Today in the Mission Yearbook - A new worshiping community for people who have been hurt by the church

Emerge, an NCW in Florida, restarts in-person worship

July 27,  2022

Jeremy and Charlie Russo, left to right, are co-leaders of Emerge, a new worshiping community in Port Richey, Florida. (Contributed photo)

Emerge, a new worshiping community in Port Richey, Florida, officially began right before the Covid pandemic hit in March 2020.

Co-leaders Jeremy and Charlie Russo had been musicians at a Presbyterian church at a satellite campus that was no longer sustainable. But a foundation had been laid for Emerge through relationships the Russos had formed in their larger community.

“It would take a book to share how God brought us together in so many different spaces and places,” said Jeremy. “But the thread of these relationship connection stories is spiritual trauma.”

Both Jeremy and Charlie have been deeply hurt by churches. Growing up as a fundamentalist Baptist, Jeremy finally left a church they were serving after it sent them to “counseling,” which turned out to be conversion therapy.

While growing up in a megachurch, Charlie attended numerous counseling and prayer sessions to correct their “unnatural desires” — and was then outed in the church.

Married, Jeremy and Charlie are relatively new to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). But as they’ve worked through leadership transitions at Emerge, they’ve become better connected.

One of the connections that the Rev. Nikki Collins, 1001 NWC national director, helped them make is with the Rev. Dr. David Shelor at First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin, Florida. Shelor planted a church 20 years ago in the Tampa Bay area and is now acting as presbytery liaison for Emerge.

We’re delighted they’ve found a home in the PC(USA),” Shelor said. “I’m excited to be an advocate for them.”

Wanting to know more about Emerge and the support they’re receiving from churches and local clergy, Presbyterian News Service asked the Russos to respond to a few questions (Charlie responded to the last question only).

PNS: What does it mean to you to have David Shelor as your Presbyterian liaison?

Jeremy: David willingly held space for our leadership to ask questions about how we live true to our calling. He helped us brainstorm about creative ways of being “the church” in our local community that is devastated by homophobia, xenophobia, poverty, racism and substantial economic inequality and inequity. He shares with us knowledge from previous and current ministries, telling us how he was one of the last church planters in the PC(USA) to follow the “build the church, put a sign out and they will come” model. Because that model was no longer working, he has an open mind about the flexibility, adaptability and responsiveness needed to run a ministry like Emerge.  Also, the Rev. Lissa Bradford from Church on the Bayou [in Tarpon Springs, Florida] has helped our leaders by relentlessly encouraging us and pouring life into us in times of discouragement.

How did God bring together a new worshiping community for those who have been spiritually traumatized?

Emerge was organically born and we knew from the Spirit that we needed to keep nurturing this environment so that others could come, feel loved and heal. The common thread that brings us together is that we are trauma survivors seeking to love each other more than the day before and effect tangible and lasting change in our families and communities around us. Everyone is welcomed. Each of our experiences brings a unique and valuable perspective to our beliefs in God.

How did your spiritual/faith background shape your sense of call to Emerge?

Jeremy: The God I knew growing up was authoritarian, racist, homophobic and condemning.  Months after I left the church that had sent me to “counseling” for conversion therapy, I met Charlie at an open and affirming church in South Carolina. Both of us felt called into planting communities that accepted all without discrimination for any reason.

Charlie: It was at that small church that I began to feel free and loved. I wanted to do to everything I could to help others that faced similar hurt and rejection from the church to find our place of belonging. As I became involved in a local PFLAG chapter I found myself working to repair the damage done to others in the name of God and church. This is what brought me to Emerge. My desire is to help others know God’s love and learn how to be more like Jesus.

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Mission Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Deborah Bernard, Executive Assistant to the President, Board of Pensions
Mary Jo Besspiata,  Administrative Assistant II, Executive Director’s Office, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Gracious God, we plant and water the seeds, but you alone give the growth to our mission and outreach projects. Keep us faithful in our work in your vineyard that our labors may bear fruit and we may help others grow in the knowledge of your love and grace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Being good stewards of God’s grace

Nearly 500 people register for Leader Formation webinar

July 26, 2022

The Rev. Dr. David Gambrell is Associate for Worship in the Office of Theology & Worship. (Photo by Rich Copley)

Presbyterians who agree to serve God and their congregations as ruling elders or deacons sometimes find they had little idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.

Cue the Rev. Dr. David Gambrell, associate for worship in the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Office of Theology & Worship, who recently offered up a 75-minute Leader Formation workshop called “Good Stewards of God’s Grace.” Martha Miller, manager of Ministry Education and Support in the Office of the General Assembly, hosted the informative webinar, which drew 493 registrations. View the webinar here.

The charge to those non-pastors engaged in ordered ministry — deacons and ruling elders — is found in 1 Peter 4:7–11, Gambrell said, where we’re urged to “maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received.”

