Welcome from our pastor

Chuck can best be reached at revbooker@gmail.com or his cell: 734-646-3550. Feel free to contact him!

"Love to the loveless shown/that they might know their loveliness." This paraphrase from the hymn "My Song Is Love Unknown" conveys quite well our hospitality ("personal"), worship ("passionate"), and outreach ("progressive") focus at BPC. Contrary to the standard m.o. of corporate or governmental institutions -- even on their best of days -- whatever is good for the loveless is considered to be good for the whole here. Our focus on the power of love, as opposed to the love of power, includes exploring ways to name and claim the most vulnerable spaces and places in our souls. For we don't simply do things "for" one another at BPC; we seek ways to do ministry "with" and "among" each other. And this socially just way of being, we pray, is communicated in our congregational and personal callings (vocations) beyond our walls.

Join us on our Spirit-powered journey into Christ's relational joy! -- Gracia y Paz (Grace & Peace), Chuck

Chuck Booker-Hirsch began his ministry at BPC the first day of Summer 2009. A graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary (M.Div. '94), he comes to Bethesda following 11 fruitful years as Pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, MI. A passionate advocate for radical church hospitality and faith-based social justice, he served on the staff of interracial congregations in a Tucson, AZ barrio and the ghetto of Marin City, CA, and worked for four years resettling thousands of Central American refugees in this country seeking sanctuary from torture and slaughter in their homelands. His vocational passions include learning and helping others to learn to follow the teachings of Jesus ("seriously, not literally"); hearing and then proclaiming the Good News (three dozen sermons published by www.goodpreacher.com); and discerning and then interpreting the spiritual lessons Twelve Step groups offer the church.

Key moments in Chuck's faith pilgrimage include responding to a call -- based on his life-changing refugee ministry -- to participate in several nonviolent civil resistance actions, including two at Ft. Benning, GA to close what is known throughout Latin America as the "School of the Assassins": the U.S. Army School of Americas (SOA). For the ongoing SOA witness, he and 250 others in recent years have served as federal "prisoners of conscience" -- in Chuck's case, three months in a prison camp in 2002. For his prophetic witness, he received the Presbyterian Peaceseeker Award at the 2004 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). [For more on Chuck's SOA witness, see his January 10, 2010 sermon, "God's Call: Be-Loved (Baptism)".]

In addition to his peacemaking efforts, Chuck has served on the national boards of More Light Presbyterians -- an organization seeking full ordination opportunities for church members regardless of sexual orientation and gender identification -- and Presbyterian Health Education and Welfare Association (PHEWA).

Last updated by Chuck Booker-Hirsch Oct 12, 2011.

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This Sunday at BPC (2/12)

... at our 11 am Worship, we conclude a three-Sunday focus, "Our Healing Church", with the healing of two lepers: Naaman the Aramean warrior in 2 Kings 5 and an unnamed gentleman in Mark 1. The two-way flow of God's compassion signified by the phrase "healing church" -- the church spreads healing *and* is itself healed -- will be featured in the message, "The River of Healing: From 'Them' to Us". Click here for our colorful bulletin.

Art work on our Sanctuary Big Screen again will "signpost" the sermon -- as well as the Prelude at 10:50, an abbreviated version of an African-American History Month celebration featuring music by Sweet Honey in the Rock and Mahalia Jackson. This special month will also be celebrated in our hymns and other music this Sunday.

Oh, and don't forget our new-and-improved Valentine's Day quiz following Worship, in the Fellowship Hall! Hope to see you Sunday.

Posted by Bethesda Presbyterian on February 10, 2012 at 7:30pm

This Sunday at BPC (2/5) ...

A Lieutenant's Healing Journey! In keeping with Our Healing Church three-part series and the second of three successive healing stories from Mark 1, Marine Lt. James Byerly, who lost both his legs in an IED explosion during combat operations in Afghanistan, will join us in sharing a bit about his healing journey -- with a challenge to our church to be wounded healers, as well. Several of us have met James in his visits to our congregation, as he nears the end of a year-long recuperation at Walter Reed.

Visuals Galore this Sunday! In honor of African-American Month, I invite all to come to the Sanctuary a little early -- 10:45a -- to enjoy a Big Screen slide/song extravaganza celebrating our civil rights pioneers! Featured: Mahalia Jackson ("Precious Lord"), Sweet Honey in the Rock ("Where Are the Keys to the Kingdom?"), speech excerpts from Martin Luther King, Jr. Also, for the very first time, the sermon -- "Action Into Faith" -- will be highlighted by Big Screen visuals.

Sunday's Bulletin is attached. The first sermon of our three-part Our Healing Church series, "Jesus the Healer: A Threat to Order?", can be found here -- along with so much else through our website.

Our Healing Church: a deliberate double entendre. May our discipleship always prove such a two-way street. Come along for the journey!

Posted by Bethesda Presbyterian on February 3, 2012 at 1:00pm

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