What is discernment? What is God calling us to do in a particular situation, either as an individual or a congregation or mid council? How do we move forward?
Am I still on the right path? Am I spending time on what’s important? Is it steady as she goes, or time for a course correction?
These questions may sound familiar. If you find yourself in a changing season, where-is-God-leading-me questions may be showing up in your prayers and wonderings.
Six months had passed since our elders transitioned to more prayerful session meetings. I was checking in with Vic, one of our crustier members who had resisted the change. “So, how are you dealing with the new meeting style?” I asked.
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was among the denominational leaders participating earlier this month in “What Does God Require of Us? Discerning, Confessing, and Witnessing in an Age of COVID-19 and Beyond,” part of the World Communion of Reformed Churches’ Communion-wide discernment process.
As a new year begins for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), synod and presbytery leaders share their resolutions for the church. Among those resolutions are challenging congregations to do something radically new without worrying about failure, lifting voices often ignored and widening the witness of being a Matthew 25 presence in the world.
It’s that time of year again, when youth rooms are filled with laughter, Sunday school finds everyone from toddlers to adults with their favorite teachers, and small groups elicit joy all around. These activities represent different aspects of lifelong Christian formation, one of the seven marks of church vitality. Deuteronomy 30:15–20 sheds light on this mark — take time to read it now.
It’s that time of year again, when church starts ramping up after summer’s relaxed schedule. Youth rooms are filled with laughter, Sunday school finds everyone from toddlers to adults reunited with their favorite teachers, and the return of small groups elicits joy all around. These activities represent different aspects of lifelong Christian formation, one of the seven marks of church vitality that we’re exploring together this month. Our passage, Deuteronomy 30:15–20, sheds light on this mark as a lectionary selection for Sept. 8 — take time to read it now.
Work is an important part of vocation, but an equally important part of living out my calling is my new home. My current home as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) is an intentional Christian community in Boston, where my fellow YAVs and I seek to build faithful relationships with one another, with our neighbors and with God. My year of service is teaching me that “being in mission” is a way of living that starts in the place where I eat, rest, reflect and pray with those closest to me.
