Blog Post by Ruling Elder, Joyce Wilks-Love Cote Brilliante Presbyterian Church 2022 Presbytery Moderator For my birthday in 2015, my cousin gave me the book “The Butterfly Effect”, by Andy Andrews (New York Times bestselling author). Initially, I did not read the book, but this year, through a quest for new reading material, I picked it up and read it…
Presbytery Guest Blog by Rev. Karl Hauser Southminster Presbyterian Church 2021 Presbytery Moderator There are lots of things to value in the church. If you are reading this you are probably part of a church already. If so, how would you explain to someone outside of the church, WHY the church um… actually matters? An easy way to start off…
Blog Post by Ellen Schroeder, Ruling Elder Clerk of Session, Second Presbyterian Church Imagine a place where you can get away from day-to-day stress and concerns; where your mind is free to drift in all directions while the subconscious works on problems. Now imagine that this place is remote but still connected with the outside world. That is a sacred…
Blog Post by Cheryl Rainey, Ruling Elder Pacific Presbyterian Church Presbyterian Women of Giddings-Lovejoy Coordinating Team Member Synod of MId-America Commissioner Does anyone still ride bicycles? In the 10th summer of my life, at the end of the school year, I received a brand, new bicycle! Ahh! The world was now at my disposal or at least the small, rural…
Blog Post by Daniel Mortimer, Ruling Elder Faith DesPeres Presbyterian Church Presbytery Leader Nominating Committee Monday, October 11, 2021, was National Coming Out Day. National Coming Out Day is an annual celebration with the goal of shining light on individuals within the LGBTQ+ community and their decisions to share their gender identities and sexual orientation with the public. Though coming…
Blog Post by Rev. Dr. Susan R. Andrews, HR Parish Associate at Webster Groves Presbyterian Church During the past forty-five years, I have watched drastic changes in the life of the church, and in the ministry, I was trained to do. At first, I was sad. Then I was mad. But recently my resistance has melted into curiosity. As I…
When I was much younger, I thought that being a pastor would be a pretty good gig. Limited hours – Sunday mornings and a few meetings now and then – relatively decent pay, and sometimes it even came with a house. How hard could that be? I went a different route but still thought that this Pastor job looked pretty…
Blog Post by Rev. Peter (Ping-Hsien) Wu Taiwanese Presbyterian Church of Greater St Louis After living in California for twenty-plus years of my life, our family moved from Northern California to St. Louis in June of this year. Many of my parishioners have asked me about God’s calling and my vision for our church… in the last week of July,…
Blog Post by Rev. Dr. Clint McCann Evangelical Professor of Biblical Interpretation Eden Theological Seminary I am writing to remind all of us that we Presbyterians have historically been and still are a vital part of the Church World Service (CWS). CWS is an alliance of 37 denominations that are committed to working together to transform the world, which means…
Blog Post by Ruling Elder – John Northrip Member St. Mark Presbyterian, of DRAWP and Presbytery Photographer of GA#223 I’ve witnessed the events of the recent past with growing dismay; not only at the shared disasters of disease and disinformation we have endured and inflicted, but as well from the sad realization that though we are all swimming in the…