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Articles by John Bolt
How human and organizational performance builds trust and improves safety in the field
Despite decades of progress in safety performance, the engineering and construction industry continues to face persistent challenges. Traditional compliance-based programs often reach a plateau, where incident rates stabilize but do not significantly improve. Recurring events, human error and system weaknesses remain, indicating that compliance alone does not move safety performance to the next level. Enter Human and Organizational Performance (HOP).
PC(USA) membership decline slows, but congregations continue to close
The decades-long membership decline in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continued in 2025, with losses in both members and congregations. But the drop in membership was significantly smaller than in any year in the past decade. Stated Clerk of the Assembly and Executive Director of Presbyterian Life & Witness Jihyun Oh. Photo by Jonathan Watson. Quoting a report prepared for GA227 commissioners and advisory delegates by Manuel D.
Assembly declines to send proposed confession to presbyteries
While the Bible is primary for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination’s Book of Confessions plays an important, if subordinate, role in guiding the church’s ministry and beliefs, as demonstrated by the vow that all ordained officers take to be guided by it. Accordingly, the Book of Confessions, which is the first part of the church’s constitution, is deliberately difficult to amend or expand.
Approved PC(USA) budget for ’27-’28 increased $5.8 million
MILWAUKEE — While a task force continues to review how the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is funded, commissioners at the denomination’s 227th General Assembly approved a $188.4 million budget for the next two-year budget cycle, an increase of $5.8 million. Earlier during the assembly, commissioners agreed to give the Funding Model Development Team another two years to complete its work to recommend a new way for the church to operate.
PC(USA) labels White Christian nationalism “Theological Error”
MILWAUKEE — Commissioners to the 227th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted overwhelmingly to declare White Christian nationalism and similar ideologies “a theological error” incompatible with the teachings of Jesus Christ, advancing a proposed constitutional amendment that would add that language to the denomination’s Book of Order. Erica Nelson speaks on behalf of the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy The Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP).
Spread of White Christian nationalism scuttles idea for Presbyterian celebration of July Fourth
Presbyterians are proud of their role in the American Revolution, often telling anyone who will listen that the only clergy to sign the Declaration of Independence was Presbyterian — or that the revolution was dubbed “the Presbyterian revolution” by one English nobleman. And you’ll often hear how the nation’s form of government was heavily influenced by Presbyterian practice.
PC(USA) agency urged to quickly fill immigration attorney vacancy
Concerned about the Trump administration’s continuing immigration crackdown and the vulnerability of some members and pastors, the General Assembly Operations Committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted overwhelmingly to “direct” Presbyterian Life & Witness to reinstate a staff immigration attorney. The attorney would help guide and advise individual churches and other entities as they work to support those affected.
Committee moves to limit PL&W authority in revised Organization for Mission
The decision in January 2025 to shutter the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s World Mission ministry area is much on the minds of commissioners at the 227th General Assembly (GA), affecting several items of business across multiple committees. One of those places, perhaps surprisingly, came in the General Assembly Relationships Committee — even though a specific item on world mission was not on its agenda.
GA committees begin work on agency oversight, ecumenical relations and investment policies
During the first day of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s first General Assembly since a major reorganization of its national offices, several committees spent much of Monday reviewing proposals about the new agency’s structure and leadership—but took little action.
Why the PC(USA) is debating a new confession
Our story begins in 325 BCE in the town of Nicaea, in what is modern-day Turkey. A few years earlier, Roman Emperor Constantine claimed Christianity, ended Christian persecution, and began commissioning churches with his mother, a baptised Christian. But as often happens, factions grew within the faith to the point that Constantine was concerned the empire, and to a lesser degree the church, would split.
Debate over White Christian nationalism comes to GA227
PC(USA) to consider policy rejecting White Christian nationalism When commissioners gather for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s 277th General Assembly this summer, they will consider a recommendation from the denomination’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy (ACSWP) to “repudiate the ideology and practices of white Christian nationalism in all its forms.”The recommendation, COM-033, responds to the 226th General Assembly’s (2024) directive to “develop a new policy and study guide...
