Sermons that are memorable and have impact often rely on two tiny prepositions: “from” and “to,” the Rev. Dr. Tim Slemmons told a group of about two dozen preachers gathered online last week to participate in a webinar designed to help them improve their preaching.
Like with many congregations in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), for the 90 or so churches in the Presbytery of Arkansas, worship is now a different experience than it was before the pandemic, the Rev. Stewart Smith said last week during an episode of the Synod of the Sun’s “SunSpots” podcast.
The Revs. Kate Murphy and Eulando Henton have been friends and colleagues in ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina, for more than a decade. They speak to one another each week about the joys and challenges of leading intercultural congregations — Murphy has for almost 12 years been pastor of The Grove Presbyterian Church and Henton was called three years ago to be the first African American pastor at a historically white congregation, Derita Church.
St. John’s Presbyterian Church in San Francisco wanted to grow. So it hired the Rev. Theresa Cho as an associate pastor with the idea that her presence would help attract young Chinese families who were settling in the neighborhood. After three years, however, growth hadn’t happened in the way some people expected.
