Minute for Mission: May Friendship Day

May 6, 2022

May Friendship Day, a Church Women United initiative, is most often celebrated on the first Friday of the month of May around a theme of shared concern for Christian women and their communities. The predecessor to May Friendship Day, May Fellowship Day, began in 1933 after two Christian women’s groups planned gatherings based on similar concerns: child health and children of migrant families. These groups united and over the years eventually became what we now know as Church Women United. The May celebration has been continually observed since 1933. In 1999, Church Women United changed the name from May Fellowship Day to May Friendship Day.

The 2022 Church Women United celebrations — including World Community Day and May Friendship Day — share the theme “It’s Up to You in 2022.” The focus for May Friendship Day is “A Call to Serve.” In a world that cries out for healing and reconciliation, it’s up to each of us to reflect God’s generous love through prayerful advocacy and compassionate service.

Christian women’s groups from many denominations (including Presbyterian Women, which encourages participation in and support of Church Women United) will participate in May Friendship Day throughout the United States during the first days of May. For more information, visit churchwomenunited.net or call 678-705-3711.

Carissa Herold, Marketing Associate for Presbyterian Women in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kerry Rice, Deputy Stated Clerk, Office of the Stated Clerk, Office of the General Assembly
Meg Rift, Associate for Curriculum Development, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

Loving God, on this day of friendship, help us to live in such a way that reflects your love to your people. We humbly pray that our actions and words bring healing and reconciliation to all, on this day and all days. Amen.

Minute for Mission: National Day of Awareness & Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit People

May 5, 2022

Photo courtesy of Alethia Oatman

Indigenous communities have been struck by the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people (MMIW) for decades. This epidemic is a systemic failure where Indigenous women are going missing and being murdered at alarmingly high rates with minimal justice. Within the past several years, the MMIW movement has brought awareness of this violence to the public’s attention. Still, there is much work to be done.

On average, four out of five Indigenous women will experience violence in their lifetime. In some areas, the rates of Indigenous women being murdered is 10x the national average (found at csvanw.org). This epidemic of violence on Indigenous women is devastating for the families and communities. Indigenous women have always been placed on a pedestal for being the creators and caretakers for each community and losing even just one person is a loss in the language, culture and historical lineage.

As the MMIW movement continues to grow, there is hope that Indigenous families can find healing and justice. However, justice can only be found when the systemic barriers within the justice systems on the tribal, state and federal level are addressed. Indigenous communities are advocating for federal policies to be put in place that would protect their nations’ sovereign rights over their people and homelands. Supporting legislative policies such as Savanna’s Act and Not Invisible Act are the first steps in addressing these systemic barriers.

Indigenous communities may find healing when the tragic situations of their loved ones are recognized on a national level with a sense of urgency for the tragedy to be addressed. It is crucial for the survivors’ stories and voices to be heard so they can mourn with the peace of mind knowing justice will be served.

Some possible ideas to assist in the work of MMIW would be to use your own social media to bring awareness to everyone you know about the cases. You can also call the local law enforcement department working on the case to see what you might be able to do to bring awareness to the seriousness of the situation, perhaps calling local media sources and national media sources in the search for missing people.

You can find more information at the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women at csvanw.org.

Danelle Crawford McKinney and Madison McKinney, co-writers

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tina Rhudy, Associate Director, Building Services, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Bob and Kristi Rice, Mission Co-workers serving in South Sudan, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Creator From All Directions, we pray for strength and confidence for Indigenous women who feel invisible but need to know they are strong warriors, and for your powerful hand to assist men when they feel helpless to protect and comfort families, and for all Indigenous people as they strive to teach the young people on how to protect and prevent harm to their future communities. Help us to give them a voice and support them through our actions in areas they need it the most. In your most holy name, we pray. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Returning to his Red Clay Creek roots

U.S. Sen. Chris Coons helps the church that nurtured him, Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, launch its 300th anniversary celebration

May 4, 2022

U.S. Senator Chris Coons preached Sunday at the church that nurtured him, Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, which is celebrating its 300th anniversary this year. (Photo by the Rev. Cindy Kohlmann)

Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, turns 300 this year, and the congregation plans a yearlong celebration. Worshipers recently heard an inspiring and heartfelt sermon from one of its favorite sons, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, who deftly put into historical perspective the church’s lengthy history.

