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.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” Jesus says in today’s text. Two of our denomination’s peacemakers, Dean and Marianne Lewis, embodied this important “beatitude” of Christ both domestically and internationally. From Dean’s work in the 1960s to integrate schools in the American South to his and Marianne’s work in the 1990s to secure back payments from the Board of Pensions to Cuban pastors who had enrolled in the Board of Pensions before the Cuban Embargo, the couple’s peacemaking work has been an important prophetic witness, both within the church and within American society.
Peacemaking isn’t always marked by tranquility. Lewis was known for his fiery, urgent pursuit of justice, for what David Staniunas of the Presbyterian Historical Society calls an “impatient spirit.” Sometimes, working for peace doesn’t mean telling people to calm down, but rather, it requires stirring people up in pursuit of a just cause. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” as the saying goes. Peacemakers may be those who are out in front, rallying for a cause, imbuing a movement with energy and passion.
Other times, however, peacemakers must seek tranquility to stay the course. Dean’s love of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, was surely a place of retreat and contemplation throughout his life. Peacemakers need to remain centered, too, anchored in their spirituality to be equipped to follow Christ in the world. Every moment doesn’t need to be a battle. Sometimes, peacemaking is leaning into the “peace like a river that attendeth [our] way.”
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” Dean and Marianne Lewis understood this on a vocational level and became peacemakers as they pursued justice throughout their lives. And now, unto ages of ages, they are blessed to be called “children of God.”
Prayer:
Gracious God, thank you for the witness of peacemakers who, by your Spirit, confront the powers of injustice in this world. Give us eyes to see where we can help make peace possible and the courage to pursue peace with faith, hope, and love. Amen.
The Adult Chamber Choir sings John Foley's "Come to the Water" during worship at the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference at Montreat Conference Center. (Photo by Alex Simon)
During Monday, June 16’s worship service devoted to compassion, Dr. Margaret Aymer, the preacher for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference, made short work of the motives of the lawyer and biblical scholar in Luke 10:25–37 who asks Jesus about eternal life and finds out instead just how large his neighborhood is.
Aymer, the vice president for Academic Affairs at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, said this lawyer has a simple strategy: Ask the teacher how one acquires eternal life, “and then, when he makes a heretical error, denounce him in front of his followers,” Aymer said. “This man is a combatant seeking to defeat a rival. Nothing he does is compassionate.”
When he asks Jesus about who his neighbor is, “this is a question in search of a boundary, a limit, a strong, impenetrable wall,” Aymer said. On the one side is neighbors we are obligated to love; on the other is those we can ignore, arrest, imprison — even kill, according to Aymer. “The lawyer asks who can I ignore, hate or even oppress and still obtain eternal life,” she said. “This question resonates in our society today.”
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Using the Parable of the Good Samaritan as her text, Dr. Margaret Aymer preaches on compassion in Anderson Auditorium. (Photo by Alex Simon)
Jesus responds to the lawyer’s question with a story, a “tale of three” in the way of the Three Little Pigs or the Three Billy Goats Gruff, where the most important character is the third one. “Everyone was listening to see what the third character would do,” Aymer said. The crowd expected it would be an Israelite, “a regular, faithful Jew,” she said. “But Jesus chose a Samaritan, a deeply shocking choice.” He is “a heretic and a political enemy, and Jesus declares this Samaritan not only saw the injured man, but was moved with compassion.”
Aymer noted the ancient Greek word for “compassion,” splagchnon, refers to the body’s bowels or guts, which were considered the source of human emotions. “To put on compassion was to open yourself to the kind of love you could ‘feel in your guts,’ to allow yourself to be moved viscerally,” she said. This Samaritan is thus “gutsy,” she said. “His gutsy compassion compels him to act.”
His compassion “flows out of him without boundaries, borders or rules,” she said. “The Samaritan’s compassion is so gutsy that he springs into action” when he sees someone made in the image of God in need of help.
