Today in the Mission Yearbook - It takes a village

And not just to raise a child. Studying Scripture works best in community, says Columbia Seminary preaching professor

May 11, 2022

Dr. Anna Carter Florence

Rather than cracking open the Good Book alone, why not encounter Scripture in community alongside others seeking to know what’s true about the text?

That’s the method Dr. Anna Carter Florence uses with her preaching students at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and it’s one she also recommends for more seasoned preachers as well as people in the pews who want to delve deeply, around a table or via Zoom, into God’s Word.

Florence, a theater student while an undergraduate at Yale University, has students actually rehearse Bible stories in small groups before preaching on the text the following week. In 2018, Florence discussed the technique in her book “Rehearsing Scripture: Discovering God’s Word in Community.”

Florence was a recent guest of the Rev. Dr. Lee Hinson-Hasty of the Presbyterian Foundation, host of the 30-minute “Leading Theologically” broadcast available on YouTube here and on Facebook here.

Once, Florence recalled, she asked students to rehearse Mark’s account of the rich man who kneels before Jesus and asks him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Florence asked the preaching students to play the roles of Jesus and the disciples packing their things to dash off to the next town as this wealthy man keeps interrupting them. There’s a moment in the text where Jesus looks at the man and loves him before telling the man he lacks one thing: selling all he has and giving the proceeds to the poor.

“I don’t think we would have seen that if we hadn’t packed our bags and had the person follow the students trying to have this conversation,” Florence said. “It takes a lot of guts to interrupt somebody in that moment.”

The “sneaky, subtle subtext” of the book is bringing people together to talk and learn from one another, Florence told Hinson-Hasty. When the pandemic subsides, “I hope there will be an openness to that need” because “we will be hearing very different things in Scripture” because “our context has changed” after years of living with the coronavirus.

“I never thought of myself as an online teacher,” Florence told Hinson-Hasty. “There are a lot of things about teaching in this mode that I love,” despite being a self-pronounced “digital immigrant.” One eye-opener has been using Zoom to get to know students in their home environment.

“This was not something I anticipated for myself,” Florence said of getting to know students in this different way. “It has been an amazing thing to learn. … Your students teach you how to teach.”

What she’s learned is to teach from what Florence calls a “suspended workshop space” where “we’re not under pressure to decide what the text means. But we are trying to listen to what it says.” The wisdom of those who taught her theater studies decades ago “was that some texts need to be rehearsed. You’ve got to get out there and try all sorts of things in a scene to find out what seems truthful.”

For many years, the first text students have worked with at Columbia Seminary is Mark 5:25–34, the woman Jesus heals after she’s been suffering from 12 years of bleeding. Then they wrestle with the next story, Jesus raising the synagogue leader’s daughter from the dead. “You’d think I would have heard every possible question,” Florence said, “and still someone will notice a detail I’ve never seen or thought to ask. You realize how impoverished you are as a reader if you do it by yourself and do it only once.”

She’s constantly telling students that the text “gives and gives and gives. It just gives, in amazing ways that are always unexpected. When the group is together and the Spirit is moving, the text gives birth to us again. I think it’s there to be our daily bread.”

She tries to teach students to “come to Scripture with freedom but also with precision.” In addition: “You don’t need to defer to people you think might do it better than you.”

By hearing people studying Scripture together — including the questions they ask — “that’s what makes you want to take off your shoes” because it’s holy ground, Florence said. “It renews my faith.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Greg Rousos, President & CEO, New Covenant Trust Co., Presbyterian Foundation
Jashalund Royston, Research Associate, Research Services, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

Creator God, we give thanks for opportunities to embrace the diversities among humankind. May this collaboratory be a place where the community finds your unconditional love. Let their light shine with your grace. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Acting like Jesus in the world

A Wisconsin pastor uses new worshiping community videos and the Matthew 25 invitation to illustrate what being Presbyterian looks like

May 10, 2022

Video URL: https://vimeo.com/667342828

First Presbyterian Church hosted a daily summer meal for six weeks during which volunteers gave away more than 1,000 meals. (Photo by the Rev. Lisa Newberry)

At First Presbyterian Church of Baraboo, Wisconsin, a small town near Madison, longtime church members wanted to know what it means to be Presbyterian.

Hearing this, their pastor, the Rev. Lisa Newberry, began working on a sermon series for 2022 around the We Believe Presbyterian confirmation curriculum.

“I really wanted to go back to the basics while looking at the needs in our community and how the church should step in,” she said.

