In All Things

Episode 89: EduNations and the EPC of Sierra Leone with Samuel Sesay (encore presentation)

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Samul Sesay, missionary evangelist with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sierra Leone and President of EduNations. The two discuss Sesay’s journey to faith from a Muslim background within the syncretic religious environment of Sierra Leone. Sesay also describes the mission and vision of EduNations, which operates 15 Christian schools with more than 3,500 students in predominantly Muslim villages in the West African country, as well as how the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Sierra Leone—which has witnessed more than 1,000 baptisms in the past eight years—was birthed from the ministry of EduNations.

Episode 88: Tragedy, suffering, grief with Jennifer Prechter (encore presentation)

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, Fla. The two discuss her 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, 2022, shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Episode 87: Podcasting as evangelism

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Brandon Queen, Ruling Elder for First Presbyterian Church of Thibodaux, Louisiana, and host of the podcast “E.A.R.: Evangelical and Reformed.” The two discuss Brandon’s involvement in the EPC’s Westminster Society, how he launched his podcast as a tool for evangelism as well as his desire to use the podcast as a means of racial reconciliation.

Episode 86: Ministry to abused and trafficked women

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Bonnie Gatchell, Teaching Elder in the Presbytery of the East and Executive Director of Route One Ministry in Boston, Massachusetts. The two discuss how God led her to begin a ministry to strip club dancers in Boston, and Route One Ministry’s efforts to train church leaders on how to minister to victims of trafficking, trauma, and abuse. Gatchell also describes the qualities of a “safe church” and some of the resources on trauma and abuse that Route One Ministry provides.

Episode 85: Rural ministry and local history

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Stephen Morefield, Pastor of Christ Covenant Church in Leoti, Kansas. Morefield discusses his spiritual path as a covenant child of the EPC to urban church planting to rural church ministry. He also describes some of the joys and challenges of serving as an introverted solo pastor in a rural setting, how “falling in love with the community” is essential to rural outreach, and how writing the historical novel But the Blood: A Novel Based on the True Story of America’s Bloodiest County Seat Battle based on events in the town in the 1880s has built bridges for ministry in the community.

Episode 84: The EPC in the American Presbyterian story

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Don Fortson, Professor of Church History and Pastoral Theology at the Charlotte, N.C., campus of Reformed Theological Seminary. The two discuss how Fortson’s most recent book, Reformed and Evangelical, fills a need for a comprehensive, current Presbyterian history, as well as how it traces the symbiotic relationship between Presbyterians and evangelicals. In addition, Fortson describes the Presbyterian heritage of evangelistic renewal, and how the EPC may be uniquely positioned to respond to revivals, such as what occurred in early 2023 at Asbury University in Kentucky. Fortson also describes how gifts of the Spirit and the ordination of women are examples of how the EPC lives out its motto of “In Essentials, Unity; In Non-Essentials, Liberty.”

Fortson is the author of numerous books on Presbyterian history, including Reformed and Evangelical Across Four Centuries: The Presbyterian Story in America, and Liberty in Non-Essentials: The Story of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.

Episode 83: Dean Weaver and Michael Davis 43rd General Assembly reflections

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, and Michael Davis, Assistant Stated Clerk, reflect on the EPC 43rd General Assembly / Gospel Priorities Summit—the “tornado Assembly”—held June 20-22 at Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

Episode 82: Training leaders among the least-reached with Mike Kuhn

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Mike Kuhn, Director of the International Theological Education Network (ITEN) of EPC World Outreach. The two discuss how Kuhn’s spiritual heritage of a missions passion growing up in North Carolina led to several decades serving in Morocco and Egypt among Muslim-background believers, as well as in Jordan during the Syrian refugee crisis. He also describes how his experience in the Middle East illustrated the biblical definition of hospitality as “loving the other,” as well as how ITEN trains Christian leaders among least-reached peoples.

Episode 81: Pastoring a growing rural church with Aaron White

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Aaron White, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in South Charleston, Ohio. The two discuss the joys and challenges of pastoring a growing church in a rural community and how White intentionally harnessing the cycles of the year for discipleship. White also previews his General Assembly sermon from 1 Corinthians 12, and highlights the GA presentations of the Westminster Society, an EPC networking group that seeks to promote confessional churchmanship in the denomination.

Episode 80: How an East Texas vineyard models John 15 with Shelley Kral

Dean Weaver, EPC Stated Clerk, welcomes Shelley Kral, Associate Pastor for Longview Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Longview, Texas. The two discuss her path to ministry from Southern California to a Lutheran college in the Pacific Northwest to Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando to Longview in East Texas. Kral also describes a vision she and her husband had for a pastoral retreat center eventually resulting in the creation of Enoch’s Stomp Vineyard & Winery near Longview. She also explains how the vineyard illustrates the truths of John 15.