By William McConnell It’s that time of year again: time to take a quick breath to recall Advent and Christmas celebrations; time to look ahead to what the new year will bring. It’s also time to consider your local congregation’s missional priorities and the financial pledges you have received so that a budget can be… Read more »
January 11, 2022
Per Capita: What’s in It for Me?
By William McConnell It’s that time of year again: time to take a quick breath to recall Advent and Christmas celebrations; time to look ahead to what the new year will bring. It’s also time to consider your local congregation’s missional priorities and the financial pledges you have received so that a budget can be… Read more » 
By Rachel Yates We marked each Sunday in our Advent season with God’s promises for hope, peace, joy, and love. We lit candles at church or in our homes as tangible signs of these promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ. For many of us in Southeast Wisconsin, however, these promises have felt hollow or distant. Our… 
For Sarah Valentina Hernandez Solache (SO-LA-CHAY), the colorful city of Zitácuaro (ZEE-TA-QUARO) in the highlands of Mexico — where millions of Monarch butterflies bathe the fields and forests in a sea of orange during their annual migration — was, and always will be, home. But, despite its beauty, Valentina readily admits that it simply wasn’t… 
Like many people, the Rev. Meg Shoeman needed time to find the right road, the right path for her life. Meg, who earned her M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 2007, candidly confessed that hers has been a “very long journey.” She left the ordination process after graduation and chose another career path because of… 
At first, nothing about Stillman College reminded Johnykqua [Jon-e-kwa] Bevans and Rayondre [Ray-on-dray] (Ray) Roberts of their home on the tropical island of Grand Bahama: not Alabama, not the food, not their classmates and not the as-yet unfamiliar Presbyterian tradition in which the college is steeped. But then there was the choir. Stillman’s nationally-renowned concert… 
Seems like in one way or another, Jack and Kate Eisel have always been busy putting out fires — unless they were building them. The couple met fireside in 2009 at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, where Kate was the conference manager, and Jack, a recently retired pastor, was volunteering in the maintenance department. “Since… 
In the story of God, as we tell it, there is a barrier that exists between the Created world and its Creator. A wall. Sin, we say, separates us from God, and separation from God is unbearable. And our story goes on to say that God, seeing that we had no hope in ourselves of… 
By Eileen Lindner Many cultures around the world celebrate a harvest festival. Here in the United States, Thanksgiving represents that feast to celebrate the fruitful harvest. Steeped in the piety of early Americans, the hallmark of the holiday was an outpouring of praise to God for the abundant harvest – for life itself. Over the… 
Engaging the children of your congregation with the four churchwide Special Offerings has never been easier or more important, whether you are engaging them in-person or virtually. There are numerous ways children can connect with the upcoming Christmas Joy Offering, sharing in the joy of the perfect gift, Jesus Christ. This year’s curriculum was written… 
By Chris Roseland A common table prayer opens with “O Lord, make us truly thankful for that which we are about to receive …” It sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? But isn’t there something a little strange about that prayer? I mean, why would anyone pray that way? “Oh Lord, make us truly thankful …”…