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Mission Yearbook
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who was hanged for his role in seeking to overthrow the Nazi regime during World War II, once said, “Not to speak is to speak.” Yet the fear of losing members and pledges keeps many congregations silent when it comes to championing the causes of God’s hurting children. The Presbyterian Church of Deep Run in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, is not one of those congregations.
A Boston news station recently shared a story about a Massachusetts church that came up with a unique reparation idea to undo the injustices to those men and women who authored the great African American spirituals in many a hymn book. Each time the choir sings such a spiritual, the church will pay a royalty. It is common practice for churches to pay royalties to publishers for the use of hymns, but according to the news report, Susan DeSelms, minister of music of the United Parish in Brookline, which came up with the idea, “the enslaved people who created this music were never rewarded for their art.”
Rather than cracking open the Good Book alone, why not encounter Scripture in community alongside others seeking to know what’s true about the text?
At First Presbyterian Church of Baraboo, Wisconsin, a small town near Madison, longtime church members wanted to know what it means to be Presbyterian.
Hearing this, their pastor, the Rev. Lisa Newberry, began working on a sermon series for 2022 around the We Believe Presbyterian confirmation curriculum.
It has been said that “justice delayed is justice denied.” However, after a great injustice against the Nez Perce Tribe, the Nimiipuu people recently celebrated the correction of a grave injustice.
Just as they helped launch the nation’s first Truth & Reconciliation Commission in Greensboro, North Carolina, about 20 years ago, the Rev. Nelson Johnson and Joyce Johnson are making plans for a statewide effort they hope will become a national model.
This year, a longtime global partner of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD), will celebrate a significant milestone — 50 years of service to the people of Nicaragua.
Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, turns 300 this year, and the congregation plans a yearlong celebration. Worshipers recently heard an inspiring and heartfelt sermon from one of its favorite sons, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, who deftly put into historical perspective the church’s lengthy history.
While in-person preachers have a big toolbox from which to draw, online preachers have just two main tools — their face and their voice.
New worshiping communities in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) take on new and varied forms of church in a changing culture. Primarily they are seeking to make and form new disciples of Jesus Christ in order to transform the world. How they put that into practice often involves creativity and out-of-the-box approaches.
