One Sunday, the Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman had an epiphany.
As the former pastor of Table of Grace, a non-traditional, radically inclusive faith community she planted in Jefferson City, Missouri, she knew that her leadership and preaching were central to worship.
But one Sunday, the congregation showed her — and the Spirit told her — otherwise.
APCE keynoter Mark Yaconelli, whose most recent book holds up the importance of storytelling, told a few compelling stories himself during his plenary talk on Thursday.
There may be no place thirstier for life than the desert after a long period of no rain, the Rev. Melanie Marsh said during Thursday’s worship service at APCE’s Annual Event being held in St. Louis and online. Marsh used a National Geographic clip to demonstrate rain’s dramatic effect on the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park southeast of Los Angeles.
Since the Covid pandemic began in early 2020, we’ve gone from lockdown to shutdown, Mark Yaconelli told those attending the APCE Annual Event Wednesday during the first of three keynotes he’s scheduled to deliver. He saw plenty of examples of shutdown during a 91-stop book tour he completed last year following publication of his “Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us.”
ST. LOUIS — In the vast sea of vendors that populate the Marketplace & Bookstore at the Association of Partners in Christian Education 2024 Annual Event, there’s only one who literally makes a splash.
Gina Yeager-Buckley began the conversation on “Why does the church need youth ministry” with the Presbyterian Youth Workers Association by asking participants to describe what their stories would have been like without it.
Even with the COVID-related risks, delays and uncertainty that have surrounded the annual Association of Presbyterian Church Educators event, co-chair Candace Hill said what excites her the most about next week’s event is being with people who are close to her heart.
A self-described “proud South African,” Dr. Warren Chalklen had plenty to teach the 1,000 or so people attending last week’s online national gathering of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators about how diversity makes churches and organizations stronger.
Thoughtful, moving and imaginative worship was front and center during the national event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators Thursday afternoon, when more than 1,000 people from four continents joined for an online opening worship service anchored by prophetic preaching from the Rev. Aisha Brooks-Lytle.
As of Tuesday, registration for “Anything but Ordinary Time,” the name of the annual event of the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE), stood at 908 — nearly one-third of them first-time attendees, according to Anne Wilson, a retired educator from Houston and member of the event’s planning team. In addition, 15 percent of those registered have attended one previous APCE annual event.
