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mission yearbook
Upon first feeling the chill of the air, upon leaving the swaddling security of the womb, the newborn wails. Having been forced from her snug home of nine months, she is adrift in what must seem like limitless nothingness.
Then the newborn is passed to her mother’s breast. She finds a familiar voice and embracing arms — a simulation of the oneness from which she has just been severed.
When Jeff Eddings, a coaching associate with 1001 New Worshiping Communities, talks about its coaching network, he begins by referencing Scripture from Philippians 1:3–5, where the apostle Paul writes to the church in Philippi, “ I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.”
The spiritual disciplines of almsgiving, prayer and fasting (in Matt. 6:1–6 and 16–18) are linked with the storing up of treasures (in 6:19–21). The passage warns that if these spiritual exercises are done only to impress people, without God, they lose their meaning and we become hypocrites.
A delegation representing the Niger Mission Network (NMN) saw beautiful feet in Niger — many of them — during a recent 13-day partnership trip hosted by the Evangelical Church in the Republic of Niger (EERN). Participants learned some of the ways the good news of Jesus is proclaimed by Christian brothers and sisters in a country where the majority of its citizens are Muslim.
Two years ago, the current and former Stated Clerks of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) journeyed to Utqiagvik (Barrow, Alaska) — the nation’s northernmost city — to apologize to Native Americans, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians for damage inflicted by the church in previous decades.
Emphasizing wills makes the instrument of legacy-building the focus instead of a much better and larger question: How do we want to contribute to the world beyond our lifetimes?
Seated before more than 100 United Methodist Church communicators in St. Louis, the Rev. Sharon Youngs heard the voice of the Rev. Gradye Parsons, former Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), reverberating in her head.
The Rev. Dr. Brian Blount, president of Union Presbyterian Seminary, has been a major influencer of theological education in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and beyond.
In our Reformed tradition, Presbyterians recognize that we are a part of a larger body of Christ. But that body doesn’t end at the walls of our church building, our city limits, state lines or national borders. That body encompasses each child of God around the world. Because we all have limitations and are all united in Christ, we believe we are called to mission in partnership because, after all, we are better together.
When Dan Turk gazes at tangerine trees in Antanetibe, Madagascar, he sees more than an agricultural success story.
He sees a path out of poverty for the families who tend the crop. It’s a route that traces its beginnings to Turk and his partners at the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM). In 2010, Turk’s colleagues from the FJKM visited Antanetibe and trained about 70 people in tangerine production. The church’s entire Development Department traveled to the town, stayed in the homes of the future tangerine farmers and helped them plant the trees.
