Home : The Voice : December 2002  

REVITALIZING AND BUILDING CHURCHES
INVOLVE CARING FOR EACH OTHER IN SMALL GROUPS

It might not be called a committee; it might not be called a session; but people caring for each other in small groups within a church can make a church vital and meaningful. That idea seemed to surface again and again in the workshops held during the Synod’s Congregational Development Conference held in Huntsville, Alabama, November 7-9. Multi-cultural or postmodern, new church or old church, Reformed and always reforming, churches today need to provide ways for people to care for each other in a spiritual setting, whether it’s in a sanctuary or a bar, if Presbyterianism is to be relevant in the new century. That seemed to be the message brought by Sherard Edington in worship services; by Donald McKim as keynoter; by John Rickard as redevelopment specialist; by Liz Trexler and Jud Hendrix, young co-pastors of Louisville’s “Church Without Walls”; by Gray Norsworthy and Brian Clark in their stories about growing churches.

Planners and presenters at the Congregational Development Conference included Betty Meadows, Sherard Edington (seated) and John Rickard.