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Dr. Margaret Aymer asked this question during her sermon: “Since you know what God requires, do you have the guts to do it?” (Photo by Alex Simon)
While the lawyer was looking for limits, “Jesus was handing out to everyone welcome T-shirts and banners,” Aymer said. “Jesus calls for mercy in a way that today we still sometimes virulently reject. Jesus upholds the Samaritan’s gutsy compassionate response to the victim of an ambush.”
According to Aymer, the question was never “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It was this: "Since you know what God requires, do you have the guts to do it?”
“Let us try again to love our neighbors with the gutsy compassion of a traveling Samaritan,” she said, “for Christ has commanded us to go and do likewise. As God’s holy ones, chosen and beloved, let us fill ourselves with compassion.”
Other worship highlights from Monday, June 16, included David LaMotte’s “Here for You,” a song he wrote during the pandemic, then added video shot on his cell phone following Hurricane Helene, including the response to the disaster.
Montreat Conference Center President Richard DuBose also spoke about Helene and the devastation it brought. “You are seeing some things around Montreat that look a little different than they did last summer,” he said. While Anderson Auditorium was “relatively unscathed,” 18 Montreat buildings suffered damage.
“I can tell you, the Presbyterian Church showed up big time, and not just for Montreat,” DuBose said. The PC(USA) response “is evident in Montreat, Black Mountain, Swannanoa and throughout the region. You are a strong church. We are a strong church,” DuBose told the Presbyterians in worship. “If you need any more evidence of that, see me this week. I have a hundred stories to tell you.”
Is traditional Sunday school preparing children for faith or just for church attendance? This bold article challenges one of our most sacred educational traditions by asking whether classroom-style Christian education is actually equipping young people for real-world discipleship. We explore innovative approaches that blur the lines between spiritual formation and practical life skills, suggesting that our current models might be missing the mark entirely. If you've ever wondered why so many kids leave the church after confirmation, this eye-opening piece offers both diagnosis and hope for reimagining how we pass on faith to the next generation.
The four-fold foundation of Methodist theology—Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience—may need a fresh interpretation for today's complex world. This insightful article reexamines John Wesley's enduring framework through a contemporary lens, asking whether our traditional understanding of these pillars truly serves modern disciples navigating faith in an increasingly secular culture. Rather than abandoning this theological compass, the author proposes a dynamic rebalancing that honors Wesley's original vision while addressing the spiritual hunger of today's seekers. Discover how this centuries-old method might become more relevant than ever for personal faith formation and congregational decision-making.
What if the Methodist roadmap needs a spiritual GPS update?
We're continuing to produce our new weekly resource, "Preaching the Four Pages," designed specifically for busy pastors seeking practical, theologically-rich sermon preparation guidance.
Based on Paul Scott Wilson's influential Four Pages of the Sermonmethodology, each installment provides a complete framework for developing gospel-centered sermons that move intentionally from trouble to grace. Rather than overwhelming you with exhaustive exegesis, these concise guides identify the essential elements you need: a clear theme sentence with God as subject, four guiding sentences that structure your sermon's movement, and practical suggestions for images, doctrinal connections, and proclamation. Whether you're new to the Four Pages approach or a seasoned practitioner, these resources will help you craft sermons that consistently proclaim what God is doing rather than merely what humans should do.
Four Pages for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Get the help you need to craft a strong, vibrant sermon that brings good news this week!
“As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. … They were fishermen. ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him. … Jesus went throughout Galilee … teaching … proclaiming … healing. And news about him spread all over.”
In 1859, John Haskell Shedd arrived in the isolated mountain town of Urmia, in northwest Persia. Shedd, along with his son William Ambrose, served as Presbyterian missionaries in the region for over four decades. The Shedds’ presence in Urmia coincided with a turbulent period in the country’s history.
