“Use what you’ve got, because God has given you what you need.” With that refrain, the Rev. Jerry Cannon exhorted the 400 participants at the 2013 Evangelism and Church Growth Conference of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to be strong and courageous in reaching out to a hurting world for Jesus Christ.

La Iglesia Presbiteriana (EE.UU.) está profundamente apenada por la devastación ocurrida en Colorado. Sin embargo, encontramos esperanza a través del trabajo renovador y restaurador de Dios. Por favor, únasenos en oración por el pueblo de Colorado, y por toda la creación de Dios que se encuentra en ese lugar.

Señor, elevamos nuestros ojos a los montes
y oramos por tu ayuda mientras la lluvia sigue con su ira.

Apacigua a tu creación:
pon orden a este caos
y devuelve los ríos a su lugar.

Permanece con las personas que pasan a través de las aguas:
llámales por su nombre, y …

루이빌

미국 장로교는 콜로라도에서 일어난 홍수의 재앙으로 인해 마음이 매우 아프지만, 새롭게 하시고 회복시키는 하나님의 일 안에서 소망을 발견합니다. 콜로라도의 주민들과, 그곳에 있는 하나님의 모든 피조물들을 위해 함께 기도합시다.

주님, 우리가 산을 향해 눈을 들며,
범람하고 있는 홍수로 인해 당신의 도움을 구합니다.

당신의 피조물에 평안을 명하소서:
이 혼돈 속에 질서를 부여하시고
강물들이 제 자리로 돌아가게 하소서.

물을 통과하는 자들과 함께 하소서:
그들의 이름을 부르시어
그들의 구원자가 가까이에 계심을 알게 하소서

많은 것을 상실한 자들을 지키소서:
사랑과 돌봄의 공동체들로
그들을 두르시고 붙드소서.

구조하고 보호하는 사람들을 도우소서:
그들이 다른 사람들에게 도움의 손길을 내밀 때
그들의 손을 강하고 흔들리지 않게 하소서.

이 재앙 …

More than sixty Presbyterians from a cross-section of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are gathered at Stony Point Center in New York this week to participate in a consultation on interfaith relations designed to chart a course forward for the PC(USA).

Sponsored by the General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations (GACEIR), the consultation is providing a space from September 19–21 for dialogue and brainstorming on the realities of the current interfaith terrain and how the denomination should respond.

Engaging children in local and global mission is a founding principle for members of First Presbyterian Church in Southampton, the  oldest Presbyterian church in the United States.  The 500-member congregation in Long Island Presbytery relies on Heifer International program resources for their yearly mission event.

The exodus from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) continues, as congregations seeking a more conservative home leave for other denominations. Some are small congregations ― 20 or 30 members ― and some are among the largest and wealthiest churches in the PC(USA).

The invitations are in the mail. Jennifer Beltz and T.J. Gurski of Commerce Township, Mich., are defying the odds — they’re taking the plunge a second time. “When I got divorced, I said, ‘I’m never getting married again,’” says Beltz, 41, who works in marketing. That sentiment seems to be quite common among those jaded by a failed first union: A new analysis of federal data provided exclusively to USA TODAY shows the USA’s remarriage rate has dropped 40 percent over the past 20 years.

 In the disciple making church model pastors are released to be “equippers and senders,” said David Loleng, at the 2013 Evangelism and Church Growth Conference (ECG2013) here.

Loleng, evangelism associate for Presbyterian Mission Agency (PMA), encouraged those gathered for a September 19 clinic “Life on Life Discipleship” to become “life shapers” in their ministry—by becoming both a disciple of Jesus, and a discipler of others.

Engagement on an individual basis ― what the Rev. Trey Hammond calls “relational meetings” ― is the key to congregation-based community organizing, he said. “Individual relational meetings within a congregation are the most important tool we have to establish relationships which lead to the ability to act as a group.”

Many of you have read about the violence in Egypt in August.  The significant loss of life and the brutal conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters on the one side and the Army on the other has further polarized the country.  Sadly, August also marked a dramatic rise in attacks on Christians. Most of the burned churches belonged to the Coptic Orthodox Church and five of them were Egyptian Presbyterian churches.  Of these five, four were led by my former students.  I focus on these four with the hope that the details of their particulars will put a personal face on the news you are reading.