Mission Yearbook: Louisville church dedicates ‘Healing the Earth’ anti-gun violence sculpture

Renowned Louisville blacksmith and sculptor Craig A. Kaviar created a 6-foot metal sculpture, “Healing the Earth,” for the front plaza of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. The art piece was created from parts of guns chopped up at safe-disposal events sponsored by Guns to Gardens Louisville and metal tools donated by members of the congregation. The sculpture symbolizes the congregation’s commitment to promoting peace, justice and sustainability.

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Craig A. Kaviar's "Healing the Earth" will be dedicated March 22 at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky (photo courtesy of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church).

“Healing the Earth” was dedicated in the spring at the church at 142 Crescent Ave. The dedication was followed by a reception in the church fellowship hall, including displays of groups and ministries with which the church collaborates. 

Guns to Gardens Louisville is a nonprofit with the mission of transforming weapons of death and violence into instruments of healing, beauty and peace. The organization hosts gun safe-disposal opportunities, offering people with unwanted guns a way to dispose of them safely and anonymously with the assurance they will not be sold or used in acts of violence. The organization grew out of a youth/adult Sunday school class at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. It now includes volunteers from various faith groups and community groups across the city who are concerned about gun violence.

Kaviar has been a valued partner with Guns to Gardens Louisville since the first safe-disposal event in 2022. Guns brought to safe-disposal opportunities are dismantled by chop saws. The metal parts of the weapons are given to Kaviar to transform into garden tools, art and jewelry. So far, the effort has helped make the community safer by taking 124 unwanted guns off the streets and out of homes.

Kaviar has been forging red hot metal in Louisville for 40 years. His work is in collections of Brown-Forman, Norton Hospital, the Omni Hotel, Kentucky Center for the Arts, Christ Church Cathedral, Crab Orchard Animal Sanctuary, the Temple and businesses and homes throughout the region. In recent years, he has been featured in The New York Times, in the KET series “Kentucky Life” and in an exhibit at the Lexington Public Library.

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church has been a strong faith presence in the community since 1890. The congregation seeks to live out its commitment to peace, justice and caring for God’s Creation by supporting Guns to Gardens Louisville, Build-A-Bed and other efforts. The church works toward sustainability through partnership with the Jefferson County Master Gardener Association and other green initiatives. As a service to the community, the church has installed two charging stations for electric vehicles in its parking lot in partnership with Mid-Kentucky Presbytery.

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church hosted a community prayer vigil following the mass shooting at Louisville’s downtown Old National Bank in April 2023.

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church, Louisville (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Julie Gvillo, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Courtnye Lloyd, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

God of grace and justice, may we empower our families and children with the means to stand up together for economic security and physical safety as we seek to become the beloved community. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: PDA director shows solidarity with Puerto Rican siblings

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Presbyterian Disaster Assistance volunteers at work in Puerto Rico in 2018. (Photo courtesy of PDA)

Speaking during a recent installment of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s “Solidarity Hour,” the Rev. Edwin González-Castillo waxed eloquently and at times nostalgically on the topic of Puerto Rico, the Caribbean archipelago where he was born and raised. Watch his presentation here.

González-Castillo, the director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, hails from a San Juan neighborhood “where famous baseball players and salsa singers came from,” he said.

Webinar host Eileen Schuhmann, PHP’s Associate for Global Engagement and Resources, noted that the Solidarity Hour focused attention on Bad Bunny’s historic Super Bowl halftime performance. She asked González-Castillo: What’s key to understand about Puerto Rico’s history and current reality?

San Juan was founded in 1521, nearly a century before the founding of Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America, González-Castillo pointed out. Indigenous people lived there well before Europeans arrived. Because San Juan was “a doorway to trade routes,” it was for centuries “one of the most fortified cities in the Americas,” he said. “It was a treasure, a place that gave access to other places.”

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The Rev. Edwin González-Castillo (Photo courtesy of PDA)

Puerto Rico became a U.S. colony in 1896, a result of the Spanish-American War. Since then, Puerto Ricans have served in the U.S. military during every major conflict since World War I, even though Puerto Ricans living on the island can’t vote during presidential elections — only in primaries. Puerto Ricans living on the U.S. mainland can vote. 

When the United Nations determined in 1946 that member nations could no longer have colonies, the United States started calling Puerto Rico a territory. “We have taxation without representation,” González-Castillo citing a line from the time of the Boston Tea Party. Still, Puerto Rico is “a small island in the Caribbean with a with a big impact all over the world.”