Tribal conflict and foreign invasion brought a humanitarian crisis to Urmia, resulting in thousands of deaths. Under John Haskell Shedd’s leadership, missionaries distributed essential supplies and acted as mediators in the conflict. Their work opened the door for the U.S. government to formally establish a diplomatic relationship with Persia. In ensuing years, a hospital and seminary would be built in Urmia. The younger Shedd sheltered Assyrian, Armenian and Jewish refugees during World War I. His diaries record a time when religious and ethnic groups were able to live in harmony before global war brought displacement to millions.
The Shedd family not only responded to Jesus’ call to “fish for people”; they embodied the good news of God’s peaceable Kingdom. While we are not all called to serve in a foreign country, we live in a time of vast human migrations rooted in injustice and violence. The opportunity to offer shelter and work for harmony among “foreigners” just might be here in our own communities.
Prayer:
Amazing Creator, you come to us offering personal transformation and purpose. As we seek to align ourselves with your healing and reconciling work, grant us courage and endurance to be peacemakers in turbulent times and places. Amen.
Those attending Week 1 of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians' Worship & Music Conference were clearly pleased to have arrived at Montreat Conference Center (photo by Alex Simon).
Demonstrating the kind of innovative and thoughtful worship that keeps people returning again and again to the Worship & Music Conference put on annually by the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, the 650 or so people gathered on the first day of the first week of the event in June in Anderson Auditorium at Montreat Conference Center sang beautifully and listened intently to testimony taken from Colossians 3:12–17, the central Scripture for this year’s gathering with the theme “Clothed in Love.”
Singer and songwriter David LaMotte offered up his song “Just One Candle,” with the recurring theme, “And all the darkness in the world can’t extinguish the light of just one candle.”
Youth played a prominent role during worship, reading Scripture and liturgy written by the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, the PC(USA)’s Associate for Worship.
And as might be expected from a large gathering of musicians and clergy, the hymn-singing was glorious. Hymns were accompanied by varying combinations of piano, organ, drum, guitar and handbells.
A worship highlight was brief testimony on six qualities found in the Colossians passage: Compassion by Dr. Tom Trenney, the conference’s co-service musician; Kindness by LaMotte; Humility by Gambrell; Meekness by Ana Hernández, this year’s Routley Lecturer; Patience by Dan Trabue, the conference’s artist in residence; and Love by Dr. Margaret Aymer, the conference preacher.
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Dr. Tom Trenney not only played the organ during Sunday's worship service, but also offered one of six testimonies (photo by Alex Simon).
Trenney donned a green sweater, then talked about his “spiritual superhero,” Fred Rogers. “I learned a lot about the gospel from Mister Rogers before I heard it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,” Trenney said. Rogers used to tell the story of eight Special Olympics sprinters who helped a hurt competitor up and finished the race together arm in arm, all of them tied for first place. Rogers noted that spectators clapped and cheered for a long time, “and we know why: What really matters is helping others win, too,” Trenney said. “Each of us has the opportunity every day to change course and clothe ourselves in compassion, like those children did that day.”
“When I was young, I didn’t distinguish between nice and kind,” LaMotte said. “As an adult, those have come to be very different words.” Being nice can mean being polite and not upsetting people. “I have come to understand that kindness often means making waves,” LaMotte said. “I’m thinking nice is not what Jesus was going for. Kindness is not a feeling. It’s a way of treating people.”
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Musician and songwriter David LaMotte, at left, offered up his song "Just One Candle" during worship on Sunday (photo by Alex Simon)
Gambrell recalled buying some new tennis shoes a day before a long hike that was part of a pilgrimage, holding the offending sneakers high for everyone to see. “Something about these shoes did not agree with my left foot,” he said. “I had to use crutches to lead the Easter vigil at my church.” But even more humbling was sharing that dusty roadway with his fellow pilgrims, many of whom had “left their own crutches behind, praying for God’s healing ministry.”