“What was here in 1722? A small hardy band of Presbyterian farmers in the new wilderness gathered on the banks of Red Clay Creek to worship without a pastor or a building for the first three decades,” said Coons, a product of both Yale Divinity School and Yale Law School. By the time a small group gathered at the Golden Fleece Tavern in Dover to ratify the U.S. Constitution and make Delaware the nation’s first state, “Red Clay was 65 years old,” Coons noted.

“I have great confidence in the spirit that has informed and sustained this congregation from the very beginning to today and into its future,” Coons said.

Coons says he draws on-the-job sustenance every Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol, when about two dozen senators on both sides of the political aisle meet with the chaplain of the U.S. Senate, the Rev. Dr. Barry C. Black, for a prayer breakfast.

“We pray, talk about our families, sing a hymn, and then one of us stands up and witnesses about the role of faith in our life,” Coons said. “I have seen week in and week out over the 11 years I’ve been there the most remarkable moments of vulnerability and humanity.”

Senators “often talk about the loss of a loved one … and how their faith has challenged them, sustained them and moved them to service,” Coons said.

“And what do you think I talk about?” Coons asked. “I talk about you. I’ve talked about the powerful impact of Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church on my family and my life.”

He’s shared the story from his childhood of how his father, who was part of the church’s prison ministry team, once welcomed into the Coons home a convicted murderer. He’s also described “dozens of different ministries over decades and decades, the ways you have done service and ministry, great and small, from coffee hour to bell choir.”

After consulting with friends who’d also grown up in the congregation, the group identified seven of their cohort serving in ordained ministry. “Others serve in more fallen ways,” Coons said with a smile, “yet do our best to carry forward what is so powerful about the spirit of this place.”

Coons then turned to the gospel lesson for the day, Luke 3:15–17 and 21–22, the account of John baptizing Jesus.

John, “the one who lays the path for Christ by calling the people of Jerusalem out to repentance,” baptizes Jesus in a “pretty remote, small muddy river,” Coons preached.

“This is the moment when Jesus, raised in his home synagogue, nurtured in Nazareth, certainly familiar with the Temple, and yet he launches his ministry in the margins, amongst the rabble with this wild-haired man,” Coons said. “Why? What does that mean for us?”

Coons said he took the opportunity before the service to return to his Sunday school classroom. “It looks exactly the same,” he said, chuckling. “As I talked with my cohort, the folks I grew up with, for each of us, there was a moment outside the ordinary when we actually encountered the risen Christ in others and thus in ourselves. On a mission trip overseas. Serving lunch with the homeless. Welcoming a refugee family. What has happened in this place over the decades of the lives of those who were raised up with me was risky encounters of Christ through moments of mission, bravery and risk.”

What the founders of Red Clay Creek sought — and what members still seek — is “the baptism and the presence of the risen Christ … that inbreaking, that moment of surprise and of hope that sustained them,” Coons said. “I don’t just pray — I know that if we will but open our hearts this year, we will be anointed for the 21st century in this gathering, in this congregation, in this place.”

Watch the worship service at Red Clay Creek here.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Sue Rheem, Presbyterian Rep. to the UN, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Katie Rhodes, HR Generalist, Administrative Services Group, A Corp

Let us pray

Almighty God, give us the courage to be partners with our brothers and sisters to promote peace and justice. We pray for peace in our country and among all nations. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Opportunities abound for effective online preaching

Synod of the Covenant offers up a how-to featuring longtime homiletics professor Jana Childers

May 3, 2022

The Rev. Dr. Jana Childers

While in-person preachers have a big toolbox from which to draw, online preachers have just two main tools — their face and their voice.

“Natural-sounding speech is more persuasive,” the Rev. Dr. Jana Childers, Professor of Homiletics and Speech Communications at San Francisco Theological Seminary at the University of Redlands, said during a recent monthly Equipping Preachers webinar put on by the Synod of the Covenant. In addition to more than three decades of teaching seminarians how to preach and preaching herself, Childers has worked in television and theater. Even preachers reading from a manuscript “can make it sound natural with some key speech skills, phrasing and emphasis,” Childers said.

