Christina Ray Stanton is a Christian author of two books and over 50 published articles. You can learn more about her at https://www.christinaraystanton.com.
Steve Lantz, an actor, pastor, and church planter with the Presbyterian Church in America wasn’t sure he wanted to add “Santa” to his resume. He had never validated the existence of Santa with his own children (now ages 6 and 10). Would playing Santa for other children not be in conflict with his beliefs?
Michael Smith was one of the first to apply when Redeemer Presbyterian — founded by the late Tim Keller — began hosting a campus of Reformed Theological Seminary in New York City. Now he leads his own church plant launched during the pandemic on the Lower East Side called Common Grace Presbyterian Church.
The problems associated with poverty, crime and injustice can overwhelm neighborhoods, cities and even countries. Facing such enormous problems, many people throw up their hands and think, “What good can one person do?”
Togo is a country where there are only five physicians for every 100,000 inhabitants. The average man can only expect to live to age 62, while a woman might make it to 67. It’s also an area where female genital mutilation is practiced, and the risk of death for pregnant women is 1 in 67.
Nelli Kim did known what to expect when she signed up for the short-term mission trip through Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City in 2014. But on the flight home, she resolved to use her gifts in service to others, although she was unclear how that might look.
Just a few hours earlier, my husband, Brian, and I had been standing on our apartment terrace, monitoring the thick black smoke billowing from the North Tower of the World Trade Center, six blocks away, when a passenger jet swooped above our heads and flew straight into the South Tower.
We rushed onto the terrace and stood staring at the black smoke and destruction caused by the first plane, when out of nowhere, the second plane came roaring overhead and struck the South Tower just 500 feet above us.
