Today in the Mission Yearbook - Mission co-worker serving as pastor for Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy

The Rev. Jessica Derise is already reviving a congregation fatigued by COVID-19 and Zoom worship

February 28, 2022

The Rev. Jessica Derise

The Rev. Jessica Derise has served as a mission co-worker for more than a year, but for the first time is able to do so in person.

Derise is serving in an interim capacity as chaplain for the Moscow Protestant Chaplaincy (MPC), an international congregation founded in the 1960s as a Protestant worshiping community for the U.S. Embassy. From the beginning, five denominations have worked together to ensure that the congregation has had pastoral leadership — the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Methodist Church, the American Baptist Church and the Reformed Church of America.

Ellen Smith, World Mission’s regional liaison for Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, met Derise in Moscow to introduce her to the partners there. Smith and her family lived in Russia for more than 10 years as mission co-workers.

“Jessica is already reviving the MPC congregation fatigued by COVID restrictions and Zoom worship, brainstorming with colleagues in the social ministry for trafficked people, and in conversation with ELCER (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of European Russia) about ways to engage with a French-speaking congregation,” she said. “After 18 months of ministering from afar, she has hit the ground running.”

Smith said with the collapse of the Soviet Union three decades ago, the congregation left the Embassy compound and began serving the larger expat community in the city. During the days after the collapse, MPC responded to the dire needs of the Russian community around them with soup kitchens to feed the elderly. During that time, the congregation attracted members from all over the English-speaking world, including students from many African and Asian countries.

During the impoverished years of the early 2000s, there were many racially motivated attacks in Moscow. With the help of the African members of the community, MPC began to respond to the needs of young Africans who had been attacked, many of whom had lost their documents or become homeless. As they got to know the needs of this community, they expanded their ministry.

Today, the social ministry of MPC is working with people who have been trafficked into Russia. They have a medical advice center, a food sharing ministry, a clothing ministry, language lessons, and health and nutrition lessons. COVID-19 has been difficult for this ministry, but, except for the periods of lockdown in Moscow, it has continued to function.

Smith said Zoom fatigue has been real, and the congregation there has suffered without a pastoral presence. The Presbyterian Mission Agency implemented a travel ban when the pandemic began in March 2020, but in August 2021, Derise was granted an exception to travel, arriving in Moscow on Aug. 30. The news of her arrival spread throughout the congregation and her first Sunday saw a nearly tenfold rise in attendance. She was officially installed on Sept. 12. She is focusing on creative ways to engage members.

She is partnered with MPC and the Social Ministry, as well as ELCER.

Derise was ordained for ministry in the UCC in August 2010. She earned an M.Div. from Columbia Theological Seminary in 2005 and is a board-certified chaplain. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in 1993 in English Education. She has done settled and interim pastor work for Presbyterian, Lutheran and UCC congregations. She has also served as a trauma and hospice chaplain.

Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Amy Lewis, Mission Specialist, Presbyterian Peacemaking Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Bridgette Lewis, Mission Specialist, Young Adult & National Volunteers, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

You who are Word made flesh, we thank you for the many ways we have to spread your good news. May the presence of your churches reach many who are in need of ministry and the news of your living presence in our midst.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Church embraces a history of service

Early Matthew 25 church welcomes everyone to the ‘table’

February 27, 2022

Kevin Kouba, music director and coordinator for The Welcome Table ministry, shows off his industrial-size strainer, which is needed to cook for over 225 people each week. (Contributed photo)

The Welcome Table is the feeding ministry at Briargate Presbyterian Church on the southwest side of Louisville. Since April 2019, this small but mighty church of approximately 50 members is following the Matthew 25:31–46 call to actively engage in the world around us.

For The Welcome Table, it is about hospitality.

Briargate signed on to the Matthew 25 vision in May 2019 as the third church to join the journey. Today, more than 1,000 churches, mid councils and groups have signed on to become a Matthew 25 church recognizing Christ’s urgent call to be a church of action.

Kevin Kouba, music director for Briargate for more than 20 years, took on the mantle of leading this ministry because he felt right at home in a kitchen. With a background in restaurant management, it was a good fit — and a good call.

