Since Jesus calls Christians to make disciples of all nations, in this blog we'll consider how we might better share the gospel to the world around us.
Urban Village is a new worshiping community in the Presbytery of Transylvania (photo by Alex Simon).
In a world where too many children are turned away for being “different,” one community is rewriting the story.
Urban Village, a vibrant new worshiping community birthed from the Presbytery of Transylvania and supported by Wilmore Presbyterian Church in Wilmore, Kentucky, is doing more than offering after-school care — it’s creating sacred space. Especially for neurodivergent children who are too often excluded elsewhere, Urban Village offers what every child deserves: a sense of belonging, understanding and love.
This powerful three-part video series tells the story of a ministry grounded in radical inclusivity, community care and the spirit of Christ. Through candid conversations and real-life moments, you’ll witness how God’s work is unfolding in the most unexpected — and most needed — of places.
Whether you’re part of a church looking for ministry inspiration or someone who believes every child deserves a safe haven, this is a story worth watching.
Come see what happens when church shows up exactly where it's needed most.
[Rainbow Connection | Written by: Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher | Performed by: Jim Henson as Kermit the Frog | From: The Muppet Movie (1979)]
I had to hold back tears of anger and fear as I sent my child off to school this year. I am excited for them and what dreams may come; I am grateful for the wonderful village that surrounds us; and, I am so incredibly mad that we live in a world where children are casualties of politics, war, hatred, and greed. I am mad that not every child has the freedoms that mine does, the freedoms that every child should. My heart breaks a bit more each day.
This is not the world God imagined.
For me, dreams, particularly the dreams that we share with Mary, Joseph, Kermit, and Jesus, help to hold my heart together. Thankfully Advent is a time of dreaming.
This Advent, when it comes, you are invited to join us at Advent Unwrapped as we dream with the dreamers, the prophets, the preachers, and the star-gazers of how to bring about the world God imagines.
Every month, we will send an email with resources, inspiration, and ideas designed to help people of all ages engage with the “reason for the season” and to help hold us together in love for the sake of God’s world.
Look out for exciting new resources coming in November including a Longest Night service, weekly lectionary-based worship, and resources on having “trifficult” (that is tricky, and difficult) conversations in challenging times.
And lastly a prayer for the village as many people return to the school year.
Today and everyday, help us build a world where a child’s right to: learn laugh love, and to live is cherished and protected in every village – everywhere. For the sake of Christ who entrusted us to each other, may it be so. Amen.
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During their talk, which can be heard here, Davis reviewed the themes that stood out for him during the past six months’ worth of episodes. Davis, who’s been speaking with faith leaders about reconciliation, repair and reparations, asked Grady to comment on what he’d heard from those conversations.
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“There was a whole lot of truth-telling” during those broadcasts, Davis told Grady. “What are some things congregations can be pulling from this?”
“I would say local congregations can extract some practical insights on how our collective histories and our particular histories shape our understanding of our world, ourselves and our relationship to our world,” Grady said, noting that one guest discussed how reparations can be “both a theological and a pastoral activity. When we talk about reparations, sometimes people frame it as some sort of transaction,” a “check written for all the injustices of the past.”
But “it’s more of a radical transformational process,” Grady said. When we understand that, “we become aware — as members, as leaders, as lay people — that this work of reparations requires a radical commitment to God, to our neighbors and to self, a commitment that goes much deeper than the notion that one can be paid for the harms that have happened over time. That changes our view of our work.”
In the faith communities of the Presbytery of New Hope, “you will find not only a diversity of theological stripes, but political stripes,” Grady said. Churches “find there’s got to be a way to navigate these differences and to enter into what God’s vision of community is,” including reparations and “a radical shift, a commitment on all sides.”
The church, “the covenant community of faith in Christ Jesus, exists for the community and for the world,” Grady said. “When we look into our [faith] communities, there is a complex set of stories, of personal experiences and personalities. At the same time, we share in struggle, in pain and in a set of human experiences.”
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The Rev. Bill Davis
“There is something transformative that happens when we empty out our ego and we say, ‘I cannot become all that I am supposed to be and witness the debt load of my neighbor,’” he said. “The only way for that to happen is to engage in those relationships, which allows that transformation to take place, a transformation of our mindset and of our hearts.”
When we enter into the process of reparation, “we give up a sense of power and a sense of individuality and we say, ‘I am willing to put that aside so that I might be an agent of repair.’ There is a joy and a beauty in that form of surrender,” Grady said. “There is a beauty that we miss when we are unwilling to enter into that process.”
When Davis asked his usual final question — “What is the best thing you have heard lately?” — Grady said it “has to do with people coming together for the purpose of being in song.”
Gospel choir groups “just show up and invite all who love the music to join along,” Grady said. “They don’t necessarily know each other, but they have this common music that they share. Strangers show up anticipating they will make something beautiful together,” and “all that is necessary to do that is in the room.”