As West Virginia foster youth age out, a Presbyterian church steps into the gap
ADULT (v.): to behave like an adult; to attend to the ordinary tasks required of a responsible adult. (Merriam-Webster) Though Merriam-Webster labels the verb “adult” as informal, the experience it describes is anything but casual for many young people. The popular term “adulting” has taken hold precisely because the transition to independence often arrives earlier, faster and with fewer supports than expected.
“We’re in relationship, therefore we do ministry”: Inside the PC(USA)’s mission shift
Some familiar Bible verses come to mind when considering the changes taking effect at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s mission agency for the new year.
PC(USA)’s Interim Unified Agency adds details to denominational restructuring
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continued its major shuffling of denominational offices Friday as the Interim Unified Agency announced a “new organizational structure and ministry alignment.” “Existing ministry work will continue with no planned staff reductions,” the denomination announced in a news release. The announcement also includes the specific initiatives in each of four “areas of work” announced in September.
The tough decision to put the WKP building up for sale
In a city as rich in history and heart as Greenwood, every decision we make carries weight. The recent choice to sell the historic West Kootenay Power building was not made lightly. It was one of those moments where leadership demands we look beyond sentiment and face the realities of stewardship. For decades, the West Kootenay Power building stood as a symbol of Greenwood’s industrial past - a proud reminder of our resilience and ingenuity.
Unification Commission sets priorities for new structure
With just a few months left before a new organizational structure for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is to be in place, the Unification Commission on Thursday approved five priorities for the yet-to-be-named mission agency as well as four primary work areas. In case you missed it: The final report in the PC(USA)’s mission-ecclesial merger is due in February 2026, prior to GA 227.
Transparency is key for Greenwood’s level of service
There is often significant public confusion regarding the distinct responsibilities and jurisdictional boundaries of local/regional, provincial, and federal governments. This ambiguity frequently leads citizens to misdirect inquiries or criticisms, unsure whether issues like road maintenance, healthcare funding, or immigration policies fall under municipal, provincial, or federal purview.
The ministry of excess space
The question that keeps me up at night … is this: Twenty years from now when we look around our neighborhoods and realize that a third or more of our church properties are no longer churches, what will we have lost? Or gained? What will the impact be on the social fabric of our communities? And what will each of us have done to encourage good … when churches are gone? — Mark Elsdon, Gone for Good?
Unification Commission approves job descriptions for restructured board
A quickly approaching deadline With less than a year remaining to finalize a major restructuring of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s national office in time for the 227th General Assembly, the Unification Commission offered new clarity during its July meeting.
That 'End Times' feeling
I am a now-retired seminary professor. One of the occupational hazards of my tribe is getting asked theological questions at unexpected times and in all kinds of places. For a Reformed theologian these include the usual touchy points of the Reformed faith – Why do we baptize babies? Is God fair when he chooses some and not others? Do our prayers change God’s mind? – and my training and experience usually equip me to respond with a relatively high degree of confidence.
Who Was Herman Bavinck, and Why Is He Worth Reading Today?
An Important Thinker Herman Bavinck was a Dutch Christian. He was born in the middle of the nineteenth century in 1854, and he died in 1921. He’s someone that people have become really interested in and aware of outside of the Netherlands in recent years through the translations of some of his theological works. He was a really important thinker. He was a brilliant theologian.
Reformed Ethics, Volume 3
About Herman Bavinck's four-volume Reformed Dogmatics is one of the most important theological works of the twentieth century. The English translation was edited by world-class Bavinck scholar John Bolt, who now brings forth a manuscript from Bavinck that is being published for the first time. Serving as a companion to Reformed Dogmatics, Reformed Ethics offers readers Bavinck's mature reflections on ethical issues. Volumes 1 and 2 have already been published.
#GA226 commissioners painted into a corner over fossil fuel investments
Salt Lake City – Socially responsible investing is complicated and can be confusing. Add in socially conscious people’s emotional and heartfelt desires, and you get the kerfuffle that went down at the 226th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
PC(USA) budgets of $94.9 million and $95 million approved for next two years
Salt Lake City – As its last act, the 226th General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) adopted a $94.9 million budget for 2025 and $95 million for 2025, resulting in a 14.8% increase in per capita over the two-year span. Going into the assembly, commissioners had already been presented with proposed budgets of $91.2 million for 2025 and $93.8 million for 2026.