Just about anything one can purchase in Puerto Rico by law comes from the United States, “or at least a ship from the U.S.,” he said, thanks to the Jones Act of 1920. One effect of that law has been to drive up prices in Puerto Rico, González-Castillo said. When he and his wife shipped their car from Puerto Rico to their new home in Louisville a few years back, a vehicle registration clerk wanted to verify the taxes on the car they’d paid in Puerto Rico. When González-Castillo showed the statement to the officials, “they were surprised how high the taxes were,” he said. “They thought I was giving them the price of the car, not the taxes.”

Following a catastrophe such as Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans had to wait for weeks for building materials and other goods to arrive. “We needed special permission from the U.S. to receive goods from other countries,” González-Castillo explained. On top of that impediment, since 2016, a U.S.-imposed oversight board, PROMESA, established by the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act in a deal designed to reduce Puerto Rico’s crushing debt, makes all of Puerto Rico’s significant money decisions.

“Their interest is the people we owe money to,” González-Castillo said. “They are the ones who make decisions about budgets and how the money is spent.”

Schuhmann asked him: For U.S.-based Presbyterians, what might solidarity look like?

PDA received “a lot of volunteers” following Hurricane Maria, González-Castillo said. “People really wanted to help the people of Puerto Rico.” To help those who were helping others, PDA put together a training on decolonizing volunteerism.

“Everything comes down to the relationships we have,” he said. “That meaningful solidarity has to be less about charity and more about relationships and partnerships.”

“The people of Puerto Rico know how to help themselves and attend to their needs,” González-Castillo said. “We welcome expertise and knowledge, but we really value people who support local efforts.”

When Protestant denominations came to Puerto Rico to establish churches, they sliced the island “like a cake,” he said. Most of the 78 Presbyterian churches are on the western side. “The Presbyterian Church has a long-standing presence there — even before the missionaries arrived,” González-Castillo said. “Part of the relationship has to come with the recognition that we are here to learn and not come with the mentality that we are here to tell you how to do things.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Paula Tibbs, Administrative Support, Partners Beyond the PCUSA, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Jaymi Hendrix, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Dear God, thank you for giving us opportunities to serve — to be your hands and feet — and to share our time, talents and treasures with our neighbors in need. Amen.

Minute for Mission: World Communion Sunday

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Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you? … to do justice and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God.”

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a house with many rooms, so there must be a BIG kitchen table. The Gospels have enough food references to stock a pantry and Scriptures make plain that Jesus loved to sit and share meals with friends and strangers. 

So, I imagine God’s kitchen table is bustling with all types, surrounded by people we know and people we don’t, all brought together for the sake of being together. God, ever the gracious host, greets each of us with a warm hug, pulls out a seat, and invites anyone and everyone to stay awhile.

This image is insightful in the context of our resurrection into new life, but the metaphor extends into our lives on earth as a foretaste. In the Lord’s Prayer, we boldly request that this be made true on earth as it is in Heaven. Graciously, God spoke through the Prophet Micah what is expected to accomplish this monumental task: Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with God. 

Simple, right? Yet despite the thousands of years since we received this guidance, we remain inhabited in a world that is too often unjust, unkind and idolatrous. Our focus on what makes us different is used to justify exclusion, instead of recognizing the gifts of diversity and God’s call to be together. But though we continually fall short, God’s grace impels us to keep trying to live into the fullness of Micah’s prophecy with each new day.

The World Communion Offering is a new way for Presbyterians to “love kindness” by recognizing the inherent worth of every person, practicing hospitality and making room at the table for all people. This Offering works to reconcile God’s children by supporting the wider Church in the work of racial justice, gender justice, global witness, peacemaking, and ecumenical and interfaith relations. 

This World Communion Sunday, I invite you to consider how you can join in this mission. Is there someone you need to extend a merciful hand to? Are there members of your community seeking justice and failing to receive it? Whose love is missing from your table? Can you build a bigger one?

Your gifts, combined with those of other congregations, empower the World Communion Offering to support the PC(USA) ministries, partners, congregations and mid councils addressing these questions and their underlying challenges. While reconciliation begins in our hearts, the Special Offerings recognize how we can do this work together. With God’s help, we can work toward the Kingdom of Heaven with the hope that each and every person can take their seat at the Table of Grace.