“As the congregation began to shrink, the music part of my ministry has become less of a necessity and demand on my time,” said Kouba. “So, we took on this hospitality ministry as a team.”

Women in the church had various fundraisers to help with a $100,000 project to make the church kitchen a commercial kitchen equipped to feed upward of 225 people per week. Other local Presbyterian churches also donated from their own capital campaigns.

Most volunteers are familiar with home kitchens and are good cooks as well, but they don’t have to be. The Welcome Table volunteers are not all from the church, but the local community as well.

“This is more than just poverty work,” said Kouba. “We didn’t intend just to feed. We had plans for other resources, but then COVID-19 happened.”

With The Welcome Table as the only Dare to Care kitchen in the area, the pandemic increased the number of people needing to be fed. They knew they couldn’t stop, but they had to find a way to continue and keep everyone safe.

They started with making relationships with local restaurants, like Kentucky Fried Chicken, where they now pick up their leftovers to reheat and distribute. They are using disposable containers, rethinking the process of serving outside, addressing physical access issues and improving traffic flow around the pickup site.

“Because John [Odom, presbyter for Community Life at Mid-Kentucky Presbytery] and I have both volunteered at The Welcome Table, we see the difference it is making in the community, continuing with its hunger ministry/feeding program despite the challenges of COVID-19,” said the Rev. Emily Enders Odom, mission interpretation project manager for Mission Engagement & Support. “When you consider the size of the Briargate congregation, it’s remarkable that these faithful volunteers have kept this ministry going.”

This isn’t Briargate’s first ministry in community service or food. It’s had a community garden for over 10 years. “It provides more than just food,” said Kouba. “For gardeners, they consume some of what they grow and sell the rest. It provides a path for self-sustainability.”

When considering how and when to bring people back inside, they have new challenges to overcome. Because they have grown the numbers of how many they serve during the pandemic, they are unsure as to how to do it safely and practically inside. However, they are determined to figure it out.

In the meantime, they continue to help in other ways, like assisting people through the process of financial and housing assistance applications and ministering to their spiritual and support needs as well.

“We couldn’t do it without support of our volunteers,” said Kouba. “Service has always been part of our church’s history.”

Melody K. Smith, Manager of Organizational Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kristen Leucht, Church Consultant, Los Angeles, Board of Pensions
Brad Levy, Production Clerk, Presbyterian Distribution Center, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Compassionate Christ, Lord of all people, races, colors and creeds, give us compassion to see the other, courage to cross over the barriers that separate us from one another and commitment to live lives worthy of your calling. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Figuring out how we share the gospel in Chandler and the world

An Arizona pastor who’s also a film producer uses his brief films to provide his congregation with real answers to honest questions

February 26, 2022

The Rev. Robert Felix is pastor of Chandler Presbyterian Church. (Photo courtesy of Robert Felix)

Each Sunday, the Rev. Robert Felix has been giving parishioners at Chandler Presbyterian Church in Chandler, Arizona, real answers to honest questions. The way he goes about providing those answers — producing a short film each week based on a top faith question identified on Google Trends, then discussing the film and the question together — has proven to be an effective and innovative platform for, as he says, “figuring out how we share the gospel in Chandler and the world.”

Five years ago, the Presbytery of Grand Canyon ordained Felix, a film producer and graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, to a validated ministry to make films and visual sermons — a model that, as Felix points out, goes back nearly six decades to Pittsburgh Presbytery’s experience with a young Presbyterian pastor named Fred Rogers. Felix continues to work as a film producer even as he ministers to the Chandler congregation and its 55 or so members.

Felix has aired brief films to the congregation on three topics: “God and Suffering,” “Lucifer’s Fall” and “Why the Cross?”

Each week, the pastor and filmmaker weaves photographs and very brief film clips into his visual sermon to further explain the topic: shots of a cemetery and ambulance, for example, punctuate “God and Suffering.”

“People get a lot of information from the internet and from watching YouTube, but you almost never hear a perspective from a Presbyterian,” Felix said. “There’s not much of a public presence for Reformed Christians, even though we have a really relevant message to share.”

