Mission Yearbook: ‘How to Live Out Matthew 25 in a World Short of Compassion’ is discussed at church by Denver mayor

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Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (provided) 

To launch a four-week faith formation series based on Matthew 25, Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in Denver turned to one of its members to speak from his heart on his experience not fighting, but leading, City Hall.

Before worship one Sunday, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a former school principal and state senator who was a senior education adviser to President Barack Obama, delivered a thoughtful session that can be viewed here. 

The question for today, the mayor said, is “how does a person of faith show up in a moment of such profound conflict?” Using his father’s Bible, Johnston read from the Judgment of the Nations, including Matthew 25:35–40 and, a bit later, verses 41–46.

Among the dilemmas that confront people of faith today is “how do you face the question of the choice between fighting and forgiveness,” he said. “When things you value the most are challenged, when do you choose to fight?”

A few weeks ago, Johnston was with his daughter in Washington, D.C., to scout college choices for her brother. After visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “what I saw stunned me,” he said. A Latino man delivering hot food from a restaurant had been stopped by three masked agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who were demanding to see the man’s immigration papers. Johnston’s daughter said they had to stop their ride back to the hotel and help the man, but by the time they got out of the car and walked the block where he’d been, the man was gone, and his delivery bicycle was being loaded into a police vehicle.

“My daughter looked at me as if to say, how is this possible?” Johnston said. “How is it possible in the nation’s capital, a mile away from the Holocaust Museum?”

While Jesus’ instruction in Matthew 25 is to care for those who are hungry, naked, without a home or in prison, Johnston wondered aloud what the consequences for people are who don’t do as they’re told. “If you watch those stories on TV and feel moved to fight,” he said, “that is very human and I would say a very Christian instinct.”

Johnston asked his large audience: How do we show up in these moments and what do we do?

He told the story of “a loud critic of mine,” whom Johnston decided to visit at the man’s farm outside Denver. The two talked for an hour aboard the man’s combine, harvesting wheat. For the first 20 minutes or so, the man told Johnston about the mayor’s stances that angered him, including reproductive choice, guns and immigration.

“Then I asked about his family, his values and his faith,” Johnston said. He told the man what neighborhood he lived in, a section of Denver the man knew well. As a boy, the man’s father would pack him in a pickup truck and take him to the neighborhood, the home to most of the city’s homeless shelters. The man’s father would invite a few men to get in the truck and come work the harvest on the farm, where they’d be fed and provided a bed and clothing.

“In that moment, I thought, wow!” Johnston said. “There are many beliefs we have convinced ourselves we’re on the opposite side of.” This man was “deeply committed” to living out Matthew 25, Johnston noted. “It doesn’t mean we agreed to let go of the things we disagreed on,” he said, “but it means we agree to recommit to the things that we know bind us to the call that we are to love the Lord and to love our neighbor.”

After tracing the stories of Judas’ and Peter’s betrayals, Johnston said the way to atone “is by actually proving that you will be the one to pick up 10 people in your truck downtown and go and serve them. … It requires forgiveness, but that forgiveness is not about coming back to ‘my feelings are whole and I feel good again,’ but that we have reunited around a purpose that’s bigger than us. To me, that’s the ultimate question, and I think that is the ultimate challenge we face right now.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Services (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Lora Limeberry, Accountant, Financial Reporting, Administrative Services Group
Elizabeth Little, Church Consultant - Charlotte, NC, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions                      

Let us pray:

God of all peoples and places, you have called us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and so this day we renew that commitment, for your glory. We long to see the kingdom of God expanded to include all peoples. Amen.

Pastor's Life - Big Enough

God is big enough to hold all of our curiousity, doubts, joys, fears by Rev. Adriene Thorne “In pursuing a writing life, we often become alienated from the very things we wish to celebrate with our words.” - Aaliyah Bilal Don’t tell anyone, but I think I’ve lost my faith. What I mean to say is that the rules and training and dogma of my Christian belief are cracking and falling away. If I’m honest, the fit has always been uncomfortable, and I’ve mostly worn the clothes loosely. As I strip down, what I’m left with is mystery — too big for containment in only a handful of prayers and holy hymns. Now the boundaries must stretch to hold the God of my understanding. Don’t get me wrong, I still walk with Jesus, and imagine I always will, but that pesky Holy Spirit has taken me to unexpected places and continues to fill my journey with surprises. My earliest depiction of God was something like the sun: bright lights, multiple colors, an energy I could not capture except with abstract art. That eight-year-old kid, who talked to The Holy and heard The Holy talk back, was close to God and onto something. Trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home, Wadsworth wrote, and I’ve been trying ever since to get back to what that kid knew about God.

