NEWS & STORIES

Author: The Rt Rev. George D. Young, III On Monday night, November 4, the Rev. Kammy Young described the scene at First United Methodist Church in Pensacola as "a glimpse of heaven on earth - 283 people from 18 congregations all gathered to start a new justice ministry organization- JUST Pensacola: Justice United Seeking Transformation in Pensacola. Thank you God, and so many, many others." JUST Pensacola is a congregation based organization working in the local community, ad

In recent months, the Rev. Alice Sawyer of Church of the Nativity in Dothan, Alabama used her spiritual gift of evangelism to teach a class called "The Spiritual Practice of Evangelism," in which she inspired participants to practice vulnerability ‘inside the walls'" in order to "lay the foundation for future 'outside the walls' engagement." Below is a Q & A with Sawyer where she lays out her experience. “Exploring the open ended questions in the Evangelism class showed me a

"When we are living a Jesus-centered life, it overflows into evangelism." The Rev. Stephanie Spellers On May 4, the Congregational Enrichment Venture team hosted over 100 people at St. Jude's in Niceville, for Discipleship Day which also happened to be the team's final session for their two year congregational training program. They invited the presiding bishop's canon for evangelism, the Rev. Stephanie Spellers to led us in a day of learning what Episcopal Evangelism is all

Wow! What a powerful workshop “The Way of Love: Evangelism 101” was at the May 4, 2019 Discipleship Day, hosted by the welcoming community of St. Jude’s Episcopal Church in Niceville in their beautiful sanctuary and sponsored by the Congregational Enrichment Venture. Our Evangelism coach was the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's canon for evangelism. Spellers had us dancing in the aisles praising God! She taught us that Evangelism has to be cente

[ESRI, WhereNext Magazine] The Reverend Kammy Young has seen the empty pews at Sunday morning service. She has read the surveys that show membership in decline. Once-thriving congregations now depend on part-time volunteers to keep their doors open. At a time when the relevancy of religion is in question, she feels a sense of urgency for churches to connect more deeply with their communities. The challenges faced by Young and the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast are not uniq

It was a beautiful Sunday evening when we met at Pier Park in Panama City Beach. We had been invited by our priest, Mary Alice Mathison, to participate in a prayer walk. We were both a bit anxious because we had not participated in anything like this before, but Mary Alice explained that we would simply walk quietly observing our surroundings and seeking God as we went. We started walking on the sidewalk to the east down Front Beach Road. As we went, there was a constant

“Warm, wonderful, caring.” Those are a few of the words participants used to describe a StorySharing event for Immanuel Episcopal Church in Bay Minette, AL. I was chosen by Immanuel to be our evangelism catalyst and decided to invite the neighbors in my cul-de-sac. I made Valentine-themed invitations to the special night and hand delivered them. The event was held at a popular steak and seafood restaurant the week of Valentine’s Day. Nine neighbors braved the rainy evening

We all know that Episcopalians are leery of the word “evangelism.” When most of us hear it, we picture someone asking complete strangers if they know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and handing out tracts. But we’re learning that there are other ways to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ,” as we promise to do in our baptismal covenant. One of these ways is through the use of social media. This is a method that particularly appeals to the more

For season of Epiphany we did things a little differently at the end of our services at Grace and St. Thomas. Instead of doing the blessing and dismissal inside our church, we immediately processed out after the post communion prayer, followed the cross straight out the doors, and offered our blessing and dismissal outside. At Grace, we were visible to travelers along Highway 98; and at St. Thomas, neighbors could hear us singing the final hymn. This all started after hearing

There is a new focus group in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast, and it’s all about Evangelism. Led by the Rev. Kammy Young, canon missioner for development, the DioCGC Evangelism Task Force is made up of lay and ordained leaders from across the Central Gulf Coast. They have joined together to serve as catalysts and encouragers in an effort to equip the diocese for this essential ministry. While Christians have held the responsibility of sharing their faith for centuries,