NORTH ALABAMA PRESBYTERY (PCUSA)

NORTH ALABAMA PRESBYTERY (PCUSA) North Alabama Presbytery is made up of 26 thriving congregations working together and serving Christ

06/01/2026

Our weekly inspection from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps.

NAP Connections
Monday, June 1, 2026

Galatians 1:6-7 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Galatians comes from an angry Paul. He has worked hard to teach people in Galatia the Good News that peace with God and with ourselves is possible through faith in Jesus Christ and is not the result of works-based faith. This is the same Good News we have to share with people today. Just as in Paul’s situation, there are people with other ideas about how faith works, and they try to convince people that their way is closer to God’s intention.

In Paul’s day, teachers who followed him tried to convince people that they had to follow all the Hebrew Laws in order to follow Jesus. Paul was convinced that faith in Jesus was what God required and saw this Judaizing as a perversion of grace.

In our context, the details are different, but the problem is the same. There are people among and beyond us who try to convince us that following Jesus is not enough. Whether it is some brand of Christian nationalism, required agreement about social issues, or some extreme form of denominational loyalty, these people are convinced that God has spoken a Word to them that supersedes the Word God has spoken to us and that their mission is to convince us that our position is flawed and that we should accept their way of thinking.

I am usually skeptical of words spoken in anger. I know that I don’t always say what I mean, or even what I intend to say, when I’m mad. But even angry, Paul spoke truth when he caught an error in his own thinking in mid-sentence. There is only one Gospel. It is the Word God has spoken in Jesus. And Jesus calls us first, last, and always to love one another as he loves us. Trust in this call and in the other gracious things Jesus taught is the Gospel. Faith in the saving work of Jesus on our behalf is what God requires of us. If we believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose to show us God’s intention, then what God speaks to us is the truth. Any effort to add to or delete from this Gospel is a perversion.

As Presbyterians, we have chosen a path of acceptance and inclusion as a defining character of our ministry. We welcome all God calls our way. We believe this open and affirming people is who God calls us to be. The Gospel is not for some. It is for all.

I am grateful for the way this call gets communicated in our congregations week after week. We need not get angry about our position. If we faithfully welcome and affirm all who come, God will show us how to be the people he calls us to be. Thanks be to God!

Grace and Peace,
Bob Phelps
Executive Presbyter
North Alabama Presbytery
601-996-9656

05/25/2026

Inspiration on this Memorial Day from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps.

NAP Connections

Monday, May 25, 2026

Psalm 112:6 For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever.

Memorial Day is a confusing holiday for some. It originated as a day to remember fallen war dead. We lived in Columbus, MS at one point in my ministry. People there take considerable pride in asserting that Memorial Day originated there in Friendship Cemetery in 1866. I’d never tell them, but there are people in a town in New York who also claim that Memorial Day originated there in 1868 when a former Union Army officer declared it. I’ll not fight those battles again, but wherever the day originated, it began as a time to remember those who had given their lives in service to their country. Over time, the observance extended to families and churches, especially those with cemeteries, where people remembered both veterans and others who had died. Those church-based celebrations continue today throughout the month of May, especially in the South where Decoration Days are observed. I remember going to the cemetery where my maternal grandparents are buried on Memorial Day when I was a child. That cemetery did not have someone who did perpetual maintenance, so a part of that trip every year was to clean and mow and do respectful things.

We always ended that day of work and celebration with a picnic. Some of our younger people will not understand that we couldn’t get watermelons at this time of the year back then, but my uncle would make a flying trip to Florida, where they were available, and bring them back and ice them down for our picnic in the cemetery.

That points toward the way many celebrate the holiday today. For most of us, Memorial Day is the beginning of summer. School is usually out by now, and we’re all ready for a trip to the beach or the lake or the back yard and a grill and some time with friends and family.

Some of you will probably observe the holiday in all those ways and probably in ways I haven’t thought of. However you celebrate Memorial Day, take a few minutes to remember people who have been important in your life who have died either long ago or recently. Give thanks for their life and witness and for the influence, hopefully positive, they had in your life. As sobering as the thought is, it is probably a good thing to pause and remember that we will all go the way they have gone someday.

Perhaps that thought can be a call to examine our own witness and to try to do what we can to help others along the way. Even if your celebration doesn’t involve a cemetery, pause sometime to remember those who have gone before us into God’s promised kingdom.

