This February approximately two-hundred members of Presbyterians Organized in Nurture and Teaching (POINT) will gather in St. Louis, Missouri, for fellowship and training. Dr. Freda A. Gardner, professor emerita of Christian education at Princeton Theological Seminary, moderator of the 211th General Assembly (1999), and an elder, will speak on the theme “Our Inheritance, Our Hope.” When members of the POINT and Resource Center partnership sit with Dr. Gardner, what will they discover about our Presbyterian heritage and how they as servant leaders contribute to hope?

Inheritance, as defined by Merriam-Webster™, is “a valuable possession that is a common heritage from nature or tradition.” As Christians, we embrace the heritage proclaimed in 1 Peter 1:3–4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By [God’s] great mercy, [God] has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. . . .” How does the ministry of POINT, as mandated by the General Assembly Council through Congregational Ministries Publishing, seek to embody this rich inheritance?

Since the 212th General Assembly, each consecutive assembly has commissioned the POINT network in each presbytery to provide support for our denominational curriculum, We Believe, our mission education resources, our Spanish and Korean language materials, and our partnership curricula, Bible Quest and The Present Word. Team members are asked to use their Christian education expertise to undergird the educational ministries of churches across the country.

This form of curriculum support does not have a brief history. Volunteers, who are very active in their own churches and presbyteries, are called and have been called to serve in this way under other names and in many forms. The tradition of service to the greater church is a core value of our denomination. The POINT network embodies this aspect of our inheritance.

As Presbyterians, we also value Christian education in the Reformed tradition as part of our common heritage. The POINT ministry seeks to enrich our inheritance by interpreting tools grounded in the confessions of our Reformed faith. As the servant leaders of POINT walk beside others in ministry, support education through our churches, and interpret our denominational resources, hope—“an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading”—is celebrated.

If you would like to know more about the ministry of POINT or our denominational resources and curricula, please contact your presbytery office or visit the POINT Web site.