North Decatur Presbyterian Church

12.12.21. Our theme for Advent 2021 at NDPC is “Silent Nights.” Each of the four weeks invites you into the different rhythm of this season. Week 1 focused on slowness–slowing down and perceiving time in a new way. Week 2 focuses on stillness–on “not doing,” on letting God do for us. Week 3 focuses on silence–on the beauty and depth of quiet. Week 4 focuses on the many gifts of darkness. Rev. Beth Waltemath explores silence. We are drawn to the image of a “silent” night at Christmas time. What is this yearning for silence really about? We read the 39th Psalm and explore the connection between silence, revelation, and healing. We light the 3rd candle together.

12.5.21. Our theme for Advent 2021 at NDPC is “Silent Nights.” Each of the four weeks invites you into the different rhythm of this season. Week 1 focused on slowness–slowing down and perceiving time in a new way. Week 2 focuses on stillness–on “not doing,” on letting God do for us. Week 3 focuses on silence–on the beauty and depth of quiet. Week 4 focuses on the many gifts of darkness. Rev. David Lewicki explores stillness. What does it mean to be still? Won’t we get left behind in a world always in motion? Why do we privilege “stillness” as a way to experience God’s presence? We light the 2nd candle together.

11.28.21. Our theme for Advent 2021 at NDPC is “Silent Nights.” Each of the four weeks invites you into the different rhythm of this season. Week 1 focuses on slowness–slowing down and perceiving time in a new way. Week 2 focuses on stillness–on “not doing,” on letting God do for us. Week 3 focuses on silence–on the beauty and depth of quiet. Week 4 focuses on the many gifts of darkness. Today, Ministry Fellow Erin Tolar explores slowness. How do we experience time? Why does there always seem to be too little? What could it mean for us to live “in the fullness of time,” or in “God’s time?” We light the 1st candle together.

11.21.21. This Sunday is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. Advent marks a new beginning. To celebrate the end of the church year, Rev. Lewicki will offer one of his favorite sermons: The Whole Bible in 20 Minutes. Beginning with the chaotic waters of Genesis and ending with the City of God in Revelation, we will hear the whole (well… almost the whole… I mean no one really wants to hear Leviticus or Habbakuk) story of Scripture. It’s an opportunity to remember that our lives are not only wrapped up in God’s love, but that we also get to play our part in one incredibly good story.

11.14.21. The pandemic has taken a huge mental toll on many of us. The statistics about mental health are alarming, but perhaps not surprising: 2 in 5 of us report having significant mental health concerns; that number rises to 3 in 5 for young adults. This Sunday, Rev. Lewicki preaches about the experience of being overwhelmed. What is it? Where does that feeling come from? What can we do about it? What help, if any, is our Christian faith and the community of the church?

11.7.21. On Sunday, November 7th, we celebrate Holy Communion at both 9 and 11AM. If you are worshipping online, remember to have your elements ready at home. In worship, we will reflect on our congregation’s commitment to be a Matthew 25 congregation, particularly our covenant to “dismantle  structural racism.” Rev. Lewicki will talk about critical race theory and its parallels with Jesus’ commandments in Matthew 25.

10.31.21. We celebrate the annual festival of All Saints and the 66th anniversary of NDPC’s founding. On this particular day, we remember the specific people who went before us whose lives showed us what faith, hope, and love look like in the flesh. We will spend time remembering the saints–those famous and those known only to us. We will speak the names of those members of NDPC who have died in the past year. Rev. David Lewicki, preaching.

10.24.21. What do you have in common with absolutely every other person who ever has been or ever will be? Each of us has the shared experience of childhood. Our experiences of childhood, however, are not the same. Your childhood probably had moments of wonder and curiosity, moments of fear and hurt. Who was there for you in those moments, to help you translate them and understand them? Who wasn’t? This Sunday at NDPC, we will celebrate Children’s Sabbath- a day to be challenged to show up for children in our lives, and for children we’ll never meet. We will listen to the stories of children, from ancient times and far away, and also to the stories of children who are our neighbors right now. Rev. Dr. Erin Reed Cooper, preaching.

10.17.21. If you were to make a list of the most challenging, controversial gospel stories, the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenecian woman in Mark 7 will be at the top of that list. Who is this woman? Why does Jesus dismiss her so cruelly? Does her response chasten Jesus? Why does Mark include this story in his gospel? How do this story’s messages about race, gender, and power function in the world today? Ministry Fellow Zeena Regis is our preacher this Sunday. We read and pray over the names of this month’s victims of gun violence in Georgia and are joined by NDPC members in Washington, DC for the national SoulBox gathering.

10.10.21. Atlanta’s citywide Pride Celebration was cancelled again this year due to COVID, but we still celebrate Pride in worship in the sanctuary at NDPC. What does Pride mean to you this year? How has the movement for LGBTQ+ liberation in church and society touched you and your family? What do you want to celebrate? What do you grieve? What do you need to confess? What work is left for us to do? NDPC members offer their own testimonies in worship and we sing, pray and worship our very queer God. Ministry Fellow Erin Tolar is our preacher.

10.3.21. Some of the best conversations start with good questions—questions we’ve been meaning to ask, questions that keep us curious, and questions that lead us deeper into courage and connection. Our upcoming worship series from A Sanctified Art centers around four guiding questions: “I’ve been meaning to ask… Where are you from?… Where does it hurt?… What do you need?… Where do we go from here?” As you can see, these questions aren’t surface level; they invite us to tell our stories, share our pain, care for one another, and dream about a new way forward together. Through vulnerability and authenticity, may our courageous conversations lead us to glimpse hope, joy, and beauty—and to become the community God created us to be. Rev. David Lewicki, preaching.

