The Rev. Dr. Ray Jones III turned to history and the cinema to open a conversation about congregational vitality on the first day of the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board’s February meeting on Wednesday.
This Thanksgiving, the Rev. Dr. Ray Jones III is grateful, especially for his colleagues in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Theology, Formation & Evangelism (TFE) ministry area.
As 14 Presbyteries prepare to launch the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s Vital Congregations initiative in January, three presbyteries — Trinity, Newark and San Jose — are finishing up a pilot program of the two-year revitalization process.
At her lowest point, the Rev. Tamara John cut off her hair and gained 50 pounds.
“Subconsciously, I wanted to make myself look and feel as ugly as possible,” she says.
Rather than talk about intergenerational church gatherings, Liz Perraud demonstrated one during a Thursday workshop at the national gathering of the Presbyterian Older Adult Ministries Network, which concludes Friday in the Laws Lodge Conference Center on the campus of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
As the Rev. Becca Stevens took to the ballroom stage at the Westin Hotel Wednesday, healing oils that would be used by 220 attendees to anoint one other at the 1001 New Worshiping Communities and Vital Congregations national gathering hadn’t been opened yet.
A decade ago, three Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations in the Atlanta area faced decline. The then-stated supply pastor serving two of those congregations shared with them their future.
If the handful of Presbyterian Mission Agency Board members who participated in a conference call Friday on the Stony Point Center Vision Plan have reservations about the plan’s recommendations, they didn’t voice them.
Without the support of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Denise McLeod isn’t sure she would have survived.
A widowed minister serving a small church, Trinity Presbyterian, in Key West, Florida — and raising a son who is now a senior in college — she applied for the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Loan Forgiveness for Pastors.
