Presbyterian Mission Agency first presbyterian church greensboro nc Archives

During stressful times, two new devotionals for Advent draw us closer to God

Posted September 14th, 2021

As the world enters its second Advent season with the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic still looming over our shoulders, Christians are searching for devotional resources that offer space to connect with God through prayer and reflection. Westminster John Knox Press is publishing two offerings ahead of Advent season to guide Christians in group and individual study as they draw closer to God.

We’re so quick to judge

Posted July 30th, 2021

For Friday’s final convocation during this week’s Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School being held at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield selected the biblical account of the woman pouring an alabaster jar of ointment on the feet of Jesus, which she washed with her tears and dried with her hair.

A plaintive cry: Won’t you be my neighbor?

Posted July 29th, 2021

“Only as an adult,” the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield told the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School Thursday, displaying a picture of a familiar Presbyterian pastor and children’s television pioneer dressed in a red zip-up sweater, “did I realize how much my theology was shaped by Mister Rogers.”

Is God calling us to be prophetic in our particular places?

Posted July 28th, 2021

During her convocation address Wednesday at the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School entitled “Called Out to be a Prophet,” the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield listed some qualities of biblical prophets:

An unexpected blessing

Posted July 27th, 2021

Blessings can come from unanticipated sources in places we might not expect. For the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield and her family, the place was outside a Goodwill dressing room, and the sources were two older women unknown to the Duffield family.

‘It is very good’

Posted July 26th, 2021

After telling the 450 or so people attending the Synod of Lakes and Prairies’ Synod School on Monday that they’re co-creators with God and, as John Calvin once said, “little manifestations of God’s glory,” the Rev. Dr. Jill Duffield proved her point by asking participants to use their cellphones to take first a selfie and then a photo of the people seated around them.

Presbyterian Outlook names new editor/publisher

Posted May 11th, 2021

The Rev. Dr. Teri McDowell Ott, Dean of the Chapel at Monmouth College, a Presbyterian-related institution in western Illinois, has been named editor and publisher of the Presbyterian Outlook.

God’s not-so-frozen chosen

Posted April 19th, 2021

In the spirit of the Easter season, First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina has put together its first ever dancing music video. After an opening shot of the church’s Gothic Revival cathedral in the city’s historic Fischer Park District, pastors Jill Duffield, Dolly Jacobs and Neil Dunnavant are shown dancing in their robes to the music of “High Hopes” by “Panic! At the Disco.”

Descendants of former slaves and slave owners transcend shared history

Posted August 22nd, 2018

The plaque describing the shared history of two Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) churches is on prominent display for everyone to see as they exit the sanctuary of the 3,000-member First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. Underneath the Scripture passage declaring “there is neither slave, nor free” from Galatians 3:28 are these words: “Among the 12 founding members of First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro in 1824 were the enslaved servants of the Rev. William D. Paisley (founding minister) and Robert Carson.”