Today in the Mission Yearbook - Physically distant, but spiritually close

Pastor, professor, and singer the Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen talks about the arc of worship

March 31, 2021

the Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen (Contributed photo)

“We may be physically distant,” the Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen said at the opening of a recent Facebook Live appearance  with the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty, “but we’re always spiritually close.”

McQueen, pastor of historic St. James Presbyterian Church in Harlem in the City of New York and the associate director of the Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics & Social Justice at Columbia University who teaches New Testament, worship and homiletics at Union Theological Seminary as well, was the guest of Hinson-Hasty, senior director of Theological Education Funds Development for the Committee on Theological Education of the Presbyterian Foundation.

Asked by Hinson-Hasty what brings him life and joy these days, McQueen discussed his recent work with a Jewish congregation as a ritual leader. In the weeks before and throughout High Holy Days, McQueen was teaching a nine-week series on ritual that took participants from separation to reparation and, finally, embrace.

Putting the course together and then sharing it helped him further understand “what it means to celebrate atonement,” McQueen said. “Sometimes we talk about it in our belief systems, but we don’t take time to give it that sense of awe. … It’s not just, ‘I’m sorry and I ask for forgiveness.’ We claim God’s grace and ask how God is asking us to make a difference in the world.”

“That,” McQueen told Hinson-Hasty with a smile, “is what’s bringing me life.”

The Facebook Live discussion topic was “Liturgical Arc of Worship in a Pandemic,” which made McQueen think back a couple of years when he was teaching a seminary class on worship. Even during the pandemic as worship is held online, the service should be designed to allow worshipers plenty of points of entry during the arc of the worship experience, he said. “Maybe it’s the call to confession,” he said. “Maybe the assurance of pardon is what I need to hear on this particular Sunday.”

At St. James Presbyterian Church, every prayer is immediately followed by a song or hymn. “It’s very important to think about those moments and how they’re connected,” McQueen said.

He recalled his time serving First Presbyterian Church of the City of Cape May in New Jersey, a church with two services each Sunday — one contemporary, one traditional. McQueen said he used to scan the congregation, searching for signs of “an encounter with the divine.” Most often he saw it during what he called “Coffee Hour Magic”: that time between services when the two worshiping bodies would come together and discuss, among other things, what moves them during worship. “That space is respected and not judged,” he said.

He’s taken to offering an online Bible study every Monday during which participants study the lectionary passages for the coming Sunday. “Those conversations very often write my sermons,” he told Hinson-Hasty. “I see how the service needs to be molded to address the needs.”

The sharing of prayer concerns during worship “is an opportunity for us as a local community and world community to address the secret things in our hearts,” McQueen said. He said he tries not to be political when praying on behalf of those assembled, “but I think about the politics that are going on, about how we react to our politics and how that diminishes us. That speaks to the hurt and pain of some of the rhetoric we are hearing, regardless of where it’s coming from.” After times of confession and prayer, “the exhale of the congregation echoes in the church building and online,” he said.

“Brothers and sisters, family and friends: You have been blessed by your engagement in caring for each other’s souls and spirits by engaging in liturgy,” McQueen said when Hinson-Hasty asked him to offer a benediction. “Go from this space and take what you have been blessed with. Share it with an open heart and an open mind. In doing so, know that the Spirit will find ways for you to take care of yourselves — even in isolation, because as you give to God, it will be given to you.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Denise Gray, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Hannah Green, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

O God, your Creation tells of your sovereignty and gives you glory at all times and places. Show us how to continually offer ourselves and all that we are to you. Let our hands, feet, and voices be like those of Jesus taking good news to the ends of the earth. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Using our resources wisely and creatively to change the world

Sowing the seeds of hope to reap a harvest of joy

March 30, 2021

Romans 8 describes a world groaning and lamenting for its redemption. Not only Creation, the writer says, but we ourselves groan waiting for redemption of our bodies. The good news is that the Spirit of God intercedes, for nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Our world continues groaning. Yet events embedded in political unrest, a pandemic and protests viewed through the lens of Romans 8, have become instructive for me. In engaging the hard places of life, accepting the ways in which the Spirit of God lovingly intercedes is deeply important. In my experience in ministry, though, we seem to stop at God’s loving embrace and not allow the loving intercession of the Spirit. This Spirit is the water in the desert leading us to hopeful actions that disrupt the groaning and lament of hopelessness.

