A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Staying Experimental and Nimble I have said many times in the last three months, “I don’t know how we would have managed the pandemic 20 years ago,” before there was social media and videoconferencing platforms like Zoom. That technology has been essential to allowing...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: “All of the Above” Today I filled out a survey from the Log College Project, the program of Princeton Seminary that we are part of, that is trying to cultivate new ways of doing ministry with young people. The survey was to help them...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Re-centering ourselves A little over a year ago, the Session approved a new set of core values and a mission statement to articulate our deepest identity as a congregation and the particular calling that we have discerned from God for us to answer as...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Bound together by the power of the Holy Spirit It has become a cliché of this quarantine period of the pandemic that it is difficult to keep track of time: telling the day of the week is hard; things that feel like they happened...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Some Good News The word “evangelism” has acquired a negative connotation to many people in the last few decades; certainly beyond the Church, but even within it. That’s mostly because evangelism became associated with particularly visible and influential elements of Christianity in the United...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Beautiful Questions to Explore One of our congregation’s four Core Values is having “An Inquiring Faith.” In elaborating on that value, we have said: “Following Christ’s example in Scripture, we believe that curiosity and questioning are essential practices of faith, and that some of...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: On this journey together This Sunday will mark the start of the ninth week that we’ve been a fully digital church. In that time, we’ve found ways to authentically worship together, including celebrating Communion; we’ve moved existing ministries of education and service online and...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Connected by Communion Friends, this Sunday is the first Sunday of May, so we will be celebrating the sacrament of Communion together during both livestream worship services. You may remember us doing this for the first time on Palm Sunday last month. Theologically, for...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Love in the Time of Coronavirus We are now in the season of Easter for the church year. In the Lectionary, the schedule of Scripture readings that covers most of the Bible in a three-year cycle, the season of Easter unsurprisingly focuses on stories...
A MESSAGE FROM REV. J.C. AUSTIN: Behind the scenes Earlier this week, I was on a videoconference call with the rest of the Advisory Board of Macedonian Ministry, a national and ecumenical clergy development organization that was started by the Rev. Dr. Tom Tewell, whom some of you know from...