Sarah McDowell, Annual Giving Officer, Stewardship and Funds Development

Let us join in prayer for:

Jessica Oms, Reservation Specialist, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Njeri Wagana Hughes, Associate, Partners Beyond the PCUSA, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Holy God, as we come to your table on World Communion Sunday, we thank you for all your servants who enact justice around the world and who ensure that your love is made known. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Book promotion supports ministry leaders who have student loan debt

The Office of Financial Aid for Service of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has launched an initiative to support emerging leaders in ministry who are navigating student loan debt. The Student Loan Coaching Book Promotion will provide eligible participants with up to $100 in book credits from the Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, along with free shipping.

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The promotion is available to individuals who have been in ministry for 10 years or less, including pastors, Christian educators, church music directors, and chaplains  — serving in paid or volunteer roles. Applicants must have student loan debt, register for Student Loan Coaching through the Office of Financial Aid for Service (FAS), and complete the Coaching Assessment with FAS’s partner, PeopleJoy, to receive the book credits.

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Young Adult Volunteers read during 2024-2025 orientation. Financial Aid for Service is offering a book promotion for those in the PC(USA) who qualify for their student debt coaching (photo by Rich Copley).

“This book promotion is available to volunteers as well,” said  Sandra Duverge, associate for Financial Aid for Service. “We recognize that people in ministry are often volunteers, especially Christian educators.” Duverge explained that eligible volunteers will still need to be carrying student debt and be employed by a nonprofit, even if it is not PC(USA)-related, in order to be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness and the PSLF debt coaching provided by the Office of Financial Aid for Service and PeopleJoy. 

Duverge emphasized that the promotion is designed to motivate new leaders to engage with coaching while providing essential resources for their spiritual and professional development. “Our hope is to build a strong foundation for the calling of people in ministry through access to printed resources as well as an encouraging coach to help people reduce student loan debt,” she said.

The funds can be used to purchase a wide range of materials from the PC(USA) Store, including theology books, curriculum, children’s books, Bibles, journals and other ministry-related resources. Distribution will be through physical shipments, with shipping costs covered by Financial Aid for Service.

The program is expected to run through the end of the year, with plans to continue in January. After 12 months, participants may be eligible for an additional $50.

Duverge noted that while the up to $100 credits are a strong incentive, the real value lies in helping ministry leaders begin their journey toward student loan forgiveness. “There’s a lot of fear around financial instability and financial debt,” she said. “It’s easier to ignore it even if eventually it’s just going to become a bigger problem.”

Apply here for the book promotion.

For more information, visit pcusa.org/loanassist.

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Jason Smith, Stewardship Officer, Stewardship & Funds Development, Administrative Services Group
Christina Barrosso, Administrative Assistant, Special Offerings & Appeals, Administrative Services Group

Let us pray:

When we open our hearts to your love, O God, we can share stories of our seeking and finding you with people of all ages and conditions and so receive new experiences of your grace. Thank you for the blessings you our into our lives when we reach out to one another. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Pastor explores preaching with a sacramental imagination

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Worship & Music Conference leaders prepare the communion elements before a 2023 worship service at Montreat Conference Center (Photo by Rich Copley).

The Rev. Dr. Dave Davis recently gave preachers in and around the Synod of the Covenant plenty to think about through a webinar that helped participants weave the sacraments more fully into their sermons.

Davis, pastor of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey, offered his “Preaching from Font to Table” talk as part of the synod’s monthly preaching webinars. His talk is available here.

Davis has been teaching this material as an elective at Princeton Theological Seminary for a couple of years. “This is a conversation about preaching on the occasion of the celebration of one of the sacraments,” Davis said, “and also how a deeper understanding of the sacraments can provide imagery and a theology for our sermons, a more robust relationship of Word and sacrament.”

When he asks seminary students to come up with a quality sermon they’re heard or are aware of on either of the sacraments, they sometimes have difficulty, Davis said, adding, “I’d like to invite you to join me today in reflecting on your own preaching life in respect to the sacraments.”

Dr. Nora Tubbs Tisdale, who taught Davis and many other preachers, argues in “Preaching as Local Theology and Folk Art” that pastors ought to be exegeting congregational life as well as biblical texts. “She suggests early on in that book that one can observe sacramental furniture as a reflection of the church’s relationship to the sacraments, especially when the sacraments are not being celebrated” on a given Sunday as part of worship, Davis said.