“The church needs you,” Gambrell told those in attendance, “and the world needs you.”

The part about hospitality “hits a little close to home. We have gone from preaching to meddling,” Gambrell said with a grin. But we’re to extend hospitality without complaining, “even to that person, and you know who I’m talking about,” he said. “That’s what it means to truly love one another in Christian community.”

Gambrell took attendees through the job descriptions of deacons and ruling elders as laid out in the Book of Order and the Directory for Worship, the middle section of the Book of Order. One focus was on both ruling elders and deacons taking on an expanded role leading worship. The Office of Theology & Worship offers these “Principles for Presiding” for those in ordered ministry ready to step up their roles during worship:

• A presider is called by God through the church
• Presiding is servant leadership, pointing to God
• Worship is prayerful action of the body of Christ
• There are no “magic” words, actions or people
• Our primary form of participation is prayer
• Worship should reflect shared responsibility
• The goals are faithfulness, vitality and responsiveness to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

New resources on presiding at the sacraments, baptism and the Lord’s Supper can be found here, here and here.

Gambrell spent some time during the webinar discussing what’s called the extended service of Communion, which requires two or more people serving in ordered ministry. Following worship, deacons and elders can go in teams to people hospitalized or homebound, offering up a scaled-back version of the worship service they’ve just been a part of, including serving the bread and cup.

“This allows those unable to attend to be included, drawing the circle wider even when we’re separated by all kinds of things,” Gambrell said.

He recommended elders and deacons introduce themselves and the church they’re from. “Take time to visit, and listen for joys and concerns,” Gambrell suggested. “Prepare the elements by uncovering the bread and pouring out the cup.”

The extended service can employ a simple order of worship, including offering up a prayer of confession and pardon, reading a portion of Scripture, perhaps providing “a brief interpretation” of the sermon, voicing prayers of thanksgiving and intercession followed by the Lord’s Prayer, and sharing the Communion elements, followed by a blessing.

“Upon leaving, identify the next time a team will return with Communion,” Gambrell advised. “It’s an exciting way deacons and ruling elders can take an active part in pastoral care and the sacramental life of the church.” The service has been part of the Book of Order for about a dozen years, he said, adding, “I hope it’s something we can make better use of.”

Other special worship services include the installation and commissioning of those called to ordered ministry. In the most recent Book of Common Worship, there’s one service for all three offices — ruling elders, deacons and ministers.

“It’s an important testimony to what our denomination believes about ordered ministry,” Gambrell said.

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Serrita Bell, Director of Communications & Marketing, Presbyterian Foundation
Sharon Bell, 1001 apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Mighty God, planter of vineyards near and far, we bless you for the rich soil in which your church is nourishing the seed of your gospel. Continue to transform our lives, congregations and communities so that all will know us by the fruit we bear. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - From a train station to a storefront theater to home

Chicago’s Friendship Presbyterian Church now anchors an affordable housing development

July 25, 2022

Video URL: https://vimeo.com/692546645

Friendship Presbyterian Church’s new home is on the first floor of this affordable housing development at 5150 Northwest Highway in Chicago. As a tenant the church will use its multipurpose space for worship and to benefit those moving into the complex, which is managed and owned by an affordable housing developer. (Photo by Ariel Parrella-Aureli/Block Club Chicago)

Like some of its neighbors in Northwest Chicago, Friendship Presbyterian Church knows what it’s like to be on the move and without a home.

Over the past decade, the congregation has worshiped at a train station and a storefront theater.

Now it’s about to move into a new home, Friendship Community Place, as tenant, on the first floor of a new affordable housing project.

Managed and owned by Full Circle Communities, 5150 — named after its address on Northwest Highway — is a 75-unit mixed-income housing community for veterans, people with disabilities, seniors and families.

To help their new neighbors moving in last weekend, members and friends of Friendship Church welcomed them to the neighborhood with household, hygiene, and other move-in items at a temporary pop-up pantry.

It’s an example of how the congregation plans to use its multipurpose space for worship, but also to offer it up for community gatherings, training opportunities and other programs for residents and members of the community.

“I’ve never seen a group of people like this,” says Friendship’s pastor, the Rev. Shawna Bowman.

More than decade ago, Friendship formed when two Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations sold their buildings. The two churches had dwindling attendance and were disconnected from their neighborhood. Wanting to do something new, the congregations merged and leased space at the Norwood Park train station in Chicago for worship — right in the heart of their community.

Bowman focused on Friendship’s desire to become a source of hope and healing for the neighborhood — and on dreaming about what might come next.

As members and friends formed relationships with people in their community, they began to see the systemic impacts of poverty, segregation and racism on their new friends and across the city.  