#GA226 adopts overhaul of Assembly Standing Rules by wide margin
Salt Lake City – Even for an organization that loves process, such as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), sometimes arcane parliamentary procedure and things like “standing rules,” while important, get overlooked or bring a big yawn. But not this year at the denomination’s 226th General Assembly.
Major changes coming in PC(USA) special offerings after #GA226 action
Salt Lake City – The four special offerings currently received by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be reduced to three, and proceeds will be distributed to causes instead of programs after the denomination’s 226th General Assembly (GA) accepted the recommendations of a special task force that studied the current structure. The changes will take effect for the 2026 offerings.
PC(USA) investing agencies asked to sell bonds of occupying countries
Salt Lake City – The Presbyterian Foundation and the Board of Pensions, the two primary investing arms of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), have been asked to “prayerfully consider” ending their investments in government debt from countries “engaged in prolonged military occupation,” currently defined by the United Nations as Israel, Morocco and Turkey. Meeting in Salt Lake City, commissioners to the 226th General Assembly unanimously adopted the recommendation on Monday, July 1.
Finance committee chooses fast action over study
A commissioners’ resolution to request the two primary investing agencies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) discontinue investments in government debt of countries engaged in a “prolonged military occupation” was overwhelmingly approved by the Financial Resources Committee of the 226th General Assembly, despite concerns by some denominational officials that there was no current way to implement the recommendation.
Plan to reduce, reconfigure PC(USA) Special Offerings OK’d by committee
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s four annual Special Offerings would be reduced to three and restructured to cause-based instead of program-based purposes under a proposal approved by the 226th General Assembly’s Financial Resources (FIN) Committee (FIN-12). The committee also approved the creation of a task force to study clergy pay equity and bring its findings to the 228th General Assembly in Milwaukee in 2028. The full assembly will consider the recommendations when it meets here next week.
PC(USA) to engage GE and Palantir on human rights concerns
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) would start discussions with General Electric and Palantir Technologies, Inc. to “move these companies away from actions that create human harm, are a barrier to peace, and violate human rights” if the 226th General Assembly adopts a recommendation overwhelmingly approved Tuesday. The Financial Resources Committee voted 37-3 to approve the recommendation and send it to the full assembly next week.
GA asked to back removal of ‘punishment clause’ from U.S. Constitution
While outright slavery and involuntary servitude were banned following the Civil War by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a clause permits them “as a punishment for crime.” For Robert Boneberg, a ruling elder at Wyoming Presbyterian Church in Milburn, N.J., that loophole needs to be closed, so he initiated the process of sending an overture to the 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) asking the denomination to support joint resolutions in Congress to eliminate...
PC(USA) takes major move in unifying OGA, PMA and A Corp
In what leaders called a “historic moment” in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the denomination’s three key entities unanimously approved the first “unifying budget,” a major step as the church moves to merge the three into one.
‘We’re taking it down to the level of the studs’
There’s an old joke that goes: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a lightbulb? CHANGE!? If there’s any truth to that punchline – and, admit it, there is – the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is about to witness an extreme change as the Office of the General Assembly and the Presbyterian Mission Agency, which handle the ecclesiastical (OGA) and the mission (PMA) respectively, are about to become one.
Building bridges and trust ‘for the sake of the Gospel’
Bridges are hard to build, even when they are desired. Trust is even harder – especially when the little that existed has been shattered. Even after the bridges are under construction, and trust is being regained, not everyone feels comfortable with the new ties.
Building trust ‘for the sake of the Gospel’
Bridges are hard to build, even when they are desired. Trust is even harder – especially when the little that existed has been shattered. Even after the bridges are under construction, and trust is being regained, not everyone feels comfortable with the new ties.
Bolt, Allen: It could've been worse (Opinion)
The gavel has banged down ending the regular session of the 86th West Virginia Legislature. Thank you, Lord. That means legislators who are more inclined to follow national right-wing agendas from organizations such as The Heritage Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council or Americans for Prosperity instead of their own constituents can’t do any more damage – at least for now.
John Bolt: Bad pennies keep popping up at WV Legislature (Opinion)
They’re back again, all those West Virginia delegates and senators who are trying to cripple the state’s education system either through ignorance, misrepresentation or intrusion into the classroom. But so is the West Virginia Coalition for Truth in History, which was born two years ago out of concern over legislation that would have curtailed, if not outright banned, an honest portrayal and discussion of our nation’s history in our schools.
