Today in the Mission Yearbook - Striking a balance between ‘Spirit-led’ and ‘decent and in order’

Vital Congregations Initiative leader discusses ‘Spirit-inspired worship’

July 17, 2024

The Rev. Veronica Cannon

When it comes to “Spirit-inspired worship,” the Rev. Veronica Cannon sets a very high standard and advises that churches and the people who attend them not compromise.

Cannon admits she can get herself in trouble when she is teaching about this particular mark lifted up through the Vital Congregation Initiative (VCI), because she boldly tells people that if they don’t encounter Jesus Christ when they attend worship, then they may need to move on.

Cannon, who manages the Vital Congregations Initiative for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), spoke to the Rev. Sara Hayden, host of the “New Way” podcast. She told Hayden, who works with the 1001 New Worshiping Communities movement, that she believed that Spirit-inspired worship should convict you of something: “You should be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Something in worship should say, ‘I have got to do better,’” said Cannon. “You should never ever walk out of any worship service the same way you walked in. Something about you should be different.”

Throughout their two-part conversation, Cannon and Hayden cover familiar territory for the seasoned pastor — waking up Sunday morning to a world in trauma and knowing the prepared sermon won’t cut it, responding when someone in worship needs urgent help, striking the balance between “decent and in order” and “Spirit-led,” letting go of the need to control as a leader and relying on others to guide worshipful moments, and helping congregations find the truest expression of their vitality.

“The best sermon is not one that people can hear but one that people see,” said Cannon, who learned this advice from her husband, the Rev. Dr. Jerry L. Cannon, vice president of Ministry Innovation for the Board of Pensions.

Veronica Cannon described how thinking on one’s feet and responding through faith and to the Spirit is its own kind of sermon, for it demonstrates faith in action and a leader’s trust in grace. Hayden shared a vulnerable moment of self-discovery about learning to let go of her plan in leading worshipful experiences and relying on others to connect to the Spirit when the best-laid plans fall through.

“We realize it’s really not about us, anyway,” said Cannon, who admitted that we learn those same lessons over and over “in a difficult and hard way.”

Cannon still pastors First Presbyterian Church in Waxhaw, North Carolina. She brings her experience to her work through the Vital Congregations Initiative: “We are helping churches to become more vital. We are helping pastors to also become revitalized in their work because, you know, being in ministry can be hard. And oftentimes you can feel very much alone,” said Cannon.

Cannon described a theme she hears over and over across churches and presbyteries she visits. People are concerned about how many people stopped attending worship in person during the pandemic and continue to primarily seek out worship online. This has left many pastors and elders concerned about being a transformative presence in their neighborhoods as they also worry about the vital use of their buildings that have become increasingly costly to maintain.

“I’m a pastor at heart,” said Cannon, explaining how she approaches her work as manager of VCI and as a pastor of a small church. She feels compassion for churches as they struggle amid cultural change and in the wave of departures from worship post-Covid. “I’m passionate about this work because part of my ministry is to help people have a vital relationship with Christ,” said Cannon, who applies this ethos to each context of her ministry — from members in her congregation to church leaders in the VCI cohorts or presbyteries that have signed on to support vitality initiatives across their region.

Beth Waltemath, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Today’s Focus: Vital Congregations Initiative

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Rhonda Martin, Finance Manager, Presbyterian Women 
Dina Martinez, Customer Service Representative, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation 

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 - South Carolina church grateful for ‘the gift’ of the Vital Congregations initiative

While painful, discovering the church was not as healthy as it appeared led to renewal

May 18, 2020

Thanks to participation in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Vital Congregations initiative, First Presbyterian Church of Clinton, South Carolina, began to realize the church wasn’t as healthy as it appeared. Church members say they’ve experienced renewal by re-engaging in serving their community. (Contributed photo)

When the Rev. Dr. Jeri Parris Perkins became pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Clinton, South Carolina, she knew the congregation needed to revitalize. It’s what the Pastor Nominating Committee was looking for when the church called her in 2014.

Perkins said church members didn’t know how God was going to do that for them until 2018, when Trinity Presbytery began a two-year pilot of a new revitalization process from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Office of Vital Congregations.

Produced by Theology, Formation & Evangelism ministries, the church revitalization process focuses on seven marks of vital congregations:

• Lifelong Discipleship
• Intentional Evangelism
• Outward Incarnational Focus (on God coming to be with us in Jesus Christ)
• Empower Servant Leadership
• Spirit-Inspired Worship
• Caring Relationships
• Ecclesial Health

As Perkins met monthly with other church leaders from the presbytery in pastoral cohort groups formed for the initiative, and as she participated in monthly Bible study on the seven marks with First Church’s session, she said she no longer felt like “a lone ranger.” Because now others began to recognize what she and the PNC knew — that First Church wasn’t as healthy or as vital on the inside as it looked on the outside.

Nearly 500 members strong, First Presbyterian Church had been a flagship institution in Clinton since its founding in 1855.  In their first 20 years, the church started Thornwell, a home for children orphaned in the Civil War, and, in 1880, Presbyterian College. Later in the 1940s and 1950s, the church started a preschool and welcomed  The Clinton Presbyterian Community retirement home.

First Church had a beautiful physical plant for worship and education, and a great Christian Life Center for worship. But when members of this large, historic, wealthy, downtown, college-related church took a U.S. Congregational Vitality Survey, which is part of the VC initiative, they found out they were sorely lacking in each of the seven marks.

