Bower Hill Community Church will observe its 75th anniversary with a speaker series. <\/p>\n
The three-part public series, \u201cFaith Forward: The Future of Congregational Life,\u201d offers a wide-ranging discussion about American religion and congregational life. The series will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. March 11, April 22 and May 13 at Cefalo\u2019s Banquet and Event Center, 428 Washington Ave., Carnegie. Dinner is included with registration.<\/p>\n
Speakers are expected to include nationally renowned experts and local congregational leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to invite the community to take part in a robust discussion with some of the top experts in their field \u2013 those who have been tracking both the challenges and the opportunities that are facing the American religious congregations,\u201d said the Rev. Brian Snyder, pastor of Bower Hill. \u201cWe also want to engage in dialogue with local leaders who have been on the front lines of nurturing and reinventing congregational life for churches and synagogues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The series opens with a data-driven look at religion in America, led by political scientist and pastor Ryan P. Burge. Burge is the author of several books, including the recently published, \u201cThe Vanishing Church.\u201d Burge is expected to share insights about religious decline and polarization and their implications for democracy and community life.<\/p>\n
He is a professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center at Washington University in St. Louis and author of the popular Substack newsletter, \u201cGraphs about Religion.\u201d He also was pastor of a small American Baptist Church for 17 years, which ultimately closed. <\/p>\n
Andrew Root, a professor of youth and family ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., picks up the conversation April 22. His books include \u201cWhen Church Stops Working,\u201d and the six-volume \u201cMinistry in a Secular Age\u201d series, and he hosts a podcast of the same name.<\/p>\n
The series concludes May 13, as local congregational leaders talk about how they\u2019ve approached such challenges and what they\u2019ve learned along the way.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Liddy Barlow, executive minister of Christian Associates of Southwest Pennsylvania, will moderate the discussion. <\/p>\n
Panelists include Gregory D. Jones, adjunct professor of theology at Duquesne University and a member of Bridgeville Baptist Church, which shares space with Bower Hill; the Rev. Tracy Keenan, recently retired missional presbyter with New Castle Presbytery in Delaware and a former pastor of Bower Hill; and Eric Schaffer, adjunct professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh and past president of Rodef Shalom Congregation, which is in the process of merging with Temple Sinai. <\/p>\n
They will discuss approaches to collaboration, shared space, mergers and other innovative strategies.<\/p>\n
The cost is $35 per event, or $90 for all three, with registration required at least one week in advance of each event. To register or for more information, go to www.bowerhillchurch.org\/speakerseries or call 412-561-4114.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bower Hill Community Church will observe its 75th anniversary with a speaker series. The three-part public series, \u201cFaith…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[57463,13266,73,75,74,15364],"class_list":["post-122264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-bower-hill-community-church","tag-carnegie","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-south-hills"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}