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Lina Thompson Ordination Service

2012-02-23T19:15:28Z

Join Lake Burien PC at 2pm on Sunday, March 4th, as they ordain Lina Thompson. Linda has received and accepted the call to serve as an Associate Pastor at at Lake Burien Presbyterian Church.

Remember that ordinations of pastors are events of the whole presbytery. You are welcome and encouraged to attend this ordination. These are answers to much prayer and a cause for great rejoicing. Come share the joy!

Waymarkers

2012-02-23T19:06:40Z

Life is a journey with invitations to make pilgrimage throughout the way. We need waymarkers to guide our path to our sacred places and home again.

Waymarkers: the blog explores themes of intentional living/journeying on behalf of Other and the Future for the sake of knowing one another and our home-places better. During this Lenten season, Waymarkers: the blog will examine archetypal themes inherent to pilgrimage and how we can be open to the spiritual journey of this season. Make ready the road!

Creation Festival Northwest

2012-02-23T19:05:16Z

Looking for an unforgettable summer event for your church or youth group?! We'd like to invite you to Creation Festival Northwest 2012, July 18-21, the Nation’s Largest Christian Music Festival with over a 100 of today’s biggest Christian music artists like Switchfoot, Relient K, Mercy Me, Newsboys and more.

Pack your tent. Pack your RV’s and head to Enumclaw, WA. Stay all 4 days. It’s closer than you think, only an hour away.

Creation has so much more than music! A big highlight at Creation is the inspirational speakers such as Nick Vujicic, Reggie Dabbs, Tony Nolan, and Duffy Robbins; the Worship Tent; discipleship seminars; and a VIP Youth Leader Lounge with artist talkbacks. For the kids, Creation has a variety of activities including a Kids Tent, inflatables, skate park and more. It's a great way to connect with God, connect with family, and connect with friends. If you're looking for an affordable youth group, church or family trip this summer, Creation is the perfect choice.

Kids 5 and under are FREE! Showers and camping are FREE! Groups of 20 or more get a group discount and Reserved Camping for the entire group.

Creation Festival will be THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR SUMMER…MAYBE YOUR LIFE!!

Invite a friend. Share the Experience.

BUY NOW and SAVE!! Go to CREATIONFEST.com for tickets and more information.

Krista Foundation Honors Local Change Leaders

2012-02-23T19:00:35Z

Krista Foundation honors local change leaders

For immediate release:

(Seattle, WA) Feb 7, 2012— The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship of Seattle announced the 2012 Global Citizen Awards to Trise Moore, Federal Way, and Joseph Whinney and Sharon London, both of Seattle. Global Citizen Awards are presented in three areas: Urban United States, Environment, and Developing World. They honor mid-career professionals in the Puget Sound region whose lives of service leadership are making a ripple effect locally and globally.

The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship empowers young adults to transform service experiences into lives of service leadership. Through mentoring, a colleague community and re-integration services, the Krista Foundation helps young adults fully understand and employ what they have learned in their service experiences. The Global Citizen Award honorees each apply lessons from experiences of service, and contribute to ripple effects locally and across the world.

Sharon London, Strategic Initiatives Director at EarthCorps, is a leader in the pioneering field of “citizen science.” Drawing upon global service experiences that shaped her understanding of environmental and economic disparities, London empowers community leaders and young adults from the U.S. and over 75 countries to do scientifically grounded environmental education and restoration. Their efforts are making a ripple effect with communities across Puget Sound becoming equipped to assess, advocate for and care for their local natural areas.

Trise Moore, Family and Community Partnership Advocate for the Federal Way School District, is a leader in education. Implementing innovative strengths-based approaches, Moore navigates intercultural and adaptive challenges, dismantling barriers and empowering parents to become effective partners in student academic success. Led by Moore, the District’s model of family engagement is gaining national recognition and making a positive ripple effect in Federal Way and beyond.

Joseph Whinney, Founder and CEO of Theo Chocolate, is a leader in fair trade business. As young adult conservation volunteer, Whinney recognized opportunities to improve the environmental and economic livelihood of farmers in the cacao industry. Through Whinney’s service leadership, Theo Chocolate is making a ripple effect: improving conditions for farmers, educating chocolate consumers, and gaining recognition as leading model of conscious capitalism.

“Service that transforms communities is not a one-way path of giver to receiver,” says Krista Foundation Executive Director Valerie Norwood. “It must be mutually transformative. The Krista Foundation is delighted to honor Sharon London, Trise Moore, and Joseph Whinney for their leadership in urban U.S., for the environment, and in the developing world. The Ripple Effect event is an opportunity for the people of Puget Sound, and for the young adults in Krista Foundation programs, to celebrate the power of service leadership to confront the challenges of our communities and the world.”

The 2012 Krista Foundation Global Citizen Award recipients will be formally announced and honored at a public event on Sunday, March 4th, 7:00 pm in the Campion Ballroom at Seattle University. The three honorees demonstrate the event theme: “The Ripple Effect: Service changes you. Service changes the world.” Tickets for the event are available by contacting The Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship at 206-382-7888 or nissana@kristafoundation.org.

About the Krista Foundation for Global Citizenship: Founded in 1999, The Krista Foundation honors the life and vision of Krista Hunt Ausland who died at age 25 while volunteering with her husband in rural Bolivia. Through mentoring, a colleague community and re-integration services, the Krista Foundation helps young adults fully understand and employ the learnings from their service experience. A service year, when nurtured, becomes a life of service leadership. The Krista Foundation provides ongoing program connections for more than 200 Krista Colleagues and offers program development resources and services, including The Global Citizen journal, for local universities and volunteer service organizations.