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Rev. Adriene Thorne serves as senior minister at Riverside Church in the City of New York. Before leading Riverside, Rev. Thorne served The First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn where she co-founded the award-winning Brooklyn Heights Community Fridge and where the community named her one of the Top Ten Most Impactful People. She earned her Master of Divinity from The Pacific School of Religion.

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Church Financial Leadership Grant Program Grants are available to assist Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastors and New Worshiping Community leaders to attend continuing education opportunities, including Stewardship Kaleidoscope, to help pastors lead their congregations toward financial and missional vitality.  More Information

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Art of Transitional Ministry Zephyr Point is hosting a transitional ministry conference for pastors and church leaders; the conference is set for July 12-17, 2026. The gathering provides dedicated time for reflection, skill-building, and discernment. More Info

American Baptist Churches USA - Mission Impact Report 2025

Mission Impact Report 2025 American Baptist Churches USA Office of the General Secretary is excited to share our 2025 Mission Impact Report!   This report showcases the measurable outcomes and inspiring stories that reflect the ways your support is making a real difference. Take a moment to explore the details as we prayerfully, collaboratively and collectively advancing our sacred mission. Click here to view and download the 2025 Mission Impact Report. Mission Impact Report FOLLOW US

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Mission Yearbook: Pastor shares roadmap to a healthier congregation

The Rev. Dr. Corey Nelson once talked with a young graduate student who said he had a steady girlfriend — a soul mate. Yet there were other beautiful women on campus he wanted to date.

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The Rev. Dr. Corey Nelson, pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins, Colo., delivers a keynote address during Stewardship Kaleidoscope. (Photo by Gregg Brekke)

Nelson advised the young man to choose: be faithful to his current partner or end the relationship to be free to date others.

The student’s eyes widened. “But the Bible says with God all things are possible!”

Nelson couldn’t help but laugh, which inspired the young man to give the church a one-star Google review later that day.

Nelson, pastor and head of staff at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, shared this story during a plenary gathering at Stewardship Kaleidoscope in New Orleans. The annual conference is presented by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Churches faced with budget shortfalls often cite the same quote (Matthew 19:26), which Jesus offered after advising a rich young man to give away his wealth in order to have treasure in heaven.

That’s not quite what Jesus meant, Nelson said.

Deficits, declining attendance and such can’t be prayed away, but they can — with God — be solved if church leaders are willing to put in the work, Nelson said.

Nelson came to his current call in 2016. An interim had helped the congregation heal from a schism caused when the former pastor urged the church to leave the denomination over its stance on LGBTQIA+ issues.

Much work remained, especially on the financial front. Members were being asked for donations to meet the current shortfall, there was a large mortgage on the property, the budget was being balanced with “frozen funds” and staffing was inefficient.

Nelson shared what helped his congregation get to a much healthier place, both in money and mission, less than a decade later. Though every congregation’s situation is different, here’s what he would advise:

Build trust “on the map.” Spend time on your congregation’s vision and self-identity and build relationships. With the support of wife Miriam, Nelson hosted many dinners at his home in his first few months at FPC Fort Collins. (It was more lasagna than he’d eaten in his lifetime.)

Project a responsible budget. About 80% of the church’s income is from pledges, but pledged amounts are not used to set the budget. Deaths, moves and other changes in active membership are carefully tracked; therefore, so is active giving.

Use compelling communication. Nelson developed an “elevator speech” he uses every year during stewardship season. It emphasizes inspiration, not pressure; hope for a better world; and the opportunity to create a balanced budget to enable more focus on mission.

Develop new models for personnel. Nelson put together a team of skilled human resources professionals and brought in legal counsel (worth the investment, he said) to handle potentially sabotaging issues of staffing changes and severance packages. The staff of 18 was reduced to eight, with no administrative assistants — employees handle their own administrative tasks — and lay employees instead of associate pastors.

For planned income and expenses, use anticipated income for anticipated expenses and surprise (one-time) income for one-time expenses. Have a prioritized list of needs for one-time gifts and a gift acceptance policy.

Trust equals generosity, Nelson emphasized. “People are going to show up with gifts when they can trust us,” he said. “I believe the local church, when it’s healthy and faithful, is the hope of the world.”

