GAC February 10 (Part 2)

I wrote earlier that on Friday morning, the General Assembly Council adopted the Mission Work Plan 2007-2008 with two modifications.

First, the Evangelism objective changed by one word from “religious” to “church” so that it now reads as follows:

Equip Presbyterians, governing bodies and others to witness locally and globally to the Gospel of Jesus Christ with an emphasis on those with no active church affiliation.

Second, the Reformed Identity objective had read:

Encourage and support presbyteries and congregations to further develop their members' ability to appreciate and understand their Reformed identity and apply it in today's world.

It was altered to read:

Encourage and support presbyteries and congregations to further develop their members' ability to appreciate and understand their Reformed identity, experience and practice disciplines of Reformed spirituality and apply them in today's world.

I think both of these changes made the objectives stronger.

The early afternoon was spent listening to a report from the Mission Funding Task Force and other entities that report to the GAC. We spent the last two hours listening and discussing a presentation by the president of Austin Seminary, Dr. Ted Wardlaw, about “Change in the Church.” I found some of his comments intriguing. I ordered an audio copy of the presentation to listen to again. Once I have heard it again, I may blog about my reflections.

Friday evening, we had dinner and a New Orleans Jazz band.