As we reflect on 2024, we’re excited to share the most impactful resources that have inspired and equipped our supporters this year. From Lenten devotional guides like Local Pilgrim to webinars addressing vital topics such as small church vitality and reparations, these top products have sparked meaningful conversations and deepened spiritual practices. Whether you’re seeking fresh insights for your faith journey or practical tools to strengthen your ministry, these carefully curated offerings are designed to enrich your walk with God and empower your community. Explore our 2024 highlights and discover what’s made a difference this year.
2024 Lenten devotions: Local Pilgrim
A cemetery, a bar, a library, an emergency waiting room: what do all these places have in common?
In Local Pilgrim, Outlook Editor/Publisher Teri McDowell Ott and other writers explore what God might reveal to us if we intentionally explore our communities. Who do we see? What do we hear? God reveals God’s self when we look.
Small is beautiful: Cultivating vibrant communities in the PC(USA)
In January 2024, the Outlook published a magazine dedicated to small church vitality. Within days, our extra copies of the magazine sold out and articles from the issue, such as “The future of the PC(USA) is pastor-less, and that’s ok” by Catherine Neelly Burton, went viral. We heard from many readers that practical thoughts, ideas and conversations about the ministry of small churches are important.
This webinar continues the conversation our “Small is beautiful” issue started.
Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition
The next decade will see many churches selling or repurposing their property. How can we engage this work faithfully?
In this webinar, Teri speaks with Mark about Gone for Good? Negotiating the Coming Wave of Church Property Transition. Edited by Mark, this new book highlights “what we are losing as church property usage changes at an unprecedented speed and scale, and [helps] us imaging the innovative possibilities that can emerge.”
Patterns of divine possibility: An Advent search for God’s diverse ordering
In a world dominated by binary thinking – light vs. dark, good vs. evil – this Advent devotion by Teri McDowell Ott encourages us to look for the more, to recognize that God’s patterns are nuanced, complex, and always beyond the limited constructs we impose. It challenges us to explore faith as trusting in the unseen patterns and embracing a fuller understanding of God’s handiwork.
Digital discipleship: How to create connectional ministry using social media
Join Outlook Editor/Publisher Teri McDowell Ott in a conversation with skilled, experienced digital communicators about what it looks like to speak love effectively in a digital world.
Panelists include PC(USA) “TikTok Pastor” Bethany Peerbolte, Washington National Cathedral’s inaugural Pastor for Digital Ministry Jo Nygard Owens, Outlook Social Media Producer Jesy Littlejohn, and Outlook managing editor Dartinia Hull.
Together, the group shares their approach to social media as a tool for connectional ministry.
Post-GA226 bulletin inserts
Climate change, gun violence, LGBTQIA+ inclusion, race relations, small church ministry, and the unification of key Presbyterian bodies: These are just a glimpse of the crucial topics discussed at #GA226. And let’s not forget the pivotal nominations for a new stated clerk and new (co)moderators, setting the course for the denomination’s collective journey. GA 2024 was a crucible of action and insight.
Crafted by Outlook’s seasoned, award-winning reporting team, this post-GA bulletin insert delivers fast, accurate, and fair reporting. As an independent magazine, our commitment to unbiased journalism ensures that your community will receive the news without angles.
Gathering voices: A conversation with moderator candidates
Join Outlook editor Teri McDowell Ott in a conversation with the candidates standing for moderator of the 226th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
For years, the Presbyterian Outlook has been a trusted space for providing information and fostering conversations about the General Assembly and PC(USA) governance. We continue that tradition this year.
This webinar was an opportunity to hear directly from the moderator candidates about their visions for our church’s future. For commissioners preparing for GA, this insight was valuable in preparation of voting. For the public, this conversation provided important context for what the next several years may have in store for the denomination.
Mending the breach: A conversation about reparations
The idea of reparations in the United States has been considered, in one form or another, since the 1700s. Denominationally, the topic of repair has been floated since the 1960s. In the U.S. Congress, resolutions have arisen – but a concerted, national effort to bring about reparatory justice for the descendants of those who were kidnapped, enslaved, driven from their own lands, forced into schools that stripped their language and identity, has not come to fruition.
Writers for the September issue of the Outlook considered the act of repair and the steps the PC(USA) is taking to help mend the breach. This webinar continues the conversation. Panelists include Jermaine Ross-Allam, William Yoo, Larissa Kwong Abazia, and Chris Dela Cruz.
Hagar’s voice: Listening to the marginalized
Join Outlook Editor/Publisher Teri McDowell Ott in an opportunity to learn from Margaret Aymer, Austin Theological Seminary’s vice president for academic affairs, dean of faculty, and professor of New Testament studies at the seminary.
The voices of enslaved women and girls usually go unheard, even in the Bible. But the story of Hagar is different. This webinar will investigate how the book of Genesis raises up the enslaved Egyptian woman Hagar as a mother, a God-namer, and perhaps even the theological teacher of Abraham.
Changing the World: Confirmation for the Missional Church
Changing the World is not about joining the church; it’s about joining the missional project entrusted to the church.
Requiring adolescents to join the church by professing their faith is a relic of a church concerned with its own power and survival. The focus is on institutional life rather than the call to discipleship. Changing the World shifts the emphasis from increasing membership rolls to helping teenagers claim their missional identities and vocations.
