Synod School, Day 4

When it rains it pours, and this afternoon ended with glorious drops of baptizing water. Despite being stuck inside, everyone is shining. Mostly from the great fellowship of being together in this connectional church. But we also have brightness coming from the clothes.

Yes, I said the fabric of our lives this week are literally glowing from tie dye! Every day after lunch, during craft time, you can choose to silk screen a t-shirt or fabric item of your choice. Then in the evenings, after worship, you can choose to tie-dye these same items.

The Synod School committee offers a multiude of fun craft and art classes, including: Stained Glass, Introduction to Figure Drawing, Surface design Techniques for Fabulous Fabrics, Beginning Wheat Weaving, Scrapbooking 101, Wade in the Water: A Pre-introduction to Watercolor Painting, Acoustic Music Jam and Song Share, Knitting: the Next Step, and Basket Weaving 101.

This year, a new class being offered is "Kumihimo: A Three-fold Cord and Beyond." Pictured here is KayLynn Coulter and Esther Chol (Des Moines Presbytery) and Amanda Miller (Minnesota Valleys Presbytery, St. Cloud, MN), showing off their Kumihimo projects. This three-fold braid is very durable and can be worn as jewelry or for used as a lanyard for name tags or ids.

There are also opportunities for lay leaders and pastors to further their education and ministry with the following: Newly Ordained Clergy Reunion Seminar, Listening and Healing, Preaching for Commissioned Lay Pastors, Is It Time to Go? Exploring Vocational Transitions, Spirituality 101 & 201, Bible Study for Dummies, Praise and Prayer, Responding to Disaster, Perambulating Presbyterian Polity, Creative Worship, Why We Believe What We Believe, One Nation Under (insert your deity here) Separation of Church and State in American History and Law, Good vs. Evil: Movie Heroes and Villians and Biblical Ethics, Learning to Worship with Children, Transforming Conflict: Dealing with Difficult People in Your Congregation, Pre-Retirement Planning Seminar, Planning Worship as a Team, God at the Box Office, Developing Healthy Congregations, Horizons Bible Study: Joshua, Care for the Caregiver, Intersectionsof Science and Religion, Practicing the Art of Reconciliation, The Darkness and the Light, Creating a De-Stress Toolbox, Learning to Love the Old Testament, Spiritual Conversation: Sharing our Souls, Making Peace with Resource Choices, and Biblical Storytelling. Whew! And that's not all of them.

If your days are't full enough, there are also mini-course's offered in the evening: Form of Government Task Force, What is Spiritual Direction? PW Triennial Gathering Update, Yoga: Vacation Style, Star Trek, Left Behind, Cup Cake Decorating, Greek Dancing (pictured here), Conversations with Sara Lisherness, Improvisation, Happy Birthday John Calvin, AA Meeting, Hair Braiding, Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Board of Pensions Update, What are Web 1.0 and Web 2.0? and a Mission Track including: Marion Medical Mission, Prospect Hill Presbytery and the Living Waters for the World, Missouri River Valley Czech Mission Network, and Des Moines Partnership with El Salvador.

Maybe next year, you'll find time to travel this way and join in the week-long fellowship of Synod School, July 25-30, 2010?

Kim Coulter, director of communications

Tentmakers are helping at the Big Tent

June 13, 2009

This Big Tent is not made of your typical materials of fabric and wood stakes, it's more of a combination of people together working to spread the Good News about Christ and a lot of juggling. One person from our Presbytery is serving as a resource person at the invitation of the New Immigrant Fellowship Conference. And he happens to be working at a variety of things all at the same time.

The Rev. Ross Blount led a workshop on Tentmaking while he was here in Atlanta. Ross has been a bi-vocational pastor at the Allerton United Presbyterian Church since 1981 and is representing the Association of Presbyterian Tentmakers while here at the Big Tent. A group of pastors who divide their work between two or more vocations – at least one of which is a ministry validated by presbytery and at least one of which is a secular vocation.

Besides working as a pastor in Allerton, Ross is also a farmer, instructor and past mission worker with the PC(USA). Ross, along with his wife Lorena, enjoy volunteering and helping in our Presbytery. Lorena even serves with our Presbyterian Womens group.

By the invitation of the New Immigrant Ministries Coordinator Rev. Angel Suárez-Valera, Ross found that the pastors and lay leaders of new immigrant Bible study/fellowships in the U.S. can relat to the denomination's tentmakers. Groups from Africa, South Asian (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh), Portuguese speaking countries, and the French and English Caribbean have out of necessity needed to have more that one vocation to remain in the states. An excerpt from Angel's coorespondence with Ross indicates why tentmakers and immigrants have mutual concerns:

"Dear brother Ross,

Thanks for your call last week. It presents an opportunity to be addressed by this office because of the significant number of new immigrant Presbyterian leaders doing ministry as "tentmakers". But, the nature and motivation to be a tentmaker in PC(USA) sharply differs from that among new immigrants. In our situation, it's basically forced by economics.

The intention to provide a decent salary for full time pastors is hindered by

• Most of the new immigrant church membership are low income workers
• Instability of church membership due to mobility of people searching for job opportunities;
• Contrast between the minimum salary approved by a Presbytery for an ordained minister and the media income of the membership served;
• Limited or no financial resources in most Presbyteries to support new immigrant ministries."

After a good day of networking and face-to-face meetings, the 1,500 participants of the Big Tent headed to Centinnial Park in downtown Atlanta, Ga., for a celebration complete with entertainment and cake! All in honor of the 26th anniversary celebration of Presbyterian reunion, which occurred here in 1983. Even Presbyterian Church founder, John Calvin was on hand!