Childers labeled her nearly 90-minute talk “Preaching the Word … Virtually.” The Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick, interim executive of Synod of the Covenant, hosted the event, which attracted about 25 participants and can be seen here.

Childers called the preacher’s emphasis “language in action. We are moving people from one place to another, and the primary way we do that online is through the skill of emphasis. We choose the best word in a sentence as a way to signal how we are moving the meaning forward.”

That’s done by highlighting the new idea in, say, a Bible verse, and subduing the old, Childers said. But be careful, she told the gathered preachers: “You can change the meaning of a sentence as it comes out of your mouth,” Childers said. “It’s a hermeneutical issue.”

In Luke 12:34, where Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” the key words to emphasize during an online (or even in-person) sermon are “treasure” and “heart.” Punching those words is an aid to worshipers, according to Childers. “The message goes into your ear and right down to your heart,” Childers said.

There are some words preachers should never emphasize, including prepositions, words that indicate place and time (“We assume we always live in time and space,” Childers said) and the “big” words, including “very,” “much,” “huge” and “large.” Preachers who stress those “big” words while reading Scripture make it sound “like we are reading to preschoolers,” Childers said.

Online preaching also requires attention to phrasing, which “signals a tentatively complete unit of thought,” Childers said, allowing “the speaker to tell one thing at a time,” directing “the ear to meaning” and allowing “both speaker and listener a chance to breathe.”

Childers outlined two simple rules for online preachers: Keep related words together, such as a noun and its modifier and an adjective and its adverb, and don’t pause at the comma before a quotation mark. That comma “is a wet bar of soap,” Childers told participants. “Step on it and glide.”

Childers shared other tips for online preachers, including:

• Wear blue, “the TV camera’s favorite color by far,” Childers said.
• Choose non-reflective eyeglasses.
• Use a heavier foundation and a brow pencil. “If you don’t have a drawerful, think about using a little bit of powder,” Childers advised. Viewers can be distracted by extra red around the preacher’s nose and cheeks.
• Add nonverbal transitions — even if it’s just looking down or away from the camera briefly.
• Add lights so that the light on the preacher is a soft light. Avoid lights behind the preacher.
• For “living room preaching,” position the camera 3 to 6 feet away. For preaching online from the pulpit, the rule of thumb is 6 to 10 feet, Childers said.
• Choose your background judiciously. “Sometimes people can read the titles of the books behind me,” Childers said, “but I don’t care.”
• Avoid being stiff and formal.
• Watch yourself by recording your preaching and then looking at the recording with a critical eye. “It’s not easy to do, but it’s the best teacher there is,” Childers said.

“Online preaching offers us a great chance to up a particular kind of intimacy with our congregations,” Childers said. “I see online preachers every day exploring how that can be deepened.”

Childers wished preachers well as many of them continue to offer online or hybrid worship services.

“I look forward to seeing you in the virtual world of cyberspace,” Childers told workshop participants.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Martha Reisner, Church Consultant, Washington, DC, Board of Pensions
Catherine Reuning, Mission Specialist, Theology & Worship, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord of freedom and promise, guide our feet to find the faith to move beyond passive lives that cry “Lord Jesus” yet fail to speak truth in love to power. Give us courage to be bridge builders of hope. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - What does JOY mean to you?

A Matthew 25 new worshiping community focuses on environmental justice

May 2, 2022

The JOY Community, a new worshiping community in Heartland Presbytery, held a Planet Party in July 2021. (Photo courtesy of JOY Community)

New worshiping communities in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) take on new and varied forms of church in a changing culture. Primarily they are seeking to make and form new disciples of Jesus Christ in order to transform the world. How they put that into practice often involves creativity and out-of-the-box approaches.

The JOY Community in St. Joseph, Missouri, part of  Heartland Presbytery, gathers in a beautiful sacred space that offers solace and restoration for body and soul. Its origin comes from a Laudato Si understanding of seeking equity through both social and environmental justice.

JOY — Justice, Outreach and Yoga — made the commitment to join the Matthew 25 journey in May 2021. Last year before the pandemic resurge, JOY hosted a gathering as part of honoring its Matthew 25 call for eco-justice and honoring God’s gift of Creation.