COGA approves updates to PHS mission statement, strategic plan
An updated mission statement and strategic plan for the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) was approved Thursday by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA), ending a nearly three-year, COVID-interrupted process. PHS Executive Director Nancy J.
COGA paves a new way forward - The Presbyterian Outlook
For many members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a General Assembly is more akin to a family reunion than a gathering of the denomination’s highest governing body. It’s where relationships are made and rekindled and where some of the lesser-known parts of the denomination get to tell their story to a larger audience. It is no small matter, then, when the look and feel of this now-biennial event undergoes major change, which it has done markedly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
John Bolt: Will we still be able to sing of WVU's honor? (Opinion)
I have been struggling with whether to write this ever since West Virginia University announced the Draconian cuts being considered across the university — struggling because I have many former colleagues and friends deep in the weeds of what’s being done. But, as I have watched and listened to the cacophony of criticism, much of it ad hominem and mean-spirited, I must get this off my chest. First, I am well aware of some of the financial aspects at play.
What role does the national church play after a mass shooting?
January 8, 2011: The day was clear and pleasant. Peaceful, even, as then U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords (D-Arizona) held her first “Congress in your corner” event at a Safeway in suburban Tucson, Arizona. All that was shattered when a man armed with a pistol began shooting, killing six people and wounding 19, including Giffords. One of those killed and three of the wounded were members of Tucson’s Northminster Presbyterian Church, where John Cheek, now retired, was associate pastor.
Everyone Has a Worldview, and Almost No One Has a Worldview
Worldview and Worldvision While cultures might be driven by grand worldviews, J. H. Bavinck argues that most individuals are not. To borrow the language of Isaiah 44:19 (NIV), “no one stops to think” about worldview, despite the pervasive influence worldviews have on whichever culture they inhabit and the haphazard glimpses of those worldviews that can be seen in people’s lives.
What Is a Personality vs. a Soul?
Personality With regard to the concept of personality, we need to begin with a definition. By personality, we understand an organized soul that has come to consciousness of itself. When we present it as such, it seems that a personality has two aspects: organization and self-consciousness. The first mark of the personality is always [its] unity. A soul can be called a personality insofar as the powers within it have come into connection with each other and have penetrated one another.
In 2023, Lord, open the eyes of our hearts
The title character of the British comedy-drama Doc Martin is a successful vascular surgeon in London whose career is derailed because he develops hemophobia, an extreme irrational fear of blood. He is forced to take up a humbler vocation as a village General Practitioner in the fictional seaside Cornish village of Portwenn (Port Isaac). Until recently, my own bodily anxiety involved my eyes.
John Bolt | Christian Courier
Skip to content The title character of the British comedy-drama Doc Martin is a successful vascular surgeon in London whose career is derailed because he develops hemophobia, an extreme irrational fear of blood. He is forced to take up a humbler vocation as a village General Practitioner in the fictional seaside Cornish village of Portwenn (Port Isaac).
“Anti-racism” acts are smokescreens trying to whitewash history
Within the past several days, three bills have been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, each of which in its own way is a back-door attempt to whitewash and bury the United States’ problematic history of mistreatment of Indigenous, LGBTQIA+ and non-white populations.
‘Anti-racism’ acts are smokescreens trying to whitewash history
Within the past several days, three bills have been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, each of which in its own way is a back-door attempt to whitewash and bury the United States’ problematic history of mistreatment of Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and non-white populations.
‘Anti-racism’ acts are smokescreens trying to whitewash history
Within the past several days, three bills have been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, each of which in its own way is a back-door attempt to whitewash and bury the United States’ problematic history of mistreatment of Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and non-white populations.
'Anti-racism' acts are smokescreens trying to whitewash history
Within the past several days, three bills have been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, each of which in its own way is a back-door attempt to whitewash and bury the United States’ problematic history of mistreatment of Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and non-white populations.
‘Anti-racism’ acts are smokescreens trying to whitewash history
Within the past several days, three bills have been introduced in the West Virginia Legislature, each of which in its own way is a back-door attempt to whitewash and bury the United States’ problematic history of mistreatment of Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and non-white populations.
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