I read Ty Ragan's article in the December Record with interest. I too have faced the challenge of how to open up the doors and chip away at the mortar of our churches so that young people can fit in. Here's my suggestion for Ty: treat yourself to a copy of the Book of Forms for Valentine's Day (get the "romancing the laity" edition). You're worth it! Then read the handy guide to how our church tries to get things done from cover to cover; learn to love it. Embrace this peculiar Presbyterian passion even if the dour prose makes your tattooed flesh crawl. As daunting (perhaps ludicrous) as it may sound, your long-term task is to clear a path for some of these multi-pierced, hell-bound, hormone-driven, not-necessarily-all-that-reformed whippersnappers about whom you write to one day get onto the Board of Managers (or the Session) in your church. Then they'll be given the keys to the church and they can open the doors personally. In my experience, you have to take the first step toward the "institutional" church — it won't come knocking on your wi-fi laptop at Starbucks. Of course, this will take time and a lot of running back and forth between coffee shops and big stone buildings. A decade or more of perspiration may be required before you see any results. But I'm sure you didn't become a leader in this whole Jesus thing expecting to beam anyone on board. Let this be your mantra: "By 2015 there will be at least one member of my church's Board of Managers with a tattoo." John Calvin took a similar approach in Geneva and look where that got us.

I was shocked, disappointed, stunned, angry (lots of feelings) when I read the last three letters in the December issue of the Record — grouped and entitled "Readers Support PWS&D". I too support PWS&D through prayers, the mission work which I do at our church, sometimes through direct donations when there is a special appeal. However, I do not seem to share the feelings of the letter writers who deemed the insert from World Vision to be "inappropriate, insulting, horrifying, and very disappointing". WOW — so now mission and the sharing of the tremendous wealth of the first world, is only appropriate if carried out through PWS&D? How insulting to our denomination! How narrow minded and parochial!

I was very disappointed at the reaction, in the December issue, to the World Vision catalogue being included in a recent issue of the Record.

After reading the letters section in the December issue of the Presbyterian Record, I was very disappointed with the responses from Rev. Kate Ballagh-Steeper and Wilma Welsh with regards to the World Vision catalogue. Surely they are missing the point — what does it matter which organization helps people in need, as long as the people who need help receive it! World Vision also does marvelous work in countries overseas and I personally sponsor two children and know that the small amount that I give is at least helping someone and I know that it is appreciated! So let's show some Christian love here.

I do not always find myself in agreement with the points made by the Editor and Publisher of the Record. There are however, two instances in the December issue where I find myself in full agreement with his position and his action. The first is his editorial Hospitality For Strangers Isn't Optional. The second being his action in including the World Vision material with the Record.