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Dressing for Bible Study

KENDRA KAMMER|GUEST In Colorado where I live, we aren’t known for our fashion sense. Recently I received a wedding invitation, and the dress code was “Mountain Formal.” (I know you’re curious: the ladies wore sundresses and cowboy boots, and the men wore jeans and bolo ties.) I’ve even learned how to pre-load my wardrobe into ChatGPT so it can tell me what to wear to any given event and take that mental load off myself! Thankfully, when it comes to Bible study, God has already told us what to wear: “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. …And above all these put on love” (Col. 3:12-14). Wear What Fits Colossians 3 tells us what to “wear”: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. These qualities remind us that Scripture is learned best within loving Christian community. As we study God's Word together, these qualities should shape the way we treat one another....

Dressing for Bible Study2026-08-14T17:39:32+00:00

The Gift of Intergenerational Relationships

BETHANY BELUE | CONTRIBUTOR Eight months after getting married, my husband and I packed up a U-Haul and moved to Atlanta. He was excited about the move, as it would mean following a call the Lord had given him. I was following in my body, but my heart was kicking and screaming. It was the beginning of a new and exciting season for my husband, but for me, it was the death of so much that was familiar to me: living close to family, a job that I loved, and the fulfillment of buying our first home.   After arriving at an apartment complex I had not seen before, walking through church doors where I knew no one, and learning a city that was completely new territory, I wondered what the Lord had in store for us in this new place.   There was little about our years in Atlanta that was easy. My husband worked a full-time ministry job while also enrolled in seminary full-time. We longed for a baby who was not yet a part of our story. Finances were tight, our apartment felt small, and traffic was stressful. Yet when my husband and I look back on that season of early marriage, we talk about it with fondness because of the people the Lord put into our lives...  

The Gift of Intergenerational Relationships2026-05-12T16:51:43+00:00

WE Ministry: An Interview With Katie Polski and Cheryl Mullis

KATIE POLSKI | CONTRIBUTOR and CHERYL MULLIS | GUEST The WE ministry of PCA CDM is a growing effort to disciple Teaching and Ruling Elders’ wives across the denomination. With a vision to connect, encourage, and equip women in every season of ministry, WE is led by a team who understand both the joys and challenges of this calling. Today, Cheryl and Katie join us to share their heart for WE and the vision behind it. Can you introduce yourselves and tell us why you said, “yes” to leading the WE ministry? Cheryl: I’m Cheryl Mullis, a Ruling Elder’s wife from Annapolis, Maryland. It is a joy to serve alongside my husband, Don, as he shepherds and cares for our church. I also serve on staff as the Director of Discipleship. Don and I have been married for 41 years and are grateful for our five children, their spouses, and our growing group of energetic grandchildren. I said “yes” to co-leading WE because God has given me a heart for other elders’ wives. When my husband was ordained, I wasn’t sure what that meant for me—what was expected, or how life in the church might change. If I can come alongside other elders’ wives to encourage them, remind them of their identity in Christ, and help them see how God might use them to strengthen His church, it is a joy to say yes. Katie: I’m Katie Polski, a Teaching Elder’s wife from St. Louis, MO. I work full-time for our church serving as the music director and special events coordinator and am also involved in speaking and writing. Prior to my role at the church, I was a high school writing teacher for several years where I enjoyed the great challenge of showing teens that writing can be…fun. I’m not sure I succeeded, but I enjoyed trying! My husband and I have been serving together in ministry for over twenty-five years, and while my role has looked different through the varying seasons, I’ve been deeply grateful for our partnership in all of life’s spheres....

WE Ministry: An Interview With Katie Polski and Cheryl Mullis2026-05-02T01:57:01+00:00

Beyond Centerpieces: Recovering Biblical Hospitality

ELIZABETH STEELE|GUEST Our God is a God of hospitality. We see this throughout Scripture, from the Garden of Eden where God our Father provided for His beloved children a place for them to live and food to eat, to the book of Revelation where He prepares the marriage feast of the Lamb to welcome His beloved Bride home. Even though we were strangers and aliens, our Father made a way for us to know Him and be His children. That’s the very premise of Christianity: we have been lavishly welcomed by Christ through the Good News of the Gospel. And He calls us to extend the same hospitality to others. The Apostle Paul gave very direct instructions to the brand-new Christians in Rome when he wrote in Romans 15:7, "Therefore, welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God." What does it Mean to be Hospitable? The Greek word for hospitality is philoxenia. We are familiar with "philo" or "phila" meaning "the kind of love between friends." Xenia means "foreigner or one you do not know." Together they mean "to give the love of friendship to a person that we do not know." Does that sound like a very natural thing to do? Not likely! In fact, showing love to people we do not know can be a very difficult thing...

