The Presbyterian Mission Agency’s (PMA) proposed Mission Work Plan for 2023–24 was presented to the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB) last week and approved to send on to the General Assembly this summer.
When the Rev. Dr. Christina Berry enrolled her congregation to become a Matthew 25 church, little did she know just how the Spirit would move among them. After reviewing the areas of focus that her flock could engage in — building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty — focusing on vitality made the most sense for an all-white congregation living in the shadow of glory days gone by.
Mission statements are common among Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches and mid councils. The problem, according to the Rev. Dr. Theresa Cho, is that they usually don’t “tell us how to go about” the mission.
Justice is at the very heart of who God is, Professor Rebecca Davis of Union Presbyterian Seminary said during a Thursday workshop at the annual gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. And justice is not a political issue — it’s a biblical issue. “We must come to grips with that,” she said to an overflow workshop crowd, “if we are going to be faithful to the witness of the church.”
