The mission of Presbyterian Global Fellowship is to transform mainline congregations into missional communities following Jesus Christ.  That is our heart.  That is our goal.  That is what we long for.  One of the things that we have learned in recent years is that congregations learn best from other congregations.  Congregations do not learn best [...]

Two weeks ago I hiked in the Lost Creek Wilderness of Colorado.  Part of that Wilderness was ravaged in the largest forest fire in Colorado history, called the Hayman Fire, back in 2002.  Even though the beauty of this part of Colorado cannot compare with the rugged beauty of the San Juans or the breath-taking glory [...]

This past week I was a part of a gathering of folks in Minneapolis called The Fellowship who had come together to talk about a way forward for evangelicals in the PCUSA.  It was a privilege to be there and I was impressed by the diversity of folks (within the evangelical world) who had gathered.  [...]

I have a friend named Bill W. I’ve never actually met him, but everything I’ve heard about him from people I trust, and everything I’ve ever read that he has written has been wise. Some of it has been life-changing. And even though he probably never heard the term “missional,” he always understood it. One [...]

CHAPTER 3- HOW WE GOT HERE If we are to be missionaries in our own culture, then we must take a deep look at the culture in which God has placed us.  This requires that we study how both the church and the culture have developed over the past few centuries. Five hundred years ago, [...]

CHAPTER 2: WHERE WE ARE So missional is an identity.  It doesn’t describe what we do; it describes who we are.  We are the “sent” people of Jesus Christ, which means that we are God’s missionaries everywhere we go. This is an important concept, because we have become conditioned to think that “missionary work” is [...]

Chapter 1: The word itself “Missional” is one in a long line of words that have graced church bulletins, conference fliers, kiosks, web sites, newspaper ads, and new member handouts in the last 20 years.  The many clever words that churches have found to describe themselves is fitting for an organization based on the story [...]

For obvious etymological reasons one of the more prominent metaphors for a pastor is shepherd.  A shepherd/pastor is one who takes care of his or her flock (no offense to the laity of course), making sure they are nurtured, fed and even at times protected from those who might prey upon them.  Pastor as shepherd [...]

The first weekend in December we had our yearly Many Moods of Christmas concerts/worship services. “Concerts” because it features our choir singing beautiful songs of the season, and “worship services” because we read scripture, light the advent candle and I give a short to meditation on the meaning of Christmas to our congregation, plus 1800 from our [...]