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2017 National Gathering Transformative Learning III

Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott served as our Transformation Leaders at the 2017 National Gathering, joining us throughout the week during plenary sessions to help us find ways to process what we experienced and equip us to take those learnings home with us. Here is their third session from Tuesday morning.


Watch Jen and Leslie’s other sessions:

Transformative Learning I
Transformative Learning II
Transformative Learning IV

2017 National Gathering Ignite: Ann Hartman

Ann Hartman gives an Ignite presentation at the 2017 NEXT Church National Gathering about her experience interning at a Presbyterian church in Yukutat, Alaska.

2017 National Gathering Ignite: Racial Awareness & Mindfulness Festival

Therese Taylor-Stinson and Glenn Zuber of National Capital Presbytery give an Ignite presentation on the first-ever DC Racial Awareness & Mindfulness Festival at the 2017 NEXT Church National Gathering.

2017 National Gathering Keynote: Soong-Chan Rah

Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL, presents a keynote at the 2017 NEXT Church National Gathering entitled: “The Changing Face of the Church.”


Soong-Chan Rah is Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL and the author of The Next EvangelicalismMany ColorsProphetic Lament; co-author of Forgive Us; and Return to Justice.

Soong-Chan is formerly the founding Senior Pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic church living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. He currently serves on the board of World Vision and Evangelicals 4 Justice. He has previously served on the board of Sojourners and the Christian Community Development Association.

Soong-Chan received his B.A. from Columbia University; his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; his Th.M. from Harvard University; his D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his Th.D. from Duke University.

Soong-Chan and his wife Sue and their two children, Annah and Elijah live in Chicago.

A Method in the Midst of Madness

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Lee Hinson-Hasty is curating a series identifying books that Presbyterian leaders are reading now that inform their ministry and work. Why are these texts relevant today? How might they bring us into God’s future? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Bridgett Green

What happens when chaos steps in and disrupts our present circumstances? We become dizzy and disoriented us as our world changes beyond comprehension. We lose a sense of who we are and what we’re doing. And we wonder what is God doing and trying to show us.

When the method to the madness is lost and we are simply left with just madness, how are we to respond? Examining the courageous leadership of Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow nation, Jonathan Lear offers Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation. His anthropological analysis with theological insight into Chief Plenty Coups and the Crow nation’s experiences of radical hope provides insights about how to face an uncertain reality with courage and conviction.

Chief Plenty Coups led the Crow nation at the turn of the 20th century when seismic cultural and political shifts devastated their way of life. Preserving their land, living off wild buffalo, and having a rich spiritual life were central to their culture. Invasions by white settlers, wars with other Indigenous nations, broken treaties with the U.S. government, and the utter annihilation of the buffalo created a massive shock wave to the Crow’s way of life and concepts of living.

Devastated by their reality, the Crow nation engaged in a radical hope to confront their present circumstances by synthesizing their traditions with a new conceptual framework for flourishing. Radical hope is the exercise of imaginative excellence for generating creative responses to world challenges. Rooted in vibrant ideals, it allows for a rewarding life in the face of hard realities. To have a radical hope, one must have a faith, or what Lear calls a psychological flexibility, to believe in possibilities without knowledge of how they would manifest.

As a young man, Chief Plenty Coups received a divine message warning him of future destruction and encouraging him to listen carefully and to learn from others. The elders and the community adopted his dream. Not knowing how it would manifest, the people allowed the dream to generate a radical hope for survival that would surpass their understanding.

With radical hope, the Crow nation kept their lands and mountains despite the pressures and broken treaties by the U.S. government enacted in the reservation system. Chief Plenty Coups encouraged generations to go to white schools, explaining that knowing what the white man knows would keep him from being able to oppress them. Eventually, the Crow nation built on their reservation Little Big Horn College that incorporated their history and traditions with western education. The Crow nation developed a new conceptual framework for flourishing.

When we experience a loss of identity, culture, or vocation, it’s an opportunity to follow the wisdom of Chief Plenty Coups: 1) access the real challenges; 2) seeks God’s will; 3) discern with community the vision; 4) have faith God’s vision (versus the prescription); 5) listen and learn from various sources; and 6) respond creatively and courageously to the present reality (and not a reconstructed version of the past).


Bridgett A. Green is a teaching elder and is completing her dissertation as a Ph.D. candidate in New Testament at Vanderbilt University. Living outside of Nashville, she serves the church as an acquisitions editor at Presbyterian Publishing Corporation; as a trustee on the board of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary; and as a trustee on the board of the Mountain Retreat Association (aka Montreat). She resources people as they practice Christianity with the tools of sound biblical interpretation, rigorous theological inquiry, and good questions.

