Rev. Maria Rutland, Minister Member at Large, welcomes continued prayer as she cares for her parents.

Frank Vardeman is grateful for continued prayers of healing.

I continue to be appreciative of the many get well wishes for the extra encouragement during the past month. To be embraced by the support in this way with your individual care and the Presbytery as a whole is a blessing. I remain thankful to be united in pray, Gladys Sargent, Office Manager.

Lord we are forever grateful for the members of this presbytery. Not only do they work hard for your glory, they give generously of their time and resources.  Due to that generosity at the Assembly on February 25th, $547 will assist "One Great Hour of Sharing" in their continued ministry. 

 

We pray for and with Memorial Presbyterian Church, Dayton who continue to faithfully serve the community and glorify you, O' Lord. 

Ever since Ben Hur, Hollywood has known that it can make money by producing religious movies that appeal to the faithful. Like other genres, religious movies vary in quality: Both in their integrity to the Bible and in their quality as compelling visual entertainment. Done well, religious movies can add depth to the spiritual imagination of audiences and can evoke awe. Hollywood's latest Jesus movie Son of God does both, filling in detail and providing satisfying, challenging wonder.

As a pastor, I am a student of the text. I would rather folks get their faith from the Bible instead of a movie. So, I went to Son of God as a skeptic -- not in regards to the material, but concerning how the material would be handled by image-makers. I was pleased to be won over by this film, which, on the whole, does a good job of portraying the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Unlike Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, which focused almost entirely on the last week of Jesus' life, Son of God captures the whole sweep of Jesus' extraordinary life, and it does so in a way that is both religiously responsible and cinematically absorbing.

In terms of religious responsibility, Son of God does several things very well. First, it does a solid job of portraying the political intricacies of Jesus' time. There is no facile blaming "the Jews" for Jesus' death. The movie accurately paints Rome's brutal occupation of Palestine as the simmering issue with which all parties must contend. The Temple priesthood rightly recognizes the threat of a Messiah with crowds willing to follow him -- and possibly march against their Roman occupiers.

Pontius Pilate, who was so ruthless that Rome eventually recalled him from governing Palestine, is well-played as a canny, pragmatic autocrat by the British actor Greg Hicks. The calculating High Priest Caiaphas (Adrian Schiller); blood-thirsty rebel Barabbas (Fraser Ayers); the fault-finding Pharisee (Paul Mark Davis); and the opponent-turned-advocate Nicodemus (Simon Kunz) nicely portray the political and religious players and their responses to Jesus.

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 The Art of Bible Storying 

The Art of Transitional Ministry - Week I

Highlands Retreat Center, Allenspark, CO

April 28 - May 2, 2014

We live in a time of great transition in our churches and culture. Transitional Ministry Education is intended for those presently engaged in or inquiring about the nature of transitional ministry. This includes Temporary Transitional Ministry positions; which may include interim ministry, designated ministry, other temporary ministry or Installed Transitional Ministry which includes all other parish ministry positions. Committee on Ministry members and presbytery staff persons with responsibility for congregations in this time of transition will also find the education helpful.

For more information click here for the brochure and registration form.

New Discernment Guide: You are not alone

Growing the Church: Get involved