Most people pass by First Presbyterian Church in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, noting its beautiful historic sanctuary.
It sat on a one-way street, and the 1950s addition to the much larger sanctuary barely merited a backwards glance.
But when the city of Manitowoc changed the street to a two-way, Rev. Matt Sauer, the church’s pastor, began to see that 1950s addition as a blank canvas — and an opportunity.
The Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, Dean at the Chapel at Duke University and an associate professor at the Duke Divinity School, used the account of the Valley of Dry Bones found in Ezekiel 37:1-14 last week to remind preachers that sermons about resurrection must first encounter death in a real way.
The Immersion conference ended Thursday with worship that included inspired preaching and inspiring music, the latter by Dr. Tony McNeill, a sought-after workshop clinician, lecturer, consultant, mentor and guest choral conductor.
Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., the final keynoter for The Immersion conference which concluded Thursday, shared his insights on two more of the 7 Marks of Congregational Vitality — Outward Incarnational Focus and Empowering Servant Leadership. The Office of Vital Congregations sponsored the conference, held online and in person at Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina.
Author and historian the Rev. Dr. Gary Neal Hansen, the author of the 2012 book “Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers,” used two hour-long keynote slots during The Immersion conference Wednesday in part to offer attendees “a well-rounded diet of prayer.”
Appearing via Zoom Wednesday from Philadelphia, “where it’s sunny and our team is in the World Series,” the Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart engaged participants in The Immersion conference in thinking of worship as “a call to faithful reckoning and divine accountability.”
The Rev. Dr. Tom Bryson, the co-pastor at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama, remembers the day as a young boy when his father brought home the family’s first microwave oven.
As a lead-in to next week’s hybrid Evangelism and Immersion conferences, three people heading innovative ministries spoke Tuesday in The Scattered Church series, which provides Presbyterians with theological reflections and practical resources for socially distanced ministry.
The Rev. Dr. Kathryn Threadgill, associate director for Theology, Formation & Evangelism, has accepted a call from Columbia Theological Seminary to become its vice president and dean of Student Formation and Campus Culture.
