First Full Day Of Plenary by, Tom Letts

Committee 15 ends its work!

Dear Saints- It will continue to be a 'good news-bad news' week. I'll mix them up for all of our sakes.

C15 (Evangelism Church Growth, PILP), as the first to finish its business, became the first to present today. We presented without a hitch and some great 'legislation' has been put into place. There is an emphasis/program called 'Deep and Wide.' that sounds and acts remarkably like 'Filled up. Poured out.' So cool to be a part of continuing this essential work if the denomination is to grow in vitality and numbers. The stat that I use so often is being used here all the time, '75% of our congregations are in decline, but 25% are growing. What can we learn from the 25%?'

C15 showed an instructive and inspirational video about a couple churches in the 25%, that I'm bringing home and will use in worship. BTW, we've seen some great video production here but none better then what Todd Hardisty has done for us.

The 219th GA daily paper is my first read each day. Tough, tough headlines today. 'New language offered for ordination standards does not include sexual ethics.' 'Definition of marriage to include union of 'two people.'' '$1.9 million cut from PC(USA) mission/ministry budget.' 'Committee votes to disallow formation of non-geographic synods based on theological agreement.' Each of these headlines is contrary to where Tammy and I (and I am confident the session as well) stand. The votes on these pieces forwarded from the committees start tomorrow and I expect all to pass, but you never know...

The worship music has been great. We are led by a young guy (late 20something) on acoustic guitar with a variety of his local worship team on vocals. Their band has a bass player, keyboard, and drummer. They are really good (but they aren't Cam, Will, Lori, Ryan, Meg2, and the rest). Oh, and I miss a good brass section! The musicians are from the Church of the Nations based here in Minneapolis. Look it up, its a great, 'missional' (Filled up. Poured out.) church.

Love you all, tl

Live and In Color by, Tom Letts

Looks like C15 reports live on ga219.pcusa.org at about 11 a.m. Wednesday. Watch if you are bored! Peace, tl

They Say Its Your Birthday by, Tom Letts

C15 was first done with official business! So we will present tomorrow afternoon. I'll find out our docket time at about noon Wednesday. You will be able to follow our report before the Assembly on a live video feed at ga219.pcusa.org I'll let you know as soon as I can our exact docket time. It's like live TV and everything!

Tammy joined four other panelists in presenting, to C15, practical applications of how churches reach out to their communities. She was brilliant as she walked the committee through, among other things, our developing relationship with Huffman Elementary School and Huffman Park.

After lunch, C15 went on our field trip. We are the envy of the Assembly! Both churches we visited had teams of pastors who were married (see, we're doing great stuff at Trinity!). Our second church was in 'THE bad part of town' (according to our bus driver). This inner-city church, Kwanzaa Community Fellowship, is doing just super work in their neighborhood. They partner with all kinds of secular and government institutions. Their creativity in partnerships has led to all kinds of amazing mission in their community. One of the coolest is their community garden. Unbelievable how it came together and the impact it is having. After a couple hours with the pastors and staff of a tour of the area (a lot of white people for that neighborhood), we gathered in their 'lobby' and prayed. People were laughing and crying and thanking God for all the activity of the Spirit in this beautiful work. You'll hear plenty later.

Tammy must have told the world of my birthday. Thank you, C15 and all of you at Trinity, for the blessings. It was a great day to turn 54. And tonight? A Jazz club for Brazilian jazz (that's right, Cam)!

Peace, tl

54 of My Closest Friends by, Tom Letts

What has 54 voting Presbyterians, meets two floors underground, has no cell or internet coverage, and makes its own coffee? That's right! How did you know? Its committee 15 'Church Growth, Education, and PILP.'

Early morning prep meetings, late night prep on our own, and lots of coffee and dark chocolate have drawn the leadership team of C15 close. I love these four friends and partners! For those of you who follow temperament and management style profiles, the three women are devoted, hard-working 'Beavers' who don't rest until the work is done (in triplicate!). Tim is a 'Golden Retriever' who quietly keeps us together ('You doing, OK? What can I do for you?'). And I make cool power-points (I got on line and downloaded pictures from everyone's home churches), keep the coffee and snacks coming, mingle like crazy with the committee members at break and...got us a FIELD TRIP! [That would make me an 'Otter.' PS-no 'Lions' on the leadership team but we have plenty on the committee. Lions make big noise, and expect things to go their way a lot. They really don't like being told 'no' even by a meticulous otter who has done their homework. It is after a 'lion attack' that otters (that would be me) bring a cup of coffee and make a quiet lion joke to the beavers to loosen them back up.]

I've been asked to lead some prayer times and have introduced Committee 15 to guided prayer like on Sunday mornings. Lots of, 'Thank you, Tom. That was great after this long day...'

Tammy is spending her time between the PFR guest booth in the exhibit hall and visiting committees dealing with controversial topics. She leaves Tuesday to join Megan Holiday and the Kid's Fun Week staff out at Kincaid Park.

These are the three sites I use every day:
pc-biz.org [following the work of the committees of GA]
ga219.pcusa.org [the official site for news and information]
pfrenewal.org [you can register for updates or just click on the articles you want]


More later.

Peace, tl