Davis grew up in a church where worship leaders pushed the communion table “against a far wall in the chancel” on Sundays when the Lord’s Supper was not being celebrated. But other faith communities take a more visible approach. Davis visited Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church outside Annapolis, Maryland, where he was shown a prominent baptismal font bolted to the floor, rendering it unmovable for any event. 

Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale, Arizona, features a large window with a view of a wadi that fills with water when it rains. The water then “goes right into their baptismal font. It’s a very powerful image,” Davis said. Church leaders told Davis the font has a leak that can’t be fixed, “and so baptismal water was always leaking into the nave of the sanctuary, which I think is a cool image to work with,” he said.

He noted that author and priest Barbara Brown Taylor calls preachers “detectives of divinity,” and Notre Dame theologian Mary Catherine Hilkert in her book “Naming Grace” identifies the preacher’s task as helping “the listener see what Christians know: that the whole world and life itself is charged with the very grandeur of God,” Davis said. “What we are called to do with our sermons is help people see the world as God intends, bearing the very grandeur of God.”

Preaching is a corporate act, and Dietrich Boenhoeffer put the preacher’s task like this in his “Worldly Preaching”: “I preach because the church is there, and I preach that the church might be there. Church preaches to church.”

Davis sometimes uses the phrase “bringing the world to bear on unsuspecting biblical texts” when preachers employ the lectionary to aid their preaching. With that approach, “it’s amazing how contextual your preaching can become and how relevant the living Word becomes,” Davis said. The sacraments can also be brought to bear on unsuspecting biblical texts as “a way to unleash understandings of scripture in new ways and make it relevant on the occasion of baptism and eucharist,” he said.

“I don’t want you to think I’m perfect at this,” Davis said. “I went back and looked at some of my sermons in preparation for today, and I was doing exactly what I am now calling out.”

Davis mentioned BEM, the Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry document the World Council of Churches first published in 1982 and reprinted many times after that. BEM gives “the clearest outline of the theological fenceposts of each of the sacraments,” Davis said, employing a term favored by his professor, Dr. James Kay. “That’s how I understand these various ways of approaching the Lord’s Supper.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Dayna Oliver, Grant Management Office, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Jacklyn Walker, Administrative Project Manager, Center for Repair, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

God of the old and the new, the great and the small, thank you for the warmth of your love and the inspiration of your Spirit. May you continue to bring new life into your churches, that we might proclaim in a myriad of ways the wonders of your love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Justice must be for all, human rights activist says

In a searing message at the United Nations, human rights activist Malala Yousafzai expressed deep disappointment in the continued plight of women and girls, especially in places where oppression and war are all too common.

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Malala Yousafzai, co-founder and executive chair of Malala Fund, speaks during the United Nations observance of International Women's Day 2026. (UN Photo/Evan Schneider)

The 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner was one of the special guests at a U.N. observance of International Women’s Day that coincided with the first day of the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70). 

Much of CSW70, in which a Presbyterian delegation participated, was focusing on the theme of  “ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls.”

However, “true justice does not defend the humanity of children in one place and ignore it in another,” Yousafzai said. “It is not selectively applied. It does not claim that our rights are dependent on where we were born or what is politically safe for the people in this room.”

She was among a handful of speakers and performers featured during the event emphasizing “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.” (Watch here.)

This “is about appreciation of the talents and energies of women and girls everywhere, their courage, their resilience, their contributions and their leadership,” said Sima Bahous, executive director of U.N. Women. “It is about bravery and determination, about our refusal to accept a pushback against gender equality, whether in our communities, online or in the work of these United Nations.”

Yousafzai is known for making bold statements and being a trailblazer. At 17, she became the youngest Nobel laureate, an honor bestowed upon her for championing the right of every child to receive an education and for challenging the Pakistani Taliban’s oppressive tactics, such as blocking the education of girls.

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Presbyterians in New York for the 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women gathered at the office of the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations. They are engaging in advocacy and learning about important issues this week. (Photo by Rich Copley)

“For a long time, I believed that my voice could make a difference, that things would change. But today, I stand here heartbroken,” she said. “Never have I seen so many children suffering from war and violence, injured and dying at the hands of unaccountable leaders. I am devastated for families in Iran whose daughters left for school and did not return home, for parents in Gaza who buried their children beneath the rubble of their classrooms, for Afghan girls living under the brutal Taliban regime for nearly five years.”

In an attempt to erase girls from public life, the Taliban has “controlled courts, the police and public institutions, and they have used their power to abuse women and girls,” Yousafzai said. “Girls cannot go to secondary school or university. Women cannot go to work, leave their homes without a male chaperone or even speak in public. The list goes on and on — no sports, no nail polish, no singing no reciting poetry. 