Nancy Crowe for the Presbyterian Foundation (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Shelly Lewis, Administrative Manager, Finance & Accounting Controllers Office, Administrative Services Group
Tony Lewis, Operations & Accounting Associate, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation       

Let us pray:

Send your Spirit into this place, O Lord, as you did with a mighty rushing wind at the birth of your church. Rush mightily into our hearts to heal and to bind up, that we might go out to serve, to reconcile and to meet you in all people. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: A new model for ministry takes root in California’s Central Valley

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Fuentes de Gracia worshiping in Sanger, California. (Contributed photo). 

In California’s Central Valley, where mandarin orange groves stretch across sunbaked fields, immigrant families from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Punjab work the harvests that feed America. As these hardworking communities buy their first homes in small valley towns, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is learning to be nimble enough to meet them where they are.

This is the place where pastor Alex Gonzalez fulfills his calling as a church planter and leadership developer. His multi-site vision of ministry to immigrant communities is transforming how the Presbytery of San Joaquin serves its rapidly changing communities. His new worshiping community, Fuente de Gracia, recently received a $50,000 Walton Award from the PC(USA)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement — funding that will help construct the presbytery’s first new building in decades.

“We haven't built anything from the ground up for a while,” said the Rev. Ara Guekguezian, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of San Joaquin.“To be adding a property is exciting for people that have been a part of the presbytery for the past generation. They remember the days that they were building churches all over the place.”

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The Rev. Guekguezian and Pastor Gonzalez. (Contributed photo).

The Central Valley embodies California’s innovative spirit, Guekguezian explained, but it’s fundamentally an agricultural region where immigrant workers form the backbone of the economy. “When Armenians like my family came here, they worked in packing houses and worked in the fields, and then the Southeast Asian refugees came, same thing,” he said. “People from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Colombia — they come here and work, and they immigrate here and build lives here for generations.”

As communities shift within a single generation, Presbyterian churches struggle to adapt. “We’re not very nimble like the Roman Catholic Church, who can place priests who speak the language in the communities,” Guekguezian acknowledged. “We have churches where English is the second language for people surrounding the church, and for some it’s very weak. It’s hard for them to worship God in a language that they're not sure of.”

Fuente de Gracia offers a different model. Rather than a single congregation, it’s a multi-campus ministry currently operating in Sanger in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Sierra Pacific Synod. The new $850,000 building in northwest Fresno — funded through the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program,  presbytery resources and the Walton Award — will become Fuente de Gracia’s Fresno campus.

“Alex’s vision is that it will be a missional congregation,” Guekguezian said, noting the strategic location west of Highway 99, which functions as a barrier many residents never cross. “There isn't another expression of the Reformed faith on the west side of the major freeway that runs through the Central Valley.”

But Gonzalez’s vision extends beyond buildings. His calling, Guekguezian explained, is “to develop strong leadership, identify people with spiritual gifts and leadership qualities, and then partner with the presbytery and the denomination in equipping these leaders.”

The presbytery relies heavily on commissioned ruling elders — lay leaders who receive focused training to serve congregations. Gonzalez provides initial mentorship, then the presbytery offers advanced instruction through resources including online classes at Whitworth University and educational videos created by mid council leaders. “With the Fuente de Gracia people, Gonzalez’s training would be a little more intensive and a little deeper,” Guekguezian said.

This model is already proving replicable. Fresno Punjabi Church, another new worshiping community in the presbytery that currently meets at University Presbyterian Church in Fresno, is exploring a similar multi-site approach, with plans for campuses in Merced and Bakersfield. Meanwhile, Fuente de Gracia envisions additional locations in Madera and communities along the “orange belt,” where former citrus-packing towns need revitalization.

For Fuente de Gracia, the Walton Award funding arrives at a critical moment. “The cost of construction materials has increased in a substantial way, and this $50,000 gives us the ability to build the building we envisioned instead of having to cut back in any substantial way,” Guekguezian said.

With 20 congregations and five fellowships serving communities from 10 to 200 worshipers, the Presbytery of San Joaquin sees Fuente de Gracia as a model for sustainable ministry in immigrant communities. As Guekguezian put it, the project reflects “our commitment as a presbytery” to being present where the need is greatest. 