Felix said the focus is “on answering questions for people without a strong background in the Christian faith. I can’t communicate in a way that’s jargony, like ‘washed in the blood of the Lamb.’ That doesn’t make sense on a colloquial level to the average person on the street.”

It’s not easy, he said, to produce a short film that answers a difficult question.

“The shorter the message, the harder it is,” he said. “There’s a lot of work in translation, making a draft and thinking it through. I imagine myself in someone else’s position to make sure I am clearly explaining [the topic at hand]. People have said they appreciate it’s so clear.”

On Tuesdays, Felix offers a Zoom Bible study where he exegetes Bible passages that speak to the previous Sunday’s film topic.

When he began his validated ministry, Felix said he heard “some real skeptical voices” who told him, “A sermon is a dialogue. With a video, there is no dialogue.”

“I think what they really meant was, ‘Does the Holy Spirit really work in that way?’” Felix said. “I think I have way more dialogue than most sermons. … There is this hidden idea that a pastor is a priest, connecting the congregation with God, and if that person isn’t with you, then the Holy Spirit isn’t going to work.”

“As I have worked with people, what I have found is that people respond well to a message with visuals. They enjoy the music [that the gifted musicians at Chandler Presbyterian Church provide each week] and they enjoy that the film is edited and tight. … Most of the criticism is a feeling that things have to be the way they have been.”

“The pandemic started this ministry,” Felix said. “It was almost impossible before that.”

Outside of his validated ministry, Felix is working to develop a feature film and is part of Act One, a Christian community of entertainment industry professionals who, according to the group’s website, “train and equip storytellers to create works of truth, goodness and beauty.”

A few years back, Felix wrote and co-directed “The Road Back Home,” a 51-minute film during which viewers meet five of the approximately 14,000 people who were experiencing homelessness in the Phoenix area. Since Chandler Presbyterian Church has been participating in a ministry to the homeless, Felix and other church leaders decided to screen the film at the church. They established a theater-like setting and invited other Chandler residents, including local government officials, to watch the film and then talk about homelessness.

“It was cool to bring that to a different context,” Felix said. “We had a good time talking about that.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Shanea Leonard, Associate, Gender, Racial & Intercultural Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Heather Leoncini, Mission Specialist, Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Jesus, who worked in a carpenter’s shop and understands what is needed to turn rough-hewn wood into objects of beauty, bless those who use similar skills to bring out of rough lives the beauty of your image. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Upending the bushel basket that conceals our light

‘Between Two Pulpits’ episode focuses on hope in the depths of depression

February 25, 2022

Natalie Pisarcik, in front, is pictured with other deacons from First Presbyterian Church in Boonton, New Jersey. (Contributed photo)

Natalie Pisarcik, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Boonton, New Jersey, has already bravely shared her story of deep depression and the intention she once had to end her life before asking God to forgive her for what she called “a terrible mistake,” forgiveness Pisarcik said she did receive.

Pisarcik and FPC’s longtime pastor, the Rev. Jen Van Zandt, were recent guests on Special Offerings’ weekly Facebook Live event, “Between Two Pulpits.”

For the past three years, First Presbyterian Church has designated its 25% of the Peace & Global Witness Offering to the New Jersey Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Many faith communities across the country are set to receive the offering on Oct. 3, World Communion Sunday.

In 2020, according to Pisarcik, who served the congregation for years as a deacon, the communities the Boonton church serves lost more people to suicide than they did to the coronavirus.

“This is such a unique and tenderhearted place,” Van Zandt said of the congregation she’s served the last 14 years. “Peacemaking got legs when Natalie was on the Board of Deacons.”

“It is such a silent story for many pastors and congregations,” former Special Offerings director Bryce Wiebe said. How, he asked his guests, did you bring the topic forward for discussion?

“I believe God saved my life. I saw the light and God saved me,” Pisarcik responded. She wrote about her mental health struggles in the church’s 2020 Lenten devotional. “Life has not been perfect since that moment, but we all have a reason to be here and to hang on. It got legs,” she said of the story she shared. “I still can’t believe we are here sharing this story with you all.”