9.26.21. Some of the best conversations start with good questions—questions we’ve been meaning to ask, questions that keep us curious, and questions that lead us deeper into courage and connection. Our upcoming worship series from A Sanctified Art centers around four guiding questions: “I’ve been meaning to ask… Where are you from?… Where does it hurt?… What do you need?… Where do we go from here?” As you can see, these questions aren’t surface level; they invite us to tell our stories, share our pain, care for one another, and dream about a new way forward together. Through vulnerability and authenticity, may our courageous conversations lead us to glimpse hope, joy, and beauty—and to become the community God created us to be. Zeena Regis, preaching.

9.19.21. We had some trouble with the audio this week. Please find a video of the full service on the website. ndpc.org. We'll try to do better.  Some of the best conversations start with good questions—questions we’ve been meaning to ask, questions that keep us curious, and questions that lead us deeper into courage and connection. Our upcoming worship series from A Sanctified Art centers around four guiding questions: “I’ve been meaning to ask… Where are you from?… Where does it hurt?… What do you need?… Where do we go from here?” As you can see, these questions aren’t surface level; they invite us to tell our stories, share our pain, care for one another, and dream about a new way forward together. Through vulnerability and authenticity, may our courageous conversations lead us to glimpse hope, joy, and beauty—and to become the community God created us to be. Rev. David Lewicki preaching.

9.12.21. We had some trouble with the audio this week. Please find a video of the full service on the website. ndpc.org. We'll try to do better.

This week's worship was a mix of music and reading. We don't have a regular recording this week. The theme of today’s worship is “A Psalm for Every Season,” which explores how the Psalms can help us celebrate the seasons of the Christian year: Advent, Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and the Feast of Christ our King. The Psalm settings, set to familiar tunes, are taken from the Psalter for Christian Worship, a collection of all 150 Psalms by Michael Morgan. Each will be introduced with a few words to set them in the proper liturgical context, and the congregation will be invited to sing. As a visual aid, there will be on display translations of Psalm 23 from the first 3 English Bibles authorized to be read in churches: the Great Bible of Henry VIIII (1539), the Bishops’ Bible of Queen Elizabeth (1568), and a beautiful first printing of the King James Bible (1611).

8.29.21. The body is one of the central images in Christianity. Jesus Christ is the embodiment–the incarnation–of God. Paul imagines the church as the Body of Christ. Our tradition clearly loves bodies–and yet somehow Christianity became known as a religion that feared and discounted the body. We will explore the role of bodies in the Christian life–the individual body, the relational body, the social and global body, and the mystical body in this four week worship series. Today, we explore the limits of the metaphor of the body–particularly, the limits that death and entropy present. What do we make of the fact that God invests so much energy and love in bodies that, one day, go away? Is there a mystical body that lies beyond, behind, or within the physical body? Rev. Lewicki, preaching.

8.22.21. The body is one of the central images in Christianity. Jesus Christ is the embodiment–the incarnation–of God. Paul imagines the church as the Body of Christ. Our tradition clearly loves bodies–and yet somehow Christianity became known as a religion that feared and discounted the body. We will explore the role of bodies in the Christian life–the individual body, the relational body, the social and global body, and the mystical body in this four week worship series. Rev. Lewicki, preaching. Today, we look at our bodies in relationship with other bodies. For a generation, our culture has insisted that we are not neighbors, or friends, or citizens, but self-serving consumers. During the pandemic, this way of understanding our relationships has been deadly. We visit Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, and its image of the body and explore what it means think of ourselves not as autonomous individuals, but as members of one body.

8.22.21. The body is one of the central images in Christianity. Jesus Christ is the embodiment–the incarnation–of God. Paul imagines the church as the Body of Christ. Our tradition clearly loves bodies–and yet somehow Christianity became known as a religion that feared and discounted the body. We will explore the role of bodies in the Christian life–the individual body, the relational body, the social and global body, and the mystical body in this four week worship series. Today, we explore the image of the earth as the body of God. This metaphor comes from the late feminist theologian Sallie McFague, but its roots are deep in the Christian tradition and in scripture. We read Paul’s urgent message to the Corinthians to not abuse the Lord’s body when they share communion in 1 Cor. 11. Paul urges the Corinthian church to let the sharing of the body of Christ be a vehicle for their communion–God also shares the body of the earth with us to be a means of our communion. Rev. Lewicki, preaching.

8.8.21. The body is one of the central images in Christianity. Jesus Christ is the embodiment–the incarnation–of God. Paul imagines the church as the Body of Christ. Our tradition clearly loves bodies–and yet somehow Christianity became known as a religion that feared and discounted the body. We will explore the role of bodies in the Christian life–the individual body, the relational body, the social and global body, and the mystical body in this four week worship series. Rev. Lewicki, preaching. Today, we look at our individual bodies. For generations, Christians have embraced the ancient Greek notion that our bodies consist of two parts, one “higher” (our spirit) and one “lower” (our flesh). Nothing could be further from the truth nor more harmful to a life of faith. We go back to Genesis and explore the story of the creation of the first human and wonder about the theological implications of being BOTH dirt and divine.

8.1.21. There’s a party goin’ on right here A celebration to last throughout the years So bring your good times and your laughter too We gonna celebrate your party with you So sang Kool & the Gang in their immortal party anthem, Celebration. Celebration is not something reserved for Saturday night. It’s also a part of Sunday morning–and of our whole life with God. As we wrap up our summer series on “re-booting our faith” through essential practices, we spend the day reflecting on the way the life of faith is seasoned with celebrations. We will sing, we might dance, we will laugh, and we will share the joyful feast of the people of God. Rev. Lewicki, preaching.