Each week, Newberry plans to show a worshiping community video that highlights how that community is living out a basic Presbyterian belief. For example: After her message one Sunday about how our mark of baptism gives us an identity in God, she played this video showcasing the mission of The Porch at Faith Chapel.

Newberry will also introduce the PC(USA)’s Matthew 25 vision during her sermon series, inviting members to see how they’ve already begun the Matthew 25 work of  building congregation vitality, dismantling structural racism and eradicating systemic poverty.

Except for six weeks during the summer, the local school district provides school lunches for its children year-round. This year, First Presbyterian Church hosted a daily community meal during those six weeks, with civic and church groups providing the food.

“We expected a lot of kids to come but were surprised at how many senior citizens on fixed budgets also came,” Newberry said. “We served over 1,000 meals.”

To address vitality in the congregation and community, the church rented out the local pool for three hours with a break for music and worship. Newberry says it was a place for community and church children to be safe while getting to know each other.

“It provided a much higher sense of diversity than we get doing to church,” she said.

The efforts to address diversity in the predominantly white town began after a prom photo of boys from Baraboo high school doing the Nazi salute went viral in the fall of 2018. Several members at First Presbyterian Church attended a couple of presentations and book groups on racism. The congregation also did a book study together on Debby Irving’s book “Waking Up White.”

 “The church plays an important role in these smaller towns,” said Newberry, who also serves a part-time pastorate at First Presbyterian Church in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. “I’m proud of the group of people in Baraboo that have taken up the work to educate us about racism here.”

One Sunday, Newberry talked to her congregation about governance in the PC(USA) — and about doing things decently and in order. After her message, she showed this Missing Peace video to illustrate how you can have orderly worship anywhere in the community.

“As Missing Peace has worshiped in various places around their community, those spaces have become holy to them,” she said. “So, let’s go into the world and be effective beyond the walls of our church.”

“There’s so much amazing work being done throughout our denomination,” she added. “I want people to leave church excited and proud of what the PC(USA) is doing, and to see where the Holy Spirit might be leading us to reach beyond ourselves — and to begin new mission initiatives.”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Melanie Roney, Mission Specialist, Special Offerings, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Chris Roseland, Lead Mission Engagement Advisor, Mission Engagement & Support, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Lord Jesus Christ, your sacrifice came in dying. May ours come through living — in the shadow of the cross. Amen.

Weekly digest for EPConnection, on May 9, 2022

“In All Things” podcast episode 24 discusses evangelism, Africa baptisms with NLT Chairman Glenn Meyers EPConnection May 6 Episode 22 of the EPC’s podcast, “In All Things,” features Glenn Meyers, Chairman of the EPC National Leadership Team (NLT) and Commissioned Pastor of Ardara United Presbyterian Church in Ardara, Pa. This week, host Dean Weaver and Meyers reflect on the Chairman’s six years serving on the NLT. As part of that discussion, Meyers expects the renewed commitment to evangelism in the EPC to inform how the denomination’s four strategic priorities of church planting, church health, global movement, and effective biblical leadership are carried out in the years to come. In addition, Meyers relates his recent experience baptizing Muslim-background converts in a river in Sierra Leone, and how his church of 120 members has committed to a capital campaign to help the African village construct a church building. Episodes are available on a variety of podcast platforms, including Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Podbean, Spotify, and others. Search “In All Things” on any of these services. The audio recordings also are available on the EPC website at www.epc.org/inallthings. Comment Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from EPConnection. Change your email settings at manage subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: https://epconnection.org/2022/05/06/in-all-things-podcast-episode-24-discusses-evangelism-africa-baptisms-with-nlt-chairman-glenn-meyers/ Powered by WordPress.com

