I’ve been on an intentional spiritual formation journey for most of my adult life. As a young person, I struggled to find a prayer routine that felt right for me — body and spirit. I followed the more traditional ways to nurture spirituality: worship services, prayer groups and Bible studies. I even tried to establish a personal devotion routine. For guidance, I looked into the practices of the most spiritual people I knew — my abuela, Jovina, and my abuelo, Edgar. My grandparents’ prayer routine included reading the Bible following a book of devotions and kneeling beside their bed to pray silently. I was convinced that, with some modifications, this would work for me. It did not. My attempt to follow this routine ended up with knee pain, wandering thoughts, climbing into bed and falling asleep, prayer unfinished. I woke the next day feeling frustrated with “my lack of commitment” to a life of prayer.
As part of an ongoing series designed to engage Presbyterians in conversation and learning around Christian festival days and secular holidays, the Office of Theology and Worship continued its new Facebook Live series yesterday featuring the Rev. Dr. Charles Wiley III, coordinator for Theology and Worship.
There’s always that first time—that time in ministry when a pastor’s expectations go unmet. It happened inevitably to the Rev. Jeff Eddings, who in 2004 co-founded the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community together with a United Methodist colleague, the Rev. Jim Walker, in the South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh.
As flameless candles cast faint shadows on the walls, worshipers at the Disciple-Making Church Conference entered the meeting room—transformed into sacred space—on the evening of January 18 prepared to experience a unique service inspired by the Japanese art form of Kintsugi.
To hear the Rev. Jeff Eddings tell it, St. Ignatius of Loyola had quite a checkered past. Eddings, a co-founder of the Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community in Pittsburgh, whose own spiritual life has been profoundly shaped by the teachings of St. Ignatius, is here to keynote the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s annual Disciple-Making Church Conference.
Travelers, not unexpectedly, arrive with baggage. And as pastors and church leaders regularly navigate the daily landscape of life and ministry under tremendous pressure and stress, they may find themselves carrying more than their usual share to the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s annual Disciple-Making Church Conference on January 16.
