When Kat Green first arrived at her current call as director of Children’s Ministry at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park, Maryland, recruiting volunteers was her first priority.
Last week, 22 people gathered at Stony Point Center for a Faith Formation at Home Symposium sponsored by the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Christian Formation. Over three days, participants met to share their contexts and wisdom, to learn about new initiatives and resources, and to listen to presentations on formation with Generations Z and Alpha.
“What does it look like for us to network?” the Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia, the designated strategic director of NEXT Church and vice moderator of the 221st General Assembly (2014), recently asked a room full of leaders representing five independent nonprofits that support Christian educators, youth workers, older adult ministry, college campus ministry, and camps and conference centers.
“A psalm is a song that we sing to God,” writes Carey Wallace, author of “Psalms of Wonder: Poems from the Book of Songs,” a new illustrated book published by Flyaway Books. “Today, the psalms are known in almost every language that humans speak, but something happened as these songs moved around the world: They lost their music.”
The Office of Christian Formation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency is partnering with Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, to offer a four-day, three-night intergenerational Creation care event from April 6-9, 2024, culminating with a total solar eclipse.
The Office of Christian Formation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency has received a grant of $1.25 million from Lilly Endowment Inc. to come alongside parents, caregivers, churches and worshiping communities to provide skills, opportunities for connection and relationship building, and the resources needed to enhance and prioritize sharing faith in households.
The Office of Christian Formation’s webinar on Thursday designed to explore some at-home resources that families can use this summer also included time for Christian educators to share their challenges and triumphs as churches and worshiping communities emerge from the pandemic.
“How many people are out of power?” was the opening question in a Tuesday night call between Christian formation leaders hosted by the Office of Christian Formation of the Presbyterian Mission Agency. Mission associate Miatta Wilson welcomed a group of a dozen church leaders, saying, “It’s great to have people who are from various different parts of the country and time zones.”
A special one-time grant program from the Office of Christian Formation suggests that rest may be the hardest thing to learn when practicing what you preach.