Sunday, August 15
The Lord’s Day
Minute for Mission: Higher Education
Sarah Terpstra, a 2009 Maryville College graduate, will spend a year in Peru with the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer program.
With each birth, congregations make baptismal covenants with families to nurture these children of God. As the child grows, the community shares its gifts: toddler Sunday school, graham crackers and grape juice, study in confirmation, blessed “back home” times at Montreat. For young people and their families, the passage to college becomes a leap of faith. Are learning, service, and faith part of the college culture? Will they return to our church, or any church, after graduation?
More than 100,000 come to us — your Presbyterian-related colleges. For students from the PC(USA) and other denominations and faith traditions, their college experience is a journey of both mind and heart. Through campus worship, service, vocational discernment, travel, and study of religions, young people at Presbyterian-related colleges grow from consumers of church to leaders of church.
Your sister colleges are profoundly grateful for congregational participation in the lives of students. The need for church and college partnerships has never been greater. If your congregation has college-age students, stay in touch with them. Let the chaplain know your connection. If you have no college-age students, contact a campus ministry and offer your support to a student, program, or service experience.
On this Higher Education Sunday, may we commit to continue and to celebrate the partnerships and possibilities between the college and the church that will be lived out in the lives of our students, in the church, and in the world.
—Kathleen Farnham, director of church relations, Maryville College, Maryville Tennessee
Prayer
Eternal God, we ask your blessing in the life of the church, the life of the college, and especially in the lives of the young people we share. Guided by your faithful presence and abundant love, may those who teach and those who learn grow in faith, work for justice, and serve the world. Amen.
Sunday Lectionary and Hymns
Isa. 5:1–7
My Song Is Love Unknown
PH 76
Ps. 80:1–2, 8–19
O Hear Our Cry, O Lord
PH 206
Heb. 11:29—12:2
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
PH 281, HB 339
Luke 12:49–56
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
PH 260, HB 91
Daily Lectionary
Ps. 19, 150 and Ps. 81, 113
Judg. 16:15–31
2 Cor. 13:1–11; Mark 5:25–34
