Since Jesus calls Christians to make disciples of all nations, in this blog we'll consider how we might better share the gospel to the world around us.
For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. — Psalm 108:4
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(Provided by Amanda Craft)
This moment in the United States is one marked by division. For immigrant communities, the moment is marked by threats, fear and repression of rights. We witness arrests at courthouses as immigrants comply with the legal requirements for their cases. Arrests, detention and deportations separate families. We lament the impact of fear-based tactics on church communities, as many immigrant members live in fear. Division and trauma disrupt all facets of life.
As communities stand up peacefully to government overreach in immigration enforcement, we witness the erosion and repression of fundamental rights and values. Religious liberties and the right to public witness have been key values in the country. The Presbyterian Church has centuries of social witness policy that urges members to partake in public witness activities participating in God’s mercy, love and peace. The church also has a history of advocating just immigration laws and demanding the change of structures that cause harm on approach to practicing faith. The Scripture urges believers to awake to the goodness God promises. This steadfast love extends beyond human imagination and understanding. It is offered to all nations, to all people.
May we endeavor to be awake to this kind of love by finding ways to bring communities together, seeking protection and peace. Joining others to pursue ways to protect immigrant communities and ensure rights are examples of being awake to God’s presence and faithfulness. Support immigrant communities by connecting with immigrant rights groups in your area as they mobilize.
Amanda Craft, Manager of Immigration Advocacy, PC(USA)
Let us join in prayer for:
Serena Dowling, Summer Fellow, Office of Public Witness – Washington, Presbyterian Life & Witness Tucker Samuelian, Summer Fellow, Office of Public Witness – Washington, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us pray:
Faithful God, give us courage to seek your love. Give us courage to join our voice with others. May we remember what is lost when we do not. Protect those who urgently need your refuge and care. Amen.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” — Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)
On Independence Day, we remember that freedom has always carried both promise and cost. The long journey toward our nation’s independence was marked by courage, uncertainty, sacrifice and deep division. Behind every milestone were people who had to hold steady to a vision of hope when the future was unclear.
That same need for vision remains with us today, especially in the ministry of chaplains. Chaplains are called to walk the difficult roads with others — in hospitals, prisons, military settings, veterans’ communities and places of public service. They stand beside people in moments of grief, fear, transition, injury, loneliness and moral struggle. Their calling is not only to speak of God’s presence but to embody it through listening, compassion, wisdom and faithful care.
A chaplain’s vision is rooted in the truth that no one should walk alone. In places where burdens are heavy and answers are few, chaplains offer a ministry of presence that reminds people they are seen, valued and not forgotten by God. This work often unfolds quietly, one conversation, one prayer, one act of mercy at a time. Yet through these small faithful acts, hearts are strengthened, and hope is renewed.
As we celebrate July 4, we give thanks not only for the freedoms we cherish but also for those who serve others along hard roads. We remember chaplains who carry Christ’s compassion into complex and demanding places, and we pray for the strength, courage, humility and endurance their calling requires. May their witness help others find peace, dignity and hope even in the midst of hardship.
On this day of remembrance and gratitude, may we honor those who have sacrificed for freedom and those who continue to serve through ministries of care. And may God grant us all a clearer vision to be instruments of healing, encouragement and grace in a world that longs for hope.
The Rev. Dennis Hysom is the Executive Director of the Presbyterian Federal Chaplaincies and a retired Army Chaplain.
Let us join in prayer for:
Orla Connaughton, Reference Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society, Presbyterian Life & Witness Wyatt Betler, Summer Fellow, Office of Public Witness – Washington, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Let us pray:
Gracious God, on this Independence Day, we thank you for the gift of freedom and for all who have sacrificed in its defense. We lift before you the chaplains who serve in the Veterans Affairs, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Department of Defense, hospitals and many other places of need. Strengthen them to be faithful ministers of your peace, steady voices of hope and compassionate companions to those in their care. Give them wisdom for each encounter, courage for each burden and grace for each day. Through their service, may others glimpse your love and find renewed strength. Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Corey Nelson led a workshop at the 2025 Stewardship Kaleidoscope in New Orleans (Photo by Gregg Brekke)
When the Rev. Dr. Corey Nelson arrived as the new senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Fort Collins, Colorado, in 2016, he soon discovered that “there was a lot of distrust and anxiety around talking about the church’s financial management practices.”
Members wondered, “How are the decisions being made? Who is in the room when the decisions are being made? And what voices not in the room are still being heard, such as significant members of the congregation who are not in formal leadership roles?”
