Kentucky

The Presbyterian Church (USA) will sponsor one of its largest world mission conferences this year and is challenging presbyteries in the months leading up to the five-day gathering.

Missionaries, mission partners, volunteers and supporters throughout the denomination from around the world will convene Oct. 2-6 at the denomination’s headquarters in Louisville, Ky. for World Mission ’07. Some 500-750 Presbyterians involved or interested in mission will attend the conference, which will feature keynote speakers, workshops and other special events including a panel presentation on Islam.

World Mission ’07 will be immediately followed by Mission Challenge ’07 – an effort to send out Presbyterian missionaries to share their mission stories in 134 of the 173 presbyteries in the United States and Puerto Rico. Presbyteries are challenged to have 100 percent of their congregations involved in the mission event, while host churches are urged to choose at least one mission worker to support spiritually and financially. more >>

Leading officials from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) say a report by a conservative group of Presbyterians "mischaracterizes" the denomination's positions on controversial matters.

The PC(USA)’s stated clerk, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, and its General Assembly Council executive director, Linda Valentine, addressed a letter to leaders within the denomination clarifying the church's stance on biblical authority, the singular saving Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the Trinity among other issues. The letter, dated June 12, and an attached document deals with a February strategy report released by the New Wineskins Association of Churches (NWAC) – a network of dissident Presbyterians in the PC(USA).

"The New Wineskins Association of Churches has circulated material that mischaracterizes central convictions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s faith and life," the letter stated. more >>

Active membership in the nation's largest Presbyterian body has dropped to nearly 2.3 million. The number of churches is also on a continual decline.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has seen a minor yet growing number of congregations leave to other denominations, mainly more conservative ones, since 2003. According to the PC(USA)'s latest statistics, churches went down from 11,064 in 2003 to 10,903 in 2006. And this past year, six churches were dismissed to other denominations while previous years had seen three or four dismissals.

Baptisms have also decreased from 35,237 in 2003 to 30,493 in 2006 among children and 10,174 to 8,297 among adults. more >>

Sixteen churches were awarded grants to help grow existing congregations and develop new ones within one of the largest Protestant denominations in the nation.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the largest Presbyterian group and the eighth largest Protestant group in America. In the past year, however, the mainline denomination suffered one of the largest membership decreases among other church groups.

With the U.S. population growing and changing in terms of ethnic diversity, the Mission Development Resources Committee of the PC(USA) recently granted $1.1 million in grants to 16 church-related projects – 65 percent of which are racial-ethnic projects – in a commitment to church growth. more >>

The $27 million Creation Museum officially opened its doors to the public Monday amid protests and petitions, but the founder of the project, Ken Ham, could not be happier.

Not only have the protests brought more publicity to the museum – which illustrates the literal six-day creation model in the Bible using science – but it also led Answers in Genesis (AiG), the ministry behind the museum, to the location they chose.

“This is partly their legacy too,” explained Ham in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “When we first started to research property in 1996, they caused all sorts of problems, and they stirred up trouble, and there were all sorts of things that went on. more >>

These are difficult days and they are only likely to get more difficult, said an evangelical leader whose recent comments on homosexuality drew wide criticism.

A day after a sit-in that resulted in the arrests of 12 gay rights activists, the Rev. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, told students and faculty members to pray for the people who staged the protest.

Twenty-two members of a homosexual activist group called Soulforce protested outside Mohler's office on Monday, demanding an apology from the Southern Baptist president for his March 2 blog post on homosexuality and genetic origin. more >>