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.”
To the psalmist’s question “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” the Rev. Ron McKinney had a ready answer Wednesday during an online Chapel service for the national staff of the PC(USA): “How can we as Native Americans not sing our song? We are not in a foreign land. We are in our own land.”
Sermons that are memorable and have impact often rely on two tiny prepositions: “from” and “to,” the Rev. Dr. Tim Slemmons told a group of about two dozen preachers gathered online last week to participate in a webinar designed to help them improve their preaching.
Before COVID-19 forced him to work from home, the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator of the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People, was walking in downtown Louisville one day when he came across a man holding a “I’m homeless and I’m hungry” sign. Johnson made eye contact and asked how the man was doing. The man clutched Johnson’s arms and told him, with tears streaming down his face, “Thank you for recognizing that I am a human being.”
Upon the invitation of Pope Francis, Christians around the world are invited to pray the Lord’s Prayer on Wednesday at noon Rome Time, noon local time — or any other time meaningful to them.