Last fall, Laurent died suddenly in his sleep. “He believed how we clothe ourselves can show our love to our neighbors,” Aymer said. She herself sported a stole Sunday that said, “Clothed in Love.”
Sunday’s blessing and charge included these words: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothes yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Beverly Bewley, Customer Service Representative, Operations, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation Teresa Bidart, Mission Specialist, Self-Development of People, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Loving God, you who gave us eternal life, you who shares the power of your love through others, you who amaze us when we expect the worst, help us to love others as you have taught us to love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.”
One sure way to boggle the mind is to read the history of the American space program alongside our history of civil rights. Four years before the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Alan Shepard became the first American to reach space, where he spent just over 15 minutes. Four years after the Voting Rights Act, the U.S. successfully landed an astronaut on the moon.
Two Presbyterian sisters offer us a snapshot of another facet of the relationship between aerospace exploration and civil rights. Born and raised in southern California, Sally and the Rev. Dr. Bear Ride grew up in a devoted Presbyterian family. Their parents were both elders at First Presbyterian Church in Encino. In 1978, Sally was selected by NASA to enter spaceflight training, and Bear was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Bear would go on to serve as the pastor of Claremont Presbyterian Church for roughly a decade. Sally is best remembered as the first American woman in space for her 1983 flight on the Challenger shuttle. Four years later, the General Assembly of the PC(USA) voted to retain a ban on gay ordination.
Sally and Bear were both queer. Sally briefly married fellow astronaut Steven Hawley before reconnecting with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a childhood friend who would become her lifelong partner of 27 years. In the meantime, Bear served for decades as a lesbian pastor in a denomination that refused to recognize her loves and full humanity. Over those many years, Bear was a vocal critic of the church’s policy, and she actively organized and participated in marches, protests and educational events. In 2000, she was arrested during the Soulforce demonstration at the 212th General Assembly. She has also served as co-moderator of More Light Presbyterians, a nonprofit that fought for the ordination and marriage rights of queer congregants. In 2008, Bear married Susan Craig, her partner of 12 years, who is also an ordained Presbyterian minister. Nearly four years later, the PC(USA) finally recognized the marriage and ordination rights of LGBTQIA+ Presbyterians. Sally died in 2012. Bear is a retired Presbyterian clergyperson.
Prayer:
Loving God, you have given us enormous potential: the potential to race to the heavens to behold the immensity of your universe and the potential to make the simplest differences between people into reasons to brutally mistreat one another. Give us the power and the grace we need to become what you would have us be. Amen.
Dr. Andrew Peterson is the representative for Peacemaking and Gun Violence Prevention for the Office of Public Witness. He advocates for the church’s social witness policies before Congress, the White House and the Supreme Court and helps coordinate the PC(USA)’s advocacy with that of our coalition partners.
This year’s Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference, “Clothed in Love,” got underway at Montreat Conference Center in June with opening worship. It was a moment that a dedicated team of planners and organizers worked hard to bring about, and they were eager to greet the nearly 1,400 people who were set to arrive June 15 and on June 22 for Week 2 of the gathering.
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Over the next two weeks, Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina, will welcome nearly 1,400 people to the Presbyterian Association of Musicians' Worship & Music Conference (photo courtesy of Montreat Conference Center)
“Worship is so important to our identity, and this is where we come to be renewed, get creative ideas and be inspired to lead our churches,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Deibert, who serves alongside Amy Cerniglia as co-director of the Worship & Music Conference, the largest annual gathering of Presbyterians. “This is the conference I’ve always found the most beneficial in my ministry.”
About one-fourth of those attending were under the age of 20, Cerniglia noted, and many of them helped lead worship each day of the conference. Young people are “the future of church music and worship life in the church,” she said, and conferees had ample opportunity to witness “weaving younger church members into worship.”
“Children and youth know they belong when they’re asked to be leaders,” Deibert said.
