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Merry Christmas!
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An Imperfect Lineage: A Youth Reflection on the Genealogy of Jesus
By: Kaylee Osteen “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Matthew 1:1 (NRSV) Over the past few years, the summer Montreat Youth Conferences have inspired me in a multitude of ways. Escaping to the mountains of North...
Connecting Worship and Learning: Faith Development on Two Fronts
By: Carol Wehrheim The Kim family arrived in the sanctuary just as the Call to Worship began. The girls in first and fourth grades sat with their parents until the storyteller called children forward for the Bible story that would be the focus of their Sunday school...
Why Celebrate the Christian Year?
By: David Gambrell The Christian year is an ancient pattern of seasons and festivals by which congregations and individuals immerse themselves in the story of God’s saving love through Jesus Christ. This way of keeping time is sometimes called the liturgical year or...
Stumbling Into Streaming
By: Craig Foster “Now that we have a camera in the sanctuary, what’s the cheapest and easiest way we can get our services online?” That simple question from our pastor started our venture into livestreaming our worship services over seven years ago. We had just...
The Milestone of the First Cell Phone
By: Beth Thaxton If you see sixth graders jumping up and down, it’s because they just got their first cell phone. Or more appropriately, they’re not jumping… because you really can’t jump and Snapchat at the same time. Too dangerous. The youth in my congregation often...
Parenting in a Digital World
By: Liv Looney Cappelmann Facebook was originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission—to make the world more open and connected. – Mark Zuckerberg Friends, it is no secret we are living in the digital media era. There are hundreds of...
A Prayer for Election Week
By: Beth Herrinton-Hodge As we stand on the eve of Election Day in the United States, words from our weekly lectionary readings give messages of courage, steadfastness, strength in God and in Jesus Christ – the source of our life and our hope. Take courage. Stand...
2017 APCE Award Winners
By: Join us at the 2017 Annual Event in Denver as we honor the winners of our Connect, Enrich, Empower and Sustain Awards. Bette Case: CONNECT Award Bette served as DCE at Derry Presbyterian in Hershey, PA, First Presbyterian in Fairborn, OH, Pleasant Grove...
The Spirituality Center at the 2017 APCE Annual Event
By: Cindy Moorman My name is Cindy Moorman. I have lived, along with my husband Kent, my daughter, and my son, in Colorado for sixteen years. In those sixteen years we have come to love this beautiful place. Everywhere you turn in Colorado, there is the majesty of the...