The church had a tradition of donor confidentiality; the only person who had access to specific individual giving records was the financial secretary. The senior pastor did not have access to that information. The previous pastor did not encourage pledging by members, leaving the session without good data to prepare a budget for the upcoming year. The secrecy and lack of clarity had created skepticism, and even cynicism, in the congregation.
Nelson knew he needed better information. To gather it, he applied the theological principle of exegesis: careful study of Scripture to understand it better.
“I applied exegesis to the financial structure of my new church,” Nelson said. “I looked at the history of financial management, the historical patterns of giving and pledging (which had been implemented by the interim pastor), and what concerns needed to be addressed.”
Nelson began to talk regularly and consistently about belief in the mission, leadership and stewardship of the church.
He also persuaded the session to create a narrative budget to tell the story of how the congregation’s gifts were serving the mission of the church and spreading the light of God in the community and the world. This budget serves as the framework for the church’s communications program throughout the year, including video testimonials from members. The eight-page printed document focuses on how those gifts made a difference last year and will make a difference next year.
The narrative budget placed funds in categories that more clearly explained how the money was being used: Leadership, Purpose, Challenges/Opportunities, Stories of Impact, and a Financial Overview, which can include specific budgetary items, such as a projected increase in expenditures and the need for increased revenue. Personnel expenses, the largest component of the church budget, are distributed across ministry areas rather than shown as a lump sum.
Nelson, who describes the focus of his doctoral program as “philanthropy through the ‘yes’ of the church,” shared an approach to preaching generosity that has been effective in overcoming the skepticism in his congregation. “Living Generously, Living Abundantly” focuses on why someone is motivated to give before determining what and how they give.
Nelson described a visual presentation he uses in his church to illustrate the process of making philanthropic decisions. He places three buckets, one inside the other, on the chancel. The first, he said, is “What I know about.” The second is “What I care about.” The final, smallest bucket, is “What I act on.”
“It feels weird as a Christian to say there are things I don’t care about,” he acknowledged. “But it is impossible to care effectively about all the things we know of. What I care about are the things that resonate with me.”
The illustration proceeds logically, and grounds individual acts of stewardship and philanthropy in the larger spectrum of collective generosity. “I can only know so much in a world full information. And I can only care about the things I know about,” Nelson said. “Finally, I act on the things I care about. I trust that God has other brothers and sisters who care about the things I don’t and will act on them with generosity.”
Once the motivation is established, giving becomes an act of worship, not duty. “In our generosity, we are partners with God in the world God intends for us,” Nelson said. “You are engaging in worship when you give to the church.”
Shelby Reedus, NCTC Administrative Officer, Trust Services, The Presbyterian Foundation Martha Reisner, Director, Affiliated Markets, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Let us pray:
Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow human beings throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy. Amen.
Continuing a “Leading Theologically” series exploring discernment, the Rev. Zoë Garry recently invited the Rev. Ann-Henley Nicholson, vice president of Enrollment Management and Vocational Outreach at Columbia Theological Seminary, to be her guest. Listen to their 34-minute conversation here.
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Nicholson, a former actor in New York City, told Garry that discernment became part of her practice “well before I was aware I was doing that.” She’s often wrestled with answering the question, “what is my greatest and highest use?”
Asked what questions she’s been hearing recently from students, Nicholson said they include “how might they meet this moment they and the country find themselves in” as well as “how can they articulate what they believe in a way that helps them and doesn’t harm others” and “how might they disrupt what they have come to know about God … and about themselves in an environment that encourages that kind of intellectual and theological curiosity.”
“Some need us to demystify what theological education is. Others are familiar with it and have wrestled with a call to ministry, some for decades,” Nicholson noted. “If they’re invested in the church and they want to see the church continue to exist, then God’s going to continue to call people. Usually when you remind people of that, someone hears a call.”
When Garry was a campus minister, she would ask every senior she could, “are you feeling a call to ministry?”
“I was astounded at how many students would say yes,” Garry said.
Increasing numbers of seminary students aren’t hearing a specific call to serve a faith community, Nicholson said. “I like to say that God’s call always lies beyond the limits of my imagination,” she told Garry.
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The Rev. Zoë Garry
Possessing a “healthy dose of humility and humanity” is “an opportunity for letting the Spirit come in and do its work,” Nicholson said. “It’s also a healthy recognition that this is Jesus’ ministry we have been called to be part of. It’s not ours.”
When Nicholson was a seminarian, “I had to remind myself that we are a community of shepherds, but we are also sheep,” she said. “That continues to preach to me. If I am practicing my ministry from that place, it means I am acknowledging my humanity and my reliance on others and all of Creation and most especially God, within and among us.”