“Women and girls cannot be treated by a male doctor and are not allowed to train to become doctors themselves,” she said. “In Afghanistan today, it is legal for a man to beat his wife or daughter.” 

Yet, the world has responded by looking away or by excusing or mischaracterizing the abuses of the Taliban instead of recognizing their actions as crimes under international law.

“This is not culture. It is not religion. It is a system of segregation and domination,” she said, stressing the need to stop atrocities from happening for another generation. “It is not enough to grieve for those who are suffering. We must move from sympathy to accountability.” 

Later, the audience heard brief remarks by Sunbul Reha, a singer and musician from Afghanistan. Previous speakers and performers, including Yousafzai, stood behind her on stage as she spoke.

“I know what it means when a girl's voice is silenced,” she said. “I have lived it. Too many of our sisters around the world face daily fear, insecurity and violence … Our bodies are being violated. Rights that took generations to win are evaporating before our eyes, and still, I remain hopeful,” the college student said.

She went on to note that women have not given up. “Women continue to speak up for their rights, and young people everywhere refuse to give up the fight. We are undaunted. We will not stop. We have hope.”

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Michael Gehrling, Manager, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
John DiSpralto, Kitchen Assistant, Stony Point Center, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Your gift of living water gives us new life. We thank you that this new life can be shared wherever you call us, O Lord. We pray that all who drink receive the living water you offer. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Presbyterians lift up young adults, justice at gathering

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The Rev. Dr. Cornell Edmonds, pastor of the Church of the Covenant, chats with the Rev. CeCe Armstrong. (Photos by Rich Copley)

While welcoming a plethora of guests to his church for International Women’s Day, the Rev. Dr. Cornell Edmonds noticed that some young people were shy to stand up and be recognized, so he took a little extra time to nudge them to their feet.

“Rise,” without hesitancy, said Edmonds, who leads the Church of the Covenant in New York. “Like dust, we hope for you to rise because you are our hope, our salvation.” 

Edmonds was lifting up the young adult portion of a joint delegation who represented the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Presbyterian Women (PW) at the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70).

The joint delegation, which reflects a concerted effort by Presbyterians to attract young adults to serve alongside delegates over the age of 30, gathered at the church for a joyful service featuring a sermon by the Rev. CeCe Armstrong, a Moderator of the 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). There also was a reprise of the line dancing that she led at the General Assembly in Salt Lake City, with the Electric Slide bringing the New York congregation and guests to their feet for some brief fun at the close of service. 

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Young people rise to their feet during a service at the Church of the Covenant in New York, ahead of the 70th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

The gathering, which was attended by an in-person crowd as well as many church supporters in distant locales, was the last Presbyterian event before CSW70 started at U.N. Headquarters, with a theme that focused on ensuring and strengthening access to justice for all women and girls.

Both Edmonds’ and his wife, Barbara, have backgrounds in law and look forward to welcoming the Presbyterian delegation and various leaders of PW and the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations each year.

During brief remarks and introductions of dignitaries and other guests, Barbara Edmonds quoted Fannie Lou Hamer, who said, “When I liberate myself I liberate others.” 

Barbara Edmonds also highlighted various ills that need confronting in today’s world. 

“As we gather, we're mindful that we live in challenging — but I always say hopeful — times,” she said. “Rev. Dr. King always reminds us of the three evils that we're confronted with: militarism, racism and sexism, and all forms of injustice, and I emphasize all forms of injustice and economic exploitation. These realities continue to call people of faith, courage, compassion and action, and that's why we're here, right?”

Later, Armstrong took to the lectern to give a sermon on who needs Jesus.

The answer? “Everyone needs Jesus,” she said. “Everyone can have a piece of what Christ has to offer. You can have your heart's desires, but you must admit that you need Jesus.”

Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/embed/6OUm2qH8-7I

Jesus’ willingness to help marginalized people falls in line with the need to eliminate discriminatory policies, practices and laws in today’s world, Armstrong said. “That’s what we’re here to learn.”

She also stressed the importance of sharing your testimony in order to show people that they, too, need Jesus. “Friends, let's just be truthful. Sometimes, your life, your story, your testimony, is the only Bible people will ever read.”

In addition to giving her sermon, Armstrong expressed thanks for being able to participate in CSW.

