Reflections from ECO's 2020 National Gathering
Rev. Dr. Dana Allin, ECO’s Synod Executive, addresses the 2020 National Gathering, Photo courtsey of Rev. Dr. David Mauldin from Palm City Presbyterian Church.
From Feb. 3 – 6, 2020 over 1350 people met at the Gaylord Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, bringing together our 22 Presbyteries, 393 congregations, 20+ church plants, representing about 127,000 Covenant Partners around the United States. Global mission partners from places like Egypt, Brazil, and Iran also gathered to show their solidarity and support of ECO’s vision for ministry and mission.
As many of you know, ECO is not an acronym. The full name ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians reinforces ECO’s passion to strength the ecosystem of local congregations where lay people, deacons, elders, and pastors may all flourish in our life-giving discipleship.
The name speaks to ECO’s core commitments:
Covenant: to connect leaders in accountable relationships and encourage collaboration.
Order: to commit to a shared way of life as we unite around a shared theological core.
Evangelical: to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ and plant new missional communities.
Presbyterian: to stand within our Reformed heritage and celebrate the life of the mind.
I have consistently been impressed by the high caliber leaders – both elders and pastors – that gather together in our own Presbytery of Florida and at the National Gathering. ECO is now eight years old, and still retains the feel of a “movement” that longs to ignite church planting, encourage flourishing discipleship, and catalyze church renewal while retaining a robust evangelical heart within a distinctively robust Reformed theological focus.
Theological Business in 2020:
In 2018, there were various overtures by Presbyteries asking the denomination to take a serious look at our Book of Confessions. Historically, Reformed denominations have been guided by confessional statements which are considered to be a subordinate standard to the Bible but a faithful and historical explanation of scriptural truth. In 2020, a vote brought this theological study to its conclusion by adopting and re-affirming the following Creeds as our Confessional Standards:
The Nicene Creed
The Apostle’s Creed
The Heidelberg Catechism
The Westminster Confession of Faith, The Westminster Shorter Catechism, The Westminster Longer Catechism
The Barmen Declaration.
Thus, ECO jettisoned the Second Helvetic Confession, The Confession of 1967, The Brief Statement of Faith, and (somewhat surprisingly given our roots in Scottish Presbyterianism), The Scots Confession. Our Confessional Standards are now far more concise and manageable compared to our former denomination.
The Presbytery of Florida:
The Presbytery of Florida met after lunch the second day of the National Gathering. Over the next 18 months, about ½ of the senior pastors in the Presbytery are retiring – part of what the denomination is affectionally calling “The Gray Wave”. Therefore, our Ministry Partnership Team, which works with churches in the call process, was strengthened by adding three new members. I was formally prayed over as I began (really on Jan. 1) my role as the Vice-Moderator of the Presbytery of Florida. In 2020, my role will transition into the Moderator of the Presbytery for a standard two-year term.
Church Planting:
One of our church plants in our own Presbytery -- Providencia in West Palm Beach -- brought nearly a dozen millennial-aged leaders from their church, including about six who are moving toward ordination. It was helpful to hear from our Synod Executive, Dana Allin, who shared with the gathering that church planting has become more difficult in our postmodern age, with new churches requiring a “longer runway” to get off the ground. Over the next 10 years, ECO’s goal is to create structures with a sufficiently robust leadership pipeline to sustain a flourishing church planting movement to grow the denomination from 400 to 1000 churches over the next decade. What an audacious goal! It will need new finances and new leaders to sustain these new church developments.
Global Engagement:
As you might imagine, I loved hearing about ECO’s global engagement. Did you know that the largest Protestant denomination in the Middle East is Presbyterian? The Synod of the Nile – which represents Egypt’s Presbyterian Church – also boasts the largest Protestant church in the region (12,000 members) and impacts the entire middle east through sending missionaries and planting churches. Places like Iraq and Gaza are receiving missionaries from our Egyptian brethren!
All in all, outstanding worship, great keynote speakers, and a unified and peaceful business meeting were all highlights of ECO’s 2020 National Gathering.