Nonprofits are doing a better job than most churches of compelling people to support their work, says Adam Copeland, a noted stewardship expert. He believes churches need to work harder at telling the stories of their work and the ways the church impacts lives, and ensure church members make the spiritual connection to giving.
Clear blue skies were on display during the opening day of the Presbyterians for Earth Care Conference at Menucha Retreat and Conference Center near Portland, Oregon. Just two weeks prior to the event, organizers were concerned that the smoke and flames from a season of wildfires would force them to find a new location.
High incarceration rates, widespread unemployment and low educational attainment among African-American young men have led some observers to call them a “lost generation.” However, the Rev. Mary Susan Pisano rejects this description.
Aware that educational mission played a key role in their native land’s development, members of the Korean Presbyterian Church in Fresno, California, want to strengthen Presbyterian education in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Zambia, most people are farmers, regardless of whether they have another profession — and this includes pastors. For the majority, the thought of zinja, or hunger season, is never far away. Many people in Zambia are smallholder, or subsistence, farmers who grow the staple crop, maize (corn), with which the mainstay of the Zambian diet, nshima, is prepared.
Having first visited South Africa in 1984, when the struggle against apartheid was reaching a crescendo, I was overjoyed to be present at the 222nd General Assembly (2016) when, after nearly a decade of study and debate, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) formally embraced the Confession of Belhar and acknowledged its profound capacity to illuminate our calling as followers of Christ.
What began as the St. Charles Avenue Branch of the First Presbyterian Church, renamed St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church (SCAPC) in 1920, has had a strong commitment to global ministries for more than a century.
In September, the church held a month-long celebration and produced a commemorative book to focus on past and present mission work to inspire SCAPC members to even greater efforts to serve Jesus Christ worldwide. Photographs and documents from the Presbyterian Historical Society and SCAPC’s own collection appeared on display at the church, highlighting international mission activities and projects over the years.
The National Council of Churches (NCC) will hold its 2017 Christian Unity Gathering on Nov. 8–9 at the Sheraton Hotel in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. This year’s theme is “Resilience, Resistance and Persistence.”
In many ways, the world has changed since last year’s gathering. In other ways, the same challenges face us as before. Still, the central question is: What does it mean to live as a follower of Jesus today?
Weeks after Hurricane Harvey pounded the Houston area, many emergency response teams were packing up and preparing to leave the area. But Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) was setting its sights on the long haul.
In an age of tightened budgets and more limited financial resources, congregations are understandably counting the cost to engage in mission. Supporting the work of African partner churches in areas like evangelism, poverty reduction and reconciliation does, after all, take money.
