Mission Yearbook

Does wonder have a shelf life?

Does wonder have a shelf life? Does it come with a best-if-used-by date? I’m asking because of the mountains.

Reimagining Jesus as an Ivy League track and cross-country coach

If Jesus coached women’s track and cross country at an Ivy League university, what would that look like? “It’s kind of a crazy question,” Hannah Chappell-Dick, the women’s cross country and assistant track coach at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said during a recent episode of the “A Matter of Faith” podcast, which can be heard here. “Obviously I fall far short of that standard, but it’s one of those things where you constantly have to challenge yourself.”

A fine yarn

When bestselling author Debbie Macomber famously observed “I love the way knitting brings people together,” she might just as well have been writing about the Presbyterian Women (PW) of First Presbyterian Church, Batavia, New York.

Taking our well-being into our own hands

The Rev. Judy Slater has stress-reducing and anxiety-alleviating techniques at her fingertips. Following a webinar she put on recently, so do members of Presbyterians for Earth Care.

Giving thanks in plenty and in want

Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the Holy One … The children practiced their song repeatedly in the fellowship hall. The adults, gathered in the kitchen assembling Thanksgiving food baskets, didn’t mind listening to them. It had been a while since the struggling church heard children’s voices within its walls. The sound not only brought smiles to wrinkled faces, but a few tears as well to cataract eyes.

Blooming where we’re planted

Only a preacher as gifted as the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Johnson can take worshipers from “Green Acres” to the heavenly city. Brooks-Johnson, executive presbyter for the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, preached a taped sermon shown during opening worship for the Urban Presbyteries Network conference recently both online and in person at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Stop stifling and start learning from unexpected sources

When is the last time you talked to a bird, a fish or a plant, expecting to be taught about God? This was one of the questions the Rev. Dr. Dee Cooper explored with host So Jung Kim in a recent edition of “Everyday God-Talk,” a production of the Office of Theology and Worship in the Presbyterian Mission Agency.