The question of women serving as deacons continues to generate sustained discussion within the Presbyterian Church in America. For decades, faithful leaders—equally committed to the authority of Scripture and the good of Christ’s church—have reached differing...
Worship is formative, like it or not. The songs we sing in church, or in a ministry like RUF1 express the DNA of our group (“Is this a safe place to admit my struggles?”) and they reflect our understanding of what the normal Christian life feels like. Of course...
When I was fourteen years old, my father asked me to be his partner in a new personal evangelism training course our church was conducting. “It’s called Evangelism Explosion,” he said. “I think it will help us grow in our own faith too.” How right he was! We not only...
For their December 24, 1962, issue of the liberal Presbyterian Outlook, the editors commissioned a symposium with theology professors representing the four Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) seminaries. The question to be addressed: “Do we need an...
In this conversation, Derek Radney (Trinity Church PCA, Winston-Salem) sits down with Rev. Charles McGowan—AMR advisory board member, PCA pastor emeritus, former Moderator of the PCA General Assembly (1996), and founder of the McGowan Global Institute—to hear a...
I’ve never been more encouraged by an action of the General Assembly than its 2017 commendation of the Ad Interim committee report on women serving in the ministry of the church. For me—as for many—it represented a shift for the PCA’s from a back-heel posture on these...
Just how quickly will a frog react to heated water? In the late 1800s, Friedrich Goltz, William Sedgwick, and others used changes in water temperature to study frogs’ nerve responses. It wasn’t long before these experiments in reaction time became parables for how...
In a time of growing polarization within the PCA, questions about our identity have taken on new urgency. In this conversation with Derek Radney, historian and pastor Sean Michael Lucas revisits the denomination’s founding vision and considers how a clearer grasp of...
The Alliance for Mission and Renewal (AMR) exists to affirm a vision of the PCA that can live up to its highest callings—rooted in grace, faithful to Scripture, and devoted to Christ’s mission. The PCA has reached a critical moment—cultural noise from outside and...
Dear Friends of the Alliance, Thank you for standing with the Alliance for Mission and Renewal (AMR). Through your prayers, generosity, and shared conviction, you have partnered to champion a vision of the Presbyterian Church in America—rooted in grace, confident in...
