faith and worship Archives

The preacher’s power to persuade

Posted August 11th, 2021

Their place at the pulpit offers Presbyterian preachers a weekly opportunity to persuade parishioners of the power and reach of God’s love for them — as well as hundreds of other messages found in Scripture.

A plaintive cry: Won’t you be my neighbor?

Posted July 29th, 2021

“Only as an adult,” the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield told the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School Thursday, displaying a picture of a familiar Presbyterian pastor and children’s television pioneer dressed in a red zip-up sweater, “did I realize how much my theology was shaped by Mister Rogers.”

Is God calling us to be prophetic in our particular places?

Posted July 28th, 2021

During her convocation address Wednesday at the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School entitled “Called Out to be a Prophet,” the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield listed some qualities of biblical prophets:

Presbyterian Writers Guild offers panel on hymn-writing

Posted July 26th, 2021

As congregations — and congregational singing — return to in-person worship, the Presbyterian Writers Guild is sponsoring a one-hour panel presentation on hymn-writing featuring three renowned Presbyterian hymn composers.

Servants’ Entrance

Posted July 1st, 2021

For a minister of music who’s also a choral music and conducting professor, Tom Trenney is a born storyteller.

Whistle while you worship

Posted June 29th, 2021

One Sunday morning, Tom Trenney, the Routley Lecturer this week for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship and Music Conference and the minister of music at First-Plymouth Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, invited the choir and whoever wanted to in the congregation to whistle during the hymn “Lord of the Dance,” except during the somber fourth verse. He tried the same thing Tuesday, inviting class participants to pucker up behind their masks and whistle.

‘I can’t believe I get to be part of something so beautiful’

Posted June 29th, 2021

It’s Tom Trenney’s job to deliver the Routley Lecture each day this week during the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship and Music Conference. Rather than lecture students meeting both in person at Montreat Conference Center and online during his opening talk on Monday, Trenney told them a story from a few years back about a college student of his named Summer.

Strengthening the connections between the Matthew 25 vision, Scripture and theology

Posted June 8th, 2021

New resources from the Office of Theology and Worship will help those engaged in the work of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Matthew 25 invitation make a stronger connection between the three foci of the vision and the biblical passage — particularly in Matthew 25:31–46, which is known as the “Judgment of the Nations” passage.

‘When we can’t trace God, follow God’

Posted March 23rd, 2021

“I bring you greetings from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),” the Rev. Dr. Diane Moffett told the online audience of St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville on Sunday. Moffett was the featured speaker during the church’s Women’s Day celebration. “We are your partners in ministry,” said the president and executive director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. “God has called us to preach good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”

Celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer John Weaver dies at 83

Posted February 4th, 2021

Dr. John Weaver, a celebrated Presbyterian organist and composer, died Monday at the age of 83. His daughter, the Rev. Kirianne E. Weaver, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Ithaca, New York, described his passing in a Facebook post on Tuesday morning: “Last night, in the small hours, Dad took his last breaths. It was the winding down of a clock, and we knew this moment was coming when the hands would stop moving; it was all peaceful and then came the dawn.”