“Faithful Mission in a New Age” Lecture Series in Montreat, July 20-24

Columbia Theological Seminary, in cooperation with Montreat Conference Center, the Presbyterian Heritage Center, and Montreat’s Adult Summer Club Program, will offer a series of five lectures, “Faithful Mission in a New Age,” July 20-24, at Montreat Conference Center. The lectures will be presented from 2:00-3:30 PM each afternoon, with a special Adult Summer Club program, “Hymns of the Mission Field,” on Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM. All afternoon lectures take place at the Presbyterian Heritage Center. The Wednesday evening program will be in Assembly Inn’s Convocation Hall. All programs are free of charge, and the public is welcome.

The presentations for this series will address the ways in which the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition has and continues to engage mission both in North America and around the world. “The lectures promise to help us learn from the past and cast a new vision for the future,” said series organizer Charles Raynal. “We are very pleased with the speakers this summer,” he added. The schedule features a slate of respected presenters:

• Monday, July 20, Darrell Guder, “Missional Church Theology and Praxis in the Global Church.” Dr. Guder is the Academic Dean and Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ.
• Tuesday, July 21, Bruce Reyes-Chow, “Presbyterian Mission in a New Generation.” The Rev. Reyes-Chow is the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, San Francisco, CA, and Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A).
• Wednesday, July 22, Linda Bryant Valentine, “Patterns of Global Mission – Past, Present, and Future.” Dr. Valentine is Executive Director of the General Assembly Council (GAC), the national mission program arm of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
• Thursday, July 23, James A. Cogswell, “Mission in a World of Hunger.” The Rev. Cogswell, former missionary to Japan and retired minister of the PC(USA), served as the Director of the Task Force on World Hunger, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), beginning in 1971.
• Friday, July 24, Erskine Clarke, “John Leighton Wilson’s Mission Vision.” Dr. Clarke is Professor Emeritus of American Religious History, Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA.

The Montreat lecture series is part of Columbia’s program in Presbyterian and Reformed History and Theology and is offered through the seminary’s Center for Lifelong Learning. The 2009 series is sponsored by Columbia Theological Seminary, established in 1828 in Decatur, GA, and one of 10 theological institutions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); Montreat Conference Center, a national conference center serving the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and visited annually by over 35,000 people; the Presbyterian Heritage Center, an organization dedicated to education about the history of Presbyterian and Reformed heritage and its worldwide mission, as well as the special history of Montreat; and the Adult Summer Club Program at Montreat.

For more information about the lecture series, call the Presbyterian Heritage Center at 828.669.6556, or visit www.phcmontreat.org.