October 2009

One in the Spirit

What's coming up?

Evangelism & Church Growth is expanding its offering of free webinars. Register for our next congregational transformation webinar on November 3 at 2 p.m. EDT.  Visit the Evangelism and Church Growth  and PresbyGrow Web sites on webinars being offered in evangelism, discipleship, church growth and transformation.  And if you’d like to download video copies of our stories on congregations growing Christ’s Church Deep and Wide click on Evangelism or Servanthood . Use in worship or small group discussion and visit Evangelism & Church Growth for discipleship and diversity stories that will be finished by the end of October.

Three highly effective and private Internet Resource Groups for Committees on Ministry (COM), Committees on Preparation for Ministry (CPM) and Commissioned Lay Pastors are offered through the Office of Vocation, in which members of these respective groups — and those who staff, oversee and/or work with them — regularly share issues, processes, best practices and support. To join the private electronic group for COMs, “COM Matters,” e-mail Dosie Powell. To join the internet group for CPMs, e-mail Ameer Marks. To join the internet group for those who oversee CLP education and deployment in presbyteries, e-mail Dosie Powell.

The Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) Program offers opportunities to serve in communities of need nationally and internationally. The program is for people ages 19 to 30 and requires a commitment of one academic year. The application deadline is January 20, 2010, for the 2010-2011 year. In addition to service, the program emphasizes living in intentional Christian community and spiritual formation. Visit the YAV Web site for more information.

Honor the ministry of Presbyterian military chaplains on Veterans Day, November 11. This annual observance celebrating our veterans’ service to our country is also a fitting time to honor and support our PC(USA) military chaplains, who provide a vital ministry to and with those who currently serve in the military. Please encourage generous giving to the Presbyterian Council for Chaplains and Military Personnel (PCCMP), which offers assistance and critical support to military chaplains, personnel and their families. Look for a related feature in the December 2009 issue of Presbyterians Today.

Lives Transformed

David Zweh

St. Louis, Mo. (October 22, 2009) – Just as the Carondelet-Markham Memorial Presbyterian Church here was experiencing its own profound rebirth by welcoming the gifts of Liberian refugees into the life of the congregation, one young member was at the same time undergoing his own personal and spiritual transformation.

David Zweh, who had lived as a Liberian refugee in an Ivory Coast refugee camp for 14 years, had joined a wave of 15 Liberian immigrant families in 2005 to make Carondelet-Markham his church home. “I love the members of the church and they love me,” Zweh said. “We are in Christ and will remain in Christ for the rest of our lives.”

Having previously served in Liberia as a student pastor in the Lutheran Church, Zweh heard God calling him into a leadership role in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in this growing, multicultural congregation. The Rev. Susan Finley, pastor of Carondelet-Markham, encouraged Zweh to pursue his dream and his vision by introducing him to the Rev. Angel Suarez-Valera, associate for New Immigrant Congregational Support in the Racial Ethnic and Women's Ministries/Presbyterian Women ministry area of the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC).
                                                      
“When I asked Pastor Susan how can we advance ourselves in leadership, she told me to talk to Angel,” Zweh said.

Suarez-Valera told Zweh about his hope of designing a theological education program for new immigrants in response to the increasing needs for culturally proficient pastoral leadership in congregations like Carondelet-Markham. “The blessing of having new Presbyterians from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe has resulted in a need among Presbyterians in the U.S. to provide the necessary theological formation to and with the new communities of faith,” said Suarez-Valera.

When Suarez-Valera again contacted Zweh in January 2007, it was to tell him that the new training program had been approved — with funding for up to 10 students — and that Zweh would be offered a full tuition scholarship from the GAMC to secure his place. “In hearing the call to leadership in the Presbyterian Church, it was wonderful to me to get into such a program advancing me in my theology,” Zweh said. “I was so much encouraged to be a part of it.”

In May 2009, Zweh was one of 10 graduates of the two-year pilot project, which was programmed in cooperation with the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, where the graduation ceremony was also held. The class — composed of African, Asian and Latino immigrants — attended a total of eight individual sessions of weekend instruction at Stony Point Center in New York. With an emphasis on Reformed theology and Presbyterian polity, the program’s goal was to prepare each candidate for possible service as a commissioned lay pastor.

Alongside Carondelet-Markham, Zweh’s home presbytery, the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy, has been a constant source of support — both spiritual and financial — throughout the process. “David Zweh is the first refugee leader in our presbytery to become an elder and to complete a training program for lay pastor work,” said the Rev. Amy Fowler, associate executive presbyter for Congregational Development. “The change I have seen in him is dramatic. His confidence as a leader of a faith community has increased exponentially.”

In Zweh’s experience with this singular initiative, Fowler sees something even more significant. “The General Assembly gave David a scholarship for the tuition, the Congregation Development Ministry Team of the presbytery paid for him to travel to Stony Point for the classes and the congregation helped pay his incidental expenses,” she said. “We count this as a marvelous example of the power of the connectional church. Together, we are preparing and nurturing leaders for the people living in our midst. We have all been in this together, and I think God is delighted by it!”

View a short video on Carondelet-Markham, "That Kind of Servanthood Really Changes Lives.”

For a related story on Carondelet-Markham, please see the October 2009 issue of Presbyterians Today.

– To download the video files to your computer, right-click if you are on a PC (click and hold your mouse button if you are on a Mac). From the menu that appears, select the option to 'Save target as' (PC) or 'download link to disk' (Mac).]