My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Thomas Merton
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118th Stated Meeting of Foothills Presbytery
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
10:00 am
at First Presbyterian, Spartanburg
We will center our time in Worship, which will include remembrance of Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders who have died since November 2020.
As per our practice, Ministers and Clerks will receive the docket with the agenda for our day and more detailed information about the meeting and registration.
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Honoring All Saints
Foothills Presbytery has a tradition of recognizing and celebrating the lives of Ruling Elders and Ministers (and their spouses), who have entered the Church Triumphant in the last year. We rely on you, our church leaders, to let us know the names of your saints who have faithfully served your congregation and God's beloved community.
Please send the names of those Elders and Ministers (and their spouses) who have died since November 2020 through the present. We will honor and recognize them during worship at our November Stated Meeting of Presbytery. Please send names by October 28 to Warren Templeton, [email protected].
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Foothills Presbytery Virtual Prayer Service |
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Foothills Presbytery is offering a virtual monthly prayer service for all in our area who are interested.
These brief prayer services (no longer than 30 minutes) are over Zoom on the first Thursday of each month at 9 a.m. The next one will be on November 4. Please let us know by Monday, November 1 if you would like to participate. We will email you a link to the prayer service the day before. All you need to do is login at the appropriate time.
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Fall Festival & Corn Maze
LushAcres Farm
(on the Thornwell Campus)
September 25 - November 6
Fridays and Saturdays
- 11 am to Dark -
Bring your family to LushAcres Farm for our inaugural Fall Festival & Corn Maze! Enjoy our mile-long maze, hayrides, bonfires and s'mores, a mini train and so much more. It's guaranteed fun for everyone!
Our Fall Festival & Corn Maze runs Fridays and Saturdays from 11 AM to dark through November 6th. Don't miss this wonderful opportunity to make memories and support our ministry dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect, building and strengthening families, and supporting healthy communities in the name of Jesus Christ!
Fall Festival activities include:
Mile Long Maze - Concessions - Hayrides - Bon Fires + S'mores - Mini Train - Corn Pit - Pumpkin Sales - Photo Area - Farmers Market
Tickets are $10 for adults and all proceeds go directly to the children and families we serve at Thornwell. Purchase your tickets by visiting https://lushacresfarm.com/
Volunteers age 16 and up are needed to help make the Farm Festival a success. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Rachel Crescibene at 864-230-3069.
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Preston Shealy is Interim Campus Minister for the Presbyterian Student Association at Clemson for this school year.
I would love to have a chance to meet and talk with any of your students who are currently at Clemson, Southern Wesleyan or Tri-County Tech to let them know about our ministries or to simply let them know they have someone to talk to if needed. If you have questions or want to know more about the Clemson PSA or Fort Hill’s University Ministries, please call or email me. You can also find more about Clemson’s PSA on Instagram (@psaclemson) or Facebook (Clemson PSA).
I look forward to working with our students during this significant time in their lives.
Preston Shealy
864-654-3705
Read more from Preston HERE.
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“Being the Best You Can Be” – Serving as an officer of your church is an important and high calling. In this workshop, Tom Malone will introduce a new resource he has prepared to train elders for their work. The four topics covered in the resource prepare elders for the examination that our Book of Order requires—1) Personal Faith, 2) Reformed Theology and Beliefs, 3) Presbyterian Polity, and 4) Duties of the Office. Pastors can experience seeing the resource used in the training of officers and will be given a “Pastor’s Guide” which contains suggestions for teaching the new Being the Best You Can Be resource.
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LOVE MERCY, DO JUSTICE
Frontera de Cristo
As people of God, we are called in Micah 6:8 to “love mercy” and to “do justice,” but non-profit ministries with small budgets often feel forced to choose between the two. They can show mercy by demonstrating hospitality, but on a tight budget they may unknowingly buy supplies from unjust industries that take advantage of migrant workers and Mexican farmers. On the other hand, they could boycott those industries to act justly, but then they may be unable to buy the supplies they need to demonstrate merciful hospitality.
