presbymergent

loyal radicals…

Top Five presbymergent Logo Submissions

First of all, thanks to everyone who took the time to contribute to the presbymergent Logo Contest. If you’ve been following the voting (we received 469 votes on the varying logos), you might know who the winners are, but if not, this is news to you. The awards go to the following five people who submitted logos:

First Place - Submission #14 by Jena Ashton (178 votes)
Second Place - Submission #7 by Margot Starbuck (144 votes)
Third Place - Submission #13 by Dannah Walter (42 votes)
Fourth Place - Submission #15 by Ryan Pappan (32 votes)
Fifth Place - Submission #2 by Stephanie Nelson (17 votes)

Each of these winners will get to choose one of the five prize packages. Congratulations to the winners who were picked by the presbymergent community. If you are one of the winners, please email presbymergent here about how to claim your prize package.

presbymergent Coordinating Group

Presbymergent has entered into a new phase with the creation of the presbymergent Coordinating Group. About two months ago, we wrote about how we were looking to create a Coordinating Group for presbymergent. After a few weeks of allowing people to self-nominate themselves, and checking in with those who have been active with presbymergent since the beginning, we have formed the presbymergent Coordinating Group. It consists of 36 folks right now, both men and women, pastors, youth pastors, denominational staff, seminarians, theologians and many others.

We look forward to the challenge it will be to both live in an open-source world, and also honor our denomination’s call to doing things decently and in order - and seeing how that plays out for leadership in the 21st century. We are very excited to see how this new group will guide the continuing emergence of presbymergent.

Vote for presbymergent Logo Submissions

UPDATE: Please vote using the voting/polling module on the right hand sidebar of this site. Do not leave your vote in the comments section, please.

We have received 15 entries into the Official presbymergent Logo Contest. Please vote for the logo submissions you think are best (you can vote again after 24 hrs). The voting will be open from today until Thursday night at midnight. On Friday, we’ll be awarding the prize packages to the top five submissions with the most votes. The panel of judges will be deliberating this week as well and you’ll hear from us shortly after the top five are chosen.

So, let the voting begin!

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4 Days Left in presbymergent Logo Contest

This is just a reminder that there are only 4 days left in the presbymergent logo contest. We will be accepting submissions until midnight on May 2nd. If you were thinking of designing a logo, or if you know someone who is working on one, please encourage them to get their submissions in by the deadline. The entries will be posted on this website a few days after that, and we’ll all have the chance to vote on them. We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Review of CPWI Emergent Worship at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, Washington, DC

The Christian Peace Witness for Iraq events of 2008 were centered around diverse worship experiences in over 12 houses of worship in Washington, DC at noon on Friday, March 8. The intent of the day was to bring people from different faith traditions together to bear a worshipful witness for peace in the conflict in Iraq.

The worship I attended was at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and it had been billed as an emergent worship. It opened with music from Ryan and Holly Sharp, and Jared Milos of The Cobalt Season. They did a masterful job of setting up a time of contemplation of scripture. It was one of the highlights of the service. For fifteen to twenty minutes Jared played a slow, sliding line on the bass guitar, drawing on the root chords of a sung chorus. Four liturgists, each reading from a different passage, alternated reading portions of the texts aloud. When they finished reading the passage through the first time, we repeated the chorus before they began to repeat selected verses of the text, alternating all the while with one another.

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Grill the Mods, Part II

Several months ago, we tossed out a post asking our presbymergent community to come up with some questions for the candidates for Moderator of the General Assembly. Here are your questions, in poll-style — vote for your favorites, and we’ll present the top five to the candidates.

Hint: You can stuff the ballot box (vote often) if you wait 24 hours and then vote again.

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Moderator Questions:
View Results

First Two presbymergent Logos

We have received our first two entries into the Official presbymergent Logo Contest. Please continue to submit ideas and pass this information around to any folks you know with design skills. Thanks! And if you want some ideas for the logo - feel free to read through the comments on this past post about the logo - there are some helpful ideas in there.

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Millenials and the PC(USA)

Rhett Smith has an excellent post on his blog today entitled What Is the Millennial Generation About? He summarizes some key points of an interview with the authors of a recent book on the Millennial Generation, and then offers some analysis of how these trends might pertain to the PC(USA). He makes some good points, and I started to respond in a comment, but then it become one of those long blog-post length comments, and I saw an opportunity to draw a few more people into the discussion.

So first, before you read my response, head on over to his blog and read his original post.

Back already? Ok, here are my thoughts: While I think Rhett’s points are all spot on, I walk away from them with a little more hope for the PC(USA).

I did my undergraduate work at Oral Roberts University, a mecca of Evangelical Christianity. And as top-down-hierarchical as mainline denominations are, I know firsthand that non-denoms are often far worse. Usually there’s a pastor, and he IS the unquestioned authority. The heirarchy then flows down from him (and yes, I did intentionally say “him”). Contrast that with the PC(USA) which, as Rhett points out, so often functions as a top-down hierarchy. But within that hierarchy is a framework that is also surprisingly peer to peer, bottom up self organizing. Think of the autonomy of local churches and sessions, and the democratic values inherent in the Presbyterian system. That will have appeal to millenials also, especially those raised in Evangelical churches looking for an expression of faith that more closely reflects their own values.

