From the General Presbyter Just returned from the Stewardship Kaleidoscope conference in Portland, Oregon. A good time was had by all, and I have asked Frank to create a Stewardship Resources page on the website where I will deposit some helpful and interesting resources from the conference. The first plenary was a panel discussion from […]
1st Core Value: Promoting Justice
The Presbytery, the Strategic Plan and You Summer Series From the General Presbyter The Cabinet started devising this plan in 2022 which starts with identifying our core values. The first value is “Promoting Justice.” Merriam Webster defines “just” as acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good. Justice rarely exists outside […]
April 23, 2024
From the General Presbyter “Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.” – Get Together by the Youngbloods, 1967 Really? If you are like me, you are wondering if this might actually be the apocalypse. War in the Middle East, thousands of Palestinians starving and […]
December 19, 2023
From the General Presbyter One day during Advent in New Castle Presbytery, the Administrative Assistant and I were talking with our volunteer Treasurer about our holiday plans. This gentleman who, upon discovering that his whole family would descend at his house on Christmas Eve, said “I need to go to the store so I can […]
December 6, 2023
From the General Presbyter How do we keep Advent from feeling like Groundhog Day? You know, doing the same thing over and over. Answer, we don’t. Yes, we can freshen up traditions, update language, use contemporary illustrations. But we are waiting, and waiting and waiting for God’s love to be revealed in the flesh. We […]
What’s Happening with Enduring Witness?
From the General Presbyter The Enduring Witness fund was initiated in 2019 to resource pastors and congregations by funding the following grants: The grants, funded from proceeds from sold church buildings, have provided desired and needed support to half of our congregations. However it is time to re-evaluate. While the grants are suspended (with the […]
October 4, 2023
From the General Presbyter “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine…” – Ephesians 4: 14a NASV Lisa Lai, an Executive Coach wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review on the topic of Strategic Ambiguity. Symptoms include the […]
August 29, 2023
From the General Presbyter The other day I was driving by the community center near my home and noticed some children playing under two basketball hoops. They could not have been more than four or five years old, and they looked tiny compared to the tall basketball hoops designed for adults. One or two of […]
May 3, 2023
From the General Presbyter Connectional vs. Relational The Presbyterian Church USA boasts of being a “connectional church.” From a practical perspective, it means each “council” of the church supports each other. The congregation supports the Presbytery who supports the Synod and General Assembly. On a good day, we then practice a kind of trickle down […]
November 30, 2022
From the General Presbyter The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come Do you remember that ghost from Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol? Shrouded, mysterious, creepy, silent. Scrooge was afraid and if we stop for a moment and think, so are we. What will this Advent/Christmas season be like? Will people come back to church? Will […]
