As Christians, this is the promise toward which we live, but it’s not just an eschatological hope. It’s God’s vision into which we are called to live daily, supported by our faith in the One who has given himself on our behalf. Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” — nothing less — and the guide for our daily living.
Count the stars. Open your eyes and see the well of water. Take a stone and use it as a pillow.
During my first year as a new pastor, I decided I would write a curriculum for our children that would focus on common outdoor experiences that they and the main characters in the book of Genesis had. The first lesson focused on God’s covenant with Abraham in which he was told to look at the sky and count the stars to get an idea of the number of his descendants. The next centered on Hagar and what it was like to be hot and thirsty and to discover a water source to quench your longing. The third week focused on Jacob’s falling asleep outdoors with a stone as a pillow. Week four’s curriculum was never written because by then I had discovered that the children in my suburban congregation had never counted stars on a dark night, quenched their thirst in a cool stream or slept out under the sky.
That was the message that the Rev. Dave Carver shared as part of a panel on transformative partnership at the 223rd General Assembly (2018) in St. Louis. Carver is pastor of a Pittsburgh congregation, Crafton Heights First United Presbyterian Church. He shared how a three-way partnership in faith among the Pittsburgh Presbytery, the Synod of Blantyre in Malawi and the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church is transforming the lives of those involved.
Around 850 people from Guatemala’s Maya Quiché Presbytery and visitors from Heartland Presbytery gathered in January at the Maya Quiché Bible Institute in the Guatemalan highlands near Quetzaltenango to celebrate more than 20 years of partnership.
With the same spirit of daring that led them to reinvent their once-dying church, members of The Grove Presbyterian Church in Charlotte are embracing an experiment in fellowship, one relationship at a time.
When Deb Trevino recently stood in the pulpit at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church, she wasn’t alone. Her guide dog Suzy was with her — settling in to listen as Trevino spoke on what she has learned from her guide dogs about trusting God.
At a gathering of Africa-area mission co-workers in Rwanda last month, “mishmoms” sat together to share their experiences on raising resilient children, as only parents can, with deep understanding. In honor of Mother’s Day, Presbyterian News Service shares their unique perspectives.
In some ways, my marriage is a reverse Cinderella story, one in which I realize that no matter how hard I might try, the shoes of my husband’s family might never really fit me—and that’s OK.
I’ve learned that when it comes to marriage—and mission work—it’s not about making the shoe fit, but the relationship that develops after we try it on.
The letters with an individual check of $50 from Stewartsville Presbyterian Church, made out to every teaching elder in Newton Presbytery, came in the mail in May 2016, near the end of the church calendar year.
Yet six months later, the pastors who received the letters, and those who made the decision to give them, are still talking about them in ways that get at the heart of the gift of giving.
To connect with justice is to connect with the heart of God. It is a part of God’s core character. It is not optional but necessary. Jesus, the very fulfillment of Scripture—God on earth, here with us—declared in his first message that justice and compassion would be at the center of his ministry. In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus doesn’t say, “I am here just for your soul.” No, he declared that through the power of the Holy Spirit he was going to set captives free, bring sight to the blind, and break the chains of injustice!