International Disaster Relief Fund receives $437,000 to date EPConnection May 5 As of Thursday, May 5, $437,481 has been donated to the EPC’s International Disaster Relief Fund. This amount includes two separate gifts of $50,000 each and nine additional donations of $10,000 or more. "I should never be surprised at the generosity of the EPC when people are in need," said Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk. "Our churches and church members have demonstrated God's love over and over again when the need is the greatest." The fund was launched on March 1 in response to the crisis in Ukraine, with contributions to the fund currently being sent to EPC partners in Eastern Europe that are helping with refugee efforts. Bruce Anderson, Director of the International Theological Education Network of EPC World Outreach, said donations are meeting humanitarian needs, including “tons and tons of food supplies for people who are running out of food. They have no access and are even running out of water.” He added that some of the money was used to distribute Bibles, Christian literature, trauma kits and medicine, as well as purchasing two vehicles being used for evacuation efforts. Bruce Anderson “Our friends have distributed 1 million prayer, Scripture, and gospel booklets that were printed up in the Ukrainian language and distributed inside Ukraine for people who are broken and crying out to God,” he said. “Many of them are not yet followers of the Lord but are turning toward Him.” Anderson reported that $115,000 in donations recently wired arrived “just in time.” “Our partner in Poland sent me a text message in which he told me that they had 20 tons of food, medicine, and essential items ready for shipping, but another partner had not sent them the money for the transportation cost. They feel the urgency, right? They know people are dying and are being traumatized, and they are going to send the supplies without having money,” Anderson said. “So his text says, ‘we prayed this morning about funds NOW—N.O.W. capitals—for this transportation. After the prayer, I opened the account and received the EPC gift for Ukraine. God is great! Praise the Lord for His timing!’” Anderson noted that donations are not only helping provide material assistance, but also arrived in “God’s time” for those ministry partners “to know, as he said to me, that God is with us and the EPC is with us and we are not alone.” Click here to donate to the International Disaster Relief Fund. The purpose of the Fund is to help relieve suffering when needs arise round the world that are outside the scope of the domestic EPC Emergency Relief Fund, which is used for situations in North America. Comment

Today in the Mission Yearbook - The long road home

Nez Perce Tribe celebrates the return of historical artifacts

May 9, 2022

This women’s saddle, constructed from cottonwood/willow (portion of the stirrups) and covered in rawhide, is one of the artifacts from the Wetxuuwíitin’ collection. The saddle also includes “saddle fenders” made of bison rawhide, painted and original rawhide rigging. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service and Nez Perce National Historic Park)

It has been said that “justice delayed is justice denied.” However, after a great injustice against the Nez Perce Tribe, the Nimiipuu people recently celebrated the correction of a grave injustice.

On June 26, 2021, tribal members celebrated the 25th anniversary of the return and the renaming of a collection of 21 Nez Perce artifacts crafted by Nez Perce men and women in the 1800s. This collection was renamed WetxuuwÍitin’, which means “returned home after a period of captivity,” and was another important step to help shed the colonial legacy surrounding the history of these items and reclaim this important part of Nez Perce culture.

According to the anniversary planning committee, the Rev. Henry Spalding, a Presbyterian missionary assigned to the Nez Perce reservation in 1836, worked to convince the Nez Perce people to convert to Christianity. As part of that conversion process, he urged — or perhaps forced — his followers to divest themselves of their traditional regalia.

Some of that regalia, which included clothing, horse accessories, bags and other items, were collected by Spalding and shipped to his friend and benefactor Dr. Dudley Peter Allen, in Kingsman, Ohio. After Allen’s death, his son, Dudley, donated the Spalding-Allen Collection to Oberlin College in 1893. Oberlin College, in turn, loaned most, but not all, of the collection to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) for safekeeping, where it languished for decades. It was initially loaned to the Nez Perce National Historical Park (NPNHP) in 1980.

In 1992, the OHS asked for the loaned items to be returned. This request resulted in a series of loan extensions to the NPNHP and opened internal tribal discussions about how to keep the items where they rightfully belonged. Following a great deal of research and discussion, it was determined that the Tribe could not claim any of the items under existing federal law. Thus, a decision was made to launch a fundraising campaign to buy back the collection.

The items were collectively valued at nearly $600,000. The Tribe’s General Council established a committee to lead the fundraising effort. A Nez Perce delegation traveled to Ohio in 1995 and entered into an agreement with OHS to purchase the items, with a purchase deadline of June 1996.

By May 1996, the Tribe, with the help of more than 4,000 organizations and individuals from around the world, accomplished its goal. One item, a cradleboard that had been collected by Spalding, was not originally loaned to the NPNHP. In late May, the curator from the NPNHP traveled to Ohio to bring back the cradleboard.  Finally, the collection was together and now fully owned by the Nez Perce Tribe.

To further right this injustice against the Tribe, on Nov. 23, 2021, the OHS returned the $608,100 the Tribe raised in 1996 to purchase the collection.

“We received an invitation to the renaming ceremony from the Tribe,” said the Rev. Sheryl Kinder-Pyle, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of the Inland Northwest. “I thought this was incredibly gracious and generous given our role in the history of these articles being taken away.”

The ceremony “was this beautiful event that joined various parts of the identity of the Nimiipuu people together,” Kinder-Pyle said. “It began with a ceremonial horse parade with appaloosa horses and warriors circling three times around the gallery with the warriors chanting and drumming.”

