Recently I surprised (maybe even scared) a number of the people I work with. What did I do that surprised them so much? I committed what my mother used to call “a neat-ness.” By that she meant that something that normally was, at best, disorganized or, at worst, a complete mess, was straightened out.

That’s what happened in my office. Normally my desk is full of stacks of paper, random items from people, the odd book or three, and folders of meeting minutes and records. Frankly, most of the time, it is simply a mess. But then I committed “a neat-ness.” Old papers were thrown away or a few of them filed. Extra kids toys were returned to their place. Borrowed books were returned to their owners. Desk surfaces that hadn’t been seen in a long time were visible and could be cleaned themselves.

And every person I worked with who came into my office and saw it said something along the lines of “I don’t even recognize it anymore!” This was my “neat-ness.”

But as I put things back in order, I found myself wondering how it happened. I didn’t intend for it to get that messy. I did leave any of it there over the months on purpose. I really didn’t notice that it was getting messier and messier. But it did.

Which made it a good reminder that even in the life of the church, things can get messy – can get out of control – and we don’t even really notice. A little repair in the church gets put off. Why would we support that new mission – we’ve got our things to support. We’ll check on our neighboring church when we have the time. And before we know it the “desk” of our church is covered with junk that covers up where Christ might normally be found. 

As we head into spring and past Easter, may we keep the “desks” of our lives clear of anything that might cover up what Jesus is calling us to do. And who knows what surprises we might find?!

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Ted McCulloch, Stated Clerk

Artificial Intelligence

A message from PC(USA) General Counsel Mike Kirk

Sophisticated hackers are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deceive employees with deep fakes and email phishing scams. While AI is a useful tool to support work, it also offers bad actors a tool to advance their schemes to gain access to personally identifiable information, such as social security numbers and bank account information, and to try to persuade employees to transfer money to accounts controlled by the hackers.

Hackers are using phishing and social engineering to fabricate stories and situations to make employees feel uncomfortable and to pressure them to react and act quickly without checking to see if the email or deep fake video is legitimate. Below are some examples used in these email schemes:

• There is a problem with your account; please click on this link to correct.
• Attached is an invoice that must be paid immediately or we will cancel your account, and failure to pay will impact your credit rating.
• We are a government agency, and you have failed to act. If you do not respond, you will face legal consequences.
• Hi. It’s your sister. We are on vacation and we were robbed of all of our money and credit cards. Please immediately send us money at the link below.

Sometimes employees are asked to open an attachment; often, they are asked to click on a link. When they do, there is a likelihood that malware or ransomware enters your office system and destroys data and even entire systems. Train your employees not to fall for phony emails or deep fake videos displayed through a meeting platform such as Zoom.

How to protect yourself and your organization:

1. Train your employees to be cautious of emails that ask for personal information from them or about their co-workers, your donors and members, or that ask them to send money.
2. Train your employees to hover their cursor over the email address of the sender. If it does not match the email address that belongs to who the sender says they are or appears suspicious in any way, they should not respond to the email, or click on any links or attachments. DELETE IT!
3. They should contact the person who allegedly sent the email asking for personally identifiable information or money and ask, did you send me the email or video?
4. Implement AI guidelines to encourage your employees to use AI responsibly. The most important guideline is not to download personally identifiable information of your employees, members, donors, or your organization into a public facing AI platform, such as Chat GPT. That information then becomes public and anyone can view it and use it. Also, employees should not record meetings that include confidential or personally identifiable information and dump the recording into a public AI platform to transcribe notes of the meeting. Again, it becomes public.
5. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), A Corporation website has a set of guidelines implemented at the national offices which you are welcome to review and borrow from to implement your own guidelines at your congregation or mid council. Employees have likely already started looking at AI platforms like Chat GPT to see how it works and how it can be used in their work. We all need to try to stay one step ahead in the safe use of AI to benefit our work and ministries.

The A Corp website has resources you might want to consult on other issues, as well.



Cathy Chang is now back in the Philippines after several weeks assisting with her father’s recovery and transition to home health care.

In other news, she was accepted as a Fellow with the Asian Theological Institute at United Lutheran Seminary, Philadelphia related to her doctoral research. Back in 2021, Cathy received scholarship from the presbytery, for doctoral studies at Payap University, Thailand.

The Chang Lopez family serving in the Philippines, is eager to share updates about ongoing Migrant Ministry – read more in their recent newsletter. To refresh your memory, Cathy’s work has expanded to partners around Asia into the Pacific.

Cathy is introducing two colleagues that the congregations and/or the presbytery could invite this fall as International Peacemakers: the Rev. Joram Calimutan, from Hong Kong, or Ms. Frances Namoumou, from Fiji. 

The minutes of the March meeting of presbytery are now available on our website. There are also links from the presentations given that day for your use.

At the March meeting of presbytery we heard from Matt Aragon-Bruce about the new Cultivating The Gift of Preaching program being offered by the Synod of the Covenant.

The purpose of the Cultivating the Gift of Preaching Initiative is to strengthen the witness of the Church to the good news of Jesus Christ, by identifying, training, and providing ongoing support to emerging preachers. Across the eleven presbyteries of the Synod, there are numerous ruling elders

and other church leaders who are called and gifted to preach the good news. The aim of the Initiative is to cultivate these gifts through rigorous training in biblical interpretation, reformed theology, and sermon preparation. The Initiative aims to add 140 or more trained preachers across Synod over four 18-month training cycles, beginning in June of 2024 and through 2028.

Participant Applications are due by April 5, 2024.

We have a congregation that is looking for copies of the Lead Me Guide Me hymnals from 1987 by G.I.A. Publications. If you or someone you know is willing to depart with your copies, please contact the Rev. Kate Morrison at tupcpastor@gmail.com.

Second Presbyterian Church of Saginaw Township, located at 2665 Midland Road, is excited to once again be holding its semi-annual Fish Fry on Friday, March 15, 2024, from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. The fish dinner includes all-you-care-to-eat fried Alaskan pollock, potatoes, coleslaw, bread, beverage, and dessert.

The fish fries, held one Friday during Lent and October are the church’s largest fundraisers and help fund various church projects such as; landscaping, many maintenance projects of the church building and grounds, sponsorship of Boy Scout Troop 321, and various other projects. This alleviates pressure from the budget and allows for more local, national, and international mission giving. These fish fries have been a tradition since the 1950s!

The cost of the all-you-care-to-eat, dine-in experience is $15.00, children 5-12 are $7.00, children younger than 5 years old are free. Take out is $14.00.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the Church office at (989) 792-1023.