Presbyterian World Mission reported the progress of its strategic consultation process Friday to more than 200 gathered at its Big Tent luncheon.

World Mission began the process in the fall of 2018 to gather input from across the world in the development of a new strategic plan. The process was led by Rev. Philip Woods, World Mission’s associate director for strategy, program and recruitment, and the Rev. Debbie Braaksma, coordinator of World Mission’s Africa office.

Fifty-two young people, staff and parents from Champaign, Ill., traveled to Baltimore to be a part of the Big Tent workshop Loving our Neighbors: Reviving our Witness to Young People by Supporting our Public Schools.

The individuals were there to represent the organization Driven to Reach Excellence & Academic Achievement for Males (DREAAM). DREAAM is a partner of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Educate a Child Initiative launched at the 222nd General Assembly (2016).

A sea of blue made its way along the sidewalks of downtown Baltimore on Friday evening. Approximately 200 Presbyterians attending Big Tent joined local advocates to speak out against gun violence. The group, dressed in blue Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) T-shirts, marched as part of the quarterly Baltimore Ceasefire Weekend, a grassroots effort to draw attention to the growing problem.

Religion is at the heart of America’s identity crisis, and Dr. Robert P. Jones has the research and the insight to explore why that’s so.

Jones, the author of the 2016 book “The End of White Christian America,” spoke during a Big Tent breakfast Friday sponsored by the Presbyterian Foundation. About 150 people attended.

About nine months into its work discerning what translation services for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will look like, the Translation Task Force, part of the A Corporation, held a Big Tent listening session Thursday attended by about 35 people including Presbyterians with ties to Thailand, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, Korea and Japan, among other nations.

With the rhythmic beat of the drum and the melodious notes of the soprano saxophone, the Convocation for Communities of Color began with a jazz rendition of the hymn “I’m Going to Live so God Can Use Me.” Recording artist and convocation musicians Warren Cooper and Perpetual Praise filled the room with the sounds of familiar hymns performed with a jazz flair and in a way that lifted the spirits of all in the room, a room that truly looked like God’s beloved community with people of color of every hue.

“Come on, PC(USA),” the Rev. Amantha Barbee exhorted the Friday plenary crowd of nearly 800 people at the Big Tent gathering. “We can do better than that.”

There are reasons why people of color don’t want to worship in congregations in a denomination that’s 90 % white, said the senior pastor at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Ga., after citing statistics on membership losses over the past few years. There’s little room for the Holy Spirit when worship is so scripted, she said. Visitors must “get with our pipe organ, our doctor in the pulpit” and with mission trips overseas where youth “have to step over people on the streets on their way to the airport,” when they could be doing mission closer to home.

Powerful music and a new perspective on the Good Samaritan highlighted the opening worship service at Big Tent 2019 in Baltimore on Thursday evening. The nearly 800 worshippers sang hymns, heard God’s word through the music of the Community Concert Choir of Baltimore, and were asked a basic question: “Would you be a neighbor?”

By the end of Big Tent’s opening plenary session Thursday, the nearly 800 Presbyterians gathered in downtown Baltimore were crying right along with the Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah, who told the faith story of his mother, a single mom who worked 20-hour days to support him and his three siblings despite kneecaps split open by a life of prayer on hardwood floors.

Now in her 80s, his mother is one of “the grandmothers and mothers who have prayed for the church on broken knees, have laid down their lives for the sake of their children — these are the stories we must lift up,” he said. “Don’t pray for a bigger building. Pray for broken knees before God.” The crowd gave him a standing ovation as his rousing talk concluded.

The 40 or so people attending Big Tent’s “Asylum & Immigration Networking & Best Practices” workshop Thursday morning took three hours not only to hear from the experts but to share with one another what they’re doing in their local settings to aid vulnerable people.

“This is not the time for symbolic activities,” one man told those in the group thinking about providing some kind of aid to immigrants and refugees. “Passing a resolution or putting up a peace pole may make us feel good, but we can’t be satisfied with something symbolic. Do something substantial.”