Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America Short Synod Not Short on Work
No Judicial Cases will allow time to put into matters relating to the future
Our 202-year-old denominational seminary, RPTS, is looking toward faculty changes due to faculty retirement. This year we will vote on the proposed appointment of Reverend Barry York (Sycamore RPC, Kokomo, IN) as Professor of Practical Theology. Within the next five years, the synod will also be asked to nominate and approve a new President as well as a new Professor of Biblical Counseling
Pastoral Theology: Some Book Recommendations
(Editor's Note: Must read for those attending General Assembly, Synod, and Convention meetings this week)
Recently, we tweaked our pastoral internship program for this year to focus more on pastoral theology than trying to cover the whole gamut of a seminary education (church history, systematics, biblical theology, exegesis, etc.). To that end, we choose to highlight twelve categories of thought and practice that seem especially important to pastoral ministry.
TE Michael Ross Elected Moderator of 40th PCA General Assembly
Ross is Senior Pastor of Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church in Matthews, NC
Dr. Ross is an author with a particular interest in church revitalization. He has authored two books Preaching for Revitalization and The Light of the Psalms: Deepening Your Faith with Every Psalm. And since 2002 when it began, Ross has authored the Bible studies for the PCA’s 50 Days of Prayer booklet.
Derek Thomas to be Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at RTS/Atlanta
Remains minister of preaching and teaching at FPC, Columbia, SC
Michael Milton, chancellor of RTS, said, "The biblical model for pastoral preparation, and the training of all of God's people for kingdom service, begins with an incarnational ministry. At RTS we desire 'pastor-scholars,' with a love for Christ's church and experience in the pulpit and parish, to shape the hearts and minds of the next generation of shepherds
At the PCA GA: Overtures Committee completes its work
(Barring any new business coming its way from the floor of the assembly)
In finishing its work on Tuesday (June 19) the Overtures Committee passed the following recommendations to be presented to the General Assembly:
At the Southern Baptist Convention: Presentation of Motions
(PCA GA friends think 'new business')
Brad Atkins moved that the seminaries consider lessening their budgets slightly to increase the International Mission Board funding formula. I’d vote for it, but it ain’t gonna happen.
The Futility of Control: Where Shall We Find Rest?
God asks you to trust his loving and wise rule, even though you don't have a clue what he is doing.
Real rest is found in trust. So (God) is willing to have the conversation with you again and again, and he has made sure that his Word assures you of his rule again and again.
When the Gospel Penetrates Life and Culture
Address to the Legacy 2012 Conference, in honor of legendary missionary to Muslims, Samuel Zwemer
Authentic biblical faith has always been transforming faith that took place within God’s appointed means for the change, his set apart people, the visible church. The people that get that are Muslim background Christians. They both realize the utter necessity of the visible church and the necessity to leave false religions such as Islam in order for gospel transformation to actually take place
Southern Baptists Elect Fred Luter first African-American president of the Convention
Luter serves as pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans
Emmanuel McCall, longtime director of black church relations for the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board, dates real progress toward racial reconciliation in the SBC to 1957, when the HMB—since reorganized into the North American Mission Board—hired Victor Glass as liaison with the National Baptist Convention.
As Southern Baptists Prepare to Meet in New Orleans, Calvinism Debate Shifts to Heresy Accusation
Hundreds, including seminary presidents, have signed a statement on salvation criticized by both Reformed and Arminian theologians.
…more than 650 other Southern Baptists, ranging from laymen to SBC state directors, have signed the more specific articulation of a "Traditional Southern Baptist" soteriology in an effort to rebuff the "New Calvinism" —a movement whose growth, both in and beyond the SBC, garnered it a spot on Time's 2009 list of "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now."