Historically, Presbyterians “are used to being on a bigger stage and having what we say mean something,” the Acting Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Rev. Bronwen Boswell, said last week during “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.”

Friday’s next-to-last worship service at the APCE Annual Event featured the Revs. Phil and Stephanie Doeschot and two members of Christ’s Church in St. Peters, Missouri, Carol Jones and Ellen Vellenga.

APCE Annual Event keynoter Mark Yaconelli concluded his final plenary Friday with a story you just knew came with a happy ending. It did indeed, but the master storyteller drew it out so well that you were afraid it might turn out unexpectedly. More on that later.

One Sunday, the Rev. Michelle Scott-Huffman had an epiphany. As the former pastor of Table of Grace, a non-traditional, radically inclusive faith community she planted in Jefferson City, Missouri, she knew that her leadership and preaching were central to worship. But one Sunday, the congregation showed her — and the Spirit told her — otherwise.

APCE keynoter Mark Yaconelli, whose most recent book holds up the importance of storytelling, told a few compelling stories himself during his plenary talk on Thursday.

There may be no place thirstier for life than the desert after a long period of no rain, the Rev. Melanie Marsh said during Thursday’s worship service at APCE’s Annual Event being held in St. Louis and online. Marsh used a National Geographic clip to demonstrate rain’s dramatic effect on the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park southeast of Los Angeles.

When Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law last month giving the state permission to enforce certain aspects of federal immigration law, the Office of the General Assembly determined it was time to revisit how the church supports members with immigrant identities and ancestry. The agency has decided to follow existing General Assembly policy and encourage Presbyterian groups to refrain from holding any national meetings at non-PC(USA) convention spaces in Texas while Federal courts determine the bill’s legality.

Last month, members of the Special Committee to Write a New Confession held its first in-person meeting on the grounds of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Texas.

The three-day gathering in mid-December saw the committee beginning a process that is expected to culminate in the presentation of a draft confession to the 227th General Assembly (2026), for possible inclusion in the Book of Confessions. At the 226th General Assembly this summer, committee leaders will report findings of their work to date.

Since the Covid pandemic began in early 2020, we’ve gone from lockdown to shutdown, Mark Yaconelli told those attending the APCE Annual Event Wednesday during the first of three keynotes he’s scheduled to deliver. He saw plenty of examples of shutdown during a 91-stop book tour he completed last year following publication of his “Between the Listening and the Telling: How Stories Can Save Us.”

ST. LOUIS — In the vast sea of vendors that populate the Marketplace & Bookstore at the Association of Partners in Christian Education 2024 Annual Event, there’s only one who literally makes a splash.