The 2014 Carolyn M. Parker Memorial Preaching/Teaching Lectures

Saturday, February 8 – Dinner and Lecture – Fellowship Hall – 6:00 p.m. (Please make your reservation early!)
Sunday, February 9 -10:00 a.m. Sunday School – Fellowship Hall
Sunday, February 9 -11:00 a.m. Worship – Sanctuary

Preaching/Teaching Lecture details:

SATURDAY NIGHT
The Ephesian Moment (In the American South?!)
Jesus hung out with all the wrong people. He gathered to himself a group of friends that confounded and offended those around him. His way of life was socially scandalous – and he expects the same from his followers!

The early church discerned the fullness of Christ when people who were supposed to stay far from each other (Jews and Gentiles) started to share life together. Theologian Andrew Walls calls this the “Ephesian Moment” – the social coming together of different cultures to experience Christ.

What if we are currently living in such a moment? What if the homogenous American church is on its way out? What if we truly need other people (people not “like us”) to know the completeness of Christ? What would that mean for our existing congregations?

Through stories, questions, and scripture, we’ll consider the radical social nature of the Gospel and how we might bear witness to it.

SUNDAY SCHOOL
Rethinking Hospitality
Building on Saturday night’s discussion, we’ll use the Sunday school hour to explore new possibilities for church life by rethinking hospitality. What if hospitality is about more than good manners? What if it is not about receiving people where we are – but being the kind of people others would welcome into their lives?

In Luke 10 Jesus sends 70 of his followers out to witness to the new thing God was doing in the world. Notice Jesus didn’t wait for people to come to him – he sent his followers out on a mission. His followers were tasked with being in the world in a beautiful and life-giving way that other people would be drawn too.

What does hospitality mean in a time when fewer and fewer people are just showing up in our churches? We’ll discuss what it means to be a sent church witnessing to the boundary-crossing love of Jesus.

SERMON
“Born Again”
Romans 6:3-6

BIO
Franklin Golden, a native North Carolinian, is the founding co-pastor of the Durham (NC) Presbyterian Church, a new church plant in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Prior to seminary Franklin produced and performed in musicals, including the premier of Good Ol’ Girls and the off-off-Broadway revival of Pump Boys and Dinettes. Franklin is married to Martha, a psychologist and his best friend from high school. They have three children.