Knowing that the membership and leadership of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) is nearly 100 percent white — and that its organization didn’t reflect the diversity of God’s beloved community — APCE formed a task force this year to look at white privilege, racist systems and oppressive practices inherent in its structures.
When we die, we don’t go to heaven, the Rev. Dr. Tom Long told the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators earlier this month. Instead, it’s the place from which God comes to us.
One hour.
More and more, that’s all that busy, tired families say they have for worship and Christian education on Sunday morning. How do pastors and church educators meet harried families where they are?
Not only do pastors have the privilege of walking alongside parishioners, “we also aid them and guide them, helping to craft and form them into disciples of Christ,” the Rev. Zeta T. Lamberson said during a workshop last week at the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators event. “That doesn’t just happen. We must be intentional and think about how to do that.”
The titles of two workshops held last week during the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators event — “Killing Church Softly” and “Reviving Church Loudly” — together served up a vision about what intergenerational worship and Christian education could look like in the coming years.
Short testimonial films honoring each of the four educators honored Friday by the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators told the stories of experienced church workers whose dedication, talent, love and fearlessness have enhanced and even transformed the spiritual lives of perhaps thousands of Presbyterians.
Described in his introduction as a lover of Waffle House and the owner of about 250 bow ties, Dr. Tony McNeill described during a Thursday talk at the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators annual event the work that he and others at Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary are developing to “deliver theological education for the present age.”
It’s been the job of the Rev. Hugh Donnelly to get the 700 people attending this week’s Association of Presbyterian Church Educators event to sing like they mean it and, while they’re at it, make a joyful noise to the Lord.
The Rev. Kimberly Bracken Long well remembers the day her six-year-old son brushed his hair in a dramatic upsweep after a bath. “Now” the boy told his mother, catching his image in a mirror, “I look exactly like God.”
