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Susan Ehterton, a real estate developer and ruling elder at Arlington Presbyterian Church in Arlington, Virginia with 35 years of experience in redevelopment and affordable housing, explained the church’s transformation as moving “from one stone edifice to another stone edifice” — one with 173 units of affordable housing and, as it turns out, room for the congregation as well.
The Rev. Otis Moss III, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and Tanya Watkins, executive director of Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, which carries the memorable acronym SOUL, may take slightly different approaches to serving their community.
Closing worship for the NEXT Church national gathering on Sunday brought together two ways of being community that you wouldn’t necessarily associate — Luke’s description in Acts 2 of how the early church functioned and the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, which have been adapted to other addictions as well.
The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III remembers the heartbroken grandmother of a man in denial of his drug addiction. “Son,” she told him one day, “until you name the demon, you ain’t never gonna be free.”
Picking up on the NEXT Church national gathering theme, “Breaking, Blessing, Building,” Dr. Christine Hong wondered how people will come out of “survival mode” inflicted by the pandemics of coronavirus and racial injustice and rally for a future of blessing and building.
The Rev. Lenny Duncan, who delivered a powerful and at times anguished and angry keynote Friday during the NEXT Church national gathering, said he agreed to speak because the Rev. Denise Anderson asked him to.
“This is our stone-cold moment to be like Jesus, our rock and our redeemer,” Dr. Brian K. Blount told the NEXT Church national gathering Wednesday at the close of a sermon as rousing as it was theologically well-built. The president and professor of New Testament at Union Presbyterian Seminary called on worshipers to “stand on God’s promise … and rock out our world.”
The Rev. Mike Mather, who along with his longtime friend De’Amon Harges presented Wednesday during the final day of the NEXT Church national gathering, took a walk in South Africa a few years ago with a South African who related a joke about apartheid he’d heard years before.
Contemplative. Entrepreneur. Convener. The Rev. Troy Bronsink wears all those hats and probably a few more as the founder and director of The Hive: A Center for Contemplation, Art and Action in Cincinnati.
The Rev. Floretta Barbee-Watkins got off to a rocky start during Tuesday worship at the national gathering of NEXT Church.