Romans 8 inspires me whenever I experience paralysis and exhaustion from the overwhelming realities of our conflicted world. For me to stay present to the intercession of the Spirit and connected to the love of God means that I accept moments of hopelessness. Why? In the middle of all the profound theological questions of Romans 8 is a powerful revelation about hope. The text actually reads “for in this hope we were saved,” which requires an awareness of hopelessness.

Everything the Spirit is doing is designed to create hope in the world. Amid perilous and provocative times, the Spirit intercedes with hope. But hope is not simply a feeling word. Hope is an active waiting for what we do not have.

So, how is the Spirit interceding and producing hope-filled actions? This is where the story turns. The investment of our time, talent and treasure in these moments says a lot about whether we stopped at God’s loving embrace but didn’t allow hope-filled actions to arise.

I have wrestled with this in my own life lately. The groaning and lament in my neighborhood and city are overwhelming. Ministry calls me to be present to the suffering of people, to mourn with those who mourn. Additionally, I am personally lamenting the divisions, pain, confusion and fears of my own children. To be hopeful now seems as far as the east is from the west, or dare I say, the far right and far left. Who can be full of hope now? There are days I sit with pastors over Zoom, and the idea of hope feels unproductive. At times hope appears light as a feather, lacking relevance. How is the Holy Spirit going to invade this space? How are we to be people of hope now? Similar to Israel’s prayer as it entered Babylon, I wonder, “How can we sing in a strange land?”

Psalm 126:6, which says, “Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves,” provides a way of thinking about hope and how we use our time, talent and treasure.

Let me provide some context. Instead of using the last remaining seed from the harvest for food, the sower would go weeping, sowing the seed hoping for a future harvest, as there was no guarantee. The promise from God is that our seeds of hope will bring shouts of joy because hope does not disappoint, for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). We are reminded that seeds of hope will always bring a harvest of joy amid the groaning and lament.

What an opportunity we have right now in our ongoing divisive cultural and political context to sow seeds of hope that can bring about joy in the midst of weeping. What do these “seeds” look like? Examples include purchasing from businesses owned by those impacted by COVID-19 or buying children’s books from authors of color to use to school our kids from home.

There are many ideas and strategies of how to invest one’s time, talent and treasure as a seed of hope. We are all now being encouraged to be the kind of people who are seed-bearing sowers of hope in this groaning world.

W. Tali Hairston, PC(USA) Pastor and Director of Community Organizing, Advocacy and Development at Seattle Presbytery and Founding Director of the John M. Perkins Center for Reconciliation, Leadership Training, and Community Development at Seattle Pacific University.

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Catherine Gordon, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Denise Govindarajan, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

Creator God, create us anew through the community of faith that you have called us to. Empower us to follow the way of Jesus so that we may be transformed through the power of your Spirit. Nurture us as we grow into a people who are more and more fully who you have created us to be. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Studying, praying and taking steps toward action

Mission co-workers pray for a window to return to South Sudan

March 29, 2021

Before the pandemic, Bob and Kristi Rice were pictured in Juba, South Sudan. (Contributed photo)

Mission co-workers the Rev. Bob and Kristi Rice firmly believe that God has a reason for them to be in the United States at this time.

Forced to leave South Sudan during the early stages of the pandemic, they have used the time not only to continue their work, but to also reflect more deeply on the challenges the U.S. faces around systemic racism, continued brutality against people of color and the need for restoration, reconciliation and peace.

“We have read, listened, and engaged with African American and other concerned and prophetic voices who are helping us understand what it means in our United States context to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8),” the Rices wrote in a recent mission letter. “We will keep learning, keep growing, keep asking and keep seeking to know how to stand with the poor, the marginalized, the stigmatized and the oppressed, for that is where Jesus dwells. Are we sheep? Are we watchful and ready? Are we taking risks in our faith journey? Only God knows, but we are trying, we are hoping, we are praying, and we are taking steps towards action.”

The Rices have also spent time studying and reflecting on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Matthew 25 invitation.

“In Matthew 25, Jesus tells three parables — the parable of the 10 virgins, the parable of the talents and the parable of the sheep and the goats,” Bob said. “Within these three parables, Jesus interweaves themes worthy of reflection, instructing his disciples to ‘keep watch’ and be ready, to be faithful with what they have been given, and to care for the ‘least of these’ in their midst. Perhaps, in the final analysis, our faith will be authenticated or invalidated according to these themes. Such ponderings can arouse soul-searching questions in us, such as ‘Am I a sheep or a goat? Am I a wise or a foolish virgin? Do I use my resources and gifts to serve our world better?’”