Asked to share their go-to Scripture passages on the topic, Van Zandt went with Paul’s famous reassurance in Romans 8: “ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all Creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Then there’s Psalm 139 with its focus on the nearness of God. “I pray that psalm a lot for myself and others who are struggling,” Van Zandt said.

Pisarcik said she relies on the admonition in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount against putting our light under a bushel basket.

“We all have some sort of gift,” Pisarcik said. “In times of darkness, God wants us to show it in some way — that’s the message. Don’t give up and have hope. God is with you through good times and bad.”

Asked about their hope for the future of the church, Van Zandt did not hesitate.

“It’d be great if we could all get back together. We are really missing each other. That’s something we are looking forward to — being reconnected,” she said. “The ministry has not stopped, and we are grateful to do ministry separately and together.”

The church’s future, she predicted, will be marked by “appreciating each other more and realizing there is a whole lot of work to do. There are a lot of hands and hearts that need reconnecting.”

“There’s a place for everyone in the church. Natalie found a home here. It’s a place people can really experience God’s love.”

Pisarcik said she’s missed participating in monthly services offered to residents of the New Jersey Firemen’s Home, a licensed health care facility in Boonton dedicated to the care of retired firefighters. Pisarcik herself is a volunteer firefighter. “They love it,” she said of the monthly service. “It is really valued and missed.” Her face brightened when Van Zandt informed her the services have resumed.

Wiebe prayed to close their time together, including this petition of the Almighty: “If we can’t pry up our own bushel baskets, sneak inside with us … to shine who we are for the sight of all people, for it is beautiful what you have made. That is your way: to join with, to gather among, to seek out, to save.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Unzu Lee, Mission co-worker serving in South Korea, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Chris Lega, Manager, General Ledger Office, Finance & Accounting, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Thank you, great God and Father, who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to your power that is at work within us. To you be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all the world and all generations. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘I was quickly approaching burnout’

During sabbatical, New Worshiping Community leader realizes how out of balance he had become

February 24, 2022

Nick Pickrell and partner Sarah Pickrell at a Poor People’s Campaign in Jefferson City, Missouri (Photo by Suzanne Corum-Rich)

For seven years, Nick Pickrell, organizer of The Open Table in Kansas City, Missouri, has been hustling to keep the new worshiping community afloat. There was a lot of grant writing and developing — not to mention the community’s antiracism training business. Finally, last summer, Pickrell was able to take a break, thanks to Sabbath & Sabbatical Grants from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement.

Curious about his experience, Presbyterian New Service asked Pickrell these questions. His responses have been edited slightly for brevity.

What was your sabbath like?
My sabbatical experience was a lifesaver for me. I don’t think I realized how much I needed this break. It was a breath of fresh air to have three months to allow for space, silence and refreshment.

What did your sabbath experience stir up in you?
Over the course of three months, I was able to see how I needed to detach from The Open Table so I could re-engage from a healthier place. I also realized how much things like playing music, hiking and exercise gave me life. Because of the demands of The Open Table, I had let all of those things go. I see now that wasn’t a healthy move for me to have made.

Did it change you in any way? If so, how?
In the months since I’ve been back, I’ve been able to allow for things at The Open Table to slip through the cracks or fail without me swooping in to save it. It has freed me from a tremendous amount of pressure I felt before the sabbatical. Also, I have been able stay in a place where attachments and expectations have been released. I have been able to articulate that I am both committed to The Open Table while also holding the community with an open hand. As The Open Table shifts in our mission, if I am not the right person to help lead the community, then I feel OK with stepping down. Likewise, if the community ever feels like it is time for The Open Table to close (we aren’t), I feel OK with letting The Open Table close. To borrow some terminology from the Catholic Worker movement, The Open Table is meant to be an organism, not an organization. When the Spirit makes it abundantly clear that our work at The Open Table is done, we want to honor that instead of existing in perpetuity.