For information contact: Destiny Williams 206.683.7888 or Destiny@kristafoundation.org www.kristafoundation.org

New Growth in Seattle Presbytery

2012-02-22T20:24:41Z

As I prepare for a Council meeting this Saturday, I've been reflecting on the state of our presbytery and the good place we're in right now to move forward on a number of fronts. Over time, we've been open to the new opportunities God has given this presbytery to grow and we're responding. One example comes to mind regarding "new church development."

In 2008, the Black Diamond Presbyterian Church was closed and its building was left in a state of abandonment. There was no plan to redevelop the property, let alone start a new church, but a local pastor approached me and asked if he could renovate the building and eventually re-open it to the public. We talked it over at Council and eventually approved a very favorable deal for this new pastor to go to town renovating the building and inviting the community to join him.

Three years later that pastor, Tom Stark, has about 70 people worshipping with him in a beautifully-renovated building, and on top of that he's catalyzed the community toward serving a Wednesday nite banquet to over 200 people who need a solid meal and some Christian care. Is he Presbyterian? No. Is he a member of our presbytery? No. Is there a need for what he's doing and are we 100% behind it? YES. Is the Gospel being proclaimed in word and deed? YES. Did God surprise us with a new way of viewing our role as a presbytery? Undoubtedly.

Since that time we've formed a group, Catalyzing Missional Communities, to respond to new winds of the Spirit blowing in and through us and God seems to be bringing more people with similar passions. Interestingly this group is now in discernment with Tom Stark of High Road Church, about becoming a fellowship in this presbytery.

Please join me in praying for Tom and good ministry that High Road Community Church is doing in Black Diamond, and pray for our presbytery as we seek God's leading in new and faithful ways (even if those ways aren't always the way we've done it in the past!).

Blessed Ash Wednesday,

Scott Lumsden

Madrona Grace PC Centennial Celebration

2012-02-21T20:57:18Z

You are cordially invited to join Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church on March 25th as they celebrate their 100th year as a church.

11 am - Special Worship Service with guest preacher Rhashell Hunter, program director, Racial Ethnic & Women's Ministries/Presbyterian Women, PCUSA General Assembly Mission Council
Centennial Brunch following worship
6:30pm - Celebration Concert, featuring The Total Experience Gospel Choir and the Madrona Grace Choir.

Click here to see the event's flyer!

PresbyFest Audio is Live

2012-02-16T23:51:22Z

All keynote, workshop, and sermon recordings from PresbyFest 2012 are available now. Click here to visit the download page.

Confessions of a Denominational Fanboy

2012-02-15T23:39:59Z

Indie Musician Sufjan Stevens: Denominational Fanboy? (Hint: not really.)

By Aaron Willett, SeaPres Communications Coordinator

Last Monday in my Presbyterian Polity Class, at Seattle Pacific Seminary, a classmate reminded (we might even say chided) me that I am a denominational fanboy. She got me thinking… Are we perfect? Nowhere close. Do I think we have a corner on the market for Scriptural truth? Of course not. What I do know is that Jesus assures us, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I’m there with them” (Matt. 18:20, CEB). I read Jesus’ promise and I know it in my head, but when we gather as a presbytery, I know it in my heart. We experience this too in our local congregations, all over the region.

I know I’m not making a terribly sophisticated argument here, but I’m encouraged because together we constitute the Body of Christ. My own gifts and quirks contribute to that body just as do yours. In the good times our ministry together is amplified because of the body, and the hard times we find comfort and solace there too. I’m even encouraged by the knowledge that when things go sideways in ministry, there are resources provided by our presbytery and boundaries laid out in our constitution.

As an inquirer who feels called to ministry within the PCUSA, I am encouraged by the recent shift in denominational posture. Reading our recently adopted Book of Order (formerly the “nFOG”), I see a recognition that missional vision comes from local churches, not governing bodies. Our newfound constitutional freedom has many faces, but most encouraging for me are the three new Temporary Associate Teaching Elders (aka ministers) called within our presbytery last month. Positions like these would not have been possible under the old constitution. We also see this new enabling denominational posture in the push to create 1,001 new worshipping communities over the next ten years. Roger Dermody, GAMC Deputy Executive Director for Mission, has said, “I believe that our work has got to be focused primarily on creating the conditions that will allow our existing worshipping communities to flourish, and engages them in giving birth to over 1000 new communities of faith within the next ten years.”

We are witnessing a rearrangement of our denominational priorities that will highlight the work and growth of local churches, while building up and enabling new communities, and bearing witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ through many voices, new and old.

So, am I a denominational fanboy? Yes, indeed, through and through—soli Deo gloria.

SPU offers free Lenten Bible Study

2012-02-15T22:39:54Z

SPU's Center for Biblical and Theological Education has published a free Lenten Bible study, available here.

Sound View Leadership Retreat

2012-02-15T18:49:24Z

Do you wish people looked up to you as a leader at school, work, or church? Are you already a leader but desire new skills on how to lead effectively? Then join us for Sound View's 3^rd Annual Leadership Retreat on February 24-26.

During the weekend we'll look at topics such as “Servant Leadership”, “How to Be a Christian Leader in a Secular World”, “Healthy Leaders Stay Spiritually Connected”, and “Knowing Your Strengths & Outsourcing Your Weaknesses”.

The retreat is open to all high school and college-age leaders and leaders-to-be and costs only $60. For an extra $20 you can participate in a paintball extravaganza on Sunday morning of the retreat.