As the Rev. Shanea D. Leonard began to talk about radical welcome from Montreat Conference Center, they put on an apron and began to reflect on childhood holidays.
We are going to discover new gifts this afternoon,” Dr. Leanne Van Dyk promised viewers Tuesday during the REvangelism conference. Van Dyk, president of Columbia Theological Seminary, was speaking about generosity, a topic she wrote about for the 8 Habits of Evangelism resource ahead of the conference for which about 150 people have registered.
Instead of a small garden plot with only daisies, imagine a large mountain meadow filled with wildflowers of all kinds. Both are beautiful, of course, but the mountain meadow is bigger and more diverse.
What do a cookbook, a blueprint, a trail map and the Bible have in common?
According to the Rev. Dr. Tod Bolsinger, associate professor of a leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary, they are all performative documents.
As he began to talk exclusively with unchurched people, Dr. Tom Bagley heard the same thing again and again from people who were spiritually curious about God and faith: They wanted nothing to do with the church because of its hypocrisy, judgmentalism and exclusivity.
During this time of pandemic, the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Johnson, executive presbyter for the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, reminds herself how beautiful the rich language and imagery in the Reformed tradition is around the sacraments.
Excited about what God is going to do through the new Theology, Formation & Evangelism Ministry Leader Formation Cohorts, Alicia Demartra-Pressley is looking forward to Presbyterians participating in spiritual formation and transformation work together.
When it comes to church, the Rev. Shanea B. Leonard knows what it’s like to feel like an outsider looking in. But Leonard also knows what it’s like to sit in a place of welcome and inclusion.