How will that shift in you (if any) be beneficial to you and to those you serve in ministry?
I think the shift of detaching will greatly benefit both me and the community because it relieves the stress that has resided in my body the last seven years. This shift moves me to a place where I realize that “I am a worker, not a master builder,” as it says in one of my favorite prayers, “Prophets of a Future Not Our Own.”

Additionally, I got the chance to meet with leaders from around the country who have been working to decolonize their church culture, policies, and practices, and some of the things discussed have already started to take root in our community as we vision collectively and act collectively.

Why would you recommend a sabbath experience to others in ministry?
I would recommend this sabbath experience as it is so beneficial for our longevity in this work. I know in my case at seven years I had been quickly approaching burnout, and this sabbatical could not have come at a better time. I feel like I have developed some new habits, shed some old ones, and am able to re-engage in a more sustainable way. This would not have happened if it wasn’t for the sabbatical.

Increasingly, The Open Table is living into being a place of healing primarily for the Black community, but also a place of healing for everyone. Pickrell is open to the Holy Spirit’s leading, including being willing to step aside if his racial identity prevents The Open Table from fully realizing its mission of being a community of liberation and healing.

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laura Lee, Art Director, Presbyterian Women
Sangik Lee, Translator, Global Language Resources, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Gracious God, we hear your call to love our neighbors, and we know that you intend for us to care for both their physical and their spiritual needs. Help us to respond to this hungry, thirsty world with love that pours from the river of living water that you have placed in the hearts of those who believe. In the name of Jesus Christ, who is living water for our bodies and our souls. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Women in faith leadership roles reveal how the pandemic has impacted their work and their lives

Women share struggles, emotions and victories during final Lydia’s Listening Session

February 23, 2022

In the final episode of Lydia’s Listening Session, hosted by the offices of Women’s Leadership Development and Leadership Development for Leaders of Color of the Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries, women of color who are in faith leadership roles gathered to share their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and how it has impacted their lives and ministries.

The listening circles were created to provide participants with the safety of a space that honors their voices and their experiences during this challenging time caused by the pandemic. They were designed to equip women spiritually and emotionally and to let them know that their voices have been heard.

Emotions ran high during the final session as the women shared their experiences over the past 18 months.

Jewel McRae, coordinator for Women’s Leadership Development and Young Women’s Ministries, asked participants, “In light of the past 18 months of this pandemic, what have been some of your struggles? What have been some of your emotions and what have been some of your victories?”

Women leaders of color offered a wide range of responses.

One participant said, “My struggles during COVID have been not being able to see my grandkids, not being able to go to church for a long while. We are a small family church. We know everybody and not being able to see them every Sunday like we used to was really kind of hard.”

“But we’ve had some victories, too,” the woman added. “We were safe from COVID-19. We did not contract it. So, there’s really a lot to give thanks for. My family members are all safe in spite of the fact that we’ve lost over 600,000 people to this disease. We had struggles, but we had a lot of victories as well.”

“That’s a very good question,” said another member of the listening circle. She expressed her struggles with not being able to see or hug her grandchildren when she was able to see them. “I’m a touchy-feely person and not being able to touch those around me is a struggle. I just buried my father who was 102 and a World War II veteran. Out of an act of love, we could not have the kind of worship service experience for him that his life warranted, that he deserved. But the victory in that is that we were able to honor his life with a military burial. Those who were able came and we remembered him.

“Another victory is I’ve learned to master technology and those who know me know that that is a victory. For me to be able to preach and do Bible study workshops and other means of fellowship and worship by Zoom without preaching an entire sermon that no one heard simply because I didn’t hit the unmute button is a victory.”

“It was just heavy,” said another member of the circle. “I’m a creative person. I did a lot of writing and poetry. I also reconnected with painting. I did a lot of watercolors and found peace in those colors.

“But my biggest struggle and memory was from the beginning of the pandemic … when everything shut down. I have two sons and a grandson. Both of my sons contracted COVID. At that time, you could not be near anyone. So, to have your son sick and in the hospital, it was the hardest thing I had ever gone through in my life.

