8/14/2025

Volunteers are the backbone of most non-profits, including our Presbyterian churches. On any given day, church members and others give their time to assist with the church’s landscaping, bookkeeping and budgeting, newsletters and community relations, and certainly with Sunday School.

8/13/2025

Before God called me into ministry, I was convinced that I was going to become a teacher. I planned to dedicate my life to teaching French to high school students. I attribute my love of the French language to my grandfather, who taught me words like bienvenue (welcome) and je t’aime (I love you) as a child. He would recount stories (although apocryphal at best) about our family’s ancestral ties to France. Our family crest even bears the words toujours fidele – “always faithful.” It is a phrase that has come to carry even more meaning for me since becoming a minister, just like my grandfather.

8/12/2025

One of the great things about book clubs is the variety of reactions any given selection is likely to evoke. I may find a certain character very sympathetic, but my neighbor isn’t having it. You see something in a story I would not have noticed without you. Reading with others often elicits new and deeper insights than we might have on our own.

7/18/2025

Remember the boxes of pre-printed pledge envelopes you or your parents would receive each year from the church? Every Sunday that you went to service, you’d place your check or cash into the small envelope and seal it tight for the offering plate.

7/17/2025

Earlier this summer, I shared a story about my grandmother during a legacy giving presentation for the Presbyterian Foundation’s Online Day of Learning webinar. I want to share it again here.

6/17/2025

The buzz of anticipation fills the congregation when new members join a church. They’re excited, we’re excited, and the church heart swells with pride.

6/12/2025

A wise pastoral colleague of mine, Rev. AnnAline Drake, once told me over lunch, “All ministry is transitional ministry.”

AnnAline is highly experienced and, frankly, right about most things, so I listen carefully when she drops a line like this. While her wisdom rang true at the time — some three years ago — I had no idea how important it would become to my ministry as a Ministry Relations Officer at the Presbyterian Foundation.

6/9/2025

Far too often, when faced with the enormous challenges of life and faith, we approach our Sunday through Saturday through a theology of scarcity. Rather than asking ourselves what we do have and what we have been blessed with, we ruminate and lament what we don’t have.

5/16/2025

In our fast-paced world of social media, families and neighbors, church committees and school events, it’s easy to assume that everyone knows what’s going on.

It’s just the opposite.

5/15/2025

When I was in my role with insurance companies before joining the Presbyterian Foundation, I was often called to join conversations with agents and clients about their estate plans. Most of these conversations were protecting business interests, providing income for families, utilizing insurance for estate taxes but rarely was their discussion about what their legacy will be.

5/14/2025

You’ve heard of “Christmas in July,” well how about “Christian Witness in June?” In June of 2025, the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) provides preachers a dynamic series of Sundays to celebrate and witness to core theological events and principles. Tying these Sundays together into a series could be a compelling way to invite people to reflect on foundational aspects of our faith that are often overlooked, minimized, or forgotten in many Protestant churches in the United States.

4/22/2025

As a Senior Ministry Relations Officer serving the East Region, one of my favorite topics to speak on is the effective utilization of a narrative budget. I enjoy this subject mostly because a narrative budget is an excellent way to transform a traditional line item budget into a graphic, pictorial representation of resources at work in the areas of mission and ministry. Additionally, the narrative budget is just one of the many ways a congregation can encourage a shift from budget-balancing based stewardship programming to faith-based giving in all areas — time, talent, and treasures. Most would agree that congregants do not give to simply balance the annual budget; rather they give through faith as a response to gratitude, to support the mission of the church, and to provide for the future.