Steve Shive

There are seasons in the life of the church when the landscape shifts beneath our feet. Paths that once felt clear become less certain, familiar patterns change, and the horizon looks different than it did before. That certainly describes the landscape of the Presbytery, I think. Yet Scripture reminds us that God’s people have often met God most clearly in these very moments. Abraham left home not knowing where he was going. The disciples stepped into a world after the resurrection that no...

We are living in challenging times for the church.  I don’t think, I need to rehearse the story of our culture changing relationship with the church. We have a lot of choices: give up, maintain in a hospice mode, dig in and try harder doing the same things we have done before or is there another way? My family system tells me to gut it out and move ahead. My maternal grandfather was a North Carolina farmer who knew how to make something from nothing. He started farming cotton and ended up...