“God is so amazing and so gracious and so good. I still have two boys today, but not everyone was that fortunate. I really recognize the blessing that it is to have my children with me. My youngest son that was in the hospital was afraid to tell me that he thought he wasn’t going to make it out. So that’s my memory. It was a hard struggle at the beginning, but I’m on the other side. In that I have my emotions, the struggle and the victory.”

Gail Strange, Director of Church and Mid Council Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jeffrey Lawrence, Director, Media & Publishing, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency
D.J. Lee, Sr. Service Specialist, Korean Membership, Plan Operations, Board of Pensions

Let us pray

Faithful God, even amid tragedy and suffering, you abide with your people. As you continue to heal our wounds and strengthen our spirits, draw us closer to you and closer to one another, so that all your people may be one. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Golden calves lurk everywhere

Idolatry is not an ancient phenomenon, but a modern reality

February 22, 2022

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” They rose early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. — Exodus 32:1–6

Golden calf at Occupy Wall Street, Oct. 2011 Timothy Krause, CC BY 2.0

Any recounting of the journey of the children of Israel must include the story of the golden calf. It’s an important story because it reminds us of our own ways of traveling the journeys God has set before us. We want to claim our place among God’s chosen, and yet we cannot do so without owning our own failures as followers of a leader. We, too, have often found our spiritual leaders “up on the mountain” awaiting a word from God and, like Moses’ followers, have tired of waiting for epiphany that will provide us the answers we desire. We know what happens next.

When the answer does not come from the leader, we grumble, grow restless and even come to the point of looking for alternative leaders as the Israelites did.

They turned their restlessness into a frenzy in which they “ordained” Aaron to be their new leader. He called them to bring forth all of their gold and made the golden calf, to which they paid homage, oblivious to their foolishness.

Does that sound familiar? Look around the world — and don’t forget to look inward — and see all the leaders who have arisen out of crisis and become objects of worship, only to be recognized by people that the leaders they tried to worship had turned out to be golden calves. The real leader in Exodus 32 — Moses, of course — was still “up on the mountain” discerning God’s will.

Yet, in spite of our failures to patiently wait and trust God’s timing, God forgives our waywardness. Exodus 34 tells us that we are forgiven and blessed by a merciful and gracious God. But when we tire of the discipline of our faith and seek to ordain false leaders, whose rhetoric is compelling and resonates with our biases and fondest wishes, we must remember idolatry is not just an ancient phenomenon. It will, in our own day, lead to ruin for the weakest and most vulnerable of God’s children and, in the end, “visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6–7).

Vernon S. Broyles III is a volunteer for public witness in the PC(USA)’s Office of the General Assembly.

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jeannette Larson, Consulting Editor for Flyaway Books,  Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Jendayi Lawrence, Social Media Assistant, Communications Ministry, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Gracious God, you have faithfully walked with us through all these years. As we look toward the challenges ahead, lead us in the ways that you would have us walk. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Mother knows best

Mom gives 8 Habits of Evangelism author a lifetime of lessons about the practice of justice

February 21, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Ralph B. Watkins

Saying that “love leads to justice,” the Rev. Dr. Ralph B. Watkins said his mother always told him that “God is on the side of justice.”

With that, Watkins, professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at Columbia Theological Seminary, explained why he chose to write about justice for the new 8 Habits of Evangelism resource produced by Theology, Formation & Evangelism.

“My mother said, ‘Boy, you got to write that lesson,’” Watkins said.

“That’s why I got involved,” Watkins told a digital audience gathered for the first of eight weekly webinars, which featured the authors of each of the eight identified habits of evangelism — justice, radical welcome, worship, sacraments, prayer, fellowship, teaching and generosity.

Watkins said his mother taught him a valuable lesson when he was a young Sunday school student about the importance of hearing and then responding to the church’s call to justice and equality.

In Sunday school, he was the star pupil. But his classmate Debra was much smarter than he was. On Fridays they would do the lesson together but on Sunday, Watkins was the interpreter.

One day his mother pulled him aside and asked him, “Why is it that Debra tells you everything on Friday, but you won’t tell about Debra on Sunday?”

And then she “left it,” Watkins said.