Grace and Peace,
Bob

Bob Phelps
Executive Presbyter
North Alabama Presbytery
601-996-9656

05/18/2026

Our weekly inspiration from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps…

NAP CONNECTIONS

Monday, May 18, 2026

Ephesians 3:2 For surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you.

The Ephesian Church was made up mostly of Gentiles who had come to believe that, in Christ, God’s grace extended to them. Imagine their amazement when they discovered Paul to be one who proclaimed that faith to them. Paul, formerly Saul, had not only worked to eliminate the young Christian faith before his encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, but he had also been a Pharisee, a strict interpreter of the Hebrew Law before that! Early in his Christian walk, Paul sensed a call to include the Gentiles in his proclamation of God’s grace, to welcome those who had been outsiders into the community of faith. People like the Ephesians must have been confused when one who had opposed them on so many fronts became a spiritual guide and friend. Paul was unwavering in his intention to let all people know that the grace of God, made known to us in Christ, was for them.

This is the same ministry that has passed down to us after all these years. We in the PCUSA have taken bold stands to be inclusive in our ministry, to help all people, regardless of background or identity, to know that the grace of God includes them. I’m sure that, in some cases, our proclamation is hard for some to hear. Over the course of my ministry, I (like many others, I’m sure) have encountered many different people who have convinced themselves that the Good News we share is not for them. For as many reasons as there are those people, they decide that they are outsiders and always will be.

My constant prayer for the Church is that we will maintain the same conviction that Paul did: that there are no outsiders in God’s plan for us. Whoever we are, whatever we have done, whatever we have failed to do, God’s grace can provide a foundation for our lives, a foundation on which we can experience peace and hope and joy. The most wonderful mystery about God’s grace is that it is God’s to share, and that God has chosen to share it with everyone. Thanks be to God!

Grace and Peace,

Bob

Bob Phelps
Executive Presbyter
North Alabama Presbytery
601-996-9656

05/11/2026

Weekly inspiration from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps.

NAP Connections
Monday, May 11, 2026

Matthew 13:15-16: For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and the have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn—and I would heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

The responsibilities that come with being counted among God’s people are many, and sometimes we think they require too much of us. But history is full of examples of what happens when God’s people fail to speak or act.

Today’s text comes from a time when Jesus was teaching in parables, those often-confusing stories that were too often misunderstood. The disciples may have wondered why he didn’t choose a more direct method of instruction when they asked him why he continued to teach in parables. He explained to them that parables gave him an opportunity to teach truths that would reveal themselves instead of directing particular behaviors or responses. Then he reminds the disciples that their role is to be faithful rather than to sit in judgment of the responses of others.

We who are the Church today are those disciples in this context. Our call is to act on what we have seen and heard from Jesus and to show the way for others to discover what we have found in him. We are the ones who have seen his grace at work in our lives and in the lives we share. When we share what we have seen and heard, the world can see God at work among us.

We are often right when we feel dismayed by things we see and hear from the media about the state of the world. But we must not lose heart. We have seen the power of God, most clearly in the Risen Christ, and God calls us to share what we have seen with a world that is still searching for a way that leads to life.

We have seen God at work. The world is waiting for us to share what we have found.


Grace and Peace,
Bob

05/04/2026

Our weekly inspiration from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps.