Before the Rices left South Sudan in late March 2020, the government issued an order closing all schools. A few days later, a lockdown order limited movement, prohibited public gatherings, and forced temporary closure of many businesses. While Nile Theological College (NTC), where Bob teaches a broad range of courses in theology and biblical studies, closed during this lockdown, members of the faculty continued to meet in a safe way, praying and exploring ways to remain engaged with students.

First, they created a Facebook Messenger group so they could communicate easily with each other. Secondly, they requested students come individually to the college to pick up notes and assignments from their teachers so that they could study from home. NTC also gathered students in small, socially distanced groups to listen to teachers lecture from a remote location via  WhatsApp on their phones. Unfortunately, that step failed because of South Sudan’s weak internet connections. NTC also solicited the help of two larger churches in Juba, requesting space so that students could safely socially distance while learning in an intensive format so that they could finish the semester.

Bob said he and his wife wept as they left the country they have grown to love since they moved to South Sudan in 2017 to serve at the invitation of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church.

“Had we buried our talent? Had we abandoned our post? Upon our return to the United States, there were many days when we felt divided in spirit, recognizing the wisdom in our return but feeling grief over leaving,” he said. “Over time, we have come to realize that God has us here for a reason. We have had unique opportunities to connect virtually with colleagues, family, and friends, which have sustained and strengthened us during the pandemic.”

Of course, the Rices do not know when it will be safe for them to return to South Sudan, but they are asking for prayers for that window to open so they can return to the country they now call home.

 Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Edwin Gonzalez-Castillo, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Theresa Goodlin, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

God of mercy, we ask you to comfort those who are picking up the pieces after a disaster. May we, your people, be your hands and aid in their recovery. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - What did we expect?

Expectations can sabotage ourselves and ministry

March 28, 2021

The Rev. Dr. N. Graham Standish

Working with pastors of struggling churches, I’ve been increasingly asking them what they expected. How does it differ from what they’re facing? What’s clear is that many are disappointed with their churches for not meeting their expectations. Thus the question arises: Are our expectations realistic?

All pastors come into ministry expecting certain things. We expect that because we’re called by God into ministry, we should be successful. We expect that the churches we serve want to grow. We expect that church members will become passionate about whatever we’re passionate about.

Our seminary training, too, has taught us to have lofty expectations. We’ve been trained to expect our churches to be missional, spiritual, biblical, welcoming and thriving — or at least to respond to our attempts to make them so. We expect to go to a church that’s been declining and struggling for years, and (with a little bit of leadership and tinkering) help them become growing, thriving congregations. Is this realistic or just overly idealistic?

As a therapist I’ve learned to keep my expectations for my clients limited to what is actually possible, rather than on what I may want for them. In other words, I may want my clients to become fully thriving, happy and productive people, yet the best I may be able to do is to help them manage their depression, cope with truly terrible situations and reduce their anxieties to manageable levels.

From the field of spirituality, I’ve learned that joy and gratitude are found in accepting what is and how God is in it, rather than lamenting what isn’t and wondering where God disappeared to. The more we idolize our expectations and obsess about our disappointments over how they’ve failed to meet our expectations, the harder it is to find God’s presence in our ministries.

Recently I’ve been asking the same questions over and over with pastors: Is the problem them or your expectations of them? Are your expectations realistic or overly idealistic?

Throughout my career I’ve been cultivating an approach to ministry that starts with where churches actually are, rather than where I wish they would be. Grounded in my counseling and spiritual direction training, I’ve learned to start with an acceptance of reality in order to focus on what they can do rather than what I would like them to do.

For instance, in mission can they do better or is what they’re doing as good as they can do for right now? If all they can do is raise funds for mission, how do I appreciate and cultivate that while slowly developing small opportunities for hands-on mission — food bank collections, coat drives, Meals-on-Wheels, trash-and-treasure sales and more — that will train them for larger mission later?

I’ve tried to help them feel good about what they are doing, rather than criticizing them either publicly or privately for not doing enough. In the process I’ve slowly helped them become open to other ideas, such as a weekly worship service in a local retirement center.

