Make A Donation
Click Here >
Congregational Vitality
This summer, together with his partner Troy, the Rev. Brian Ellison, executive director of Covenant Network of Presbyterians, crossed three countries off his bucket list with a visit to the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Latvia’s capital, Riga, they visited the new Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, which “tells the story of a healthy functioning democracy” in a country that was occupied from 1939-89 by first the Soviets, then the Germans and then the Soviets again.
This Sunday morning, members and friends at Second Presbyterian Church in Roanoke, Virginia, will celebrate an astonishing accomplishment during worship: the 1,200-member church has raised more than $1.7 million to support the capital campaigns of four of its long-term mission partners, an amount that exceeds the church’s annual budget by about $200,000.
“The world is hungry for healing and hope,” the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett, president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, told the Urban Presbyteries Network conference on Thursday following opening worship. “I want to remind us today to keep the main thing the main thing: the church’s call to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”
Only a preacher as gifted as the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Johnson can take worshipers from “Green Acres” to the heavenly city.
The Rev. Carlton Johnson believes God is calling church leaders in the city to do a special work — “especially in light of the Matthew 25 vision God has given to the PC(USA),” he says.
Each Saturday during March, people gathered at each of Mid-Kentucky Presbytery’s four African American congregations to hear the stories of each congregation, including its heritage and ministry.
Like some of its neighbors in Northwest Chicago, Friendship Presbyterian Church knows what it’s like to be on the move and without a home.
A few Sundays ago, the Rev. Brad Sheppard, pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, received an email from the church’s accompanist, Diana Chubak, a doctoral student at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Earlier that day, Sheppard had asked Chubak to suggest organizations to support in the wake of the Russian invasion of her native Ukraine.
Experiencing prayer with Ukrainian immigrants in Spokane, Washington, was so powerful recently for the Rev. Sheryl Kinder-Pyle that she felt compelled to share her experience with others.
Given the state of the world, particularly in Ukraine, encouraging preachers to stretch into prophetic preaching seems timely, even during this season of repenting and walking with Jesus to the cross.
