Joining Hearts & Hands Catches Vision of Presbyterian Global Fellowship
September 2006
Mary and Sam Hitchings, elders at the Strasburg (Va.) Presbyterian Church, visit the MIJHH display booth. Photo by Emily Odom.
Over a thousand Presbyterians – their hearts burning within them – gathered at the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta from August 17-19 to reclaim their identity in Christ Jesus as a missional people. At the invitation of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship (PGF) and the Rev. David Peterson – one of PGF’s founding members and a co-chair of the Joining Hearts & Hands Steering Committee – members of the national staff of Joining Hearts & Hands shared resources and new mission funding paradigms with brothers and sisters across the Presbyterian and global church. Peterson was also joined at the event by new MIJHH Steering Committee members, Linda Bryant Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Council (GAC), and Carol Adcock, chair of the Worldwide Ministries Division Committee of the GAC.
Those who were called together in Atlanta resonated with the statement delivered by opening keynoter Steve Hayner, Peachtree Associate Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at Columbia Theological Seminary. “Mission is not a program of the church,” he said , “but its call.”
From left to right, Kathy Abington and Janet Osterloh of San Pedro Presbyterian Church, San Antonio, Tex., visit with MIJHH staff member, Patrice Paton, at the display booth. Photo by Emily Odom.
Mission Initiative colleagues – Jan Opdyke, director of Joining Hearts & Hands, David York, Patrice Paton, and Emily Odom – staffed a display booth at “Connection Central,” where they were encouraged by the conversations and the renewed energy around mission expressed by conference participants.
Of the PGF's purpose, the Rev. Scott Weimer, senior pastor of the North Avenue Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, said, “We’re not seeking to be a new denomination.” According to Vic Pentz, senior pastor of Peachtree Presbyterian Church, the PGF and its inaugural event in Atlanta would rather “begin a turnaround into a more hopeful church by linking with global Christians around the world.”
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