The gay issue is certainly dividing our church, but at least we’re talking about it — millennials made up their minds long ago on this issue, but so did Evangelical conservatives, and their decision was to exclude. Period. End of discussion. Because there is still a discussion in our denomination, I believe there is still hope that we will emerge on the inclusive side of this one.

Rhett points out that there is no gender divide among millennials — so I think those millennial women who feel called to ministry are going to be far more likely to find a home in a denomination that has embraced and empowered them for a long time now. And finding a home, or a tribe, a “brand” or a community — these are things that are also important for millennials of either gender. And since they’re two to one more liberal than gen X’ers or boomers, some might argue that the PC(USA) is the obvious home for them anyhow. Certainly for a generation focused on social justice, our denomination has a rich history and tradition of to offer them. True, sometimes we forget about it and focus on other things, but our church has often in the past stood up for issues of equality, justice, and globalism.

And speaking of rich history and tradition, Rhett notes that “Millenials do not like to desert their elders — even when they do crazy things” Or when they live by crazy books of order, perhaps? Where non-denom and Evangelical mega-churches often have little history and tradition, the PC(USA) does, and I think that’s something millennials are finding their way back to.

I think the greater danger with this generation is them leaving “the church” altogether, especially in its less-tolerant, ultra-conservative incarnations. But that’s why I think it’s such an important time for those denominations (like the PCUSA) who have something to offer to this generation. Remember that the church, at the end of the day, is people. I have hope and faith that a Presbyterian church of millenial people will look a lot different than a Presbyterian church of boomers. And if we hang on to our crazy elders for a little while longer (and maybe even learn from them and work alongside of them), I think we can bridge that divide and bring the PC(USA) into the next generation, if not the next era. Maybe that’s what presbymergent is all about anyhow.

So…that’s my response. Would love to hear yours, but I’m going to turn off comments on this post, and direct you back to Rhett’s post to carry on the conversation there.

UPDATE: Tyler and Drew have joined the conversation with posts of their own, plus some interesting conversation back on Rhett’s original post.  And now Bruce Reyes-Chow has also responded on his Moderator Blog.

Announcing the Official presbymergent Logo Contest

Adam Walker Cleaveland posted a few months ago about the desire for presbymergent to work towards having a logo. Well, folks - this is it. We at presbymergent would like to announce the beginning of the Official presbymergent Logo Contest.

We are hoping that your submission for the logo contest would take into consideration our commitment to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and to the Emergent conversation. It is also our hope that this contest will help both presbymergents and friends of presbymergent think creatively about what our logo might look and feel like. The contest officially begins today, and the deadline for logo submissions will be May 2nd. We encourage you all to submit ideas and spread the word about this logo contest through your blogs, email and Facebook. It’s our hope that this will also be a way to continue to get the word out about presbymergent. Here’s how the contest will work.

  • People will be able to submit logos up until midnight on May 2nd.
  • Logo submissions should be emailed to presbymergent@gmail.com and can be submitted in an appropriate file format (.jpg/.gif/.ai/.png).
  • All entries will be posted on the presbymergent website after the deadline, and anyone can come and vote on the presbymergent site for their favorite.
  • The top five with the most votes will receive one of the five prize packages below, be considered automatic finalists for the contest and proceed on to the final judging process. Although the winners will be guaranteed finalists, the panel of judges may also consider submissions outside of the contest for the official presbymergent logo. The panel of judges will consist of the Presbymergent Editors, friends of presbymergent and a few professional designers.

Prize Packages

Prize Package 1
The Practicing Congregation by Diana Butler Bass
From Nomads to Pilgrims, ed. by Diana Butler Bass
Tribal Church by Carol Howard Merritt
$30 iTunes Gift Card

Prize Package 2
Flirting with Monasticism by Karen Sloan
Ancient-Future Worship by Robert Webber
$40 Amazon Gift Card

Prize Package 3
Free of Charge by Miroslav Volf
From Stone to Living Word by Debbie Blue
$40 Amazon Gift Card

Prize Package 4
An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, ed. by Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt
They Like Jesus But Not the Church by Dan Kimball
$40 iTunes Gift Card

Prize Package 5
Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren
The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub
Your Logo printed on a t-shirt

Again - please pass this on to your friends with gifts in the graphic arts, and help us come up with a logo that symbolizes our hopes for presbymergent. Let the contest begin!

A few thoughts on Presbymergent

I gave up blogging for Lent. Easter was my first post in sometime. I have been chewing on what Presbymergent means to me and to the denomination. I wrote a post over at my blog about it.

I do hope that this gathering grows and blesses the denomination with new energy and opens the understanding of ministry to many. We have the ability to go to the margins offering a gospel message that sheds the BS of checklists and shame.

I ask y’all this…

How can we be loyal radicals in the context we find ourselves today?

What does this look like in the future?

Can radical loyalty exist with the demand of orthodoxy?