should attend? college and seminary students, pastors serving in or interested in mainline ministry, laity interested in mainline renewal

Who is sponsoring the event? The Association for Church Renewal

How do I register? A link for complete registration information will be available on this web site January 31, 2010.

How do I spread the word?

· E-mail starloftin@charter.net if you would like one or more “Save the Date” refrigerator magnets.
· E-mail bob@corinthtoday.org if you would like a speaker to address a student group, seminary setting, or local congregation about this event.

Presbyterian Lay Committee hosts Prayer Blog for National Day of Prayer

In conjunction with the National Day of Prayer event on Thursday, May 7, the Presbyterian Lay Committee will host an interactive prayer blog.

Focusing on The Great Ends of the Church (from G-1.0200 of the Presbyterian Church USA’s Book of Order), The Lay Committee will offer up prayers throughout the day on The Layman Online blog.

The National Day of Prayer, an annual observance that invites all Americans to pray for the nation, is in its 58th year. Mobilizing people of faith across the country, the event’s mission is to intercede for America and its leadership in seven centers of power: government, military, media, business, education, church and family. This year’s theme is “Prayer … America’s Hope.”

Recognizing the need to pray for the witness of Christians in the midst of a time when Biblically-based theology is under attack, The Presbyterian Lay Committee is offering an online opportunity to join others in prayer as a complement to the National Day of Prayer activities.

“Prayer is a privilege and a responsibility for all Christians,” Lay Committee President Carmen Fowler said. “Prayer is made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ whose death on the cross literally opens the way to a relationship with the living God. Prayer is Christ’s directive to His people and we are privileged to share the experience of prayer in this way.”

Through its blog, Presbyterian Lay Committee staff will open an 8-hour session of online prayer at 9 a.m.  At the top of six consecutive hours, prayer subjects will focus on the PCUSA’s The Great Ends of the Church. The prayer blog schedule will be:

• 10 a.m. - The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind
• 11 a.m. - The shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God
• 12 p.m. - The maintenance of divine worship
• 1 p.m. - The preservation of the truth
• 2 p.m. - The promotion of social righteousness
• 3 p.m. - The exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world

At 4 p.m., a closing prayer will be offered with posting to end at 5 p.m. Blog visitors are asked to post their own prayer concerns and praises throughout the day. The blog will be updated throughout the day and requires no registration.
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The Presbyterian Lay Committee, which was founded in 1965, publishes The Layman newspaper and The Layman Online. It also provides renewal resources through Reformation Press and PLC Publications. For more information about the ministry, visit www.layman.org.
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To learn more about the National Day of Prayer visit www.nationaldayofprayer.org. A searchable database of community events and links to other Day of Prayer activities are available.

LENOIR, N.C. – The Presbyterian Lay Committee has urged Presbyterians to stand firm in the face of another attack on Biblical ordination standards.

The statement by the directors of the Lay Committee follows the recent defeat of Amendment 08-B, which would have removed the Presbyterian Church USA’s constitutional requirement that church officers live in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and woman or chastity in singleness.

An overture that would allow the ordination of homosexuals was introduced the same day by a Michigan congregation. If approved by the Detroit Presbytery, the proposal would go the 2010 PCUSA General Assembly.

“We are grateful to the Lord that the PCUSA has upheld Biblical ordination standards of pastors, elders and deacons for a fourth time in 12 years,” the Lay Committee’s statement says. “Yet we are grieved that the peace, unity and purity of the church continues to be torn apart by those who insist upon subjecting the Body to votes
on their agenda.”

The Lay Committee says the voting gap on the issue continues to become narrower as the denomination is losing faithful members because of the assault on Biblically-based church polity.
“A constitution that can be deemed nonessential is no longer a constitution,” the board says. “We are committed to stand with those who stand with Christ.”

The Presbyterian Lay Committee, which was founded in 1965, publishes The Layman newspaper and The Layman Online. It also provides renewal resources through Reformation Press. For more information about the ministry, or resources on issues such as the fidelity-chastity standard and other issues facing the Church, visit the organization’s Web site at www.layman.org.

Photo: Terry Schlossberg

Forced once again to choose whether Presbyterian Clergy can have sex outside of marriage, a majority of Presbyteries upheld the standard of Fidelity in Marriage, Chastity in singleness. The vote was much closer in this fourth attempt to overturn the Biblical standard as 28 Presbyteries reversed their vote and affirmed sexual license.

Terry Schlossberg, who coordinated the national campaign by the Presbyterian Coalition in support of Fidelity and Chastity, said, ” Those who wish to change the Biblically-rooted standard have continually pressed the matter and required repeated votes that have had the same outcome each time. It is well past time to acknowledge that the Church today, as throughout her history, knows her mind on this matter, and that it is the mind of Christ.”

