Beyond Games and Soup Kitchens with Rodger Nishioka

A couple of weeks ago, several of us from the Presbytery of Eastern Virginia attended a seminar at Union Presbyterian Seminary with Rodger Nishioka, Benton Family Chair in Christian Education, Columbia Theological Seminary.  The title of the seminar, "Beyond Games and Soup Kitchens: Nurturing a Passionate Spirituality in Youth Ministry," didn't begin to cover the treasures unfolded in the two days spent in dialogue together. 

I must admit that I LOVE learning.  Crave new information like others crave chocolate.  I took 13 pages of notes over the two days.  I'm still transcribing those notes, so let me share what some others took away from our time with Rodger Nishioka:

The one thing Rodger said that really stuck with me was, and I’m paraphrasing, “the Golden Rule is well and good to get us started, but what I think God is really calling us to do is love our neighbor as they want to be loved. This means we must get to know them enough to know how best they are loved, not simply place our own wants and needs on them.”

What a fascinating idea! I’ve already shared this with my youth and they also had a really positive reaction to the idea. I hope that in my ministry, I am loving these youth as they need to be loved!

Sarah Ramsey
Director of Youth Ministries
Williamsburg Presbyterian Church

I think the thing that intrigued me the most was the discussion of moral realism vs moral relativism and our role in guiding them through this shift.  Not that I was completely oblivious to these different ways of thinking, but the emphasis on this helped me to think about the way that I interact with my youth group.  It also forces me to gauge the expectations I have for my kids and will allow me to adjust accordingly.

Sherri Egerton

Program Director

Makemie Woods Camp and Conference Center

During the seminar, resources for further reading were recommended... this one is currently available for checkout from the Resource Center:

Kenda Creasy Dean's "Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church" - this book offers a compelling new model for reaching, discipling, and empowering today's youth. The uniqueness of this book lies in its relocating youth ministry in practical theology rather than in educational theory or psychological or social development. It pays attention to the theological mooring that youth need to connect with the church and hold firm amid the growing demands of popular culture by focusing on the theological resonance between the passion of Christ and adolescents' experience of passion. She uses this to develop a framework for youth ministry that draws on the historic practices of the Christian community as a 'curriculum of passion."

Want to learn more?  Rodger Nishioka is coming to our area!  He'll be at Makemie Woods March 18-19.  Mark your calendars now and look for more information to come.

Educators Luncheon in November

 

Educators Luncheon
Conversation and Inspiration
from Makemie Woods and  PEVA Youth Ministry
Thursday, November 4th – Noon

Special Guests:  Rev. ‘Mike’ Burcher and Sherri Egerton

How can we as Christian Educators and Youth Leaders support each other?  Do you have questions about PEVA Youth Ministry?  What’s the latest news from Makemie Woods?  And how do the answers to these questions help us as we seek to nurture and educate the youth in our churches?
 

Mike and Sherri will be joining us next Thursday, November 4th, at the Resource Center to share and discuss ways Makemie Woods and PEVA Youth Ministry can support the ministry of the local congregation.  

Bring your thoughts, your questions, a brown bag lunch, and ANY EDUCATORS AND YOUTH LEADERS from your church wishing to attend.  RSVP to Donna Rae Barrow, PEVA Resource Center Director, by Tuesday, November 2nd - - 397-7063, ext. 313 or donnarae@pcusa-peva.org.
 

"Common Threads"

 

Rev. Dr. Cynthia Higgins 

of First Presbyterian Church in Hampton

will be the guest speaker at the

Praying Hands Prayer Shawl Gathering

"Common Threads"

Saturday, November 13, 2010

9:30 am - 3:00 pm

St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Cordier Hall

512 Buckroe Avenue, Hampton

This is a wonderful opportunity for those involved in Prayer Shawl ministry to come together to create new friendships, take part in a prayer shawl blessing service, and leave with a fresh way of looking at the work we have been called to do.  The $15 registration fee includes lunch and all activities.

