In All Things

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Scott McKee, Senior Pastor of Ward Church in Northville, Michigan. The two discuss discuss preparations for the denomination’s June 21-24 annual meeting, including how the worship service speakers will help develop the theme of “Recharge” based on Acts 1:8. The two also discuss several business items coming before the Assembly—including McKee’s involvement in the Giving Culture Study Committee and how that group helped lay the groundwork for Recommendation 42:11 to change the EPC’s funding model from Per Member Asking (PMA) to Percentage of Income (POI).

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Doug Walker, Pastor of River City Church in DeBary, Florida. The two discuss how evangelism is a catalyst to a growing faith, as well as Walker’s journey from the financial services industry to the pastorate. In addition, Walker describes his experience integrating his faith and work in a marketplace ministry, and his expectation as a pastor that the members of the church view themselves as missionaries.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Brad Strait, Moderator of the EPC’s 41st General Assembly. The two look back on Strait’s year as Moderator of the Assembly, and peer into the future as Strait serves the next year as Chairman of the denomination’s National Leadership Team. Strait also describes two seminars on persecution at the EPC’s Leadership Institute on June 21-22 that he is co-leading with Andrew Brunson, EPC Teaching Elder who was imprisoned in Turkey from 2016-2018. On Tuesday afternoon at the 42nd General Assembly at Ward Church in Northville, Michigan, Brunson will share his experience of being persecuted for his faith and what believers in the western world can expect as hostility toward Jesus and the gospel grows. On Wednesday afternoon, Brunson and Strait will be joined by a panel of Christian leaders who have experienced significant persecution, including EPC Teaching Elder Setan Lee, who escaped the “killing fields” genocide of the Communist Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in the 1970s, and Erick Schenkel, Executive Director of Cru’s “The Jesus Film Project.”

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Jennifer Prechter, EPC Teaching Elder who serves as a palliative care chaplain at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and Babies in Orlando, Florida. The two discuss Prechter's journey to hospital chaplaincy, and how her ministry provides opportunity for addressing deep questions of life with unchurched people across a wide spectrum of life experience. Prechter also discusses how “longing and lament” can help people process tragedies such as a child with a terminal illness, or the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Shawn Stewart, Mobilization Coordinator for EPC World Outreach. The two discuss what mobilization is, and how Stewart serves the denomination in his role. Stewart also describes some challenges related to finding those whom God has called for service, and how World Outreach is ministering among refugees in the U.S. and around the world. He also reflects on his early days in student ministry, including how he integrated the concept of “holy sweat: the blessing of sweating and serving” into the student groups he worked with.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Chris Danusiar, Ruling Elder for Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Warrenville, Ill., who rotated off the EPC National Leadership Team (NLT) after six years of service. The two discuss how the EPC is both the same and has changed over Danusiar’s two three-year terms, as well as some thoughts for the future of the denomination.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Glenn Meyers, Chairman of the EPC National Leadership Team (NLT) and Commissioned Pastor of Ardara United Presbyterian Church in Ardara, Pennsylvania. The two discuss Meyers’ six years serving on the NLT. As part of that discussion, Meyers expects the renewed commitment to evangelism in the EPC to inform how the denomination’s four strategic priorities of church planting, church health, global movement, and effective biblical leadership are carried out in the years to come. In addition, Meyers relates his recent experience baptizing Muslim-background converts in a river in Sierra Leone, and how his church of 120 members has committed to a capital campaign to help the African village construct a church building.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, Joe Kim, church planting pastor of Hope Philly Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pa. The two discuss the church planting strategy of establishing community around Christianity, Kim’s perspective on being Asian-American during the cultural firestorms of 2020-2021, and how he accepted the Nominating Committee’s invitation to serve as Moderator-elect of the 42nd General Assembly.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Bruce Anderson, Founder and Coordinator of the International Theological Education Network (ITEN) of EPC World Outreach. The two discuss how relationships built over Anderson’s two decades of ministry in Eastern Europe are providing avenues for donations to the EPC’s International Disaster Relief Fund to be put to immediate use helping people suffering in the war in Ukraine.

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, shares a special Good Friday message from Philippians 3:7-11.