The small town of Lebanon (pop. 5,800) sits 70 miles southeast of Louisville in the heart of central Kentucky. Surrounded by lush farmland, the area is known as a hub for bluegrass music, manufacturing facilities and bourbon production. It’s also home to United Presbyterian Church, which hosted a prayer service last Friday in response to President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order on refugees and immigration.
Layne and Crawford Brubaker have taken church planting to the next level. Quite literally. With Okra Abbey, a new worshiping community (NWC) located in the Pigeon Town neighborhood of New Orleans, the Brubakers, together with ministry colleague, Vincent Grossi, are more than just blooming where they’re planted—they’re cultivating community by growing not only vegetables, but also by nurturing faith and trust among their diverse neighbors.
Wonderful things can happen when the church listens to its neighbors. That, accordingly to the Rev. Dr. Melvin Lowry, was the genesis of what has become Medical Associates Plus in Augusta, Georgia.
Sometimes the simplest questions give rise to the most interesting conversations. That is what I discovered one morning at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia.
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.
Pittsburgh church forges bond among faith, education and outreach
A family retreat for members of Crafton Heights United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh opened up possibilities in inter-generational learning, deepening commitment to faith and attendees’ understanding of God’s relationship to humanity.
As wagons of corn—not to mention truckloads of gravel and dirt—circle the United Church of Crawsfordsville, Iowa, surely the harvest is nearing. Or at least the church’s eagerly-awaited harvest supper and auction is.
One of our planet’s worst earthquakes leveled Managua, Nicaragua, in December 1972. A medical doctor and missionary, Gustavo Parajón, raced to action. Within hours he had mobilized others to feed those left homeless. This ecumenical, Jesus-loving, outward-looking group called itself the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD). Today and for most of its more than 40-year history, CEPAD has helped people feed themselves and avoid the need to emigrate.
For more than a century, the manse next to First Presbyterian Church in tiny Baird, Texas (population 1,600) served many functions: as the church’s first sanctuary, as a home for a string of pastors, and as space for vacation Bible School and adult Sunday school classes. In recent years, however, it had become an albatross, a dilapidated structure that was too expensive to repair and too expensive to demolish.
In West Louisville, Westwood Presbyterian Church came up with a creative way to address what generations of African Americans have come to believe—“that life is cheap, and the cheapest of all are black lives.” By hosting a drama camp for African American kids earlier this year, Westwood took them back to a time when African American culture was thriving.