The deadline to register is November 6th.  Please contact Carol Smith to register, 757-850-5900, 757-876-4217, or jdamazon@aol.com. 

Equipping the Saints - Cancelled

The Resource Committee met yesterday afternoon and reviewed submitted registrations for Equipping the Saints scheduled for November 6, 2010. Regrettably, registrations were not sufficient to warrant holding such a large and outstanding event. We have decided to cancel Equipping the Saints.


We learned much from the registrations we did receive, however, and are looking at ways to present desired topics in a less formal setting in the future.

The Resource Center looks forward to serving your ministries in the days to come.

World Communion: A Children's Sermon

Jacqui Horton, Director of Christian Education at First Presbyterian Church, Virginia Beach, has written and presented many sermons and programs for children.  Her enthusiasm and creativity shine through in everything she does.  Let's take a peek at one of Jacqui's recent children's sermons about World Communion Day...

"Look around you.  Looks like something special might happen today.  What do you think is going to happen?  We’re going to celebrate Communion, or the Lord’s Supper.

Let’s get a better look shall we?  Come with me and gather round close so we can examine these beautiful, wonderful smelling loaves of bread.  (Children are asked to smell hot rolls fresh from the oven Yummmm) When you smell the aroma of fresh baked bread what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?  “I want to eat some!”  

And if you’re really hungry you might get excited while anticipating the taste to come. You know this is going to be good because you have eaten home baked bread before right? Your mouth might start watering, right?   That’s because your senses of smell and taste trigger memories.
 

I selected breads that come from different countries, different parts of the world.  Let’s see if you can guess which countries these breads represent. (Holding up a loaf of French bread) “Do you know what kind of bread this is?”
“Is it Italian?” “No.”
“Is it American?”  “No.”
 “I know, it’s from Subway!”  “No, good guess though. It is not from the country of Subway! It’s a loaf of French bread, from the country of France.”
 

Here we have some German rye and pumpernickel, middle-eastern flat bread, naan from India, Mexican corn tortillas, Italian bread, sourdough bread from California, and even Irish soda bread which I couldn’t find at the store so I made it myself.  Since I’m Irish and Scottish, and because we have some friends visiting from Northern Ireland today, I just had to have some on our World breads table today.  They’re the Montgomeries and I can hardly wait to meet them because my mother was a Montgomery, too.  Small world huh?

Did you notice the kaftan I’m wearing? My friend, Peggy brought this to me from the mid east.  Do you recognize the batik table cloth?  It was made by women from the Congo, our sister church in Africa.  Why do you think I brought these out today?

It’s because Christians all over the world are celebrating Communion, the Lord’s Supper today.  When we break and eat bread today you can bet that others across seas in every direction are doing the same thing.  All day and even while we are sleeping Christians of every denomination will be celebrating the Lord’s supper.  Why?  Because Jesus asked us to break bread and eat bread to help us remember him. It’s kind of a memory trigger cause when we eat it, we remember what Jesus said, “This is my body take and eat, do this in remembrance of me.”  And the bread is for everyone all over the world who claim that Jesus is Lord and Savior.  Isn’t that wonderful?

Let us pray...
Thank you, God for our daily bread. Thank you for the bread of life, we call Jesus.  We can’t wait, to taste your goodness. Amen." 

If you'd like to share more lessons using bread and other biblical foods, check out this book available at the Resource Center...

 Milk and Honey Cooking School: 

Learning the History of God's People through Cooking and Eating

by Daphna Flegal and LeeDell Strickler

This resource walks the presenters through the history of God's people from Adam's first bite of the forbidden fruit to the breaking of the bread at the Last Supper in Jerusalem. Every event that happened to God's people made an impact on their lives, and that included the food.

