What do a cookbook, a blueprint, a trail map and the Bible have in common?
According to the Rev. Dr. Tod Bolsinger, associate professor of a leadership formation at Fuller Theological Seminary, they are all performative documents.
Most churches in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) proclaim welcome to anyone attending worship for the first time, whether worship is occurring in person or online. Why welcome matters and how much impact welcome can have were among the topics explored Saturday by Trinity Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Missouri, which welcomed the Rev. Brian Ellison, executive director of Covenant Network of Presbyterians, to both speak to and listen to a welcoming congregation. Watch the 75-minute event here.
In addition to the transitions everyone’s endured during the pandemic, the clergy team of the Rev. Mihee Kim-Kort and the Rev. Dr. Andy Kort said goodbye last year to the church he served, First Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Indiana, and hello to the church they’re currently serving as co-pastors, First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis in Maryland.
Each Sunday for the past few weeks, the Rev. Robert Felix has been giving parishioners at Chandler Presbyterian Church in Chandler, Arizona, real answers to honest questions. The way he goes about providing those answers — producing a short film each week based on a top faith question identified on Google Trends, then discussing the film and the question together — has proven to be an effective and innovative platform for, as he says, “figuring out how we share the gospel in Chandler and the world.”
A Presbyterian church that ministers to current and formerly incarcerated people was heavily damaged last month in Brooklyn, New York, when Tropical Storm Henri drenched the Northeast.
Continuing its series of outreach during the pandemic, the Cory Johnson Program for Post-Traumatic Healing at Roxbury Presbyterian Church in Boston on Monday hosted the webinar “COVID-19 and Kids: What’s a Parent to Do?”
Dr. Tom Long was in an airport terminal last Saturday when this announcement got everyone’s attention: Please observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. to remember the people killed in the 9/11 attacks 20 years before.
When it comes to church, the Rev. Shanea B. Leonard knows what it’s like to feel like an outsider looking in. But Leonard also knows what it’s like to sit in a place of welcome and inclusion.
