Stated Clerk's Notes - June 12, 2025

Greetings everyone!

We are about a week away from the presbytery meeting at St. Mark, Boerne, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all! Sure, we have business to do at the meeting, but seeing everyone is the treat of the weekend.

• Our Synod of the Sun Leader and Stated Clerk, Mitch Miller, will be with us for the weekend, and we’ll hear from him on Saturday.

• Youth will be front and center for this meeting, and will participate in worship on Saturday morning.

• We have a fantastic mission project scheduled for Friday morning! I tip my hat to Patrick Dennis, chair of the Serve Committee, for organizing this event. You need to pre-register to participate. You can do that here:

  https://riseagainsthunger.org/register/?id=701Pj00000RUaY3IAL

  Serve has focused on local food insecurity over the past year, whereas this project has an international scope. Click here for a short video about Rise Against Hunger:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uenjCksQhE0

  We hope to see you there. We need more volunteers to sign up. And thank you, Patrick Dennis!

• Tired of the same old session meetings? The Commission on Ministry is offering a workshop at 1:30 p.m. on Friday to help inspire you.

From Rev. Michael East, Senior Pastor, FPC, Norman, OK:

Congregations have a nasty habit of getting stuck: stuck in the same activities year after year, stuck in the same hours-long session meetings. When we get stuck, we often search for someone or something to blame for our difficulties. That’s easy, and honestly, sometimes even fun; however, the more challenging yet more helpful thing to do is to find a way forward.

I know that sounds like a lot of work, but I hope that our time together makes that process less daunting. Using a prayer triplet model of discernment in conjunction with Simon Sinek’s idea of “The Golden Why”, First Presbyterian Church in Norman, OK was able to chart a path forward after several turbulent years living in the stuck. There is now a cohesive vision among the congregation, a renewed sense of life and vitality, and Session meetings that are productive, enjoyable, and relatively short.

• Hallie Spence will offer a workshop on Family Faith Practices. How will we grow spiritually as a family? What faith practices can help us?

Of course, there will be so much more.

Please pray for your presbytery staff as we continue to plan the meeting and for St. Mark, Boerne, our host. We pray for you, too, for traveling mercies and inspiration. We love y’all!

Holy God, You are the first, the last, the middle; our bright shining star. Thank You for loving us. We won’t squander Your love but multiply it as we care for one another. Amen.

Rev. Laurie Palmer

statedclerk@missionpby.org