The co-directors served together on the staff of Peace Presbyterian Church in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, before Deibert’s retirement. Cerniglia is now the interim congregational accompanist at First Presbyterian Church in Iowa City, Iowa, and is communications coordinator for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. Deibert is now PAM’s development manager.
On Monday, June 16, — traditionally the night of an organ concert — organist and composer Tom Trenney and guitarist and singer David LaMotte performed both individually and together.
The Rev. Kendra Buckwalter Smith and Dr. Eric Wall led a first call community for pastors and musicians who are serving on the staff of a faith community for the first time. This year, meet-up gatherings were offered to young adults, those who belong to small churches, BIPOC conferees and LGBTQIA+ attendees.
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The Rev. Elizabeth Deibert, at left, and Amy Cerniglia are co-directors of this year's Worship & Music Conference (photo by Alex Simon).
By popular demand, both drumming and dancing classes were offered this year, and both were incorporated in daily worship.
Attendees have donated more than $2,000 to the Presbyterian Giving Catalog’s Links of Love activity to purchase sewing machines for Ugandans who need them. “Because we are 'clothed in love,'” Cerniglia said, “we wanted to make sure we are clothing the world as well as ourselves.”
Rides on golf carts were offered to people who need transportation at hilly Montreat Conference Center.
This was “a big year for the fine arts,” she said, including a class on understanding Eastern church iconography.
The conference featured the preaching of Dr. Margaret Aymer, vice president for Academic Affairs at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, the PC(USA)’s Associate for Worship, penned the liturgy.
“Margaret has come to this conference and rung handbells,” Deibert noted. “She says this is her favorite conference, and she was hoping for the opportunity to preach.”
The co-directors praised Montreat Conference Center staff and contractors for all their work since Hurricane Helene’s devastation last fall. “We were so impressed and grateful for the restoration work, and for all the donations that made that possible,” Cerniglia said.
PAM’s Worship & Music Conference by the numbers:
1,387 people registered for one of the two weeks. About 86% of those conferees were Presbyterians, while 101 Methodists registered. Thirty-nine states were represented, with South Carolina (333) and North Carolina (290) topping the list.
574 conferees attend churches with 200 to 500 in worship each week, while 429 are in churches with 100 to 200 worshipers present. 165 conferees worship alongside 50-100 others, and 120 are in churches with 50 or fewer in worship each week. 91 conference attendees are in churches with an average of 500 or more in worship.
Ninety-five percent of conferees were white. About 2% were Black or African American, with 1.3% Asian or Asian American and another 1.3% Hispanic, Latino, Latina or Latinx.
After the 25% who were under 20 years old, the next largest group was people 70 and older, who were 20% of conferees. About 17% were 60 to 69, with about 13% 40 to 49. 333 were first-time attendees.
Serrita Bell, Director of Communications and Marketing, Presbyterian Foundation Barbara Betts, Manager, Presbyterian Distribution Services, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation
Let us pray:
Lord God, thank you for the growth of your church and the millions of lives touched with your love. Be with them and their leaders as they holistically proclaim the gospel through witness, service and advocacy. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) has released The Timeline of the World Council of Churches – An Ecumenical Journey, a revised and updated chronology of the council’s history capturing more than a century of milestones in the modern ecumenical movement.
Photo: Marcelo Schneider/WCC
16 September 2025
Inspired by previous versions that portray the ecumenical journey as a flowing river, the new version traces key moments in Christian witness and unity from the late 19th century to the present, highlighting WCC assemblies, landmark conferences, theological breakthroughs, and joint efforts for justice and peace.
The four streams that gradually converged to form the WCC—World Mission Conferences, Faith and Order, Life and Work, and the World Council of Christian Education—are presented as well.
Events such as the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference; the 1948 founding assembly of the WCC in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; the 1982 publication of the Faith and Order paper "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry"; and the 2022 WCC 11th Assembly in Karlsruhe, Germany, are charted alongside initiatives on women, youth, peace, and reconciliation.
The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.
Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches
