Posts Categorized: Diversity

Gospel and Inclusivity

Praying in Mother’s Language Why It’s Important to Worship God in Multiple Languages by Samuel Son The gospel song, 나의 반석이신 하나님 (naui banseogisin hananim/Ascribe Greatness to Our God), sung in the closing worship service of the National Caucus of Korean Presbyterian Churches (NCKPC) annual meeting excavated my soul, loosening memory and longing of a… Read more »

Gospel & Inclusivity

 Lessons from Starbucks What the church can learn by Samuel Son   I am in Philadelphia in the research room of Presbyterian Historical Society, surrounded by shelves holding General Assembly minutes from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) going back to 1707. I am reading the following lines from a report titled, “The General Assembly Faces the… Read more »

justleros: more than nonsense / más que disparates

Like a hired hand A Revised Common Lectionary resource for April 22 by Magdalena I. García ‘The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away — and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.’ – John 10:12 Read the… Read more »

The Church for Today

Snail mail still works Thinking through technology’s uses by Richard Hong     My first job was in software development, creating the first-generation of programs that replaced laboratory notebooks with computer systems. Our clients expected that computerization would solve their problems. But we had a saying: “The computer doesn’t do it better, it just does… Read more »

The B-Flat Christian

And the Walls Came a Tumblin’ Down What ‘walls’ do we need God to tear down in our lives?  by Rebecca Lister  And the walls came a tumblin’ down. These words came to me the other morning as I was listening to an interview by the author of a book entitled The Line Becomes a… Read more »

Writing in the Margins

Forced Ecclesiastical Assimilation? by Antonio ‘Tony’ Aja   I am an immigrant and a former refugee. I came from Cuba to the U.S. via Spain in the late ’60s. I belong to that group of people from the “Global South’’ who began to migrate to this country by the millions after the liberalization of the… Read more »

The Church for Today

Mystery Box Outsiders wonder what’s inside church  by Richard Hong   I used to live near a business that had an innocuous name – I forget what it was. There would usually be just a few cars parked outside. The windows had blinds covering them. I never figured out what it was. Was it a… Read more »

justleros: more than nonsense / más que disparates

Come and see A Revised Common Lectionary resource for January 14 by Magdalena I. García Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ – John 1:46 Read the full lectionary passage here Come and see! It’s the challenge that Nathanael from Phillip received and the… Read more »

The Unglued Church

Can We Talk About Sexism? In #metoo conversations, the church can do better by Susan Rothenberg   Here’s a statistic that you may or may not find startling. A study by PC(USA) Research Services in 2016 revealed 84% of female teaching elders have experienced discrimination, prejudice or harassment based upon their gender. Yet, 48% of male… Read more »

The Unglued Church

Building new ramps Can we connect people who love God but not church?  By Susan Rothenberg   One of the reasons I am grateful for Facebook, despite its dastardly power to distract me from the useful tasks I should be doing, is that social media has reacquainted me with people I haven’t seen nor heard… Read more »