The ground beneath us is off kilter. This is a scientific fact with spiritual resonances.
This planet tilts on its axis. On the Earth, we are never perfectly upright, and so we experience uneven periods of light and darkness. As we approach the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, our days shorten. This is the reality for those Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico during Advent. We are drawn further and longer into darker nights.
“Your neighborhood is full of people who will likely never come to your church” reads the call to action inviting leaders to a “missional entrepreneurship immersion” event in Sterling, Virginia from Jan. 29-31, 2025.
“My theology is, like, we can do better. It is not as hard as we like to think it is to make the world that God calls us to make,” said the Rev. Shannon Ball, the latest guest on the “New Way” podcast.
The hike to Diamond Lake is only 3 miles from the trailhead, but for pastors and leaders immersed in the hard work of organizing new communities, the silent beauty of the wilderness and the sparkling mountain lake where the group set up camp is a universe all its own.
“What does it feel like to be stuck?” asked the Rev. Sara Hayden, host of the “New Way” podcast, a production of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities (1001 NWC) movement. Her guest, Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, deputy executive director for Vision and Innovation at the Presbyterian Mission Agency, gave both a theological answer and a personal anecdote. According to Schlosser-Hall, to be stuck is to be without confidence and faith, i.e., lacking in “con-fidelis.” Feeling stuck reminded him of driving a brown Ford Pinto station wagon in high school and having to navigate the North Dakota winters with only rear-wheel drive. Sometimes, one needs more to get unstuck and stop spinning one’s wheels than to exert more effort doing the same thing. Sometimes, one needs a group of people pushing from behind or sand to help with traction under one’s tires.
As Stewardship Kaleidoscope 2024 opened in Portland, Oregon Sept. 23, attendees had probably seen the “Keep Portland Weird” slogan in several places. The annual conference is presented by the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
According to the Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick, when you Google “Why are Presbyterians like that?” one of the top five questions asked is, “Why are Presbyterians called the ‘frozen chosen’?” Hardwick, executive for the Synod of the Covenant, recently preached at a regional gathering of immigrant new worshiping community and church leaders in Cincinnati. Hardwick brought greetings on behalf of the synod, which spans most of Ohio and all of Michigan and as of 2022 had 623 churches reporting 82,264 members, to a group that included the praise team from Korean Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati and other regional leaders as well as immigrant leaders from California and Georgia.
The Rev. Shawna Bowman, an artist, poet, community organizer and the pastor of Friendship Presbyterian Church on Chicago’s Northwest side, is the most recent guest on New Way, the podcast of the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement. The Rev. Sara Hayden hosts the podcast, which is produced by the Rev. Marthame Sanders.
“There’s a real hard letting go that has to happen. The backpacks that we brought into the industry with us, those need a refreshing like never before,” the Rev. Brady Radford said in conversation with the Rev. Sara Hayden on the “New Way” podcast.
“Here is the church, here is the steeple; open the doors, and … wait a second — the people have been priced out of the neighborhood,” the Rev. Sara Hayden said in her introduction to a recent episode of the “New Way” podcast. “Affordable housing is just one of the vexing challenges facing communities today,” Hayden, an associate in the 1001 New Worshiping Communities Movement, said before introducing two pastors in the Los Angeles area who are examining the complexities around affordable housing and finding local solutions. In the two-part series produced by the Rev. Marthame Sanders, Hayden sat down with the Rev. Carlton Rhoden, a longtime community organizer and pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin, is the supervising pastor for affordable housing development of Inglewood First United Methodist church and is the newly appointed senior pastor of Holman United Methodist Church.
