During his engaging mini-plenary, the Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka gave educators attending the annual event of the Association of Partners in Christian Education in Chicago a homework assignment: Memorize Isaiah 50:4 and recite it to the folks back home if they ask what you learned at the “Circle of Faith” event of the organization formerly known as the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators.
Having as much fun as they could via Zoom, more than 330 Presbyterians gathered from across the country and across borders for the opening night of Synod School recently. They were treated to a childhood faith story from the Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka and laughed with — not at — a Synod School mainstay, the Rev. Burns Stanfield and his online band of tie dye-clad musicians.
The 2017 gathering of NEXT Church concluded today with worship and a sermon by the Rev. Paul Roberts, Sr., president of Johnson C. Smith Seminary in Atlanta. In its seventh year, the three-day conference was attended by 550 people under the theme of “Wells & Walls: Well-Being in a Thirsty World.”