Eventually one Sunday Watkins told his teacher, Miss Thomas, that everything he knew was because Debra taught him. It’s the first time he remembers his mom saying she was “proud of him.”

“She taught me to see the injustice of sexism in the Black church,” Watkins said. “She showed me how it happened and that if you see something, you should say something. And I called it out. Debra was the brilliant one, not me.”

But for Watkins it’s not enough just to say something. One must do something for justice because Jesus showed us that justice is what love looks like publicly. In his writing about the practice of justice, Watkins says:

“The people knew something was different about the ministry of Jesus and they responded, they followed because as trite as it sounds, Jesus was a person of his word. He didn’t just preach the Gospel, he brought good news in word and deed.”

“Justice rights the wrongs, challenges systems of oppression, assaults systems of stratification and meets the needs of all. Jesus challenges the traditional order of things, the hierarchy and the staunchness of stale ministry that is locked in a building and rarely hits the streets.”

Watkins’ mother just had cancer surgery in Orlando, Florida. She’d had a blood clot. She couldn’t get an intensive care unit bed because all beds were being used by COVID-19 patients. One day, as Watkins sat with his mother at the floor of the hospital she was on, there were six blue calls. Coronavirus patients in their 30s and 40s had been moved to the floor, and they were dying.

When Watkins told his mother what the blue calls were about, she said to him, “You know you always wanted to be born in the 1930s and 1940s so you could have been part of the civil rights movement? Well, guess what? Now is your time.”

As they reflected together on what happens when a pandemic gets politicized — people losing their lives, more and more children contracting the virus, and a disproportionate number of people of color being affected — Watkins’ mother made lists of poverty and justice issues and how to organize to make the world a better place.

Telling him she didn’t have long to live, his mother said, “But I’ve got hope in you and those people you teach in that school in Atlanta that you will all make a difference.”

“We are in the midst of the greatest crisis of power in our lifetime,” Watkins said, calling it “an issue of justice.”

“But we’re going to be all right because we’re under the Word,” he said. “We’re going to complete the race. And prepare to hand the baton off to those coming along beside us and behind us. Because every generation has the struggle to fight. And my mother will smile on us here and when she goes up to glory.”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Rebecca Kueber, Desktop Publisher & Formatter, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Katherine Kupar, Communications Specialist, Presbyterian Association of Musicians

Let us pray

Great God, bless the hearts and hands of those who work in your name. Bless those they help, those with whom they travel, those who host them and those who hear their stories. Give us heart to live as witnesses in all the places where the presence of faith shouts hope, despite all the chaos of our world and its disasters! Amen.

Minute for Mission: Presbyterian Media Sunday

February 20, 2022

News, media, information, publishing and the spiritual or divine are inseparable — digital or otherwise. This fact has been laid bare since the pandemic began. Churches have had to respond quickly to increased anxieties and new challenges, all while reimagining the ways we gather as disciples of Jesus. How can they worship and serve faithfully in a strange time, when we are not gathered in bodily presence?

On this day, we celebrate publishing in the PC(USA) in the service of truth, justice and peace, through news, information and inspiration found in printed and digital magazines, books, curricula and other resources.

Sharing information is intended to stimulate discussion, increase engagement, inspire action and open eyes to see the world through faith. Media — print, social, digital, film — provides mediums so that together we can lift our voices in a proactive way to bring attention to injustices.

The Communications Ministry of the Presbyterian Mission Agency has been successful in helping church communicators understand the need for planning their communications efforts and implementing best practices for those efforts. They link Presbyterians who are officially responsible for communications in their synod, presbytery or congregation through workshops, e-newsletters, social media and other communications vehicles that provide shape and grounding for our efforts to answer the call of Christ to the Church, especially in this moment.

Christ’s followers are called to vigorous engagement in the world. Storytelling is one way to engage communities and respond to the urgent call to be a church of action, where God’s love, justice and mercy shine forth and are contagious.

Information sharing is a fundamental part of our connectionality as Presbyterians. It unites the PC(USA), creating a spark that energizes and joins us in our common mission together.

