WormTape #7: General Assembly 2015
After several years of wrangling, we will now with the 2015 General Assembly in Aruba have our General Assembly of the future. Charlie: “Well, now that the great and awesome President Obama’s Health Care plan is on its way to full implementation, we have our first shot at full implementation of our Coordinator Care Reform.... Continue Reading
Separating church, state doesn’t preclude religion
The church shouldn’t arrest people and the state shouldn’t baptize people. These institutions should remain separate. But the separation of church and state is not the same as the separation of God and state. Judge Barbara Crabb’s declaration last month that the National Day of Prayer, traditionally celebrated on the second Thursday in May, is... Continue Reading
NARAL’s Daughters — The Abortion Rights Crowd is Concerned
Speaking of pro-life activist women, the NARAL president said: “There are so many of them, and they are so young.” NARAL’s daughters are not where their mothers (and even grandmothers) were on the issue of abortion. That is a sign of hope — and a sign that the conscience of a culture can indeed be... Continue Reading
My Vision For The PCA
Instead of being critical of the proposed Strategic Plan, here is a positive vision for ministry at the local church level that I believe will have an impact on the church at large. The following comments are offered “as a few thoughts about how we could potentially improve things in the PCA. These comments are... Continue Reading
Churches entitled to assurance Presbyterian Disaster Agency will wisely disburse all Katrina relief funds
Following is a Letter to the Editor of the The Layman (Journal of the Presbyterian Lay Committee) Five years. This year will mark the fifth anniversary of the catastrophe from Hurricane Katrina. Two years after that, The Layman questioned the response of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance agency (PDA) in its slow distribution of funds. [Special... Continue Reading
The Gulf of Mexico and the Care of Creation
“Real conservatives protect what God loves.” As I type this, I am looking out at the Gulf of Mexico. You could have seen a similar sight out the window of the hospital where I was born, just a few miles down the road here on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Now, though, those waters I... Continue Reading
For Such A Time as This, Prayer on the U.S. Capitol Steps
Don’t expect music, sermons or speeches, and don’t bring any banners or signs. For such a time as this, the prayer time on the Capitol steps will have no pomp, just prayer. The United States Code contains a unique law at 36 U.S.C. § 119 which says that, “The President shall issue each year a... Continue Reading
Pastor and former business planner reflects on the PCA Strategic Plan – Part 2 (of 3 Parts)
More thoughts from Peter Drucker: 3) it is not necessary for an organization to grow bigger; it is necessary for an organization to grow better. My prior thoughts focused on the more mechanical issues of strategic planning: the need for good data, good root cause analysis, and then the right questions that lead (hopefully) to... Continue Reading
National Day of Prayer… a Danger to Evangelicals
“National Day of Prayer: A Short Treatise on the Endemic Temptations Peculiar to Evangelical Americans in the Early Twenty-First Century”. Okay, I admit it. The title of the article was sheer pandering to people’s sensibilities… sort of. So maybe I should rephrase it a little to “National Day of Prayer: A Short Treatise on the... Continue Reading
How to Engineer a Denominational Takeover
What if you wanted to take over a denomination? How would you go about doing this? I’m speaking hypothetically, of course, but what if you wanted to take over a denomination? What if you held a theology which was at odds with the official theology of the target denomination and you wanted first to carve... Continue Reading