Santa Clara University

The next few days, I’ll be at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary north of Chicago, Illinois, with the Faith and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches of Christ (U.S.A.).

As I’ve said, it’s a parallel group to the folks at the Crete meeting, except for it’s in the United States and we meet twice a year instead of once every seven years (which means, among other things, that I know these people better).

We’re broken into three study groups:

• Unity in Mission: how can mission – or a common understanding of mission – help build the unity of the church?
• The Nature and Mission of the Church: yep, the same topic as the global version
• Justice and Salvation: How is personal salvation related to the transformation of the whole world? How is justice related to justification? How might we bridge the gap between churches that focus on social justice and those that focus on individual salvation?

I’m in this last group, and we’ve been studying this topic for five years already. It’s complicated.

For more details, click here. Or watch this space.