Thursday, March 9, 2023

1001 New Worshiping Communities News - March 2023

The title of this newsletter says it all. “New Church, New Way.” What, you may ask, is the secret to keeping things new, fresh and alive? Is there a recipe for success or is there just a faith in the sweetness of God’s love and in the constancy of God’s spirit in our midst through every age?

For the past 10 years, the PC(USA) has been deeply engaged in the research and design project of imagining and creating a new church in many, many new ways. In that time, hundreds of courageous individuals and almost every presbytery in the denomination have been doing work of constructive disruption — interjecting new ideas, new strategies, new people into our old ways of being church … of being Presbyterian. While to some, this may seem like little more than “poking the beehive,” it is, in fact, far more than childhood curiosity or middle school mischief. The disrupters among us are hopeful visionaries with a glimpse of what the church can be and is indeed becoming. They are helping us see the new thing God is doing in the world and the new people God is fashioning us to be. The stories you’ll read below are snapshots of how we are reformed and always reforming. At the end of this newsletter, you will find invitations to join us online for spiritual formation or at our “secret sauce” event in Atlanta, featuring new immigrant church leaders and a global barbecue feast. Both are opportunities for us to be transformed together and to become “pollinators of God’s love.”

May we, too, be open to the God who can nourish us with honey from a rock and show us the sweetness God provides when we are willing to seek freedom and community, trusting God even through uncertainty.

Thanks be to God for the moving and shaking all around us. (And for honey, for it makes a great barbecue sauce!)

Nikki Collins, Director
Office of 1001 New Worshiping Communities

Come create something new with us

Join us for an event called “What’s the Secret Sauce?” on April 25–27 in Atlanta. We will celebrate the gifts and recipes for ministry of new immigrant churches. Registration is $100 and limited to 100 people. Global games and barbecue sweeten the deal.

Learn more and register

Deepen the disruption and transformation of the Spirit together

The Rev. Jeff Eddings, associate for Coaching and Spiritual Formation, is hosting a Lenten series open to leaders and supporters of 1001 (like you, our readers). The event, “Coffee and Contemplation: Reimagining the Examen” is a weekly gathering that uses the “Reimagine the Examen” app to center a time of spiritual reflection. Join us to connect around a spiritual practice with other 1001 leaders and 1001 supporters through Lent. Drop-ins welcome.

Future online gatherings and hybrid retreats will be posted on our Facebook page.

Mondays at Noon Eastern (60 minutes)
Feb 27–April 3 (Lent)

Join by Zoom

Stories of creative disruption rebuilding the PC(USA)

Here are just a few news stories of our partnering mid councils, leaders and communities that are showing courage in creating a new way to empower others to live out their faith at camp, in community and in Creation.

“Kin-dom camp” honors bravery of LGBTQIA+ youth

“Hey, you’ve got this.” The Rev. Pepa Paniagua sends a supportive message through camp programs to empower marginalized youth in pursuing their dreams.

Empowering new worshiping communities with a creative new church charter

The Presbytery of San Fernando charters Cultivate Church and ordains NWC leaders as ruling elders to give them a “voice and a vote.”

New worshiping community leader Chantilly Mers gathers sacred community around connecting to nature in the middle of Brooklyn

The Rev. Sara Hayden, associate for Apprenticeships and Residencies, interviews the Rev. Chantilly Mers, co-organizer of Common Ground NYC, on the “New Way” podcast.