I’ve lived by a motto, “One small step for the pastor may be too giant a leap for the congregation.” In other words, we often expect them to be more flexible, adaptable, energetic, passionate, insightful and committed than they actually are. When they don’t meet our expectations, we become hurt, disappointed, frustrated and even angry, which starts us down a path of leadership decline. At this point our ministry begins to diminish because we lose our energy and drive for lovingly leading them.

We’re in a period where perhaps 70% to 80% of our churches are in decline. Do we start ministering to churches where they realistically are, or do we start with what we idealistically want them to be despite their long-term decline?

For many pastors, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped them become grounded more in reality since pursuing the idealistic isn’t really possible. It is teaching them to temper their expectations and serve God by doing what’s possible.

The realistic foundation of ministering to a church is to start with loving them as they are, and then encouraging them to take faltering steps forward that by slowly build confidence, hope and possibility.

 Rev. Dr. N. Graham Standish, Executive Director of Samaritan Counseling, Guidance, Consulting in Sewickley, Pennsylvania

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
John Glenn, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Thomas Goetz, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God, encircle all of your Creation with your grace, love and peace that surpasses all understanding. Open our hearts to the ways you are calling us to be the body of Christ beyond the walls of our churches. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - The risky business of singing

Churches face worship challenge

March 27, 2021

David Beale/Unsplash

Since the beginning of time, people have turned to song to express joy’s heights and grief’s lows. In Exodus 15, Moses’ sister, Miriam, sang after crossing the Red Sea. Her song of praise is considered to be one of the oldest pieces of biblical literature. Later, David composed songs of praise and lament that would fill the Psalms — a treasured hymnbook for thousands of years used by Jews and Christians alike. Centuries later, singing both in the home and in public worship became one of the defining marks of Reformation worship. According to the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, associate for worship in the Office of Theology and Worship in Louisville, Reformers especially emphasized singing the Psalms because it was a way to sing God’s Word together. “If you think about a time before we had projection screens or copy machines, singing was a way for the whole people of God to participate,” he said.

Lifting voices together in song is an essential part of who God’s children are. And yet, as more is learned by the medical community as to how COVID-19 spreads, one thing has become increasingly clear: Communal singing poses potential health risks.

Recently, a number of singing groups, including the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the American Choral Directors Association, hosted an online panel, which included medical experts and epidemiologists, to discuss the science of singing. They came to the conclusion that there is no safe way to rehearse or sing together until the COVID-19 vaccine is more widely available.

Gambrell was hard pressed to think of another era in Church history that communal singing has been such a risk. “Singing, of course, is all about the breath, and we are dealing with a respiratory illness. The breath is how it attacks and spreads. So, what do we do now?” Gambrell asked.

Matthew Grauberger, the director of music ministry at South Highland Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, was at the American Choral Directors Conference in Mobile as the coronavirus was just starting to make headlines in March 2020. It would be the last time he sang collectively with a group of people. With health concerns growing, he made the decision not to have the church choir sing the Sunday he returned from the conference. He soon canceled choir activities indefinitely.

“For someone who music and singing are two of the things that wake me up in the morning, it has been devastating,” said Grauberger. “We want to be able to do these things with the people that we love and not have to mourn the death of someone because we were not listening and acting accordingly.”

South Highland Presbyterian had just installed cameras to begin recording worship services around the time the pandemic began. The cameras weren’t functional yet, but with the onset of COVID-19 they quickly became so as the pastor and staff tried to figure out how to create an intimate but familiar worship experience in an online format. Grauberger was tasked with figuring out what could be done musically without a choir rehearsing in the same room.

He put together a rotating quartet of voices to sing the anthem and lead in hymn singing for online worship — all done at a safe distance.

“We made a pact between ourselves that we were going to take this very seriously, that we would be careful so that we could continue providing this ministry for the congregation,” said Grauberger. He also found that ringing handbells, in small numbers, was another way to creatively, with distance and safety, bring a musical element to worship.

Grauberger has been amazed at the willingness and the creativity of those who have come forward to help lead worship during this time. “There is so much that we have lost, that we are grieving; but also in the process, we have gained this new awareness that we are way more connected than we realized, not just technologically, but spiritually,” he said.