Beyond Centerpieces: Recovering Biblical Hospitality2026-04-18T19:43:29+00:00

Nothing to Hide: Encouraging Transparency in our Relationships

AMY SANTARELLI |GUEST Nothing to fear. Nothing to prove. Nothing to hide. Nothing to fear. Nothing to prove. Nothing to hide. I kept repeating the words to myself as I sat down to lead our women’s Bible study. I had determined that night to share some things on my heart that were not easy to share. They were revealing. We were studying the process of biblical change using a booklet1 I often use as a biblical counselor. I was excited about sharing this great little treasure with my fellow women. But then came the conviction. In preparation, I was scanning the booklet’s section on repentance and when I read, not for the first time, that true repentance means actual turning from former ways, that is when the conviction struck. I recalled that many times lately, I had confessed to God and asked forgiveness for habitually staying up too late and then sleeping in too long. I complained in my heart about not having enough time to do things, and yet I was on my phone so much. And then there was the control that food often had over me. I was running to things other than Christ. This was not the first time I had felt this conviction...

Nothing to Hide: Encouraging Transparency in our Relationships2026-04-12T18:04:16+00:00

Honoring a Spiritual Mother

STEPHANIE HUBACH | CONTRIBUTOR March is International Women’s Month, so in honor of one of the most influential women in my life—Jane Patete—I’d like to share with you a letter I wrote to her son and daughter. For those who don’t know her, Jane was the Coordinator for Women’s Ministries in the PCA. I sent this several weeks after Jane’s memorial service. I hope you “meet her” in some small way through reading this. Actually, I hope you see Jesus by reading this. (That’s how Jane would want this to go.) Here is an excerpt of the letter I sent to Jane’s daughter Amy and her son Rob. Oh. My. Word. How she touched my life. Apart from my own mother, Jane was the most influential woman in my spiritual life. Ever. And I’ve been a Christian for a long time, and run in a lot of Christian circles. Words don’t do justice to the level at which she impacted my life, just by doing what she always did: connecting, praying and encouraging, and embodying her “fun factor.” Connecting Jane’s fingerprints—in one fashion or another—are all over every doorknob to every major ministry door that opened in my life in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). As Susan Hunt’s assistant, she was willing to engage in an email friendship with me 25 years ago. I had contacted the Women in the Church (WIC) office with the question, “Have you ever had an idea that just wouldn’t go away?” That was the early calling on my heart to make the gospel accessible to people with disabilities in the PCA. Your mom and I built a friendship over email. Then, she did what she did so well: she connected me to everyone she knew who could help advance the vision of disability ministry in the PCA....

Honoring a Spiritual Mother2026-03-11T12:29:27+00:00

Fences Don’t Make Healthy Churches

LAURA PATTERSON | GUEST I sat in her lap with tears in my eyes. I was four and she was in her 50s. I had mixed the play rice into the Play-Doh and Mrs. Cummings gently corrected me for my likely innocent but possibly mischievous mixture. As an anxious child, striving to earn affection through a good performance, this left an imprint. What was probably a mundane moment for Mrs. Cummings was a monumental one for me. I wouldn’t have put words to it at the time, but I was implicitly learning the value of gospel community through this relational experience. She clearly explained that the rice and Play-Doh were not meant to be mixed, and I understood the error in my “curiosity”. But redemption followed as she scooped me up and held me in my tears. Her love for me was undiminished....

