The work of Re-Forming Ministry: focus on the church

We live in a time of uncertainty for the church. The church’s place in our culture is shifting. Our cherished view of ourselves standing in a central place in country and culture has largely run aground.

The church is being challenged in a world which often seems inoculated to the church and its message. The message of the gospel needs to be spoken and embodied in new ways — tuned to cultural resistances and able to speak through them.

The church also struggles within, seeking ways forward.

Without significant clarity about who and whose we are, about what that means for how we walk together the way of Jesus Christ, we are unable to overcome the attraction of passing ecclesial fads and the siren call of faith in techniques and procedures. We will only be able to achieve such clarity as we think the faith together in and for this time and place.

Re-Forming Ministry groups and their members are engaged in discussion of just such matters, seeking insight from Scripture, from the tradition (and particularly the Reformed tradition), from brothers and sisters around the world and across the denomination.

The following links take you to work that will share elements of the conversation that has begun in the Re-Forming Ministry program. We invite you to read these materials and to engage them.

Seeds for an on-going conversation

Envisioning the nature of the church

We do have understandings of the nature of the church — we wouldn’t be doing all the things we do without some understanding of what the church is and what it is called to be. And yet often those understandings are implicit and unexamined. New insight can lead to new understanding of who, whose and where we are. [Read related papers and presentations]

Assessing the challenges

While we all know that the church and our denomination face significant challenges, we are not always clear about the specific shape of those challenges. Working toward strong diagnosis will help us in our efforts to respond well to the challenges we face.

"One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic" by Kevin Park, pastor, Bethany Presbyterian Church, Bloomfield, New Jersey

"We believe in the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church: 4 Theses" by Charles Wiley, associate for theology, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

The Presbyterian way

Presbyterianism is a specific way of being the church. It survives and carries us forward because it has great strengths to match its weaknesses. To probe the Presbyterian way is to weigh the tools we have closest at hand for fashioning a faithful shared life in this moment. Sometimes we are simply failing to live what is best in the Presbyterian way, and need to be called back. Sometimes we need to recover tools our heritage offers which we had ignored or lost. Sometimes we need new tools, or new forms of old tools.

"Infant baptism—it's all about grace" by Tom Walker
The baptism of a baby signals that God acts on our behalf even before we are able to respond.

Identity — Polity — Praxis: Ecclesiology and the Presbytery." by Paul Hooker

"Rebuilding the Presbyterian establishment" by Beau Weston
Has the PC(USA) structured its life together in ways that help it flourish, or that hinder its flourishing? Weston brings his training as a sociologist and his long study of the PC(USA) to bear in considering how to shape a life together that is healthy. We invite you to join the conversation about Weston's analysis and his proposals on our Facebook group. You may also email Barry Ensign-George if you wish to share your response to the paper.

The Rev. Dr. Paul Hooker has written a brief response to "Rebuilding the Presbyterian establishment." Download "What presbyteries are for — thoughts in response to 'Rebuilding'"