The Go Green St. Joe! Planet Party was sponsored by JOY and organized by new worshiping community leaders Natalie Ward, Jan Storts, Emily Fite and Diane Waddell. Collaborating with several other local organizations, they offered music, TED-type talks, yoga demonstrations and informational booths on local food sources, climate change, etc.

“We are enjoying celebrating and worshiping in creative, diverse ways,” said Waddell, NWC Matthew 25 contact leader for JOY. “And we are now officially receiving offerings for the four PC(USA) special offerings.”

Recognizing the connection of systemic poverty to food sourcing, climate change and environmental challenges, JOY also hosted a Citizens’ Climate Lobby with the Missouri Western State University Biology Department, where virtually all the faculty are doing research related to climate change and the environment.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s invitation to become a Matthew 25 church was issued in April 2019. There are now more than 1,060 congregations, groups and mid councils who have accepted that invitation and helping the denomination become a more relevant presence in the world.

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

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Eva Rebozo, CLC Consultant/Database Administrator, Office of the General Assembly
Sharon Reid, Archives Technician, Presbyterian Historical Society

Let us pray

Lord of Creation, help us to live in Job’s words: “Ask the animals, and they will teach you; … and the fish of the sea will declare to you. … In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of every human being” (12:7–10). Amen.

Bless, do not curse, changes

BIBLE EXPLORATIONS: FAITHFUL LIVING IN A NEW SEASON

Understanding and embracing a new day

by Chip Hardwick | Presbyterians Today

“Seems like changes come faster and faster all the time!” My grandmother, who was born in 1904, told me this one day, as she described her youth without cars and then astronauts on the moon six decades later. Some of the changes over her 97 years were unwelcome. She never did buy a microwave. Other changes, like the “www” in her morning newspaper ads, intrigued her.

As we haltingly step out of the pandemic, changes still seem to come faster and faster all the time. We have Bible study on Zoom and worship on YouTube. Masks are on; masks are off — and of course, everyone has an opinion about the latest public health guidance.

We are not the first generation to see such change. And I am not just reaching back to my grandmother’s generation. Acts 11:1–18 describes a monumental change in the history of God’s people that was not welcomed.

Peter has been preaching to the Gentiles in Caesarea, and the Holy Spirit comes upon them —much to the surprise of his missionary team, all of whom, like Peter himself, are Jewish converts. The new Gentile believers are baptized before Peter heads back to Jerusalem, but not without some criticism as Christians of Jewish descent ask, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Peter’s enthusiastic baptisms of his new siblings were not received all that enthusiastically by his longtime siblings. Peter is not alone.

In our families, workplaces and churches, sometimes a change that we prefer is less preferable for others. The pandemic exposed this as one of the many divides in our culture. In our churches, this divide has been over online worship: Some embrace the opportunity to not worry about keeping their children quiet during worship, while others fear that online options will thwart the relationship-building necessary to the faith. One member’s unwelcome change is another member’s intriguing possibility.

In our passage, Peter meets his resistance by describing two dreams: one of his own and one that comes to an inquiring Gentile. Both dreams explain his decision to baptize the newcomers. In Peter’s dream, he has a vision of all the foods that Jews considered unclean coming down from heaven in a sheet, along with a voice telling him to eat up. By the third time Peter hears the words to eat, he realizes that the Gospel is open to Gentiles without their following Jewish dietary laws. In the Gentile’s dream, an angel promises that Peter will give him a message by which his entire household will be saved. He and his family are among the ones Peter baptizes.

In some ways, Peter’s double dream functions as what contemporary authors Dan and Chip Heath call a “destination postcard” in their book “Switch.” Sometimes the best way to bring about change is to sketch out an inspiring picture of the way the world can be, after the desired transformation has taken place. Doubters can then picture a future they want to join. Peter helps his critics imagine a world where doors are opened, barriers are lifted and even Gentiles, of all people, come to faith in Christ.

The pandemic has thrust change onto our congregations; some of it is unwelcome, and some is intriguing. What will your “destination postcard” look like?

