Something New?

by Joseph D. Small
Director, Theology Worship and Education

The preacher says that “there is nothing new under the sun.” Perhaps that’s because he had never heard of “Theology Worship and Education Ministries” of the PC(USA)’s General Assembly Council.

Theology Worship and Education (TWE) is an innovative combination of the Office of Theology and Worship, the Office of Christian Formation (itself a combination of spiritual formation, congregational leadership and youth ministries), the Office of Theological Education, the Office of Christian Education and Congregational Ministries Publishing (numerous curriculum lines and Witherspoon Press). What makes them all hang together?

In the midst of difficult times for American denominations, it is important to remember what makes a denomination: shared faith, shared worship and shared mission. This does not mean uniform faith, worship and mission, of course, but neither does it mean each person believing whatever seems agreeable, idiosyncratic worship and calling everything that is done in the church “mission.”

If it is more than a mere name, a denomination shares convictions about the grace of Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Worship in congregations of a denomination reflects those convictions. And a denomination lives out the mission of the Triune God in fidelity to its convictions about the God it worships.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), like most North American denominations, is undergoing difficult times. Accused by some of unclear belief, false worship and misguided mission, our church is called upon to give account of its faith and life. Theology Worship and Education Ministries has been a key part of the General Assembly Council’s clear statement of the church’s core convictions and practices.

Congregational Ministries Publishing and the Office of Christian Education provide faithful educational materials for Presbyterians of all ages, in all sizes and types of churches, in multiple languages, in this country and beyond. Our Presbyterian-specific curriculum, We Believe, is appropriately named, for it strives to present God’s call clearly and invite committed response within identifiably Reformed communities of faith. Congregational Ministries Publishing has also forged ecumenical partnerships with Augsburg Fortress of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Kerygma Program, Faith Alive of the Christian Reformed Church and the Reformed Church in America, and other ecumenical partners.

Congregational Ministries Publishing does not do all of this in isolation, however. There is increasing collaboration among the constituent parts of Theology Worship and Education Ministries. The Office of Theology and Worship has led the way in providing unambiguous articulations of the church’s faith and life in such statements as “The Church’s One Foundation is Jesus Christ Her Lord” and “The Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace.” Theology and Worship and Congregational Ministries Publishing (CMP) are deepening their collaboration on educational programming for adults in the church. The Office of Christian Formation’s Youth Ministries staff work closely with youth editors in CMP, as well as encouraging spiritual depth through the Company of Pastors and the Order of Elders. The Office of Christian Education helps congregations see curriculum as resources in congregational ministries to children, youth and adults. The Office of Theological Education works to ensure continuing generations of faithful leaders in the PC(USA).

Theology Worship and Education Ministries is more than a bureaucratic convenience. It is a cooperative, collaborative ministry of the whole church that seeks to serve congregations (and a denomination) in the deepening of shared faith, worship, and mission. I hope that this issue of ideas! will communicate the collaboration within TWES and the collaboration between TWE and your congregation’s ministries.