At the beginning of the pandemic, Scott Feather, pastor of Gateway Grace Community Church a Charis Fellowship congregation in Parkesburg, Pa., began meeting with other ministers in his area for encouragement and conversation about how to handle COVID protocols in their congregations.
One result was a partnership with Pastor Tim Rogers at nearby Grace Point Church in hosting a seminar next month about how to discern truth from conspiracy and to explore how to live with truth and love in an age of mis-information. The event, called True or False, will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Saturday, May 8 at the Together Community Center, 3292 Lincoln Highway, E. Paradise, PA 17562
There is a $10 fee for lunch. To sign up for the event, visit www.bit.ly/trueorfalseseminar. Anyone unable to attend in person can still sign up to receive the video.
The event was prompted after the Grace Point elders asked Rogers to work on material to help their church navigate the political climate, to aid in identifying conspiracies, and to know how to have a conversation with others.
It was “a growing need I sensed for Christians to engage in truthful conversations and be able to discern what is true and what might be a conspiracy,” he said. It is also addressing the politically tense world we are living in now. He added, “it is to help lower the temperature in the room,” and “learn to engage with each other in a loving way.”
Christians and non-Christians alike are invited. “We think even non-Christians are confused by how Christians seem to be highlighting conspiracy theories and Christian Nationalism more than non-Christians—we want their voices ‘at the table,’” Feather noted. “Issues that will be raised go beyond the Christian faith,” Pastor Rogers added.
The seminar is meant to “give people tools to better differentiate between truth and conspiracy, and to navigate the world in which we live,” Rogers said. He hopes it will be an opportunity for intentional, robust, meaningful conversation that will make people feel welcome.
In preparation, the two looked at nearly two dozen resources including: Tim Keller, Church Leaders Podcast, Gallop, Lifeway, NPR, Ed Stetzer, David French, The Gospel Coalition, Thomas Kid, Black Lives Matter, Mark Young, Christianity Today, Twitter, Scientific American, Market Watch, Christian Apologist, Emotionally Healthy Material, Mary Jo Sharp, Al Mohler, Henri Nouwen. — by Carolina Keegan
(Editor’s Note: Carolina Keegan is a second-year journalism student at Grace College who is interning this semester at GraceConnect.)