Grady called that “a beautiful metaphor for this process of repair. Everything we need to do the work has been provided. God has given each of us a unique voice in this song, and every voice comes together in such a way that makes this rich, rewarding and transformative masterpiece. You’re right,” he told Davis. “There is joy and beauty, and there are challenges and pain in this. But when we witness the final production of these gatherings, we’ll say it’s worth it.”
New episodes of “Leading Theologically” return in the fall.
Ahmad Ali, Vice President and Managing Director, Investments, The Board of Pensions Denise Anderson, Director, Compassion, Peace & Justice, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
Dear Lord, you offer peace to those who come from afar. May the church hear your voice calling us to build community among all people, so that in Jesus Christ we are no longer strangers but members of the household of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
The federal consent decrees that emerged after the police killings of Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis were supposed to represent a turning point. For a moment, there seemed to be a change happening of real accountability and reform because federal agencies would review local and state policing to ensure they aligned with needed reforms. But now, the U.S. Department of Justice has dropped these federal agreements, yet another example of the Trump administration's departure from federal oversight to help protect civil rights across the country.
May 25 marked the five-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder — a moment that sparked global protests and renewed movements demanding justice and an end to police brutality. After his death, Floyd’s young daughter, Gianna, powerfully declared, “Daddy changed the world.” As we reflect on this anniversary, her words serve as a reminder of the responsibility people of faith and conscience bear to ensure that the legacies of Floyd, Taylor and others result in lasting transformation.
Consent decrees are legal agreements used to enforce reform in police departments with established patterns of misconduct and civil rights violations. They are a key tool when local mechanisms have failed to hold law enforcement accountable. By backing away from these agreements, the DOJ is in effect abandoning the communities most impacted by racist policing, particularly Black communities who disproportionately suffer from police violence. The Southern Poverty Law Center has emphasized that consent decrees are vital for holding law enforcement agencies accountable and ensuring compliance with civil rights standards, advocating for their continued use to promote systemic change and justice.
Data from the Mapping Police Violence project shows that Black Americans are nearly three times more likely to be killed by police than white Americans. This troubling disparity underlines the systemic nature of the problem — one that cannot be addressed through minor reforms or symbolic promises and one that can’t be left to local or state police departments alone. The withdrawal from consent decrees reveals a federal lack of commitment to racial justice, meaningful change and accountability — concerning because it will reinforce these same lacks of commitment in states that had previously been required to have these decrees because of the documented concerns they might sidestep the necessary reforms without them.
The Presbyterian Hunger Program understands that racism is not only a driver of police violence — it is also a root cause of hunger and poverty, and to push for racial justice is also to push against hunger and poverty. When communities of color are systematically denied access to basic resources through discriminatory policies and practices, the resulting economic instability is its own form of violence. True racial justice requires equitable access to food, housing, health care and education — essentials that are still intentionally denied to many due to the legacy and ongoing impacts of racism. Confronting these root causes is not only a moral imperative, but it is also fundamental for building a more just and thriving society for all.
While the current administration is weakening federal tools, state and local advocacy is more important than ever. Faith communities must join hands with the most vulnerable to push for independent civilian oversight boards with investigative power, demand transparency in police data and support alternative responses, like mental health crisis counselors and community-based safety initiatives.
We cannot allow the federal government's failure to indicate an end to the fight for justice. We must use it to inspire us to act — boldly, consistently and alongside one another — rooted in the call to help create a Beloved Community, where justice, compassion and solidarity are not just ideas but lived commitments.
Rhea Adams, Application Administrator, Information Technology Infrastructure, Administrative Services Group (A Corp) Ruth Adams, Director, Assistance Program, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Let us pray:
Good and gracious God, thank you for the gift of life. Grant us the freedom to embrace the new thing that you are doing in our midst and employ our influence for the good for those who have none. Amen.
The Young Adult Volunteer program has produced more than 1,900 alums over the past 30 years (contributed photo).
From the classroom to the locker room — and back again — Steffan Johnson has found himself on a 27-year-long quest to discover the “real world.”
The South Carolina native — who spent his undergraduate education at the PC(USA)-related St. Andrews University playing college football while earning a degree in philosophy and religious studies — said that because those years didn’t bring him anywhere close to finding what he was seeking, he enrolled in Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
“In seminary, since I didn’t have my friends around me in the locker room, I just poured all of that energy into my studies,” said Johnson, who received a master’s degree in theological studies in 2023. “I dove into everything that the professors gave us, including Martin Luther and Augustine. And even though seminary was life-changing, I can’t just go and tell a stranger on the street what Martin Luther said. I love Augustine, but 95% of churches wouldn’t even know who he was. I needed to find the language where I could connect with everyday people.”
The YAV program — which has been changing the lives of young people ages 19–30 for three decades — also emphasizes living in intentional Christian community, spiritual formation and vocational discernment.
“I committed to my YAV year as a 25-year-old fresh out of seminary,” Johnson said. “Up until that point, I was just a student pursuing my education, which was a little nerve-racking. I had friends starting families and businesses, and it felt like my first time entering the world. The YAV program helped me understand the flow of the real world.”