“We finally saw beyond our surface,” Perkins said. “While painful, it was like a gift to us, because we could see ourselves as others saw us.”

In 2001, Clinton’s textile mills, which had been a vital source of economic prosperity, closed.

Gradually the town’s population began to shrink, with people moving outside of the community to find work.

In 2019, the church’s certified preschool — which had been housed at Thornwell — moved back to First Church. The children’s home had run out of space for the preschool after starting a charter school. Because the church building isn’t currently certifiable, the program had to cut back to four-hour days, causing enrollment to drop and adding to the perception that the church and community could no longer meet the needs of the working parents who still live there.

Acknowledging that the church is at a crossroads with the preschool, Perkins said church leaders are in prayer and discernment as the best way forward to continue to serve the church and the community’s children.

Recently, First Presbyterian took a survey of its church members. Perkins said that 75 percent of them want to be more engaged in the community again, both locally and globally.

“They want to be engaged in mission as well as to write checks to support longstanding mission partners,” Perkins said.

And they wanted a healthier church family that cared for one another in deeper ways. Perkins said the congregation is beginning to recognize that vitality is a spiritual experience — and what really matters is the beauty of the family that lives in that space based on how they are serving the world and community and each other.

First Church has renewed its commitment to shared ministry with the institutions that members helped start, such as the annual Rise Against Hunger initiative with Presbyterian College and in the Livestream ministry with Clinton Presbyterian Community residents. They’ve also recently participated in larger parish conversations with many of the 13 smaller PC(USA) churches in Laurens County.

“Change is afoot. People are starting to catch fire,” said Perkins. “It’s been a long journey, but we are so grateful for our godly heritage, for our promising future and for the Vital Congregations Initiative that helped us see it all with fresh eyes.”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Angela Curry, Presbyterian Foundation
Patricia Curtis, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray:

Father, we give you thanks for your blessings and ask that you teach us to share with those who have nothing. We know that you can convert the little that we have into a rich abundance to benefit those who suffer. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Nearly one-third of PC(USA) churches in New York City begin Vital Congregations initiative

Executive presbyter says the number signing up for the two-year revitalization process is an answer to prayer

January 31, 2020

Leaders from churches in the Presbytery of New York City talk during the presbytery’s congregational resources day last weekend. (Photo by Robert Foltz Morrison)

When more than 50 people representing 31 congregations gathered to prepare for the Presbytery of New York City’s launch of the Vital Congregations initiative, the Rev. Robert Foltz-Morrison, the executive presbyter, felt the Spirit moving.

Foltz-Morrison and an advisory team had prayed that one-third of the presbytery’s congregations would participate in the two-year Presbyterian Mission Agency initiative, beginning this month.

After speaking two years ago with the Vital Congregations coordinator, the Rev. Dr. Kathryn Threadgill, he said he felt that the approach denominational leaders took — one of walking with presbytery and congregational leaders in intentional efforts of revitalization — was the right approach.

“I saw it as something valuable, but the previous readiness wasn’t quite there,” Foltz-Morrison said.

But then, he said, thanks to God’s readiness, everything began to sync.  Chosen as one of 14 presbyteries to participate in the first wave of the national Vital Congregations launch, Foltz-Morrison and the advisory team began telling congregations in the presbytery about the initiative.

They spoke about how the initiative would help congregations build authentic relationships of faith, as they worked together on the initiative’s 7 marks of congregational vitality. Having previously worked in redevelopment ministry, Foltz-Morrison knew how important each of the practices (marks) are in congregational life — and how working on the marks in relational cohort groups that meet monthly would help congregations honestly assess where they are. The work would also help them discern the movement of the Spirit and the new thing Christ is doing in their midst.

“What makes this initiative unique,” he said, “is that we train local facilitators instead of having consultants come in and out. This will help in building relationships of love, trust and support.”

When the facilitators received Vital Congregations training in Baltimore in August, Foltz-Morrison noticed how valued and honored they felt. Ready to begin their preparation, they met with the pastors and elders from the 31 congregations in October, introducing themselves to their cohort groups, which are being clustered in four of the city’s five boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens.

“Each of the cohort groups know their neighborhoods and have relationships,” he said. “But at that first meeting, they felt a different kind of support, knowing they all would be working at revitalization together in each of their boroughs over the next two years.”

The cohort groups are: :

Bronx: Beck Memorial, Eastchester, Emmanuel Presbyterian Reformed, Featherbed Lane, Riverdale, St. Augustine, Trinity (NWC)

Brooklyn: Bedford Central, Bethel Presbyterian Reformed, First Brooklyn, First Spanish, Kingslawn, Lafayette Avenue, Siloam

Manhattan: Church of the Covenant, Emmanuel, Church of the Master, Mawuli (NWC), Mt. Morris-Ascension, North, Rendall Memorial, Second Presbyterian, Trinity, West End

Queens: Dunton, Far Rockaway, First Jamaica, Hollis, Korean United, Springfield Gardens, St. Albans

The Office of Vital Congregations is part of the PC(USA)’s Theology, Formation & Evangelism ministry. To download a basic information packet for presbyteries interested in going through the Vital Congregations initiative process, click here.

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jeanie Schmuckie, Presbyterian Foundation
Eileen Schuhmann, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

Creator God, remind us that we are called to collaborate, so that all may share in your abundance. Amen.