August 2011

“Life’s messy; clean it up!” is one of my all-time favorite product slogans. It is normal in anyone’s house to discover elements dirtied by use, misplaced through inattention, broken by accident, or jumbled in a frenzy to get something else done. Life is also messy because hurricanes swirl, earthquakes shake, fires roar. In these cases, Plan A becomes suddenly irrelevant, Plan B looks anemic, and Plan C is all one has left to fall back on. Life is messy, and cleaning it up is, well, complicated. Cleaning up requires a careful look at what constitutes the mess. Dirtied things must

The Fellowship of Presbyterians has gathered approximately 1950 Presbyterian pastors, elders, observers, and Louisville staffers to discuss a new way of doing church. This process of discernment is designed to prepare primarily evangelicals dissatisfied with the status quo for next steps into a new reality. Today the informational groundwork was laid with presentations on an organizational umbrella—a new entity called “Fellowship of Presbyterians”—under which a variety of options will be shepherded to full realization. Ranging from “staying in place as missional agents” all the way to separating into a “new Reformed Body (NRB),” these options recognize the reality that there

Almost 2000 Presbyterians, brought together by concerns for the direction of the denomination, are meeting in Minneapolis, MN, through Friday. I am among them, listening and hoping that a unified vision will emerge as we spend the next two days together. To start things off, an astonishing crowd of about 1000 gathered Wednesday evening for a pre-conference time of worship and prayer. The evening was organized around the six Great Ends of the Church, with Scripture, guided prayer, and songs related to each theme. Afterwards, 195 small group leaders gathered for a mini-preparation session. The organizational effort has been immense