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Steffan Johnson
An ecumenical, faith-based year of service that is lived out in sites across the U.S., virtually and around the world, the YAV program is supported, in part, through the Pentecost Offering, one of the PC(USA)’s four Special Offerings.
Not only do gifts to the Pentecost Offering benefit the YAV program, but the Offering also supports the Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium and the Educate a Child, Transform the World national initiative. Forty percent of the offering is retained by individual congregations for local ministries, while the remaining 60% is used to support children at risk, youth and young adults through ministries of the PC(USA).
Johnson was placed by the program in four different sites across New Orleans during his term as a YAV.
Johnson’s service encompassed stints with the Jefferson Food Bank; Mid-City Ministries, an after-school program; Rebuilding Hope in New Orleans (RHINO), a citywide ministry focusing on service projects and volunteer work originally established in response to Hurricane Katrina by St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church; and the Program of Hope, run by First Presbyterian Church, which ministers to New Orleans’ homeless population.
Because he was always “intrigued by youth ministry,” Johnson found that his youth-centered YAV service aided his vocational discernment.
“While in New Orleans, I volunteered as a tutor and, at the same program, I conducted a Bible study with young people,” he recalled. “It was great! Although my enthusiasm for youth ministry definitely prepared me for my role as a YAV, my background in education was put to the test by a loving group of grade school students.”
Like when Johnson was teaching second graders how to read, which he called “the hardest thing ever.”
“I was trying to be cool but also to be the disciplinary figure they needed,” he said. “And whenever they asked me hard questions, I had to acknowledge that I don’t always have all the answers. We’re all still learning.”
Since he found that he was still discerning his vocational path when his year in New Orleans came to a close, Johnson applied for and served in a virtual YAV placement with the PC(USA)’s Asia Pacific and Africa offices.
He was grateful for the opportunity — and for the Pentecost Offering, which largely made it possible.
“Presbyterians should give to the Pentecost Offering so that young people can experience diverse communities, learn more about their place in the world and build an appetite for justice for future generations,” said Johnson. “By giving, young adults are given a chance to grow socially, vocationally, and more important, spiritually.”
Susan Abraham, Associate, Mission Program Grants & Mission Development Resources Committee, Interim Unified Agency Angielee Acevedo, Lead Housekeeper, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency
Let us pray:
O God, we ask your blessing on those whom you have called into the vocation of teaching and nurturing the faith. Strengthen them in this important service even as they strengthen the church through their work. Amen.
Are you signed up to receive the Path of Peace daily reflections this September?
Daily devotionals will be sent to your inbox that highlight the work of Presbyterians and organizations that contributed to the civic and spiritual well-being of our church. Each offers an example of how peace can be pursued in tangible ways.
Each year starting on Sept. 1 (World Day of Prayer for All Creation) until Oct. 4, the Christian family unites for the Season of Creation, a worldwide celebration of prayer and action to protect our common home. It is a special season where we celebrate God as Creator and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for Creation. We are co-creatures and part of all that God has made. The Season of Creation biblical text for this year is Isaiah 32:14–18, and the theme is “Peace with Creation,” emphasizing the interconnectedness between humanity and the Earth and the need for healing and justice. Creation will find peace when justice is restored.
As your congregation celebrates the Season of Creation, don’t forget to include the youngest members. For children, the Season of Creation can be a meaningful way to learn about God’s Creation and their role in protecting it. Consider engaging children during this time through:
Nature Walks and Exploration: Encourage children to observe the natural world around them, noticing changes in plants, animals, and the weather.
Creative Expression: Invite children to draw, paint, or sculpt representations of Creation, or to write poems or songs about nature. Collect leaves, rocks, sticks or flowers to make nature-based artworks.
Acts of Service: Engage children in simple acts of caring for Creation, like planting seeds, making bird feeders, or cleaning up litter.
Prayers and Reflection: Pray together for the protection of Creation and for those who are most affected by environmental problems.
Amid the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, there can be a lot to despair. As people of faith, we are called to lift the hope inspired by our faith, the hope of the resurrection. To hope in a biblical context does not mean to stand still and quiet, but to act, pray, change, and reconcile with Creation and the Creator in unity, metanoia (repentance) and solidarity.
Credit to the Celebration Guide for the Season of Creation, which can be downloaded here.
Jessica Maudlin, Associate for Sustainable Living and Earth Care Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Interim Unified Agency
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:
Princeton Abarahoa, Associate, African Immigrant Congregational Support, Interim Unified Agency Christopher Abney, VP, Director of IT, Presbyterian Foundation
Let us pray:
Beloved Christ, who spoke “Shalom” to frightened hearts, stir us to compassionate action. Inspire us to work for the end of conflict and for the full restoration of broken relationships — with you, with the ecumenical community, with the human family, and with all Creation.
Prince of Peace, through your wounds, teach us to stand in solidarity with the woundedness of others, of Creation, and of the world. Through your resurrection, make us people of hope — with a vision of swords turned into ploughshares and tears transformed into joy. May we come together as one family to labor for your peace — a shalom where all your people may dwell in safety and rest in quiet places. Amen.