The Rev. Dr. Chip Hardwick is the transitional synod executive of the Synod of the Covenant.

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Let’s Discuss

• Which of the changes brought about by the pandemic are unwelcome? Which are intriguing?
• Describe a destination postcard for your church. How will you join God in making this vision a reality?

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Young adults impress leaders at 2022 College Conference at Montreat

Leaders say they’re ‘blown away’ by the depth of spiritual and theological conversations

May 1, 2022

The “What’s Next?” 2022 College Conference is held at Montreat Conference Center. (Photo by UKirk Greensboro, North Carolina)

Following the recent 2022 College Conference at Montreat Conference Center in Montreat, North Carolina, Anisha Hackney said she learned as much, if not more, than the young adults attending her “Minding the Gap: Living and Working with Different Cultures” workshop.

“They are asking provocative questions and want to have tough, critical conversations,” Hackney said. “Those of us who are older need to remember that we were once their age, with questions and ideas that needed to be tested and challenged, but also welcomed and embraced.”

Hackney, a manager in Human Resources at the Presbyterian Mission Agency, said she had a great week making connections with young adults to better understand what their career interests are. Human Resources plans to do more targeted recruitment outreach to young adults, Hackney said. During conversations in her workshop, she was amazed at thoughts and ideas young people have about the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 invitation.

 “Their thoughts and ideas on ways to dismantle racism and eradicate poverty were amazing,” she said. “They’re already thinking systemically. We should listen to their thoughts and comments. I hope they show up in the world the way God has shaped and formed them to be.”

One of the music leaders for the 2022 “What’s Next?” conference, the Rev. Marissa Galván-Valle, was also impressed by the depth of conversations that some 500 participants had about their lives, both spiritually and theologically.

“This blows my mind because the world seems to have grown disillusioned with church and religion,” she said. “It gives me hope for the present and future. In their leadership and questions, and in their enthusiasm, I find faith and joy.”

“During these times, ‘What’s Next?’ is a brave question to ask,” she said. “We wanted to give participants the spiritual impetus to keep on going.”

In conversation groups, students talked with their leaders about how to distinguish between keeping on going and letting something go.

For the UKirk campus ministry leader at North Carolina Central University, the Rev. British Hyrams, hearing students’ conversations was powerful.

She said the conference preacher, the Rev. John Molina-Moore, general presbyter of National Capital Presbytery, kept saying the word for the week was “trust.” Not belief, but trust — the kind that is in your soul and gut.

For Hyrams, exploring the conference theme of what’s next and how one is not alone in the uncertainty the future brings was just as powerful for her as it was for her students. Once she made the decision to travel to Montreat and made the journey, she didn’t have any regrets.

“It was the first time I’ve been able to be with my peers,” she said. “It was such a joy. Having discussions about keeping on going, when to let go and figuring out what’s next isn’t just for young adults. It’s for every person.”

 For Galván-Valle, it was rewarding that participants — including so many Latinx young adults — told worship leaders how they felt a connection to the conference music.

And when she heard one of the conference keynoters, the Rev. Dr. Jerry Cannon, say that “students can envision themselves leading and being part of something greater because they see someone like them doing it,” it made being at the conference in the midst of the pandemic worthwhile.

“Representation in leaders matters a lot,” Galván-Valle said.

According to the Rev. Gini Norris-Lane, executive director of UKirk Collegiate Ministries, “What’s Next?” was not only the theme for the 2022 College Conference, but also the question on the minds of campus ministers and chaplains across the network.

“How grateful we are for Montreat’s attention to detail and COVID protocols that allowed us to gather,” she said. “Yet we lament the reality that not all of our ministries felt they could not safely attend this year. While collegiate ministry will continue to be complicated because of the pandemic, it is the exact landscape where God is present and moving to bring about transformation in the lives of our students.”

UKirk will hold its national gathering at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center along Lake Tahoe in Zephyr Cove, Nevada, June 13–16. Information and registration is available here.

 Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Rebecca Rayner, Senior Paralegal, Legal Services, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Dreama Reams, Clerical Assistant, General Ledgers Office, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Gracious God, may we be open to your freshness and your recreative work in our midst. Repurpose us to do your work as we live into your kingdom. Amen.