 Erin Dunigan, PC(USA)-ordained Evangelist living in Baja California, Mexico, where she founded Not Church, a gathering of atheists, agnostics and believers who wish to deepen their spiritual journey

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Magdy Girgis, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Tammy Gish, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Lord of all peoples, you are continually gathering your people together in surprising and creative ways. We celebrate your call to find our unity through faith in your transformative power. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Sharing the peace of Christ with the world

PC(USA)’s Peace & Global Witness Offering supports peacemaking and reconciliation

March 26, 2021

Hagar’s Community Church — housed in the Washington Corrections Center for Women — is supported by congregations like Skyline Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Washington, which used its 25% portion of the Peace & Global Witness Offering to fund the prison ministry. Courtesy of Hagar’s Community Church

War, disease and imprisonment: These words have the power to fill the heart with pain, fear and hopelessness. They often make the lips of those witnessing such strife ask, “Surely, this is not where God lives?”

Presbyterians working for peace and justice would beg to differ though, saying that it’s exactly in such strife where God’s love should shine the brightest. And through their gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering — which congregations traditionally collect on World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October — they are supporting peacemaking initiatives that ease pain through action, provide comfort in the face of fear and show love to the hopeless.

Every gift to the Peace & Global Witness Offering enables the Church to promote the peace of Christ by addressing systems of conflict and injustice worldwide. Out of the money collected, individual congregations are encouraged to use 25% of the offering to connect with the global witness of Christ’s peace. Mid councils retain an additional 25% for ministries of peace and reconciliation. The remaining 50% is used by the Presbyterian Mission Agency to advocate for peace and justice through collaborative projects of education and Christian witness.

Jaff Bamenjo, an international peacemaker for the Presbyterian Mission Agency, knows just how important gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering are. As a coordinator of RELUFA (Reseau de Lutte contre la Faim), the Network for the Fight Against Hunger, in Cameroon, Bamenjo has worked for more than a decade addressing hunger in the poor and densely populated northern region of his home country.

With gifts made to the Peace & Global Witness Offering, Bamenjo was able to travel last year to the United States to share the joys and sorrows of the people of Cameroon while also sharing what the most critical needs are.

More than 3,000 miles south of Cameroon, Presbyterians are tackling another need — helping vulnerable populations understand how HIV and AIDS spread, and how to cope with the effects of each.

“This is an issue that has been pushed under the rug for many reasons, including stigma and discrimination, and it’s becoming forgotten because people are living with it rather than dying from it,” said Phyllis Wezeman.

Wezeman is a member of First Presbyterian Church of South Bend, Indiana, and president of the board of directors for Malawi Matters, a nonprofit that has not shied away from talking about HIV and AIDS. The organization develops and facilitates HIV and AIDS education with the people of Malawi to alleviate misinformation and create understanding among those living with the disease.

Malawi Matters is 100% volunteer driven, with volunteers traveling to Malawi to serve as facilitators on teaching teams. Beyond teaching teams, Presbyterians support the nonprofit with monetary gifts to the Peace & Global Witness Offering, as well as by supplying pens, pencils and other items for the educational classes.

For the Rev. Lane Brubaker, it does not matter that she must go through five locked doors to get to her congregation. “The women I have the opportunity and the privilege to pastor are wonderful and deeply knowledgeable about the Bible,” she said. “They are learning that they are still indeed loved by God and are not defined by their worst mistakes. But rather, they are defined by their Beloved.”

Brubaker leads Hagar’s Community Church, which operates within the Washington Corrections Center for Women. The Presbytery of Olympia worked over several years with Prison Congregations of America to set up the prison ministry. It was finally established in January 2019.

The ministry is supported by congregations like Skyline Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Washington, which used its 25% portion of the Peace & Global Witness Offering to fund Hagar’s Community Church. Skyline Presbyterian’s pastor, the Rev. Robyn Hogue, saw an opportunity not only to provide for a new ministry, but also to expand the congregation’s vision of what its gifts can make possible. As a result, Skyline Presbyterian has seen its Peace & Global Witness Offering grow.

“I think there’s a lot of room for more worshiping communities like this to be established,” said Brubaker.