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Laura Lee, Senior Designer/Production Specialist, Presbyterian Women
Sang Ik Lee, Translator, Global Language Resources, Administrative Services Group          

Let us pray:

God, help us to avoid double vision when we preach your gospel by thinking it’s either about evangelism or about justice. Help us to know it’s about both; loving Jesus means working for justice, too. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Holy humor - Exploring faith through cartoons

Who among us is not familiar with cartoons?

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Dr. W. Goddard Sherman, pastor and cartoonist, with one of his creations, 1974. Pearl ID: 360902. "Daddy says we have to cut our church pledge 'cause we bought a color TV!"

Whether on the television screen on Saturday morning or found nestled between the sports and film sections of the newspaper, the visual art of the cartoon has been persistent and popular within our culture since the Middle Ages, though the medium has developed and changed over time.

Cartoons are drawings that are typically humorous or satirical or present a figure in an unrealistic, caricatured style. Cartoons can be found in the form of films or animation, comic strips and books, and even in fine art. Cartoonists can also be found in many forms, including that of a minister. Dr. W. Goddard Sherman is the Methodist pastor whose pen makes you laugh — his artwork and name “appears in The New Yorker magazine almost as often as he appears in his pulpit,” says the caption. In this image from the Religious News Service collection, Sherman is shown “doing his ‘thing’ — cartooning — as he also thinks out his next sermon.” 

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Cartoon by Roger W. Palmquist for “In Step,” 1974. Pearl ID: 371249. "Gotta feeling we're gonna have some differences, but still be friends."

Sherman’s cartoons are not all religious in theme, though many poke easy fun at modern Christian life. In one, a man sits in his barber’s chair and smilingly says, “Anoint me with oil.” In another, a wife tells her husband to set the alarm clock an hour earlier than usual, explaining that it’s because she wants “to continue this argument before breakfast!” While Sherman’s illustrations mirrored everyday life at home and work, other artists decided to comment on other realms — like the military experience, for example.

This cartoon is yet another created by an artist who doubled as a religious leader. The Rev. Roger W. Palmquist imagines Martin Luther and John Calvin as military buddies. “Religious differences may be noted, but overcome by the eccentricities of military life, comments ‘Private Luther’ to his buddy ‘Calvin’.” This artwork was published in the bimonthly newsletter of the Lutheran Council in the USA’s Division of Service to Military Personnel, “In Step.” Palmquist said of his caricature, “Private Luther is more polished and less of a nuisance than other khaki-clad cartoon creations like Beetle Bailey or Sad Sack.”

But when attempting to portray that other religious character, the antagonist of Scripture, cartoonists like Palmquist do not aim for their creations to be “polished” or “less of a nuisance.” Caricatures that portray Satan can be found as far back as the Middle Ages, and the imagery of the devil that most of us are familiar with can be considered a comic in itself. The pointed ears and spiked tail, the dragon-like qualities of this demonic presence, and the persistence of Satan being portrayed as a red devil with a malicious grin — this is an iconography that stretches far into the past. 

The 1975 International Cartoonists’ Exhibition, installed and on display in Bordighera, Italy, was all about the man in red. The Religious News Service press release covering the event featured the headline “THE DEVIL TEMPTS THE CARTOONIST.” The theme of that year’s exhibition was the realm of the mystic, specifically “The Devil, Witches, Magic and Exorcism.” Founded in 1972, the coalition was formed by three cartoonists: Carlo Chendi (1933–2021), Luciano Bottaro (1931–2006) and Giorgio Rebuffi (1928–2014). They hoped to show folks how a comic page was created, offering a glimpse at the process of cartooning as an art. The first two instances of the exhibition did not require artists to stick to a particular theme, though the 1974 exposition did. That year’s theme was “women in comics,” spotlighting both female characters and heroes as well as authors and artists.

There are plentiful comics and cartoons to be found in the archives of the Presbyterian Historical Society — these are just a few highlights pulled from the Religious News Service collection. The topics of the artwork may vary, as can be seen in this curation, but the goal of each is the same: to elicit a smile or pull a laugh from the unsuspecting reader. 

McKenna Britton, Presbyterian Historical Society, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Ali Laswell, Accounting & Payroll Administration, Controller, The Presbyterian Foundation
Lee (DJ) Dong Jo, Lead, Korean Congregational Relations, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions                       

Let us pray:

God, who created the world when all was chaos and void — as we wander, not knowing where we go, and when all seems dark — say again, we pray, “let there be light.” Amen.