“Then they exhibited their patriotic identity with the color guard bearing the U.S. flag as a part of the color guard ceremony. It continued with the Lord’s Prayer being signed and said in the Nimiipuu language,” Kinder-Pyle said. “So, you have these three different strains of their identity coming together, all part of this ceremony. You could feel the drums reverberating inside of you and the warriors’ cries just enveloping the whole gathering. It was a sacred moment.”

Kinder-Pyle says the presbytery’s efforts with the Native American community is part of a bigger ministry initiative. “After the apology issued by the Rev. Gradye Parsons, former Stated Clerk of the General Assembly, in 2017 to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, as a presbytery we were inspired to look into our history and our relationship with our Native American community.”

Gail Strange, Director of Church and Mid Council Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Keenan Rodgers, Associate Church Consultant, Church Engagement, Board of Pensions
Elle Rogers, Marketing Manager, Electronic Resources & Strategic Business Development, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

Holy God, you honor us by calling us to be your people and sending us into the world to be your servants. May all those who suffer hardship due to natural disaster know the comfort of your Spirit. Prosper the work of the hands that reach out to help rebuild homes and lives. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Scaling the truth and spreading reconciliation

Greensboro, North Carolina, couple who helped launch the city’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission plans a statewide effort

May 8, 2022

Joyce Johnson and the Rev. Nelson Johnson spoke about their experiences with the Greensboro (N.C.) Truth & Reconciliation process. (Photo courtesy of Union Presbyterian Seminary)

Just as they helped launch the nation’s first Truth & Reconciliation Commission in Greensboro, North Carolina, about 20 years ago, the Rev. Nelson Johnson and Joyce Johnson are making plans for a statewide effort they hope will become a national model.

The Johnsons spoke during a session called “Just Act!” as part of Union Presbyterian Seminary’s African American Social Justice Preaching Series. Watch the discussion, hosted by Dr. Rodney S. Sadler Jr., who directs the seminary’s Center for Social Justice & Reconciliation, by clicking here.

The seven-member Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission was empaneled following community divisions over the events of Nov. 3, 1979, when five people were killed and 10 were injured after an attack during an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally. Click here to read the executive summary of the commission’s 2006 report.

The Johnsons are co-executive directors of Beloved Community Center, which seeks to “guide Greensboro into a new era of equitable economic sufficiency, peace, social, gender and racial justice that can serve as a model and inspiration for ourselves, our region and our nation,” according to the center’s website.

“We’ve decided to revisit a successful endeavor,” Joyce Johnson said during the forum. “We feel called now” with the blessing of the Beloved Community Center’s Board of Directors. Nelson Johnson labeled the initiative the North Carolina Truth, Justice & Reconciliation process.

“We are a greatly divided and polarized nation. We are in a cold civil war” in which “we are throwing verbal grenades at each other,” he said. But “it is not unthinkable this dangerous period could descend into a hot civil war,” where states and regions “are thrown against each other in a violent clash. … The predicament we are in is not unthinkable, and we have to take it seriously. Preaching God’s truth is more important than it’s been in your lifetimes,” he said, “and maybe mine.”

What’s needed today is more truth, more community and less polarization among the American people, he said.

The truth, justice and reconciliation process “is a human construct,” Joyce Johnson explained, “something we as humans can and must do. It’s everyday individuals and elected officials and religious leaders coming together and committing to speaking the truth in love.” The process in North Carolina has an advisory council that includes Sadler and the Rev. Dr. William Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign.

“We think this is a piece of the way out of the situation we are in now,” she said. “It’s not the only way, but without the truth, we won’t be set free.”

“We need to have deep, deep listening,” she said. “We talk past each other, and we try to prove we are right and the other person is wrong. We have come to understand there is your way and my way. There has to be a third way that does not deny the truth and the sanctity of each one of us. … Who better than people of faith, who have heard a call from God to build God’s kingdom? Who better to step out and say, ‘Here I am; send me! I will go out into the neighborhood to build up that aspect of the Beloved Community.’”

“Instead of throwing in the towel and walking away,” Sadler told the Johnsons, “you have given us a path to do something about it.”

The Johnsons answered questions from listeners. Theologian Ched Myers wondered: What are some of the lessons you learned during the Greensboro experience?

“There was strong resistance to it,” Nelson Johnson said. “After that surge of resistance, there was a significant number of white brothers and sisters who came and joined the process. A challenge was there was not a desire to know the truth, but there was a desire to reconcile. That was a major problem in our process. What are we reconciling if we don’t face what it was that brought us to this moment?”