Bryce Wiebe, Director, Special Offerings, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Lacey Gilliam, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Sharon Dunne Gillies, Presbyterian Women

Let us pray:

O Lord, help us to see the light and gifts of others. Teach us as we teach your word and love. Place your strong hands upon us and lead us into a life of compassion and service. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Make America compassionate

A prophet’s reminder that greatness is a sin

March 25, 2021

The Lord asked, “Amos, what do you see?” “A basket of fruit,” I answered. The Lord said to me, “The end has come for my people Israel. I will not change my mind again about punishing them. … Listen to this, you that trample on the needy and try to destroy the poor of the country. You say to yourselves, “We can hardly wait for the holy days to be over so that we can sell our grain. When will the Sabbath end, so that we can start selling again? Then we can overcharge, use false measures, and fix the scales to cheat our customers. We can sell worthless wheat at a high price. … The Lord, the God of Israel, has sworn, “I will never forget their evil deeds. And so the earth will quake, and everyone in the land will be in distress. … I will turn your festivals into funerals … — Amos 8:2–10 (Good News Translation)

Katie Rodriguez/Unsplash

 Sometimes it is challenging to read the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, given the fact that they are full of what one can only call “good news” and “bad news.” Of course, this text from Amos is taken from the version known as the Good News Translation, which is intended to keep us moving toward God’s final act, even as the path often seems circuitous. In the end, of course, it leads us to the fulfillment of God’s promises in the person of Jesus Christ, born among us, crucified and raised in glory for the salvation of the world. That’s the good news.

The bad news — dare I say the “scariness” — comes when we study passages such as the one above and see the finger of judgment pointed at human behaviors of which we are too often a part. Sin, of course, is both personal and institutional. As U.S. citizens and people of faith, we cannot avoid discomfort. It is easy to embrace the patriotic affirmation that we are the greatest nation in the world or, for those who doubt, to follow leaders who will “make us great again.”

And so it was for the Israelites who, as they embraced their position in the world as “God’s chosen people,” also embraced lifestyles that exploited the poor among them.

Has COVID-19 not brought the world to such a juncture, with the marginalized being exploited and those impoverished facing higher risks of infection? If a virus wasn’t enough, our country’s racial inequities are boiling, demanding that change happen. And amid it all, calls for “reopening our economy” are heard, with many refusing to acknowledge that the economy reopening would be a return to the same exploitative arrangement that had many of the marks of the economy that Amos condemned in the crisis in Israel.

Max Boot, a columnist for the Washington Post, recently wrote that “we should not be especially surprised by our failure at pandemic-fighting. We have the second-highest poverty rate and the highest level of income inequality.”

Perhaps it is time for the followers of Jesus Christ to move beyond the search for a so-called “great” America and to respond passionately with a call to make America “compassionate and just.” Now that would be good news.

 Vernon S. Broyles III, Volunteer for Public Witness in the PC(USA)’s Office of the General Assembly

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Michael Gehrling, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Nicole Gerkins, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Dear God, thank you for your love, which gives us life. Thank you for calling us to venture into your world. Give us a sense of joy and adventure in serving you and our neighbors. Help us to share you and what we have with all those we meet. We pray this in the name of Christ Jesus, who came that all might have abundant life. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Big decisions along the border

College students find their lives changed during a 2019 border ministry event

March 24, 2021

Attending Synod of the Sun’s “Imagine: Compassion” event last fall were students from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas, including Elizabeth Daniel (second from left) and Emma Gillaspy, at right. (Contributed photo)

Two college students who participated in a border ministry event in 2019 found that the biggest impact came within themselves, and they responded by dedicating their lives to serving others.

Elizabeth Daniel, 21, and Emma Gillaspy, 22, both students at Lyon College at the time, participated in the Synod of the Sun’s “Imagine: Compassion” event held in McAllen, Texas. Overall, about 70 people made the trip sponsored by the Synod of the Sun, attending three days of workshops and worship and reaching out to asylum seekers camped just across the Rio Grande River.

Both students came away inspired to new callings, one saying the trip was a “beacon of light” for her life to come.

Ministries across the wide-ranging Synod of the Sun continue to make a difference while offering compassion to those who are suffering. When congregations work together and in partnership with the larger church to serve the world that God so loves, the impact carries far beyond time and place, moving forward even through the challenges of a pandemic and closed church doors.

Daniel and Gillaspy were among several Lyon students and two staff who made the trip, including the Rev. Maggie Alsup, chaplain at the PC(USA)-affiliated liberal arts school of about 650 students.

From students’ arrival on campus, Lyon’s mission is to educate the “whole student” and emphasizes service and philanthropy, Alsup said. When members of the school’s Presbyterian student group learned about “Imagine: Compassion,” they jumped at the opportunity to find out more about how faith, social action and service can intersect. By the conclusion, both Daniel and Gillaspy had committed to serve as Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs), a faith-based year of service for young people offered by the PC(USA).

