Dr. Phyllis W. Sanders, Vital Congregations Coordinator for Trinity Presbytery, took on the study “Gaining Wisdom Through Vital Conversations: Voices of the Aging” because of what she calls “my innermost desire to continue to learn from the elderly.”
Dr. Phyllis Sanders, Vital Congregations Coordinator for Trinity Presbytery, took on the study “Gaining Wisdom through Vital Conversations: Voices of the Aging” because of what she calls “my innermost desire to continue to learn from the elderly.”
When the Rev. Dr. Jeri Parris Perkins became pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Clinton, South Carolina, she knew the congregation needed to revitalize. It’s what the Pastor Nominating Committee was looking for when the church called her in 2014.
Three presbyteries — Trinity, Newark and San Jose — have finished up a pilot program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Vital Congregations initiative’s two-year revitalization process.
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.
Now that churches in South Carolina’s Trinity Presbytery have gone through the seven marks of congregational vitality, as part of their participation in the two-year Vital Congregations initiative pilot program, pastors are beginning to notice a difference in their congregations.
When Phyllis Sanders saw an article in South Carolina’s newspaper, The State, titled Losing Faith, she considered it a godsend.
Within a week, she hosted her first workshop as Trinity Presbytery’s new Vital Congregations coordinator. The article about the decline of churches gave her what she needed to help congregations better understand why the presbytery is participating in a two-year Vital Congregations Revitalization Initiative pilot program. Sponsored by the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the initiative is designed to help churches live more fully into faithful discipleship to Jesus Christ.