In n 2014, a Black teenager, Laquan McDonald, was killed.  He was shot 16 times by a Chicago police officer, who was convicted of second-degree murder in 2018. Sentenced to nearly seven years of prison, Jason Van Dyke is now free after serving less than half of his sentence.

After the 2014 shooting, Friendship helped form the Northwest Side Coalition Against Racism & Hate, and Bowman began to increase work around activism.

Five days after the 2018 verdict was handed down, the NWS Coalition joined in vigils across the city, including at the train station of Friendship Church.  As people grieved with the family and called for more police accountability and systemic changes in the criminal justice system, they were met by pro-police protestors.

“It was scary. We received threats,” Bowman said. “Within a month we were evicted from the train station.”

Officially, the congregation was told that the train station board wanted to rent the space for other events.

Seeing the face of racism made the congregation even more resilient. They found worship space through a partnership with The Gift, a storefront theater. During this time, Friendship began to advocate for an affordable housing building in the neighborhood.

When the idea was first proposed to build 5150 in their neighborhood, hundreds came out in opposition. According to media reports, much of the debate was racially charged.

Amid the rancor surrounding racism and poverty, Bowman helped form Neighbors for Affordable Housing, organizing and helping people to understand how desperately affordable housing was needed in their community.

“At first, a large number of neighbors didn’t want it,” Bowman said. “So, there was a lot of education we did in the community.”

When the affordable housing developer of 5150 told Bowman the developer wanted Friendship Church on the first floor in commercial space they were leasing out, Bowman was concerned about the opposition to affordable housing and the resistance to anti-racism efforts.

But the congregation decided together that it was worth the risk of opposition to build on the partnership — and draw on their invested resources to do so.

Construction on the 5150 property began in January 2020.

“It’s nothing short of a miracle and the hard work of local organizers that this is finally happening,” Bowman said.  “The intangible is finally becoming tangible.”

Paul Seebeck, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jon Baxter, Maintenance Specialist, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Glen Bell, Senior Vice President of Development, Presbyterian Foundation

Let us pray

Through the power of your Holy Spirit, loving God, may the ministries we offer in the name of our Christ lead to the transformation of our world, our churches and ourselves. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Practicing discernment by remaining spiritually disciplined

Sunspots guest: Discernment is less about doing and more about being

July 24, 2022

What is discernment? What is God calling us to do in a particular situation, either as an individual or a congregation or mid council? How do we move forward?

The Rev. Michael Vinson, a teaching elder in the Presbytery of Arkansas, asked almost as many questions as he answered during a recent Sunspots podcast hosted by the Rev. Elizabeth Brinegar, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, Arkansas, and the director of operations of Solar Under the Sun.

Sunspots is a podcast produced by the Synod of the Sun.

“My experience is when we talk about discernment, people are thinking about ‘What does God want us to do in a situation?’” Vinson told Brinegar during their engaging 31-minute conversation. “Discernment becomes a very time-specific thing, such as ‘we need to call a pastor’ or ‘we need to do some work on the church building.’ We talk about discernment as something we do to know God’s will to accomplish a certain thing.”

“That is part of discernment, but as people of faith … discernment for me is really more about being, not so much about doing,” Vinson said. “It’s a discipline, like worship or prayer or Bible study. … When we discern, it is a discipline of listening, of listening every day, or a practice if you want to use that word. When it comes time to make these big decisions, we’re ready — or as my grandfather used to say, we’re all prayed up.”

“One thing I’ve learned,” Brinegar said, “is that if we know who we belong to, we know better who we are. And it we know who we are, we know better what to do. In any process of discernment, none of it is valuable unless it is rooted in a valuable object. Our value is in our state of being as people of God.”

“Our value in discerning is in our relationship with God,” Vinson replied. “It’s … between me, as someone who’s called to incarnate the kingdom of God in this place on the Earth, and my relationship with God and what God says to me about how to do that — every day, all day.”

“Incarnating the kingdom of God,” Brinegar repeated. “Talk about what that looks like.”

“What’s the kingdom of God? Peace, love and joy,” Vinson said. “It’s what Jesus brought to Earth. … Therein lies our hope. When we decide on this new thing we are trying to implement in the church, it comes from the space of joy, love and peace. … We have to know what the kingdom of God is, feels like and looks like individually so we can know collectively.”

Brinegar asked Vinson how people can embody qualities like peace, love and joy. Vinson had a ready answer.

“It’s a discipline, a practice, and it has to do with listening,” he said. “Some traditions have this better than we do in Christianity. We call it prayer, and others call it meditation. … My spiritual director taught me these are essential for our spiritual health.”

Here’s one way to think of and take in these qualities:

Peace is like air. The only way to take it in is to breathe it. Vinson imagines himself outfitted with gills along his back.

Joy is the water of our spirit. Water has many uses, including drinking, bathing and washing dishes. “Joy is cleansing and it slakes our thirst,” Vinson said. “It flows up our body like an artesian well.” Joy also “helps cleanse us of the dust bunnies of our soul, the little demons that feed on the wounds of our soul, most commonly fear and anger.”