Our Reformed theology reminds us “that ministry is something we’ve all been called to, whether or not we go to seminary,” Nicholson said. “We believe ministry is not restricted to those wearing robes.”
In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), “we really do hang our hat on the sense that we cannot do this alone, that God is God and we are not. We need each other and we need all the different gifts within the kingdom to be a fuller human and a fuller church.”
Garry asked Nicholson what’s changed in PC(USA)-related seminaries and what’s remained the same. “You’re crushing it with your questions, Zoë!” Nicholson said, noting the “increase in diversity of thought, theology and vocational possibilities” present in today’s seminaries. Some students are called to ordained ministry. Others are interested in chaplaincy work. “More and more are drawn to pastoral care and counseling,” Nicholson said, while others see their future serving in nonprofit sectors or new worshiping communities.
“We are seeing people called to serve a church that doesn’t yet exist, and yet they are faithful to God’s leaning on their life and the Spirit leading them to seminary to discern how they might use these skills,” Nicholson said. “We’re also seeing more and more imagination in our faculty and their openness to the ways they are called to form and transform these current students and this future ever-evolving church.”
“The constant,” Nicholson said, “is that God continues to call people to ministry in so many different ways, which continues to sing to my heart, reminding me that God is not going to leave the church without a witness. I believe this with all my heart.”
Vaughn Ratliff, HR Specialist, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group Rebecca Rayner, Paralegal, Legal & Risk Management, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
Lord of all times, nations and peoples, help us to see each other through your eyes, celebrating the love you have given that binds us together. We ask your blessing upon the churches and peoples, so that we might be and make disciples in your name. Amen.
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When Jennifer Daniels wants to connect with students at the University of Oregon, she doesn't start with theology — she starts with toast.
“Last winter, I thought that maybe the smell of toast might bring in the students for coffee and snack,” Daniels, the current director of the UKirk campus ministry at the University of Oregon, told alumni recently gathered to celebrate the ministry’s 100th anniversary. “By the end of winter term, students were asking if we could keep making toast through the spring, and now we have Toast Tuesday as a regular activity.”
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A crowd gathers at the ministry center for the open house of Compass Campus Ministry, which celebrated 100 years of Presbyterian campus ministry at the University of Oregon in November 2025. (Photo by Austin Supanapong).
The simple weekly gathering exemplifies Daniels’ approach to reaching a new generation. “Something I’ve learned since I’ve been on campus with the students is that our message needs to be gentle, but it needs to be very clear,” she said. “I won’t mis-advertise anything. If it’s a Bible study, it’s a Bible study, and if it’s a Toast Tuesday, it’s just toast.”
That clarity matters to students who “have reservations” about faith communities, Daniels explained. “Many of the students have seen Christians on TV. They're also a generation that wants to know what’s behind the screen.”
The anniversary celebration, held at the university’s Ford Alumni Center, drew alumni, board members, presbytery leaders and friends to honor a ministry that has shaped countless lives since 1925. Tables decorated in university colors featured timelines where guests added memories, while old photo albums revealed decades of fellowship.
Among the speakers was Dr. Corey Schlosser-Hall, a deputy director of Presbyterian Life & Witness, who credited his undergraduate years at what was then called the Koinonia Center with transforming his life trajectory.
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The University of Oregon's UKirk board chair, the Rev. Dr. Liz Leavitt ,and comedian Tyler Boeh are pictured at the 100th anniversary of the campus ministry. (Photo contributed by Tyler Boeh)
“This was where I developed deep lifelong bonds, where I experienced true community,” Schlosser-Hall said. He spoke about the critical work of discernment that can happen during the college years and the support he received from campus pastors for that formative grappling. He encouraged supporters of the current program to stay engaged, reminding them how valuable this work is and how far-reaching the effects are.
“One of the most significant things that happened was kind of a deep vocational exploration,” Schlosser-Hall said, noting the table of friends who joined him — including his wife, the Rev. Adrienne Schlosser-Hall — all connected through campus ministry. “What happened through this campus ministry is we were not only given permission but also encouragement to explore: What does it mean to be a human in the world? What does it mean to be a human that’s trying to follow our Lord and Savior?”
He described how campus ministry became “a place of belonging that could be a place that you could launch from with some boldness because you knew you were valued.” The community celebrated his engagement and wedding and, decades later, sang at his daughter’s wedding. “It’s just become such a community of remarkable belonging that it’s shifted our lives in significant, meaningful ways.”
