2019 NEXT Church Update

NEXT Church co-chairs Shavon Starling-Louis and Adam Fronczek give an update on NEXT Church at the 2019 National Gathering in Seattle.

2019 National Gathering Monday Worship Kriah

Led by Rev. Tasha Hicks McCray.

Kriah is a Hebrew word meaning “tearing.” It refers to the act of tearing one’s clothes or cutting a black ribbon worn on one’s clothes. This rending is a striking expression of grief and anger at the loss of a loved one. Kriah is an ancient tradition.

2018 National Gathering: NEXT Church Update

NEXT Church co-chairs Lori Raible, Shavon Starling-Louis, and Adam Fronczek provide an update on the work of NEXT Church at our 2018 National Gathering.

2018 National Gathering Tuesday Morning Worship

Jess Cook, John Molina-Moore, and Erin Counihan provided testimonies during Tuesday morning worship at the 2018 NEXT Church National Gathering. The worship service theme: dying.

Here is the liturgy for the service.

Call to Worship

People of God, we have a story to tell
of life and death,
joy and sorrow
as we live in God’s Holy Way.
God is with us, even when we fear.

People of God, we have a story to tell
of lives cut short,
of life-times fulfilled
as we live in God’s Holy Way.
God is with us, even when we fear.

People of God, we have a story to tell of
our cities, farms,
and towns, desperately wondering
how they will begin again
as we live in God’s Holy Way.
God is with us, even when we fear.

People of God, we have a story to tell
of heartache and brokenness in our bodies
as we live in God’s Holy Way.
God is with us, even when we fear.

People of God, we have a story to tell.
Surrounded by God’s Great Cloud of Witnesses,
we give testimony to our stories of grief and loss,
as we are sustained by water, songs and prayers.
We are living in God’s Holy Way.
God is with us, even when we fear.

Let us worship God.

Litany

“We are a resurrection people,” we like to say.
And we say it often.
It is true.
But resurrection doesn’t erase or replace
the real life that happens before, during and after.
The real life that we all know –
the places where we are broken,
where we are grieving,
where we are sad,
where we are angry,
where we are hurting,
where we are anxious,
where we are lonely.
For we are human – fully.
And we each carry around
the experiences of trauma, and loss, and hurt
that are a real part of life.
Those experiences live within us,
and they exist
before, during and after
resurrection.
Yes, we are a resurrection people.
But we are also human –
Fully.
And that means that we know death
just as surely as we know life.
Death is real, it is excruciating, and painful, and it is a part of life.
But God is not afraid of death.
God is big enough to hold us
in our hurt, in our brokenness,
in those places of death where we cannot hold ourselves.
When we find ourselves in those places,
when we cannot imagine
ever feeling joy again,
may we remember
that although God will not erase the pain,
God will hold us, God will stand with us.

Psalm 27 (from Ann Weems)

O God of my heart
it is your name I call
when the stars do not come out.
O God of my soul,
it is to you I turn
when the torrents of terror
drown me.
O God of mercy,
it is for your hand I reach
when I stumble
on the stones of sorrow.
O God of justice,
it is to you I cry
when the landslide of grief
buries me.
I stand beneath the night
where stars used to shine
and remember
gazing mesmerized
at the luminaries of the sky
until I could walk
the ink-blue beach
between their shining.
Then their shining stopped,
for they left the sky,
and you, O God,
left with them.
And I am left
alone
beneath a starless sky
with a starless heart
that barely beats.
Will your stars
never shine again?
Will they never again
speak of your mystery?
Will they never again sing
their songs
to my soul?
Will I never again know
the wonder
of the God
of star and sky?
O God of my heart,
peel back the night
and let the starlight
pour out upon
my upturned face.
Let my eyes drink
a sky of stars.
Let my heart bathe
in the stunning light
until my soul sings again
with the conviction
of the faithful.
In your mercy and justice,
O God of my heart,
call me by name,
and the stars will shine
once more,
as they did
on that morning
when they first began
to sing.

Sung Response (from Psalm 27)

[O God], Will your stars
never shine again?
Will they never again sing
their songs
to my soul?