“Love is the food for our soul. Whatever cuisine we choose — Chinese, French, soul food, even an all-we-can-eat buffet — feeds our soul. Whatever makes us feel love — making art, creating music, exercising, walking in nature — can serve as “a love buffet we feed from,” Vinson said. On occasion, he said, it’s good to try something new.

Stored up with all three qualities, “when it comes time for knowing the will of God, we’re strengthened, we’re more whole.” Best of all, “we come from a heart place and not so much a head place.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service

Today’s Focus: Sunspots podcast produced by the Synod of the Sun

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Dwayne Batcho, Production Clerk II, Presbyterian Distribution Center, Administrative Services Group (A Corp)
Doug Batezel, Vice President, Information Technology, Board of Pensions

Let us pray

Dear God of life and love, open our eyes to all of our blessings. Open our hearts so that we can see your love in the lives of others and in our own lives. Continue to prepare us for lives of joy and service. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - ‘Why are we destroying God’s Creation?’

PC(USA) climate justice webinar lifts voices of women

July 23,  2022

The Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo

The way the Rev. Dr. Neddy Astudillo sees it, the United States has a debt to pay when it comes to climate change.

As a major generator of carbon emissions, “we need to be courageous and take drastic measures,” said Astudillo, an eco-theologian and Presbyterian pastor who is advocating for a cultural shift.

“The so-called American dream in reality is a nightmare for the rest of the world,” said Astudillo, who is Venezuelan American. “We need to reconsider our value of freedom; it’s not freedom to have and want everything that we want — at any time we want it — just because we have financial power to do so. But it’s really freedom to love, freedom to know the world, to love the world and to be in connection, in relationship with our sisters and brothers around the world and in our own communities.”

Astudillo was one of three women featured during a webinar put on by the Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations to coincide with the 66th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. CSW66 focused on the environment and gender equality this year.

Astudillo, part of GreenFaith and Red Latina, was joined by the Rev. Mamisoa Rakotomalala of Madagascar and Yolanda Zurita of Peru in answering questions from moderator Jessica Maudlin of the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP).

Early on, Maudlin asked Astudillo for a definition of ecotheology. Astudillo replied that it’s about understanding “that God, as Creator, is calling God’s people … to protect the natural world, to protect vulnerable communities.” It probes questions, such as “Why are we destroying God’s Creation?” and “If we are made in God’s image, what image of God are we reflecting?”

Zurita, a social worker in La Oroya, Peru, added that “the Lord calls us through our brothers and sisters groaning in pain.”

In La Oroya, which is contaminated by mining-related toxins and pollution, Zurita and others have experienced health problems, such as seizures, and lead has accumulated in children’s bodies. Zurita said her parents and grandparents “suffered the impact of the work of the smelting company” and noted that ash covered the ground. “This was horrible pressure on Mother Nature that God gave us to be stewards of it and to take care of it for future generations,” she said.

Rakotomalala, an ordained minister of the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM), talked about how Madagascar has a host of problems, from high temperatures and inconsistent rainfall, to cyclones and COVID-19, to famine and malnutrition.

She also talked about the plight of women. For example, “in Madagascar early-arranged marriages are part of the norms, the social norms,” she said. Also, “some families are so desperate … they are selling their daughters because of hunger.”

“Many children are dropping out of school to work or forage to get food and gender violence has increased. So, climate change impacts the household, brings dysfunction in the family, and women and girls are at the intersection” of these oppressive forces, she said.

Toward the end of the webinar, Maudlin asked about how to inspire people of faith, including church members, to take action.

Rakotomalala talked about “raising more awareness and accountability” and also lifting up each other’s voices.

“We tend to keep the mic for ourselves, but passing the mic to those who are silent,” especially women and girls and Indigenous people, is important, she said.

She noted that FJKM has been involved in multiple strategies to improve life in Madagascar, including training seminarians, pastors and volunteers to plant trees and grow fruits. It has partnered with PC(USA) on missionary work through World Mission.

Watch the webinar by clicking here.

Darla Carter, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Jennifer Barr, Reference & Outreach Archivist, Presbyterian Historical Society
Andrew Kang Bartlett, Associate, National Hunger Concerns, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray

Dear Lord, help us to keep the goal in mind so that we may tell the good news of Christ each day, wherever we are and in whatever we do, and keep growing in faith. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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How does wisdom teach us to relate to money? Wisdom is better than wealth by Jim Harnish   Wise living may not insure that we will be rich, but it always leads to a healthy, prosperous, abundant life. Biblical wisdom on the use of money is centered in helping faithful people order their financial lives around their commitment to Christ so that they can live well in every area of their lives. Read here

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Worshipping with children this coming Sunday

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