Frontera de Cristo’s Love Mercy, Do Justice initiative is working to change this narrative by helping ministries of compassion to do both—to love mercy and to do justice—with just a cup of coffee. In partnership with this program, the Migrant Resource Center has welcomed more than 17,000 women and men this year with a delicious cup of Café Justo.
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Western Region Gathering
9:00 am
Monday, November 1
by ZOOM
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MUSIC MINISTRY LEADER’S
9:00 am
Wednesday, November 10
by ZOOM
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Educator's Gathering
11:00 am
Monday, November 15
by ZOOM
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Youth Roundtable
12 noon
Tuesday, November 16
In-Person at the
Foothills Presbytery office
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Back to PW Sale!
“For everything there is a season” (Ecc. 3:1) and for many Presbyterian Women, fall is the perfect season to reconnect, renew, rekindle and return to a new PW year! For a limited time (and while supplies last), the following PW resources are on special sale! (And remember, your purchase of any PW resource or item supports Presbyterian Women financially.) This sale ends November 8, 2021
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2022 Montreat Youth Conferences
June 5–August 6, 2022
A Montreat Youth Conference affirms youth in their calling to be and to shape the church of Jesus Christ.
Our desire is to help youth come to know and believe that they are the beloved of God and to be a place where authenticity, community, connection, and God’s truth thrive. We seek to be an inclusive space where each voice can be heard and where each heart can be molded; where change is invited, challenge is expected, and where all are embraced.
We have spent the last year, and more, in a season of disconnect through our challenges and circumstances. God calls us to be connected in all aspects of life. Through the stories of Mary and Martha, Jacob and Esau, Jeremiah, and many others, we are reminded that we are all inter-connected in God’s intentional actions. Join us as we explore the many ways that we can reconnect to live out God’s call.
Youth leave Montreat knowing that:
Their faith matters.
They are loved as they are.
They are part of a community of faith.
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Applications for summer staff open Friday, November 19. For more information visit:
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New Online Leader Training Helps Churches Begin or
Expand Stephen Ministry
Stephen Ministries St. Louis is now training caring ministry leaders through a live, interactive online training experience called the Bridge Leader’s Training Course (BLTC). This event fully trains Stephen Leaders—the pastors, church staff, and lay leaders who begin and lead Stephen Ministry in their congregation.
The BLTC draws on newly redesigned and updated Stephen Ministry resources to equip participants with the skills and know-how to lead all aspects of their congregation’s Stephen Ministry. This includes training a team of congregation members as lay caregivers (called Stephen Ministers), matching them with hurting people in the congregation and community, and offering ongoing guidance and support to Stephen Ministers as they provide one-to-one, Christ-centered care to people experiencing a wide range of life difficulties. READ MORE
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A Conversation with Pastors, for Pastors
Join us on Wednesday, November 10 at 12:00pm Eastern via Zoom for a conversation with pastors, for pastors about the pressing issues of ministry today.
The Center for Continuing Education was launched in October 2019 to enable Yale Divinity School to “reach beyond the walls” and provide educational opportunities and resources for clergy, laity and community organizations to expand and enrich ministry and lay learning - all at little to no cost. The Center is home to some existing cornerstone programs (the YDS Summer Study, the Yale Youth Ministry Institute, and the Yale Bible Study program) and is charged with creating new opportunities for theological education and enrichment in three primary categories: Faith and Contemporary Issues, Church and Nonprofit Administration, and Leadership Development. If you haven’t already, we invite you to explore our websites at: https://divinity.yale.edu/continuing-education.
