As the historic, hybrid 225th General Assembly (2022) came to order on June 18 in the newly renovated conference center at 100 Witherspoon Street in Louisville, Kentucky, it was in no way business as usual.
The 49 churches in Mid-Kentucky Presbytery are being offered grants on a sliding scale, depending on their membership, to help them install electric car charging stations.
Leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) called the decision of a Louisville grand jury to indict only one officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor on three counts of wanton endangerment “a travesty.”
Where there’s a will, there’s a driveway.
And although this year’s Palm Sunday festival procession into an “upper parking lot” more closely resembled a line at a car wash than a celebration of worship, exigent circumstances call for extreme creativity, imagination and grace.
And honks over Hosannas.
When Gail Cafferata faced closing the church she pastored, her experience brought to mind a million questions about her call, leadership and future. Inspired by her experience and wanting to explore other pastors who were called to serve churches that closed, she embarked upon a sociological study, diving into the experiences of more than 130 pastors in five historically established denominations (Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and United Church of Christ). Westminster John Knox Press is proud to announce the release of her book, “The Last Pastor: Faithfully Steering a Closing Church,” which explores the hard-won lessons of the pastors she interviewed about their journeys through church decline and closing.
Glasgow (Kentucky) Presbyterian String Academy was born, the church’s transitional minister, the Rev. Charlie Evans says, because the church paid attention to what God was saying.
It’s a good thing Presbytery of Mid-Kentucky was listening as well.
Two congregations that worship in the same Louisville, Ky., church are comfortable enough with one another that host church members didn’t even bat an eye recently when the smaller congregation told the larger one that the church has termites.
What does it mean to be a Matthew 25 church today? That’s the key question participants in a series of international consultations and U.S. regional gatherings have been addressing through roundtable discussion across the country and around the world.
