Sandwiched between two brief but effective worship services, the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board met via Zoom Thursday to learn more about the work of innovation, repair, Matthew 25, the grant process and professional development and diversity training that’s ongoing among PMA staff.
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.
Like the Apostle Paul, when the Rev. Kevin Johnson was a child, he thought like a child. But even then he had the good sense to ask his mother and the people at his church plenty of questions — much the same way Muhammad Ali did in a taped interview Johnson played for his colleagues on the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board Thursday.
An April survey by Research Services of nearly 1,100 Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations and mid councils revealed some surprising responses on how they’re dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic:
The Presbyterian Mission Agency board meeting started Friday morning with a short worship service that took participants back to 1619. But for her talk, “A Conversation on Racism and Matthew 25,” the Rev. Denise Anderson brought up some slightly more recent history — 2016.