NAP Connections

Monday, May 4, 2026

Matthew 6: 2a, 5a, 16a: So whenever you give alms….And whenever you pray….And whenever you fast….
I recently finished an interesting, if challenging, book called Who Is a True Christian? by David Congdon who, among other things, serves on the faculty at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. As the title indicates, the book sets out to understand the essentials of Christian faith. It takes its readers on a helpful journey through the history of Christian faith, arriving at the current troubled times. (The book was published in 2024.) Fair warning, there is no bullet-pointed list of answers to the title’s question. (I’ll leave it at that and let you read it if you’re interested.) Congdon is certainly not the first or even the most recent one to consider this question. Any of us who have watched the news for more than five minutes in the past couple of years have had that question, in one form or another presented to us. The difference in Congdon’s book and current media is that there are plenty of political and media voices who are more than willing to give us an answer. Most of those answers are insufficient and lead us to the conclusion that we must answer this, like most important questions, for ourselves, grounded in things beyond ourselves.
A good, Presbyterian question as we seek to answer the book’s question is “What does Scripture say?” As on most issues, Scripture has plenty to say, but we must interpret and try to understand what it says within the various contexts in which we live and practice our faith.
Today’s text from Matthew comes, of course, from one of the seminal texts for defining Christian faith, the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus offers us three practices which are important for Christian faith: giving alms (offerings), prayer, and fasting. Since Jesus mentions these in what has become an important doctrinal text, does that mean that these are the much sought-after essentials of faith? Probably not. Perhaps more in our context than in the one to which Jesus spoke, things like attending worship, participating in the mission of the Church, engaging in study and conversation about our faith, and respecting those with whom we differ are all a part of what it means to be Christian. Being faithful is a dynamic mixture of being and doing. In the three actions Jesus mentions in today’s text, doing takes the lead. He doesn’t say, “If you give, pray, or fast….” Doing those things seemed to be understood to be part of following him. In a similar way, if he looked at the list of things I added to his list or the various lists you might come up with on your own, I suspect he would say, “OK, so show me that those things are important.”
I remember a sermon I heard many years ago. I don’t remember its text, which is a shame, but it asked a poignant question: “If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” That question has stuck with me all these years. I hope the questions of what is essential to be faithful will stick with us through this week.

Grace and Peace,
Bob

04/27/2026

Our weekly inspiring words from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps...

NAP Connections
Monday, April 27, 2026

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

Today’s words come near the end of Paul’s letter to the Colossian Christians. Typically the end of New Testament letters turns toward personal greeting and encouragement. The author writes a string of instructions and suggestions for faithful living before he ends his communication. In the midst of those we find these words about our communication with one another and with others about our faith.

“Let your speech always be gracious,” sounds straightforward enough, but any of us who have spent much time in conversation about our faith know how difficult it can be to “always be gracious.” I have known one person in my experience that I could always count on for a gracious response to any situation. Whether her situation was positive or troubled, she was always full of grace in her conversation. We used to say that if we looked up the word grace in a dictionary, the most helpful entry would be a picture of her. I do not expect the same to be said about me. I know how difficult it can be not to respond in other ways, especially when we’re talking with people with whom we disagree. How much different might our national situation be if more of us attempted to be gracious in our response to one another instead of responding out of our own opinions and attitudes?

The writer moves from this challenge to an even more interesting suggestion: “(Let your speech be) seasoned with salt.” Salty speech might not sound appropriate in matters of faith. Depending on the participants in the conversation, it may or may not be helpful. I’m pretty sure this connotation of “salty” is not what the writer had in mind. In his day and in ours, salt serves as a flavor enhancer, it tends to make things go down easier. In this sense seasoning our conversation with salt might mean being very careful about our choice of words and phrases, hoping to find ways to communicate in our context more carefully. Talking about something as important as faith in Christ takes many forms, depending, among other things, on who it is we’re talking with. The very idea of talking with instead of talking to is a helpful example of salty speech. If we choose ways to communicate that are respectful and welcoming instead of instructive or condescending, we will stand a far better chance of extended conversation.

The important thing is that we talk about our faith—why it matters, how it enriches our lives. Being gracious is a given, even if a difficult one. Being salty is another way to ensure that we communicate well.

Grace and Peace,
Bob

04/20/2026

Our weekly inspiration from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps.

NAP Connections

Monday, April 20, 2026

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
Wherever you stand along the socio-political continuum, we might all agree that we live in anxious times. I don’t need to recount here the sources of our anxiety; we all know what keeps us up nights.

What I’d like us to think about today is how we respond to that anxiety.

The writer of the letter we know as 1 Peter encourages us to cast our anxiety on Jesus, confident that he cares what happens to us. For most of us, prayer is a way to accomplish this.

Unfortunately, prayer is probably not the first response that comes to our minds. Our polarized culture encourages us to lash out first and think later, if at all. The media presents us with 24-7 coverage of people doing just that. Faithful people at prayer don’t make the news often. Our call is to decide whether media attention or discernment of God’s will is our goal.
Our prayer may result in a call to action. That action may take many forms. But it needs to be informed by reflection and conversation with God before we jump to say and do things before we have sought counsel from God.
Pray for direction in your own response to things we see and hear. Pray also for your pastors as they guide your congregation through troubled times. Pray with openness to ideas you have not considered. Pray for wisdom and discernment. But most importantly, pray. Seek God’s will, then pursue it.
Grace and Peace,
Bob


Bob Phelps
Executive Presbyter
North Alabama Presbytery
601-996-9656

04/13/2026

Our weekly inspiration from our North Alabama Executive Presbyter, Rev.Bob Phelps…

NAP Connections
Monday, April 13, 2026

John 14:9b Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

A stranger came up to our younger son and his family in some public place not long ago and said, “Sir, I hope you don’t ever plan not to claim your daughter. She looks so much like you that everybody can see that she’s yours!”