Fences Don’t Make Healthy Churches2026-02-24T16:27:06+00:00

A Practical Way to Support Life

KRISTI MCCOWN | GUEST On January 22, 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation. He declared the third Sunday of January as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. This date marked the 11th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the ruling that legalized abortion nationally. Much has changed around abortion over the past four decades. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned. For the pro-life movement, this was a major victory and a step in providing legal protection for unborn children. Today, abortion is limited or prohibited in 26 states; however, it is still protected in 25 states. However, the need to pray and advocate for life in our community and nation remains important. Pastors, churches, and life organizations use this day to bring awareness to daily assaults on human life by the abortion industry. One way to protect unborn lives is to expose the darkness of abortion and support local Pregnancy Help Organizations, which daily reach women and families with hope and life. Making an Impact on Life I work at one of these ministries as a counselor. When I began at the Pregnancy and Family Resource Center in my small Mississippi town, I was overwhelmed. This ministry is hard and heavy, yet miraculous and healing. One of my first clients I met there was a 13-year-old girl and her mother. The pain on this mother's face was heartbreaking; her child was about to have a child. We walked with this mother and her daughter through the birth of her baby with compassion and care... 

A Practical Way to Support Life2026-01-09T20:38:37+00:00

Three Questions to Ask When Using AI

AMANDA DUVALL | GUEST Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere—in the news, in my internet searches and online shopping, and even my personal conversations. The advances and changes are coming so fast, I teeter between growing excited about how this tool will help me get more done and spiraling down a rabbit hole over all the ways technology is changing the world as we know it. In my limited usage, I’ve already found AI powerful and useful for a variety of tasks. AI has helped me get my one-year-old to sleep better, research for and edit work quicker, gain ideas to treat odd health symptoms, plan travel, and more. AI can do it all—in mere seconds! Still, there are so many moral and ethical concerns surrounding AI, regarding privacy and data, content and regulation, intellectual property rights, threats to creative work, relational confusion, and massive disruptions in education, the economy, and health care. It is easy to give in to fear and frankly, I prefer to delegate these concerns as “out there,” for someone else to unravel. I am just a normal nobody trying to keep up and figure out how to use AI to make life a little bit more manageable. Then, I remember the day I got my Facebook account. As a college freshman sitting in my dorm room, suddenly I was connected to college students across my campus and the country. Social media opened a world of possibilities, what could go wrong? We know so much more now than we did then about how social media affects our brains, our ability to focus, and our mental health, to name a few issues. Haven’t we learned our lesson, then? I’m not sure. Too often, we are so desperate to adopt a new technology with the promise of optimizing our lives without considering, “just because I can use it for all these things, should I? We need to be discerning, not just about how AI is changing our world, but also how it is changing us. With all this change spinning out of our control, we cling to the promise, “the Word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 1:25). We can turn to Him in this, and in every situation. Here are three questions, grounded in what God tells us is good and true, to ask when using AI...

Three Questions to Ask When Using AI2025-11-13T21:20:17+00:00

Her View from the Pew: Reflections from a Pastor’s Wife

KATIE POLSKI | CONTRIBUTOR I was twenty-three years old, had a two-year-old and a two-month-old, and my husband had just started a new position as a senior pastor at a church where I knew no one. Just weeks into our new calling, I snuck away for a few minutes of quiet while the kids played in my husband’s new office. Sitting in the pew of the quiet sanctuary, I took in my surroundings, reflecting on the weight and wonder of this new calling as “pastor’s wife.” Fast forward nearly twenty-five years, when I found myself in a time of similar contemplation. Sitting in the pew of our church, the surroundings had changed—we were at a different church, and I was in a new life stage—but the emotions of carrying the title of “pastor’s wife” were as familiar and raw as they were so many years ago. Whether you’re serving in a church you’ve known your whole life or one that’s completely new; whether ministry is part of your family’s legacy or something you’re the first to step into; or whether your congregation is overflowing with people or faithfully pressing on in small numbers—the role of pastor’s wife carries a common thread. In all these varied settings and differing seasons, every pastor’s wife can be encouraged by the same thing: Jesus’ kindness in the calling. The Hidden Burden and the Beautiful Calling In my own life, the burdens haven’t changed much through the years. Early in our ministry, I accompanied my husband to the home of grieving parents who had lost their child. As the mother practically collapsed in my arms, I had the thought, “Why am I here?” It felt almost intrusive to step into such tender grief when I barely knew the family. And yet, she wept in my arms. Why am I here? Why am I sitting in a room for a memorial service in memory of a mother I did not know. Why am I invited to a wedding of a couple I only met once? Why am I here, bearing the weight from a difficult session meeting?...

Her View from the Pew: Reflections from a Pastor’s Wife2025-09-21T15:18:16+00:00
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