North Decatur Presbyterian Church

10.25.20. When the world feels like it’s going to hell in a handbasket, what word helps you keep your balance, keep going, keep believing? This week, we hear someone ask Jesus the same question: “what is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’ answer is still a word that nourishes our faith, even in the most chaotic of times. Rev. David Lewicki, preaching.

10.18.20. Taxes (and Other Matters of Life & Death). Mathew 22:15-22. The question to Jesus begins as a trap: "Should we pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" Jesus responds by asking his questioner to pull out a Roman coin and look at it. So begins one of Jesus's most curious, powerful, and persistent lessons. Whose are you? To whom do you belong? And, by virtue of this belonging, what do you ow...

10.11.20. Freedom through Consecration: Exodus 35: 1- 29. Decorating for the seasons, making a meditation space, setting aside quiet time in the morning, taking daily walks to ruminate, observing a day of rest? What rituals do you do to mark time or space as sacred? How do you tame the chaos with the hope of order? After a long list of fatalities, frustrations and failures in the wilderness, the p...

10.4.20. Freedom is Found in Relationship: Exodus 20:1-17: Our study of the book of Exodus turns this week as Moses receives the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai.  We discover how the freedom which we have sought through liberation from oppression, from hunger, from quarrel and doubt is broader, richer, and more intimate than we imagined. God reveals to Moses how freedom is found in relationshi...

9.27.20. We are all going through a "wilderness experience" during the pandemic. We are forced to journey through a new, difficult territory. For many of us, we are short on patience and quick to anger or despair. Our relationships feel tense. In this week's story from Exodus 17, the people of God are stressed and angry about the lack of water. God hears them and provides for them, sending water f...

9.20.20. Sometimes the world of the Bible seems very far away--another time, another culture, another world. But sometimes, the world of the Bible comes very, very close. For the next four weeks, we will be reading stories from Exodus about the journey of God's people in the "wilderness." Wilderness, in scripture, is a place of deprivation, danger, and the nearness of death. In the wilderness, the...

9.13.20.  Rev. Lewicki offers this Sunday's sermon, using Romans 14:1-12 as our focus text. It is a text that explores a question that is both perennial and also timely: what do we make of our human differences? Differences are the source of so much conflict in the world. Do we ever know when to focus on differences and when to overlook them and prioritize the ties that bind us all? Join us f...

9.6.20. We don't have the usual sermon this week. This Sunday’s worship service is full of music. We will be back next week!

8.30.20. The Ending. On Sunday, August 30, we close our summer preaching series, The Best. Story. Ever!, in which we have revisited familiar Biblical stores to discover how their meaning has deepened as we age.  Using the Gospel reading from the Lectionary for this Sunday, Matthew 16:21-28, Rev. Mary Anona Stoops will look at the ending to the story that Jesus proposes to Peter and the discip...

8.23.20. Two-Thousand-Year-Old Mail Fraud. Rev. Erin Reed Cooper preaching. The Apostle Paul is a complicated character. He was a church planter, consultant, prisoner, tent-maker, and ex-Christian persecutor. Seven of the new testament books are actually letters from Paul to various churches and individuals. Another seven books are mimicking his style and tone. But who was Paul and why are his ide...

8.16.20. "The Mustard Seed," Rev. Beth Waltemath preaching.  Human beings love a good story. Some argue telling a story is the best way to teach us. But narratives have a shadow side too. They can be predictable and prescriptive. Even the beloved stories and myths we've already heard this summer have been used (sometimes unintentionally) as oppressive propaganda. Jesus taught by telling a nar...

8.9.20. "Called Together," Rob Schoonover preaching. Text: Luke 5:1-11. I love a good call story. It's always fun to read or listen to the story of the moment somebody was called into their greater purpose. The Bible contains a long list of epic call stories. Sometimes these stories involve burning bushes or blinding lights. Other times, they are seemingly mundane. Sometimes a calling is nothing m...

8.2.20. What would you do if you came face-to-face with a lion? We find out what happened to the hero Daniel in this week's Best. Story. Ever! But what if the lion is more than "just" a lion? What if the lion is also a metaphor for what it's like when we find ourselves facing an enemy that is ready, willing, and able to destroy us? Take this metaphor one more step: what if I told yo...

7.26.20. The very first Biblical story I ever learned was the story of David and Goliath. Of course, I was fascinated by the idea that another "David" was a biblical hero. And what's not to like about the story? A handsome (but scrawny) farm boy comes out of nowhere to topple the nasty foreign warrior with his courage and a slingshot. It didn't hurt that the story mirrored the plotline of my favor...

6.19.20. "Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came a-tumblin' down!"  I remember singing that in Sunday School more than 40 years ago as we learned about Joshua taking over from Moses, his great military victory, and his leadership of God's people into the Promised Land. It was a story of courage and bravery and faith. No one told me it was also a story about genocide. And I'm...

7.12.20. The Joseph story. Genesis chapters 37-50. Rev. David Lewicki preaching.

7.5.20. Notes from Goat Island, Matthew 25:31-46 (the parable of the sheep and the goats). Located approximately an hour east from our church on Georgia’s Jackson Lake, you can arrive by boat to an island that is totally inhabited by goats. Locals creatively refer to this island as “goat island.” Our text this Sunday details a strange and powerful story that Jesus tells about sheep and goats. Tune...

6.28.20. David Roth, the one who leads Memorial Drive Ministries (not the rock icon of the 80's), preaches from Ruth 2:1-13.

6.21.20. Rev. Lewicki, preaching.   In June, we began a fun summer preaching series: The Best. Story. Ever!   When  we are children, we learn about the Bible through its biggest,  brightest, most wonderful stories: wild animals, miraculous deeds, and  s/heroes of every shape and size. This summer, NDPC is going back to  re-visit the Biblical stories that captured...

6.4.20. On Sunday, June 7th, we began a fun summer preaching series: The Best. Story. Ever!  When we are children, we learn about the Bible through its biggest, brightest, most wonderful stories: wild animals, miraculous deeds, and s/heroes of every shape and size. This summer, NDPC is going back to re-visit the Biblical stories that captured our imaginations as children to discover how their...

6.7.20. Adam and Eve. Genesis chapters 2-3. Rev. David Lewicki preaching.

Rev. Beth Waltemath brings you a special episode using the testimonies of members of North Decatur Presbyterian Church about their experiences of communion in quarantine. Based on the theme " What Feeds You?" as part of a class with Agnes Scott College. 

Rev. David Lewicki preaches on May 17th. In May, we explore the 9th and final Big Idea of the Bible: Beloved Community. Beloved Community is an idea popularized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that was first articulated by 20th-century philosopher Josiah Royce. It is, “a spiritual or divine community capable of achieving the highest good as well as the common good.” The roots of such commu...

5.10.20. Rev. Erin Reed Cooper preaches on May 10th. In May, we explore the 9th and final Big Idea of the Bible: Beloved Community.  Beloved Community is an idea popularized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that was first articulated by 20th-century philosopher Josiah Royce. It is, “a spiritual or divine community capable of achieving the highest good as well as the common go...

5.3.20. In May, we explore the 9th and final Big Idea of the Bible: Beloved Community. Beloved Community is an idea popularized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that was first articulated by 20th century philosopher Josiah Royce. It is, “a spiritual or divine community capable of achieving the highest good as well as the common good.” The roots of such community are in the Scriptures themse...