Unison Prayer

O God of my heart,
peel back the night
and let the starlight
pour out upon
my upturned face.
Let my eyes drink
a sky of stars.
Let my heart bathe
in the stunning light
until my soul sings again
with the conviction
of the faithful.
In your mercy and justice,
O God of my heart,
call me by name,
and the stars will shine
once more,
as they did
on that morning
when they first began
to sing.

Scripture Reading

John 13:1-17

Invitation for Remembrance and Handwashing

As death approached, Jesus commanded his disciples to love.
even as denial and betrayal, rejection and unworthiness
was mixed-up in that love.
Holy One, in washing and remembering, call us to love.
As death approached, Jesus gave his disciples ways to grieve:
a tender touch, washing with water, telling of a story,
being together in community.
Holy One, in washing and remembering, call us to love.
As death approached, Jesus gave his disciples a place to be together:
a table, a water basin, a home.
Holy One, in washing and remembering, call us to love.

Unison Prayer

O God of our hearts,
peel back the night
and let the starlight
pour out upon
our upturned faces.
Let our eyes drink
a sky of stars.
Let our hearts bathe
in the stunning light
until our soul sing again
with the conviction
of the faithful.
In your mercy and justice,
O God of our hearts,
call us by name,
and the stars will shine
once more,
as they did
on that morning
when they first began
to sing.

2017 National Gathering: Transformative Learning IV

Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott served as our Transformation Leaders at the 2017 National Gathering, joining us throughout the week during plenary sessions to help us find ways to process what we experienced and equip us to take those learnings home with us. Here is their final session from Wednesday morning.


Watch Jen and Leslie’s other sessions:

Transformative Learning I
Transformative Learning II
Transformative Learning III

2017 National Gathering Transformative Learning III

Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott served as our Transformation Leaders at the 2017 National Gathering, joining us throughout the week during plenary sessions to help us find ways to process what we experienced and equip us to take those learnings home with us. Here is their third session from Tuesday morning.


Watch Jen and Leslie’s other sessions:

Transformative Learning I
Transformative Learning II
Transformative Learning IV

2017 National Gathering Monday Afternoon Worship

On Monday afternoon of the National Gathering, our worship service consisted of liturgy, music, and readings.

Scripture: John 4:1-10
Music: Neema Community Choir

Worship Liturgy

A Thought for Personal Meditation

“I knew too that this new war was not even new but was only the old one come again. And what caused it? It was caused, I thought, by people failing to love one another, failing to love their enemies. I was glad enough that I had not become a preacher, and so would not have to go through a war pretending that Jesus had not told us to love our enemies.”

                    – Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

Call to Worship

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money, come, buy and eat.
Come buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor that that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
We come now,
for we are a people of parched throats
and hungry hearts.
We come now,
for we are hungry
for the brokenness of our yesterdays
to be gathered up in mercy,
for the injuries we have caused one another
to be healed in honest forgiveness,
for the talent we have to see the wrong
to be replaced with the gift to see the good.
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

A Responsive Prayer of Confession

Confession of 1967       

The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ
has set the pattern for the church’s mission.
His life as mortal involves the church in the common life of humanity.
His service to humanity commits the church to work
for every form of human well-being.

And we, the church of this living-dying-rising-coming again Christ
Have brought shame on his name,
     for tolerating human suffering,
     for justifying human oppression,
     for accepting racial division,
     for ignoring the enslaving power of poverty.
This is the history we all share.

His suffering makes the church sensitive
to all the sufferings of humankind
so that it sees the face of Christ
in the faces of all in every kind of need.

And we, the church of this living-dying-rising-coming again Christ
have ignored his sensitivities
as we fail to see him in the face of the stranger,
as we refuse to see him in the suffering of the stranger,
as we deny that we see him in the dying of the stranger.
For we are sensitive to our own suffering,
     and our own fear,
     and our own cynicism.
This is the history we share.  

His crucifixion discloses to the church God’s judgment
on humanity’s inhumanity and
the awful consequences of its own complicity in injustice.