Terry, a board member of the Association for Church Renewal went on to say, “Now it is time to live out the decision pastorally, leading people out of our society’s sexual confusion into repentance and newness of life,” she said. “The decision gives witness to the Church’s strong conviction that the Savior came to offer redemption to those held captive by any sin, including the prevailing sexual sins of our time. We have the Savior’s promise that he will care for us, forgive us, and tenderly lead us to repentance. This is the standard.”

Presbyterian Layman

Photo:Prayer Offered for the success of Detroit's new Hybrids. Other new religious hybrids are emerging around the mainline.

For those who thought the ‘Emergent’ movement came from beyond the seeker sensitive contemporary post-evangelical frontier welcome to the “Hybrid Emergents” who are donning the vestments and liturgies of the mainline church.

The Luthermergents feature such leaders as Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber who claims on the “Praxis Podcast” to be “unashamedly orthodox” and “devoutly Lutheran”. Nadia is pastor at the House for All Sinners and Saints; a Lutheran mission church in Denver Colorado, which advertises itself as, “liturgical, Christo-centric, social justice oriented, queer inclusive, incarnational, contemplative, irreverent, ancient - future church with a progressive but deeply rooted theological imagination.” The Luthermergent website also features a link to the Emerging Leaders Network which include links (as do some other emergent sites) to folks with the ’secret behind the secret’, namely channeling non-embodied spirits.

Luthermergent
http://luthermergent.ning.com/

The Presbymergents by comparison are a bit more subdued. Meeting for the first time in February, 2009, they reflect the urge to behave “decently and in order” by creating an organization and applying for a 501c3. In fact Bruce Reyes-Chow , PCUSA Moderator is listed as one of their bloggers. One key “mission statement” put forward by their coordinator, Drew Tatusko, a Princeton Seminary Grad (2000), reads, “Presbymergent are followers of Christ who seek continual reform of existing church structures through dynamic, open, and intentionally critical systems.”

http://presbymergent.org/

The Methomergents seem less intent on the radical and more concerned with how the methodist system does and doesn’t work, what is the role of the next generation, and what it means to be a missional methodist.

http://methomergent.blogspot.com

The Reformergent’s are a bit more skeptical about their own emergence, seeing theological deficiencies in the emergent movement in their approach to evangelism and orthodoxy. Their blog site sees four primary values in ‘emerging’, namely: missional living, social justice, authenticity and unstructured ecclesiology.

http://www.reformergent.org/about/

The Anglimergent group reflects much the same diversity as their parents, stating their intent to “agree to remain friends and remain in conversation that is honest in acknowledging the differing traditions and practices in different Anglican church bodies within our communion, without falling prey to paralysis that prevents us from engaging one another and God’s mission.”

Anglimergent

The anglimergents in the U.S. have their own Bishop Protector, The Right Reverend Gregory H. Rickel, Diocese of Olympia, WA. Liberal Episcopal figures such as Bishop Bruno and Phyllis Tickle are heavily involved in supporting this movement and several of the “Emergent” churches such as the “The Crossing” which meets at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston under the sponsorship of the Diocese of Massachusetts, are committed to “building a core of new leaders, young adults, people of color and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgendered people.”

Episcopal Life

On the other hand a major conference entitled “Ancient Traditions, Anglican Futures An Emerging Conversation” to be held at Evangelical, Trinity School of Ministry in Ambrose, Pa, June 4 - 6, is also promoted on the Anglimergent site.

The question “Ancient Traditions, Anglican Futures” will address in June is, ” How do Anglican “insiders” welcome young evangelicals, post-evangelicals, and emergents who are attracted to the “Great Tradition”? How do inquiring “outsiders” perceive or participate in the distinctive anamnesia (memory) of Anglican worship and mission? How can the exchange between insiders and outsiders bear fruit in Anglicanism today? How will this emerging conversation stir the mind and heart of an Anglicanism in renewal?”

Trinity School of Ministry

The ACR has been receiving the daily Bible readings and devotionals offered by the Presbyterian Church in Canada which are Biblically reliable and well done! They offer intercessory pray and a podcast of the daily devo. Check it out: Presbyterian Church in Canada Daily

On March 1st, Rev. Carmen Fowler became the President of the Presbyterian Lay Committee and the Executive Director of the Layman. She has previously served as the Co-moderator of the Presbyterian New Wineskins, and Executive Director of the Presbyterian Coalition. Carmen has served in pastoral positions in both small and very large Presbyterian churches.

In her opening challenge to the PLC she said, “There is a Biblical mandate for each of us and all of us to grow up in every way into Christ who is the head; for each of us, as integral and essential parts of the body, to be connected to and coordinated by the One who is the Head; and for all of us to do the work that we are uniquely called and equipped to do in order that the work of God be accomplished in the world. Ephesians 4 captures it beautifully. We, however, have failed to live it out.”

Carmen will take the reins of one of the largest mainline renewal groups from ACR Vice-President, Rev. Parker Williamson. Parker Williamson notes: “Carmen Fowler will bring an articulate, spirit filled, dynamic leadership to mainline renewal.” To hear Carmen speak on the call of Christ to discipleship:
Rev. Carmen Fowler: John 14