Harold…is a character. He’s 62 years old, a large and tall man who is part of our church family and recognizably needy in a number of ways. He lives in a subsidized apartment half an hour from the church and is on disability.  Harold shows up for volunteer landscape duty every Wednesday at the church,…

In this month’s episode of Life in Fellowship, TFC Board Secretary Dan Baumgartner talks with Board President Mike McClenahan, pastor at Solana Presbyterian Church, about his recent experience on the camino in Spain and how it relates to TFC’s value of Jesus-Shaped Identity. Watch the conversation on YouTube:

Father, as we continue to struggle to find our way through the difficulties of this pandemic amid all the other complications and difficulties of life we ask that you make us always remember your generosity and that nothing is more important than faithfully doing your will. Guide us as we anticipate sending our children back…

In this month’s episode of Life in Fellowship, TFC Board Chair Mike McClenahan talks with Board member Mark Perry, commissioned ruling elder serving at First Presbyterian Church of Peru, Indiana, about our value of Leadership Velocity. Watch the conversation on YouTube:

“I’m feeling lost. I felt so sure about my calling to be a pastor, but right now I’m uncertain.  I’m busy, maybe too busy, doing tasks but it’s not what I imagined doing as a pastor.”  I’ve overlaid five different comments from five different pastor friends to come up with the above quote. All of…

In this month’s episode of Life in Fellowship, TFC Board Chair Mike McClenahan talks with Board member Jerry Andrews, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of San Diego, about the TFC value of Thoughtful Theology. Watch the conversation on YouTube:

Father, you made each of us in your own image and redeemed us through your Son, Jesus Christ. We ask that you look with compassion on all of us. Take away the arrogance and hatred that infect too many of the hearts of those who cling to ideas, knowledge, and truths of human origin and…

I was honored to worship with the congregation of the Chestnut Level Presbyterian Church on May 16 while Rev. John Hartman led worship with my congregation at the Elkins Park Presbyterian Church as we engaged in a pulpit swap. I had worshipped with Chestnut Level before, but from the pews not the pulpit. My family…

Twenty-five years ago, I was just starting ordained ministry in Minneapolis. I was the poster child of an eager young pastor, heading on the Crosstown freeway for my first hospital visit to see a 90-year old woman named Agnes, whom I had never met.  She had earned her three-day stay at the hospital by coming…

Father of all hope and promise, we come to you as a people who are weary of lives that can be difficult enough without the added worries and seemingly endless precautions and restrictions caused by this pandemic. We see a world divided in so many ways filled with anger, mistrust, and misinformation and see little…

A Word to Friends in Ministry                                               April 30, 2021 revTFC Dan Baumgartner     Come to my help, O God; Lord, hurry to my rescue.  Those words drifted up into the sky with a hushed holiness, almost a reverence.  The Session of our small church in Santa Rosa, CA was holding its monthly…

In this month’s episode of Life in Fellowship, TFC Board Chair Mike McClenahan talks with Jim Witherow, TFC Board treasurer, about accountable community and his experience with his Mission Affinity Group (MAG) in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Watch the conversation on YouTube:

SO GRATEFUL TO GOD FOR OUR MAG by Rich McDermott, recently retired from FPC of Arlington, Texas.   When I arrived in Arlington, Texas six years ago in the spring of 2015, I knew very few people in my congregation and few pastors in our large presbytery.  I had never lived or worked in Texas.  As…

God of grace and love, we have entered this Easter season with great anticipation of the wonderful gift of freedom that is ours through the Death and glorious Resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ—even freedom from sin and death itself.   We pray for ourselves and so many held captive by the sinfulness…

Some people think that the divide between the church and the world is greater than ever. Whether true or not, three pastors in small-town Shenango Presbytery in Pennsylvania have seized the opportunity to serve their communities through local politics and have found this to be a valuable part of the ministry to which they are...

Take a listen to our new podcast, Life in Fellowship. In this month’s episode of Life in Fellowship, TFC Board Chair Mike McClenahan talks with Nick Warnes, founder and executive director of Cyclical, about faithful innovation. Or watch the conversation on YouTube:

What’s a pastor good for, anyway?  When all else fails, when sermons bomb and creativity falters and pandemics hinder worship and patience with people wanes…we pray.  This is possibly our very highest calling, but it still begs the follow-up question: what is prayer all about? Whatever Reformed,…

by Tracey Davenport Great God, who made women and men in your own image, who shows no partiality, who gathers more people than we can count, people of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, and calls us to worship: We praise you for the women and men you have called to lead…

by Dan Baumgartner Just so you won’t have to wonder as you read this first paragraph, I’m 62 years old. Barely. Okay, with that out of the way…John Stott is gone. Dallas Willard is gone. Eugene Peterson is gone. Some of the main people I have read, quoted, learned from, and admired over the years…