“One lesson we learned, and we knew it, but it was hammered into us by Archbishop Tutu and others, is that you need to be spiritually prepared for this work,” Joyce Johnson said. “Before every public hearing we had a spiritual gathering at a local church.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
James Rissler, President & CEO, Presbyterian Investment & Loan Program
Monique Robinson, Manager, Central Receiving & Purchasing, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)

Let us pray

God, your compassion for all your children is reflected in the lives of so many people in your church. We thank you for their quiet faithfulness as they minister, each in his and her own way, to those around them. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - PMA global partner celebrates 50 years of helping the people of Nicaragua

CEPAD helps communities take charge of their own development

May 7, 2022

Maura, a mother and grandmother who lives in La Esperanza, Nicaragua, has benefitted from a family gardening program put on by CEPAD, a partner of the Presbyterian Mission Agency celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022. (Photo courtesy of CEPAD)

This year, a longtime global partner of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD), will celebrate a significant milestone — 50 years of service to the people of Nicaragua.

In response to a major earthquake that hit the country, Dr. Gustavo Parajon founded CEPAD in December 1972 to provide emergency response. CEPAD is an organization composed of 70 denominations and churches in Nicaragua focusing on helping communities and individuals be in charge of their own development.

Tracey King-Ortega, who has served for 16 years as World Mission’s regional liaison for Central America, has worked closely with CEPAD during her entire tenure.

“What was unique about the response Dr. Parajon organized was that it was ecumenical,” she said. “It was different denominations coming together to serve their community in need. Working across denominational lines was so enriching that as the emergency response work wrapped up, those involved wanted to keep it going. They shifted their work to development, have been going strong for almost 50 years and have walked alongside more than 4,000 communities in the country.”

CEPAD’s mission is focused on providing faith-based training for rural Nicaraguans through programs in leadership, sustainable agricultural practices and economic development, allowing Nicaraguans to support themselves and their families in breaking the cycle of hunger and poverty.

CEPAD helps rural farmers adapt their farming techniques to combat climate change through tools such as reforestation. Long-term, these agricultural techniques also help the land become more resilient.

Jose Acosta, a teacher who supplements his income by farming when there is enough rain, lives in one of the 40 villages that train with CEPAD. The village is surrounded by water and there is no bridge. During the rainy season, it can become too dangerous for his students to cross, so they miss school. Those rivers are also the only source of drinking water. He hopes that by learning better agricultural techniques they can better retain water during the dry season.

Maura, a mother and grandmother who lives in a village called La Esperanza, took part in CEPAD’s Family Gardening Program. In the past she assisted her husband as a laborer, planting corn, beans and sorghum in the traditional way. They also used harmful pesticides and burned land to clear it.

Since learning about CEPAD, she has attended workshops on planting, diversifying her crops and producing her own seeds. She was also taught how to make her own pesticides and compost by using available resources.

One of her accomplishments was building a micro-reservoir on her land. She collected stones, sand, clay and stakes. Her family helped her purchase 6 yards of black tarp to hold the water, which she used to collect 220 liters of water. Later, she and her husband invested in building a concrete water tank that holds 3,750 liters of water, giving her enough water to irrigate her crops during the dry season. Before the tank was built, she would have to walk to the river with 20-liter buckets she used to water her crops.

“In my ongoing accompaniment work with partners like CEPAD, ‘hope’ remains central to our conversations — not just the nature of hopes for the future, but how and where — and if — hope can be found in situations that engender despair,” said King-Ortega. “CEPAD continues to be a source of hope in situations of despair. I am excited to continue to walk and celebrate with them throughout their golden anniversary year. The fullness of life they bring to Nicaraguan communities, and by extension us, is a blessing and a gift and indeed a reason for celebration.”

King-Ortega considers her work with partner churches, seminaries and development organizations in Central America to be a gift.

“Their work is a testimony to the depths of despair and to signs of hope in a region whose destiny is closely intertwined with our own,” she said. “Learning about their realities and walking with them is an important way we, as U.S. Presbyterians, can be in solidarity.”

To support the ministry of Tracey King-Ortega, a gift can be made in her honor. Click here to give to mission personnel support. Mission co-workers are notified when a gift is made in their honor.

 Kathy Melvin, Director of Mission Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Kathy Riley, Associate for Hurricane 2017 Season, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Kelly Riley, Executive  Vice President, Plan Operations, Board of Pensions

Let us pray

Gracious God, you have taught us to celebrate with those who are celebrating and to cry with those who are crying. May our eyes be open to see and distinguish between the two. Keep us mindful of all those who need your Spirit shining through us as much as they may need our monies and our labors. Amen.