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Mission Yearbook
Membership had gone from 1,400 to about 160 over the decades. Maintaining a 10-acre campus, with a tall-steeple sanctuary built in 1950, drained money and energy. Church leaders struggled with the implications of closing or merging.
With every event of gun violence, does the Spirit tug at you to do something? Yet what? And how? And do I have the courage and skill to do it? Or… I’ve been working on this — how do I become more effective?
Dr. Mark Ward and the Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Bullock, two retiring administrators at the University of Dubuque, were anything but retiring when they recently spoke to graduates during commencement exercises at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary with passion and honesty.
World Central Kitchen, which recently honored seven colleagues killed during an April 1 Israeli airstrike in Gaza, resumed operations in Gaza with a Palestinian team delivering food to address widespread hunger, including in the north.
In Colombia, the Protestant evangelical churches and Christian organizations that are part of the Inter-Church Dialogue for Peace — DiPaz — have been organizing for about 10 years, working to overcome violence and achieve peace through dialogue based on an understanding of the gospel that calls us to commit to nonviolence and antimilitarism, the search for truth and justice that make reconciliation possible in our country.
“I always see people in our congregations eager to do some kind of service with our neighbors. Their first thought is often that that’s meeting a basic need, some sort of hands-on giving someone food or drink or clothing or shelter,” said the Rev. Rebekah LeMon, senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. “But we have to ask ourselves, as people of faith, why our systems don’t allow everyone to have food, clothing, shelter and welcome.” For the past six years, LeMon has served on the board of Presbyterians for a Better Georgia (PBG). “Advocacy is the way we try to create systemic change that would better support all of our neighbors.”
Fifty years ago, at the 1974 General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA), David Sindt rose from his seat and bravely and hopefully held up a sign with a single question: “Is Anyone Else Out There Gay?”
In 2010, I attended community meetings where there were conversations regarding a new Karegnondi Water Authority regional water system that would offer fresh water and save money for residents in Flint and Genesee County in Michigan. I had heard conversations about using the Flint River as a source of drinking water. During the restructuring, however, the history of this river would make it impossible to be considered for domestic use. At least this is what I thought until April 25, 2014, when “the switch” to using water from the Flint River started a public health crisis that I could not believe.
Religious trauma is becoming quite a buzzword. Therapists are writing books about it. Mainstream news networks are substantially covering it. Faith communities (like Harbor, the online community I help lead) have formed to help people heal from it. The downside of buzzwords is that we hear about them so often that we eventually become desensitized to them. After enough time, or enough buzzing of the words in a short time, we may even get a little annoyed and begin to roll our eyes.
As a kid, I grew up fishing and sailing on Lake Pontchartrain. I learned to respect the weather. One summer afternoon as I was standing near the Coast Guard Station at the mouth of the harbor, a vicious summer squall came roaring in. As I sat in the safety of the car, I watched a sailboat fight for survival. It was making a run to the safety of the harbor when the storm hit. It sat floundering in the high waves and brutal cross winds just at the entrance of the jetty that protected the harbor entrance. A few more feet and it would have found smooth water. Unfortunately, it was on the wrong side of the entrance.