“By the end of the short weekend, Emma, who was already looking into YAV sites, wanted to look specifically for border ministry settings. And Elizabeth began to think about how she could continue learning and serving once she graduated with YAV,” Alsup said. “To say this event was life-changing is an understatement.”

Because neither Gillaspy nor Daniel held a passport, they were unable to cross the border with some members of the group. But they were deeply moved by what they saw from the Texas side.

“The biggest thing was the overall sense of hope they had,” said Gillaspy, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Conway, Arkansas. “It’s easy to think that there is so much negative on the border. Everyone I talked to there had so much hope. It was such an uplifting experience.”

Gillaspy, a psychology major who graduated last spring, said she was also inspired by working with an ecumenical partner who helped her think about the world beyond her “Presbyterian bubble.”

Gillaspy was assigned to her first choice as a YAV, the border ministry in Tucson, Arizona. She hopes to undertake a year of service before pursuing a career that would provide mental health services to those in need.

Daniel, a history and political science major who will graduate this spring, was moved to go to the border by an interest in seeing how the politics she learned about in books translates into life on the ground.

“I wanted to know up close. I did not want to be in a position of talking about it from a position of authority without seeing it myself,” she said.

Visiting a packed homeless shelter and seeing people having to bathe in the cold, dirty water of the Rio Grande changed her priorities and help establish her future life course, said Daniel, who is from Fayetteville, Arkansas, and attends First Presbyterian Church of Batesville.

Daniel hopes to be able to spend a year serving as a YAV. After that, she is looking at pursuing a master’s degree in public administration with a goal of entering full-time work for a nonprofit agency.

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I felt like this was a beacon of light,” Daniel said. “I realized that this is what I can see myself doing and being happy with my life.”

Rev. Matt Curry for the Synod of the Sun

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Margaret Gay, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Kristen Gaydos, Office of the General Assembly

Let us pray:

Lord, we praise you for your Spirit, who sends us out to serve you by serving our neighbors. Grant that we may be old, persistent and courageous as we bear witness to your love in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Matthew 25 Bible study explores the intersectionality of vital congregations and racism

‘The Gospel and Inclusivity’ looks at identity through the reading of Galatians

March 23, 2021

‘The Gospel and Inclusivity,” a free downloadable Bible study based on the Book of Galatians, is now available on the Matthew 25 resource page.

The vision for the Matthew 25 invitation asks us to engage together in the three works of vitalizing congregations, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty. Though individual, these three works are inseparable. Can a congregation be vital without confronting racism? What is at stake when racism directs our congregational and community life?

The Rev. Samuel Son, manager of diversity and reconciliation in the Presbyterian Mission Agency, is the voice behind a new Matthew 25 Bible study, “The Gospel and Inclusivity.”

“I started this study by sharing my journey of discovery,” Son said, “that the gospel is about how we do church life that is inclusive.”

Eighty percent of American churches are monocultural. In the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 89% of congregations are predominantly white.

“I had accepted this segregation as an unfortunate but effective means of doing church. Why let cultural differences get in the way of the work of the church?” said Son. “Then the study of the Scriptures made the scales of discrimination begin to fall off my eyes.”

Son encourages the reading of Galatians multiple times — alone, together and out loud. Then he begins to break down the various sections of Paul’s letter to the church at Galatia. “Most of Paul’s letters are basically him working out theologically the understanding that Jesus Christ totally changed what it means to be God’s people when by Christ’s sacrifice, Christ welcomed all people to God’s household,” said Son.

Then he poses the question, “If Paul visited us, what letter would he have penned to the American church? Would it start with the same warning and urgency as the Galatian letter? Would he see the segregated Sunday services as the very evidence that we have the words of the gospel but not its heart?”

The Matthew 25 Bible Study, “The Gospel and Inclusivity,” is available for free digital download on the Matthew 25 resource page. The Bible study can be done alone, but Son encourages groups to take the journey together.

 Melody K. Smith, Associate for Organizational Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Ruth Gardner, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Kevin Garvey, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray:

Dear God, your blessings are always evident and give us the good pleasure of enjoying your presence. Continue to abide with us as we love and serve those in need. In Christ’s service. Amen.