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2024 synod school
Was it all just an American dream?
That was the provocative title Dr. Gordon Govens and Jim Koon gave their week-long course at Synod School, which concluded last Friday.
The Rev. Brendan McLean is associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tyler, Texas, one of the communities shrouded in darkness for nearly two minutes during the April 8 solar eclipse.
Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall used his final convocation talk at Synod School on Friday in part to look at how emerging technologies are changing the ways ministry is getting done.
Thursday’s Synod School preacher, the Rev. Katie Styrt, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Milan, Illinois, calls John’s account of the wedding at Cana “the kind of miracle that doesn’t line up with good stewardship policies. I don’t know of any church recently that has given away 180 gallons of wine. That’s about 908 bottles. That’s not in anybody’s budget.”
Picking up on his Wednesday theme of faith communities and mid councils “seeing beyond the standalone model of being church,” on Thursday Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall told the 540 or so people attending Synod School he’s talked to several attendees about how they’re “creatively using God’s resources to be a blessing beyond themselves.”
Even though she’s 101 years old, Mary Conklin of Winnebago, Minnesota has not attended every edition of Synod School, which debuted in 1954. But she has been a part of most of the last 50 or so versions of the beloved gathering, put on each year by the Synod of Lakes & Prairies and attended by about 540 people this year, ranging in age from 5 months to 101 years.
Synod School’s excellent house band pumped out Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” The Scripture selection was Mark 3:31-35, an account of Jesus setting the crowd straight on who his family really is. Even Erin Kaye’s a time for children got Synod School’s youngest attendees to think about what their family means to them.
Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, the convocation speaker during Synod School this week, used a pair of videos to help demonstrate some of what God is up to in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Watch the videos Schlosser-Hall showed to the 540 or so people attending Synod School here and here.
The Rev. Sarah Dickinson, pastor of Discovery Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, and the eloquent preacher during Tuesday worship at Synod School, riffed so well on Psalm 133 that the precious oil running down the beard and over the collar of Aaron got her and other Synod Schoolers thinking about product.
A longstanding practice at Synod School is to offer a talk-back session with the convocation speaker each evening. At the start of his talk on Tuesday, Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, this year’s convocation speaker, shared some of what he learned during Monday evening’s talk-back.
