Bethel Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia is an African American congregation of about 45 members that’s doing the work of a congregation 10 times its size. Bethel is described as a little church with a big heart for mission. The congregation accepted the Matthew 25 invitation in 2019, but it was already doing the work the gospel requires.
Each Sunday for the past few weeks, the Rev. Robert Felix has been giving parishioners at Chandler Presbyterian Church in Chandler, Arizona, real answers to honest questions. The way he goes about providing those answers — producing a short film each week based on a top faith question identified on Google Trends, then discussing the film and the question together — has proven to be an effective and innovative platform for, as he says, “figuring out how we share the gospel in Chandler and the world.”
The Washington Corrections Center for Women is both the largest and the only maximum and medium security prison for women in the state. It’s surrounded by barbed wire, and you have to go through five locked gates to get to the main population.
Westminster John Knox Press is excited to announce the publication of three new Bible studies: “Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament” by Brent A. Strawn, “The Flawed Family of God: Stories about the Imperfect Families in Genesis” by Carolyn B. Helsel and Song-Mi Suzie Park, and “From Daughters to Disciples: Women’s Stories in the New Testament” by Lynn Japinga. These three new Bible studies offer opportunities for individual and group reflection.
When author and artist P. Lynn Miller proposed the theme of “lament” to the national Bible Study Committee of Presbyterian Women four years ago, no one had any idea how timely the topic would be now.
The Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, director of the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, began a virtual Bible study this week with a call for Presbyterians to get involved in the upcoming election.
The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade has noticed an unexpected phenomenon emerging from the coronavirus pandemic: The pastors she mentors and the students she teaches at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky are feeling something akin to relief.
The vision for the Matthew 25 invitation asks us to engage together in the three works of vitalizing congregations, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty. Though individual, these three works are inseparable. Can a congregation be vital without confronting racism? What is at stake when racism directs our congregational and community life?
On Monday more than 235 people from across the denomination spent two hours online exploring ways they can awaken to structural racism, one of three focus areas in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Matthew 25 invitation.
While the book of Lamentations — with two verses from chapter 5 serving as the scriptural basis for the 224th General Assembly (2020) — there’s still hope, commissioners and others participating in the GA Bible study Wednesday evening learned.