And we, the church of this living-dying-rising-coming again Christ,
are participating in his crucifixion,
as the way of the world is to crucify love.
We confess our complicity in humanity’s inhumanity.
But not only this:
We confess that we are hungry for
     the broken to be mended,
     the bruised to be comforted,
     and the sinful to be turned around and made right.
We, the church of this living-dying-rising-coming again Christ
thirst for living water for all.
This is the prayer we share.

(Silent Prayer)

Assurance of God’s Grace

In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming
     the church sees the promise of God’s renewal of life
     in society and
     of God’s victory over all wrong.
The church follows this pattern in the form of its life and
in the method of its action.
So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.

As a forgiven people,
bathed in grace,
given one more day to live and serve the living-dying-rising-coming again Christ:
We live trusting on God’s victory over all wrong,
     in us
     in Christ’s Church
     in God’s World.

The Sending                                                   

Jesus Christ came into a world where Jews do not share things in common with Samarians—
in this world we are called to live in faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

His life, death, resurrection, and promised coming
has set the pattern for the church’s mission.
In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming
     The church sees the promise of God’s renewal of life
     in society and
     of God’s victory over all wrong.
So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.

Bearing witness to a promised day that we have yet to see,
but on which we base our lives,
we will live this day in trust.

In whom do you trust?
I trust in Jesus Christ my Savior, and acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of the church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

How does God’s Word come to you?
I accept the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be, by the Holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness to Jesus Christ in the Church universal, and God’s Word to me.

I further receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed faith as expressed in the confessions of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will be instructed and led by those confessions.

How shall Christ shape your life?
I will serve in obedience to Jesus Christ, under the authority of Scripture, and continually guided by the confessions.

How will you live in Christ’s church?
I will be governed by our church’s polity, and will abide by its discipline.  I will be a friend among my colleagues in ministry, working with them, subject o the ordering of God’s Word and Spirit.

How will you serve the world?
I will seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, love my neighbors, and work for the reconciliation of the world.

How will you serve the church?
I promise to further the peace, unity and purity of the church.

How will you serve the people?
With energy, imagination intelligence and love.

To live and to serve is to confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

 

2017 National Gathering Transformative Learning II

Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott served as our Transformation Leaders at the 2017 National Gathering, joining us throughout the week during plenary sessions to help us find ways to process what we experienced and equip us to take those learnings home with us. Here is their second session from Monday afternoon.


Watch Jen and Leslie’s other sessions:

Transformative Learning I
Transformative Learning III
Transformative Learning IV

2017 National Gathering Transformative Learning I

Jen Kottler and Leslie Mott served as our Transformation Leaders at the 2017 National Gathering, joining us throughout the week during plenary sessions to help us find ways to process what we experienced and equip us to take those learnings home with us. Here is their first session from Monday afternoon.


Leslie Mott is pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Philipstown, NY, a certified Spiritual Director, and a yoga teacher. She directs the pastoral sabbath program for Hudson River Presbytery and is the coordinator of spirituality and practice at Bedford Presbyterian Church.

Jen Kottler is a certified life and leadership coach and spiritual director in private practice. Ordained in the Disciples of Christ, she studies spiritual formation at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and incorporates yoga into her prayer life.


Watch the rest of Jen and Leslie’s presentations:

Transformative Learning II
Transformative Learning III
Transformative Learning IV

You Can Do It

This month, our blog series is actually a vlog series – a video blog, that is! We’re calling it “The NEXT Few Minutes.” Over the next several weeks, we’ll share with you short, 2-3 minute videos from a variety of folks around the country with the hopes they spark your own imagination. We hope you’ll learn about some trends, ask questions, and think deeply about the practice of ministry in your own setting.

Denise Anderson, pastor of Unity Presbyterian Church in Temple Hills, MD, and co-moderator of the 222nd General Assembly, and her daughter Layla consider passions. Where has God placed fire in your belly? Instead of worrying about what everyone else is doing, what is God especially equipping you to do? Join the conversation by commenting on this blog post or on our Facebook/Twitter pages!

To see all of our videos in our “The NEXT Few Minutes” series, check out our playlist on Youtube.