My name is Jan Edmiston and I am an evangelical Christian. I believe that ministry is about making disciples of all nations and expanding the reign of God on earth as it is in heaven (i.e. making this world heavenly as it was created to be.) I am also interested in lavishly supporting new missional communities wherever there are people in need of good news.
I believe that narrative annual congregational reports are an excellent idea – more authentic than statistical reports (which often report false numbers to make a congregation look healthier than it is.) I believe that holding each other accountable is not only a good idea but a holy one.
I also believe that God calls all kinds of people – not only to follow the way of Jesus but to be leaders in that ministry. God calls people that I would not call – but I am not God. God is wiser, more creative, and more generous than I would ever be.
I believe that the historic confessions of the Reformed faith are guides directing our future, but they are also road markers showing us where we have been and reminding us that the world has changed. I believe, for example, that Chapter XX of the Second Helvetic Confession marks where the church was in in 1566 but it does not reflect God’s will for the church today. I do not believe it is sinful it for me to baptize someone in the name of Jesus Christ because I have ovaries. That confession is dated and no longer orthodox according to our current understanding of Holy Scripture which are indeed the unique and authoritative Word for our lives. God’s Word doesn’t change. But our understanding of God’s Word changes. As one of my perfect grandmothers used to say: “It’s amazing what the Lord has let us learn.”
We don’t know everything. Yet.
I believe that God calls us to be in covenant relationships which are sacred and obedient to God’s will for humankind.
I believe that sin is the refusal to be the people God created us to be. In other words, it is sinful to pretend to be or to act as if we are something that we are not.
I believe that God created some people to be gay. All of them are called to ministry in the name of Jesus Christ – whether they know it or not. Some of them are called to leadership in the church.
I believe that the people who have created and now live or will live in the new denomination called ECO Presbyterians – The Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians are good and faithful people. But we disagree on a few things.
I’m fine with that. But please don’t presume that those outside that order are not Evangelical Covenant believers as well.
A Church for Starving Artists 
Thank you for a fine articulation, to which I and many others lift up a resounding “Amen!”
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Amen and Amen, Jan.
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Thank you Jan. Having just returned from the PCUSA Disciple Making Church conference, only a couple of hours from the ECO gathering, I can attest to the vibrant evangelical passion to live the gospel in communities and proclaim good news to throughout the land. I find this splitting apart to be a sad reminder that history seems to repeat itself even under the guise of “renewal and risk.”
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Amen, sister!
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Amen!
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Yes. Thank you.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Dear Jan;
A close friend of mine, with whom I think you’d get along, was at Orlando, and found it a very positive experience. The on-the-ground experience and message can be different from what leadership summarizes for the media. Also, ECO was only one part of Orlando, and is not the same as FOP (and ECO says it’s not a denomination, although I’m not sure what they mean by that).
So, I hope we can keep our faithfulness and keep listening for our faithful sisters and brothers of other opinions, those we can respect and work with. There’s a lot of pain around; there are also those ready to articulate the negative. But there are peace-makers as well.
In any case, thank you for this post, and God bless.
In Christ’s name, Arthur
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So be it – thanks, Jan.
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Thank you Jan for speaking truth and shining the light of Christ for all to see and hear.
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Beautifully, passionately and faithfully said Jan. Thank you!
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Perfect, Jan. Thank you. Sadly, as my home state of Washington (and my gay son’s home) is on the verge of making same-sex marriage legal, National Capital Presbytery declined to concur with East Iowa’s call for an Authoritative Interpretation allowing pastors to have discretion when two same-gendered people, who want to make a commitment to each other in the presence of God, show up with a marriage license. “It’s too soon,” people said, as the world changes under our feet. So we’re back to trying to catch up, rather than empowering our leaders to be “pastoral and prophetic.”
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