What Does It Mean to be Christian in the 21st Century?

This month, our blog series is actually a vlog series – a video blog, that is! We’re calling it “The NEXT Few Minutes.” Over the next several weeks, we’ll share with you short, 2-3 minute videos from a variety of folks around the country with the hopes they spark your own imagination. We hope you’ll learn about some trends, ask questions, and think deeply about the practice of ministry in your own setting.

Brian Blount reflects on what it means to be Christian in the 21st century. What do you think God envisions for us today and tomorrow? Join the conversation by commenting on this blog post or on our Facebook/Twitter pages!

To see all of our videos in our “The NEXT Few Minutes” series, check out our playlist on Youtube.

Come and See

Each month, we post a series of blogs around a common topic. This month, Andrew Kukla is curating reflections on being evangelical in the church. Have we connected our congregations to resurrection life? Have we taught them how to talk about it?  How to live it? How to connect others to that life-giving, life-abundant power? We invite you to join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter!

by Irene Pak Lee

I need to start this by naming up front that I am uncomfortable with being tagged as evangelical. I get it. I know it’s broader than the stereotypes and that it really means that we are to share the good news of Jesus, life, grace, hope, justice and peace. But it still comes loaded and I do not know that I would comfortably name myself as an evangelical, even as a teaching elder who dares to share this good news on a regular basis.

tsr_4642_webThat said, one of my favorite random lines in scripture is when Jesus is out “recruiting” disciples. All those whom he calls drop everything and follow him because maybe they sense a special charisma or maybe Jesus has a halo around him that indicates you must follow this man. Whatever it was, they go. In the gospel of John, Jesus’ invitation is as simple as, “Come and see.”

That’s not my favorite line. My favorite line comes a few verses later when Philip, who has already started following Jesus, goes to his friend Nathanael to evangelize to him about Jesus. Philip starts telling him all about Jesus and Nathanael’s honest response is, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Yep. That’s it. That’s one of my favorite lines in scripture. It’s one of my favorites because it’s so honest. It names his biases about a place honestly, indicates his skepticism about a person associated with it, and also demonstrates a friendship that is close enough where he can ask questions without fear.

Having the ability to ask questions, name your biases, and have a safe space and people to ask those questions is what I think it takes and what is at the heart of evangelism in these days. At least it does for me in my Silicon Valley, west coast, full of skeptics of the church setting.

Because the truth is, I think many people are asking, “Can anything good come out of being a Christian?” It’s a question I ponder especially when I see how Christianity is portrayed. Same with the word evangelical. And it seeps deeply into the best of us, making us resistant to share the good news in fear that it will align us with those who are outwardly demonstrating a hateful or oppressive kind of faith.

I always pray that the people who walk through the doors of the church I serve will find a space where they can ask questions, name their biases, and find people to engage in the tough and real questions that they have.

After Nathanael asks Philip, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”, Philip responds simply, “Come and see.” And perhaps that’s what we really need to be saying as the invitation. Come and see for yourself. Come check it out. It does not provide answers or spouts rules or theology. It’s an invitation and leaves the doing on the part of the invited.

I love this form of evangelism because it invites someone to come and see for themselves without trying to explain away terminologies or giving reasons that people do not always understand or that come loaded with baggage about church. Instead, an invitation to “come and see” hands the ball to the receiver and invites them to take a shot.

Our “doing part” or task, then, continues to be creating and providing a space and place where those who are invited to come and see, actually come and see a place where God’s love and grace and justice are lived out. How are our environments and our places and our outreach into the community ready for those who have been invited to come and see? That’s where the hard work lies. Will those who are invited to “come and see” come and see a place where God’s love and life are lived? Will they find a space to ask questions, have doubts, and be welcomed just as they are? Are there people who are willing to befriend the doubters and the believers?

We are not perfect and we have areas where we can grow in this, but we are trying. And we name these beliefs and hopes to each new member class and in our preaching and worship.

But you know, I think that’s exactly what draws people in. It’s not the certainty, but it’s the questions. Because the good news we share is about a God who loves us so much, sent Jesus to connect with us on a human level, that dares to go to the cross where all the muck and pain of our world reality lies, and then gives us life again and again. And if you don’t believe me, well, come and see for yourself.

Come and see what God has done: God is awesome in God’s deeds among mortals. Psalm 66:5


Irene PakIrene Pak Lee serves as the associate pastor at Stone Church of Willow Glen in San Jose, California. She blogs at irenepak.wordpress.com and can be found on Twitter @Ireney07.