The Rev. Dr. Ralph Basui Watkins has no doubt preached in many settings over his long career in ministry and in training ministers to be.
Add the former garage he’s transformed into a garage gym to the list of his preaching venues.
In South Sudan, more than 1 million people have been displaced in recent months by flooding. Of those displaced, more than 29,000 are from Mayendit County in the southern part of Unity State. Before the flooding, the country was plagued by years of civil war that also contributed to massive displacement.
Yearning to break free from a life hindered by addiction, Lori Flick walked into Columbia Presbyterian Church in south-central Pennsylvania almost seven years ago and found a place of refuge.
“I think a lot of people were like ‘Who is this girl?’” she said. “I was skinny as heck. I looked like I was ready to rob the place,” but “I just got to know everyone. They gave me hope. They gave me Jesus. They gave me my self-worth when I didn’t have it.”
The Rev. Crawford Brubaker has been to the town he pastors only once, for an interview. It occurred pre-pandemic at nighttime, in the small community of Buckley, Washington, the home of Community Presbyterian Church. At the end of the interview, Brubaker said the pastor nominating committee told him to come back in three weeks to preach so they could “see the goods.”
Congregations looking for ways to be the church together during and even after the pandemic might well find what they’re looking for in the early church practice of house churches.
A Presbyterian church in northern California is distributing locally-grown produce as part of Sunday worship to bring healthy food options to their community.
In a lecture series sponsored by Union Presbyterian Seminary and the Center for Social Justice and Reconciliation this week, the Rev. Dr. James Forbes spoke on “COVID-19: A Parable of Plagues before Deliverance.”
