The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board took care of a bit of business Friday. But mostly board members stuck to the important business of telling those members rotating off the board after years of faithful and sometimes difficult service how much their hard work has meant to the Agency, the Church and God’s kin-dom.
The Coordinating Committee of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board approved comments on two important items of business that will come before commissioners to the 225th General Assembly this summer. With the committee’s approval on Thursday, consideration on the comments will go to the full board for consideration during its meeting April 27-29.
After discussing the proposed 2023-2024 Mission Work Plan in both small groups and all together Thursday, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board will vote Friday on the plan that will guide much of the mission agency’s work as it seeks to take on additional areas of concentration while maintaining and expanding efforts regarding the three foci of the Matthew 25 invitation: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty.
A revised 2023-2024 Mission Work Plan won approval Friday by the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board’s Coordinating Committee, sending the document along to the full Board for consideration next month and ultimately to the 225th General Assembly meeting this summer both online and at the Presbyterian Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
With the exception of how the term “militarism” is understood, the proposed 2023-2024 Mission Work Plan received a warm reception Thursday by the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board’s Coordinating Committee.
A consulting firm hired to help redesign the structure and purpose of the Presbyterian Mission Agency to more adeptly carry out the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Matthew 25 invitation and to better serve a changing Church and changing world has completed a report that recommends some sweeping changes for the agency over the next 30-42 months.
On Thursday the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) offered up his thoughts on the proposed renovation of the Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville, a renovation that the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II also hopes will include the transformation of hearts and minds of employees inside the building and of Presbyterians working at carrying out Christ’s mission across the nation and around the world.
Looking ahead to the April 22-23 meeting of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, the board’s Coordinating Committee on Friday also looked back to last month’s deadly violence against members of the Asian American Pacific Islander community in and around Atlanta.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board spent most its six-hour meeting Friday discussing how the Matthew 25 vision will inform the work of the Mission Agency in the coming years. The PMA has begun a Vision Implementation Process to align its work with the three foci of the Matthew 25 invitation: building congregational vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty.
