The Rev. Jessica Tate, director of NEXT Church and a worship leader for the 2020 Presbyterian Association of Musicians Worship & Music Conference, told a telling story about life during COVID-19 with 2-year-old son, Huw, during opening worship on a recent Sunday. As PAM turned 50, it held its golden year celebration online, with live broadcasts originating from Montreat Conference Center.
When the Rev. Carol DeVaughn welcomed the congregation of Faith Des Peres Presbyterian Church to virtual worship on a recent Sunday, those watching could hardly believe what they were seeing.
The Rev. Dr. José Irizarry has plenty of roles and titles, including Vice President of Education for the Board of Pensions. In recent weeks, he told the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty during a Facebook Live event, the pandemic has added a new important title to his portfolio: Minister of Household.
Congregations looking for ways to be the church together during and even after the pandemic might well find what they’re looking for in the early church practice of house churches.
Although leaders of new worshiping communities (NWCs) describe both discipleship and spiritual formation as types of personal growth, there are key distinctions in their descriptions of the two.
“We may be physically distant,” the Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen said at the opening of his Facebook Live appearance Wednesday with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, “but we’re always spiritually close.”