Melody K. Smith, Manager of Organizational Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Laurie Kraus, Director, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Susan Krehbiel, Associate, Refugee & Asylum Catalyst, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Holy Spirit,
you are the one who blessed the first disciples
with the words to spread God’s love.
We pray for power to proclaim your word
through our own unique gifts and mediums.
Bless all who use their talents to send
out the message and bless those who receive it.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Remembering with honesty

The good old days weren’t good for everyone

February 19, 2022

Marco Bianchetti /Unsplash

The older we get, the more we begin to think, “My memory isn’t what it used to be.” With each successive decade, we seem to remember less, and less accurately, than we used to. Sometimes we look back and see what we want to see, rather than what really happened. We see this in Numbers 11.

The Israelites are in the thick of 40 years of wandering toward the Promised Land. The persnickety pilgrims look back on what they remember as an incredible buffet from before their journey began: fish, cucumbers, melons and leeks. Except, of course, they aren’t remembering everything just as it was. They seem to forget that the King of Egypt enslaved them. They don’t remember the order given to the midwives to kill all the baby boys. Somehow making bricks in the blazing desert sun had faded away. As Moses listened to them, he probably thought, “Their memory is definitely not what it used to be.”

The Numbers passage goes on to describe how God answers Moses’ call for help, and how the Holy Spirit empowers the elders to keep the tribe moving forward. But let’s stay in the first few verses of Numbers 11, with the Israelites’ faulty memory, since it has some connection to our own faulty memories today.

The Israelites want to return to the good old days, which in reality were not as good as they remember. Sometimes we who are white in America are seduced into this same impulse. Maybe like me, other white readers look back to earlier times when racial division seemed so much less prominent in our country. I was not old enough to be aware of the struggles over race in the 1960s and early 1970s. By the 1980s, my high school and college days, I don’t really remember much attention being paid to race. In fact, I don’t really remember learning about racial disparities until I went to work at our national church headquarters a decade ago. Maybe like me, you who are white remember the “good old days” when racial justice was not front and center as it is now.

But our memory is not what it used to be. I feel quite certain Black, Indigenous and People of Color who read this column are wondering what country I’m describing. After all, in the 1980s I was part of a fraternity giving demeaning racist pledge names to our Black pledges. The decade of the ’90s saw injustices such as the Black and Latino teens called “Central Park Five” who were unjustly found guilty of assault, a conviction vacated in 2002. The first decade of the 2000s saw marked progress in our national leadership, but also found Islamophobia skyrocketing after Sept. 11, 2001.

These brief examples, out of many others that could be recounted, jolt us to remember more fully that the “good old days” were not as good as we might remember. Needless to say, older readers would be able to describe memory mismatches in the decades before the ones I remember myself. For instance, many of us have only now heard of and are learning about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, where hundreds of Black people were killed and an entire section of the city was destroyed. We don’t remember it because the story was quashed for decades afterward. Maybe like me, you are only now learning more about Juneteenth, our newest national holiday, so that we can remember better what it means to be liberated from oppression. Presbyterians Today spotlighted Juneteenth in a 2020 story that can be accessed at presbyterianmission.org/story/pt-0520-juneteenth.

Our memory may not be what it used to be, but the remainder of our Scripture passage gives us hope. Moses prays, “If only the Lord would put the Spirit on all God’s people!” The Holy Spirit has come to all of us, equipping us to live faithful lives, and, yes, sharpening our collective memories. Even more importantly, the Spirit’s clarifying power shows us the world as it is, not as we wish it were. As the Spirit comes on us, we are empowered to pursue racial justice, so that increasingly these become the good old days for all of God’s people.

Chip Hardwick, transitional synod executive of the Synod of the Covenant, which includes presbyteries in Michigan and Ohio

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Melanie Komp, Operations Manager, Compliance Services, Presbyterian Foundation
Luciano Kovacs, Coordinator, Middle East, Europe & Central Asia Office, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Almighty God, giver of all good gifts, bless our efforts to provide to the people of this world. Through these efforts, may more of your children know the abundant life that Christ came to bring us. Amen.