When Kat Green first arrived at her current call as director of Children’s Ministry at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park, Maryland, recruiting volunteers was her first priority.
“What does it look like for us to network?” the Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia, the designated strategic director of NEXT Church and vice moderator of the 221st General Assembly (2014), recently asked a room full of leaders representing five independent nonprofits that support Christian educators, youth workers, older adult ministry, college campus ministry, and camps and conference centers.
The Office of Christian Formation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to come alongside parents, caregivers, churches and worshiping communities to provide skills, opportunities for connection and relationship building, and the resources needed to enhance and prioritize sharing faith in households.
“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person,” the Rev. Fred Rogers, known to millions as Mister Rogers, once mused while reminding his audience as he often did that there are many ways to say “I love you,” from greeting someone to feeding a hungry neighbor or cleaning up common spaces.
Feedback from cohort groups sponsored by the Office of Christian Formation for Presbyterian Youth Workers Association has been so positive that the organization is considering making it part of it regular life.
As the digital national “101 Racism & Organizing Training” event for UKirk Collegiate Ministries began, Shaniya Auxier admits she was “a little bit hesitant.”