“I am really beyond grateful to be here for CSW70, for this is my first one ever, but it won't be my last, and to further the theme of this gathering for and by women,” she said. “I’m sure that our work together, ensuring and strengthening the access to justice for all women and girls, will be beneficial to generations to come.”

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Yesenia Ayala,  Associate, Financial Aid for Service, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

God of grace, we pray that we might be your hands and feet and voice to people who are seeking you. Guide us by your Holy Spirit to create spaces of grace for those you have claimed as your own. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Michigan artist encourages ‘eyes of wonder’ to see faith in new ways

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Joel Schoon-Tanis was artist-in-residence at this past summer’s Worship & Music Conference. (Photo courtesy of Joel Schoon-Tanis)

Joel Schoon-Tanis is the artist-in-residence at his church in Holland, Michigan, and this past summer, established a mobile studio Montreat Conference Center for a two-week stint as the artist-in-residence for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference.

Schoon-Tanis recently joined hosts Sarah Abushakra and Jeremy Roberts for their “Sounding Board” podcast. Follow their 73-minute conversation here. Schoon-Tanis is introduced at the 7:50 mark.

“I have always loved church and felt home in church, and I am super thankful to have two daughters who feel the same,” he told the hosts. His younger daughter arrives at church early every Sunday “to make sure everything is OK, and then she rings the bell,” he said. “She appointed herself bell-ringer,” which she does every Sunday 10 minutes ahead of the start of worship.

The son of a professor at Hope College in Holland, Schoon-Tanis attended the Christian liberal arts institution tuition-free. Halfway through his studies, he realized that “all I’ve ever wanted to do was paint and make stuff.” During his senior year, he met a woman in a painting class who was preparing to open an art gallery. “We became friends, and the next thing you know, I was her sole employee,” he said. She allowed him to show his work there. “It was the last time I held a real job,” he said, “but at the same time, people started buying my work.”

He said he’s always enjoyed the juxtaposition of painting childlike images “and the realistic.” He told the hosts he’s convinced “there are colors in God’s Creation we don’t know about yet.”

“I have this ache sometimes to find a color I expect to have on my palette but it’s not there,” he said. “To me, the new creation should be better than the old creation. That’s my hot take, and I’m sticking to that.”

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Jeremy Roberts

Asked by Roberts about the intersection of his work and his faith, Schoon-Tanis summed it up in one word: wonder.

Take a child on a hike and they’ll notice the tiniest things, including bugs, he said. They often describe what they’ve found “through a different angle, so a zebra is a horse with a striped suit. They’re piecing it together, which ends up being delightful and whimsical.”

When Schoon-Tanis prepares to paint something he’s done a thousand times, such as a tree, he’ll try to do it “in a whimsical, fun way so we notice it differently” and “so it doesn’t become just a bland thing that we’ve seen before.”

Similarly, when we study Scripture, “we can get locked into how we think a biblical passage should go or what it should mean,” he told the hosts. “If you hear a sermon on a specific passage enough times, you say, ‘Oh, I’ve got this.’ I know I can sometimes not listen as well then. I’m always thankful when pastors can prove me wrong and guide me in a different way.”

“What eyes of wonder or this whimsical approach can do is it can take on a passage from a different angle,” he said, “and help us look at the same story we might think we know deeply with fresh eyes and a slight change in perspective.”

That reminded Abushakra of Mary Oliver’s “Instructions for Living a Life”: “Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

Children are especially good with the “telling” part, Roberts said. While working with a children’s choir one day, the term “merciful” came up in a hymn the children were singing. He asked them: what does “merciful” mean? A first grader raised her hand and said, “My mom loves me all the time. Even when she gets mad, she still loves me, no matter what.”

“I thought, yes, that’s what merciful means,” Roberts said. “The way kids can break things open is so wonderful.”

Fatherhood “has absolutely reinforced my philosophy of wonder,” Schoon-Tanis said. He used to watch the way his daughters drew things and would sometimes steal their techniques. “Not anymore,” he said, “because they’ve both gotten pretty accomplished.”

Find the work of Schoon-Tanis on Instagram or through his website.

“Sounding Board” is available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Rachel Anderson, Global Ecumenical Liaison-US, Global Ecumenical Partnerships, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Molly Atkinson, Senior Administrative Assistant, Financial Aid Service, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Gracious God, we praise you and also wonder at the great need we see around us. Forgive us for our failure to love our neighbors as ourselves. Strengthen us to work for a world where all are fed. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.