The Rev. Dr. Liz Leavitt, the current board president who served as co-chair of Presbyterian Collegiate Ministry from 2012 to 2015, traced the ministry’s evolution through its names. Originally Westminster House, it became the Koinonia Center in 1969. “Our little Presbyterian campus ministry has also always been a place where we can try new things in service to the gospel,” she said.
After months of discernment, the board decided the Greek term “Koinonia” no longer resonated with students unfamiliar with church. “We grappled with that for a while and eventually decided that something more identifiable would help us communicate who and what we are,” Leavitt said. Beginning this fall, the ministry is known as Compass Campus Ministry.
“It’s the same welcome we've spent 100 years offering, just a new identity that fits a new century,” Leavitt explained, distributing small compass tokens as reminders “that God is with you too, just as God has been in this ministry all these years.”
The celebration included greetings from the Rev. Paul Belz-Templeman, stated clerk for the Presbytery of the Cascades, and comedy from alumnus Tyler Boeh. Three former campus pastors were honored: the Revs. Tiare Mathison, Ann Bowersox and Jennifer Martin. Ed Willson of Central Presbyterian Church received special recognition for 17 years of board service.
Rick Purdy, HR Manager, Human Resources, Administrative Services Group Douglas Portz, Vice President, Church Relations, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Let us pray:
Dear God, thank you for raising up prophets in our midst to bring us good news. Accompany them in their journeys, and strengthen their ministries. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Watch the celebration here. The 2-hour, 40-minute service was held in the beautifully restored sanctuary and was led by the church’s pastor, the Rev. Dr. Terrlyn L. Curry Avery.
Numerous guests, including the contractors who helped make the project possible, Springfield-area faith leaders, presbytery and synod representatives, and others made for a warm and lively celebration, held in a reconstructed sanctuary that features a labyrinth on the floor.
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Rev. Dr. Terrlyn L. Curry Avery. (Photo by Kim Fuller Photography)
“I want you to look around at this wonderful tapestry of God’s people,” Curry Avery told those gathered. “Your testimony here today is a living testimony that we are united in hope.”
“We’re here, y’all, and we’re not going anywhere,” she said. “We are reclaiming our space.” Throughout the service, Springfield artist Erin Washington, who grew up in the church, painted some of the sights those in worship were experiencing.
“Today is a testimony to what it means when we say, what you have meant for evil, God has used for good,” said the Rev. Dr. SanDawna Gaulman Ashley, who leads the Synod of the Northeast. The synod “is so proud of your witness here in this community. We look forward to seeing what God will do next.”
A pair of church deacons came forward to remember the work and energy of church members active throughout the past few years but who passed before the project was completed.
Shannon Rudder, president and CEO of Springfield-based Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services, said the agency was “born of this very church. Here, a courageous congregation believed that even the smallest seed in God’s hands could grow into a mighty work of service, compassion and justice in action. Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services is the fruit of your faith.”
“We are proud to stand forever as partners in this work, in this ministry and in hope. This is your new chapter, and today we rise together in joy and in purpose in your new chapter,” Rudder said. “I know it was great sorrow and complexity, but I want to acknowledge how you held fast to God’s providence.”
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The Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, was among the speakers Sunday. (Photo by the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins)
“This is more than a reopening,” Rudder said. “It is a rebirth and a joyful rising.”
The Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, offered God thanks for “the opportunity to be part of your church — the church of liberty, justice, peace and wholeness.”
“We remember the saints and ancestors who surround us, for everyone who worked so hard to get us to this place: for the people who showed up on the day of the fire, the day of arson and terror; for good people in federal agencies who continue to labor.”
“We give you thanks that even though this building burned, you protected life. No one was hurt, and we give you thanks for that small mercy,” she said. In addition to thanking PC(USA) ministries including Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Vance-Ocampo offered thanks for the church’s session and deacons and for “former leaders of this church, some who are part of the great cloud of ancestors around us.”
Curry Avery took obvious delight in inviting three key contractors forward so those gathered could thank them for their hard work. “It was clear it was a labor of love. You understood this assignment went well beyond the walls of this church,” she said. “More than anything, when I made a request for something, your response was always, ‘I’ll try, pastor,’ and you always came through.”
“In the three of you, we have seen the Lord who provides, the God who heals, and the God of peace. Thank you for letting the Lord use you,” she said. “We are deeply, deeply grateful.”
Katherine Pierce, Strategic Knowledge & Project Manager, The Board of Pensions Tracy Pou, Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Let us pray:
Thank you, Lord, for the privilege of seeing the transformation in our community and in our own hearts as we walk out your love in a different way. We praise you, God, for giving us your second great commandment — to love our neighbors as ourselves. Amen.