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Fall 2021 Continuing Education
Regardless of personal politics or worldview, there is little biblical, theological, and moral wiggle room for the faithful to step away from the harsh realities of the world. Church leaders have the privilege and sacred responsibility to equip disciples to make faithful and moral decisions based on their faith. Come explore how to construct a framework for integrating justice into the teaching ministry of congregations and contexts for ministry
Led by: Dr. Rebecca Davis, Associate Professor of Christian Ed
Thursdays, November 4 and 11
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. EDT
Dates: Tuesdays, November 16 – December 7, 2021, 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. EST (Note: This online workshop is a four-part series).
Led by: Christen Kinard, Founder, Digital Congregations
Workshop Description: This 4-part course is designed for churches that want to learn how to use social media for ministry, not just marketing. It will teach you how to enhance and improve your current efforts, to stand out in the social space, and to develop and implement an effective social media strategy. In addition to the four 75-minute sessions, workshop participants will receive the recordings and slides from each class in case they are unable to attend. Each week, office hours are offered for one-on-one conversation.
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Let us set our sights on being together February 9-12, 2022, for the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) Annual Event, “Circle of Faith: 50 years + one and beyond,” where God will meet us as we are and nurture us into what God dreams and hopes for us! To learn more about the event click here: https://apcenet.org/2022-annual-event/
Registration is now open
for the 2022 Annual Event!
Additional Scholarships:
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November 1-3, 2021 | VIRTUAL
The REvangelism Conference, based on the 8 Habits of Evangelism resource from the Office of Theology, Formation & Evangelism, is designed for people to go on a deeper journey into faith and God's justice and reconciliation for the world.
Save up to 40 percent off $100 registration fee!
For the first 200 to register:
Individual registration: $30 off
Group registration of up to five: $40 off per person
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"Outside the Walls"
APCE SOAP 2021 Regional Event
November 4 - 6, 2021
will now be
live from the GNTV studio.
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Join other church educators in the APCE SOAP Region (SC, GA, FL, and Puerto Rica) for "Outside the Walls," our 2021 Regional Event, scheduled for November 4 - 5, 2021, live from the GNTV studio. We will begin our time together at 7:00 pm on Thursday and end at 4:00 pm on Friday.
We are excited to welcome Reverend Aisha Brooks-Johnson as our keynote speaker. Eric Nanz will lead us in worship.
Our time together will be filled with worship, plenary sessions, break-out discussions, informal conversation, and plenty of time to enjoy each other.
The cost for registration is only $75.
We do not want costs to prevent anyone from participating in this event. Limited scholarship assistance is available. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to request scholarship assistance.
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Changes are coming to Triennium!
A new venue and new way of being in small groups are designed to enhance the beloved event, which takes on a Matthew 25 focus.
Event details, registration information and more coming in summer and fall of 2021. Registration is expected to begin in January or February 2022.
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Join the
Rise Against Hunger Event at
Nazareth Presbyterian Church
November 7, 2021
3:00 - 5:00 pm
We hope to have at least 100 volunteers and raise about $2000 for this event!!! Register or donate at the link below:
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Mediation Skills Training
Registration is now open for Mediation Skills Training Institute for Church Leaders, to be held on October 11-15 and November 15-19, 2021. The two identical sessions will be held remotely via Zoom. This workshop is designed to help church leaders deal more effectively with interpersonal, congregational, and other forms of group conflict. For details consult this MSTI Brochure. For a complete list of training events being offered by the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center — including our one-day Conflict Transformation Skills and Healthy Congregations — please consult this LMPC 2021 Program Calendar. For online registration go to our website at www.lmpeacecenter.org/all-events. Plan now to take advantage of these outstanding opportunities for spiritual and professional growth!
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Available Jobs
postings on our
website.
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Mark your Calendars for these Upcoming Events |
October
22 Women Clergy Brunch
25 FP Staff meeting
28 CPM - Committee on Preparation for Ministry meeting
November
4 COM - Committee on Ministry meeting
118th Stated Meeting of Foothills Presbytery
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
10:00 am at First Presbyterian, Spartanburg
February 15, 2022
May 14, 2022
November 01, 2022
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