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“I want to tell you a story,” the Rev. Dr. Kathryn Threadgill began a recent sermon, “about embodied grace and true hope.”
Threadgill, the Vital Congregations coordinator for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, preached for nearly 350 national staff of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) as part of Staff Development Day. Her text was Romans 5:1-5.
You may be startled to learn that 25% of children under 6 now live in poverty, nearly 23% of the American population can’t afford a medication they need and 17 out of every 10,000 people in the United States were experiencing homelessness on a single night. The Presbyterian Mission Agency has created a short video designed to raise awareness of the systemic poverty facing people in all walks of life, especially with the additional impact of the pandemic. The video is available to download and share across social media and websites.
Gina Yeager-Buckley came away from her experience coaching the Presbyterian Youth Workers Association (PYWA) cohort for the Office of Christian Formation dramatically changed.
“I’m excited again, renewed,” she said. “It took me back to my love and passion for youth ministry.”
Look for signs of hope. The teachers of resilience offer this wisdom to the storm-tossed, the overwhelmed, the anxious. You may be way ahead of me here, but it’s advice I’m trying to take.
An Oklahoma husband-and-wife pastor team uses a love for theater to share the Good News with the congregation, providing sermons as plays that often feature modern and humorous takes on biblical stories.
God’s mission clearly includes charity: a cup of cold water given in Jesus’ name; the Samaritan’s extraordinary care for the victim of highway robbery; the traditional “alms for the poor” that has characterized the institutional church through the millennia. Charity is clearly biblical and a hallmark of Christian faithfulness. After 35 years of working with Presbyterian congregations engaged in local and global mission, I have found that the overwhelming majority of congregations dedicate nearly 100% of their mission attention and budget to charity work. Buta singular focus on charity can blind us to the larger issues behind the suffering we seek to alleviate. A Congolese proverb says, “It takes two hands to wash”: God’s mission consists of both charity to stop our neighbor’s bleeding and justice to prevent the wound in the first place.
When the signers of the Declaration of Independence gathered in July 1776, chaplains were in the field with our soldiers and on vessels with our sailors and marines. As we remember the significant events of this day, please consider the ministry our chaplains have provided through our nation’s history. Below is the story of one of God’s servants now nearing the end of 30-plus years in uniform.
A continuing education program at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is teaching rural faith leaders how to better respond to mental health crises.
Officially, the Presbyterian Pan American School is a “Christian international college-preparatory boarding school located in Kingsville, Texas.” But to Adelite Hategeka, it’s a second home filled with family from around the world.
“Help me and show me how to tend to my flock.” This was a prayer shared by many a clergy member in March 2020. It seemed to go straight from Jim Burton’s mouth to God’s ears. As the interim pastor of Kingston Presbyterian Church in Conway, South Carolina, he recalled reading an article from another church that utilized writing prayers on ribbons. He reached out to Shandon Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina, and was given permission to use the idea any way he desired. Hence, in the quaint town along the Waccamaw River began the Prayer Ribbon Ministry. Pastor Burton reflects on Psalm 147:3: He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.