Milk and Honey provides detailed instruction on how to set up the event and how to involve not only adults, but also children in the final presentation. While learning about the events that impacted the Hebrew people, the participants will get to sample such foods as Abraham's Goat Cheese Dip, Unleavened Bread, Esau's Pottage, Challah Braid, Grecian Honey Cheesecake, and Roman Bread Pudding. In addition to the foods, the presenters will instruct the class in the social etiquette as well as the right and wrong way to eat with bread as one's utensil.

Book Review and A Reminder

“Strategic Leadership for a Change: 

Facing Our Losses, Finding Our Future”
by Kenneth J. McFayden

a book review from Billy Ricketts, 

Congregational Ministries CLP, Second Presbyterian, Norfolk

My first instinct when seeing that this book was written by a Dean from a seminary was that it would be steeped in academic language and probably written from a perspective that was far from reality.  On the contrary, McFayden’s book manages to clarify the reason for dysfunctional church behavior that most church leaders have experienced firsthand.

When the author talks about church loss (the loss of members; pastors & staff; traditions; status in the community; stability; identity; confidence and energy for ministry) he is describing what so many are experiencing in the Presbyterian Church USA. 

The author strikes close to home when he muses that we all want quick resolution to every problem in the church.  In many cases, we simply want to pay someone to provide the “silver bullet” that will make our youth group thrive or our praise band sound like they’re from Hillsong.  The reality is that change is never quite that simple…    

McFayden builds his book on the premise that the one thing that that the church fears the most is “change”.  His quote that “the only person who likes change is a wet baby” screams volumes about us! 

We say that we yearn for growth in our churches (especially the addition of young families) and that we’ll do almost anything to see it happen (even adding a contemporary service). However, the reality is that “change” way too often results in a number of folks either leaving the church or staying when they should leave.

The first few chapters of the book are quite helpful in identifying exactly what has really happened in the culture and environment where un-welcomed change has occurred.  The final chapters offer practical advice aimed at helping churches recover from loss and change.     

At the end of each chapter, there are a series of practical questions that would be quite helpful for congregations and their leaders to consider as they ponder the past, present and future of their church.

While this book is fabulous for armchair psychologists, I would strongly suggest that it become mandatory reading for any church leader who is on a path for substantive change in their church (interim ministry, massive change in worship style, etc.). Please do yourself a favor and read through this VERY informative book!

Ken McFayden, Dean of The Center for Ministry and Leadership Development and Professor of Ministry and Leadership Development at Union Presbyterian Seminary, is the keynote speaker and a workshop leader for Equipping the Saints: Resources for a Vibrant Church, on Saturday, November 6, at First Presbyterian Church, Norfolk.  Register online today for this inspiring event!

Cokesbury Tent Sale

Cokesbury Fall Tent Sale

Friday, October 8 and Saturday, October 9

Store opens at 10:00am

Save 50% to 75%!

KNELL'S RIDGE SQUARE
805 BATTLEFIELD BLVD. N., SUITE 119
CHESAPEAKE, VA 23320-4878
Phone: 757-312-0084

Blessing of the Animals at Hidenwood PC

It was a beautiful morning for the Blessing of the Animals at Hidenwood Presbyterian in Newport News! 

 

 

Pastor Bill Lamont led this special outdoor worship service for our best friends. 

The service featured lovely music and meditations made complete with a little responsive reading woofing and meowing. 

 Each animal was individually blessed and received a special certificate of blessing with a collar medallion. 

Treats for all followed the service... cider and baked goods for the caregivers, and treats of liver, salmon, pumpkin-apple, or even cheese straws for their best buds. 

Prayerfully considering an Animal Blessing service at your church?  The Resource Center can help!  The following resources contain inspiration for planning this special service for animals and those who love them...

Blessing the Animals:

Prayers and Ceremonies

to Celebrate God's Creatures,

Wild and Tame,

by Lynn Caruso

All God's Creatures: 
The Blessing of 
Animal Companions,
by Debra K. Farrington