Our son, of course, has no intention of not claiming his daughter. But that stranger was right. They are carbon copies of each other. That makes her grandma and me happy. She has a new little brother coming this summer, and we’re all wondering which side of the family he’ll favor.

Some family resemblances are that obvious. Others of us are more of a mixture of a complicated gene pool. My own sister looks a lot like the Phelps side of the family while I look (and sometimes act) a lot more like the other side of the house.

Sometimes we wonder what God is like. We believe in the Trinity which helps us understand God as three different persons or identities: Father, Son, and Spirit. What we sometimes misunderstand is that God is not three, but One. Those three ways to understand God are for our help, but God is One. The God who created all that is is the same God who came in the person of Jesus, lived and died among us, and rose from the grave for our salvation. God is also the Spirit who is forever with us and alongside us.

Jesus clearly told Philip in today’s text what we sometimes fail to understand: if we’ve seen Jesus, we’ve seen God. Another text reminds us that the fullness of God dwelled in Jesus. God and Jesus are one. Jesus is not just the loving, caring side of a judging, vengeful God some associate with the Old Testament. God is love—always has been; always will be. So when we experience love and mercy and forgiveness in our relationship with Jesus, those gifts come from God. God did not change natures when Jesus came. God has always been graciously inclined toward us. For this we can be thankful. On this we can depend. Thanks be to God!

Grace and Peace
Bob

Bob Phelps
Executive Presbyter
North Alabama Presbytery
601-996-9656

04/06/2026

Inspiration from our North Alabama Presbyter, Rev. Bob Phelps…

NAP CONNECTIONS

Monday, April 6, 2026

1 Corinthians 15:8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
I hope you are still basking in your Easter worship experience this morning. Whether your worship included trumpets and the organ with all the stops out or the quietness of worship at sunrise, I hope it was glorious and full of the hope that Resurrection brings. Whichever version of the story you heard this year, I hope that it became more than a story about things that happened many years ago and involved other people
Resurrection hope is the ground of our faith, the foundation of all we believe.
The Apostle Paul was not one of the ones who witnessed the Resurrection. He was opposed to Jesus and all he had proclaimed and promised. When he heard the tales Jesus’ friends told of his rising from the dead, Paul doubtlessly dismissed them as idle chatter from misguided people. His attitude changed one day while he was traveling to Damascus in his ongoing effort to eradicate the Christian message and punish its promoters. His own encounter with the Risen Christ was powerful and life changing. Sometime after that dramatic day, Paul wrote to the Corinthians attempting to convince them that his own encounter was as valid as the experience of those who saw the empty tomb and the Risen Jesus. He reminded them of the people who had seen Jesus. We sometime use his words as an affirmation of faith in worship: “and that he appeared first to the women, then to Peter, and to the Twelve, and then to many faithful witnesses.” Paul adds himself to the story when he says, “Last of all, as to one untimely born he appeared also to me.”
I take issue with one part of Paul’s version of things. If he considered himself the “last of all” to see the Risen Christ, he didn’t fully understand the power of the Resurrection. You and I, and everyone else who believes or who struggles to believe can see the Risen Christ in our own experience. Our encounter need not be as dramatic as either what the women and the other disciples saw on Easter morning or what Paul saw and heard on the Damascus road. But if Easter remains just a story we hear once a year, it does not become the powerful and life changing event God intends for it to be.
As you continue to reflect on the story you heard in worship yesterday, give thanks for the Resurrection as the surest sign of God’s promise to love and to guide us to peace. Just as you saw the Risen Christ in worship yesterday, see him again in your own journey of faith today and every day.
The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Thanks be to God.

Grace and Peace,
Bob



Bob Phelps
Executive Presbyter
North Alabama Presbytery
601-996-9656

Address

PO Box 6
Somerville, AL
35670

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when NORTH ALABAMA PRESBYTERY (PCUSA) posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Place Of Worship

Send a message to NORTH ALABAMA PRESBYTERY (PCUSA):

Shortcuts

Share

Category