About Jeff

Pastor of Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church in Savannah, Georgia.

Pentecost 2016

  Jeff Garrison Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church  Genesis 11:1-9 May 15, 2016   I attended a 6 AM worship service when I was in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2011.   Between Easter and Pentecost, this congregation hosted predawn worship services every morning, … Continue reading

Worshiping Jesus

Jeff Garrison Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church  John 12:1-8 March 13, 2016   There is a Peanut’s comic strip where Charlie Brown approaches Lucy about the problem of world hunger.  Lucy shrugs her shoulder in implied indifference.  Charlie Brown then goes … Continue reading

The Stars are the Limit

Jeff Garrison Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church February 21, 2016 Genesis 15   Friday evening and Saturday was the Presbytery’s “Leadership Development” Conference.  This year’s keynote speaker was Michael Jenkin’s, the president of Louisville Theological Seminary.  After one of his lectures, … Continue reading

Acts 2:37-47

Jeff Garrison Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church Acts 2:37-47 May 31, 2015   On the church calendar, today is Trinity Sunday.  I’m not really preaching on the mystery of the Trinity except that in our story we see all three persons … Continue reading

Pentecost 2015

Jeff Garrison Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church May 24, 2015 Pentecost Sunday:  Acts 2:1-16     When I was in seminary, Ken, a fellow student from Japan, found America’s “alternative newspapers” worthy of his attention.  I am speaking of the papers … Continue reading

A Covenant

On Sunday, September 28, I will begin a five part sermon series that will focus on the five parts of “shared ministry” that is outlined in my covenant with the Skidaway Island Presbyterian Church.  In preparation for beginning this journey, I … Continue reading

Published Writings

“Body and Spirit: How Congregations Cope with COVID-19, The Skinnie 18 #8 (April 17, 2020.

“Beverly Willett: Disassembly Required,” The Skinnie 18 #2 (January 24, 2020).

“Lunch and Learn: The January Series Returns to Skidaway,” The Skinnie 18 #1 (January 10, 2020).

“Joy to the World: 300 Years of Song” The Skinnie 17 #26 (December 21, 2019)

“Up the Creek: A Journey Down Ebeneezer Creek” The Skinnie 17 #23 (November 15, 2019)

“Civil Discourse: Reviving a Lost Art,” The Skinnie 17 #21 (October 18, 2019)

“The Poet and the Plantation,” The Skinnie 17 #17 (August 23, 2019)

“Heavenly Peace: ‘Silent Night’ Turns 200” The Skinnie 16 #26 (December 21, 2018)

“Cumberland Island” The Skinnie 16 #25 (December 7, 2018)

“Keys’ to Contentment: A Visit to the Dry Tortugas” The Skinnie 16 #15 (July 20, 2018)

“The Sun Will Come Out: Easter Sunrise Services,”The Skinnie 16 #6 (March 16, 2018).

Trout Lake,” The Trackside Photographer (February 8, 2018), online magazine.

“Faith and Fortitude” with Dee Angell, The Skinnie 16, #2 (January 19, 2018).

“Listen Up: International Speakers Series Comes to Skidaway” The Skinnie 15 #26 (December 2017).

“A Visit to Carter CountryThe Skinnie 15 #23 (November 17, 2017).

“500 Years of Christian Reformation” The Skinnie 15 #20 (October 6, 2017).

“A Pilgrimage to Iona” The Skinnie 15 #19 (September 22, 2017).

“Kirkin’ of the Tartans,” The Skinnie, 14, #9, (April 29, 2016).

“A Square Deal: The Sacred Harp,” The Skinnie, 13, #24, (November 27, 2015).

“Moving the Church,” Presbyterians Today, 105, #8, (November/December 2015).

“A Moravian Love Feast,” The Skinnie, 12, #26, (December 19, 2014).

“Comstock Christmas,” Nevada Magazine (Online Edition, November-December 2009)

“A Tribute to a Friend,” The Presbyterian Outlook (22 October 2007).

“Visitors and Villagers Experience Help and Hope in Honduras,The Presbyterian Outlook (20 August 2007).

“Bringing In Sheaves: The Western Revivals of the Reverend A. B. Earle, 1866-1867,”
American Baptist Quarterly XXXV, #3 (Fall 2006), 247-272.

“Writers’ Group,” The Spectrum, St. George, UT (I wrote 25 opinion columns between January 2002 and January 2004, every fourth Friday).

“What Commandments Mean Is More Important than a Slab of Granite,” The Presbyterian
Outlook, September 29, 2003.

“Santa Claus, Coca-Cola and the Strip,” Presbyterian Outlook, 181, #42 (20 December 1999).

“Bright Ideas: Stone Soup Stewardship,” Presbyterians Today, 89 #6 (October 1999).

Book Review of Winning the West for Christ: Sheldon Jackson and Presbyterianism on the
Rocky Mountain Frontier, 1869-1880 by Norman Bender. Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 40, #2 (Summer 1997).

“Mark Twain: A Dusty Christian,” Presbyterians Today, 87, #6 (July/August 1997).

Book Review of My Life on Mountain Railroads by William Gould. Nevada Historical Society
Quarterly 39, #3 (Fall 1996).

Book Review of Religion and Society in Frontier California and California Spiritual Frontiers:
Alternative in Anglo-Protestantism.” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 38, #4 (Winter 1995).

Of Ministers, Funerals, and Humor: Mark Twain of the Comstock,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 38, #3 (Fall 1995).

“Halloween: Celebrating what is Good,” The Daily Spectrum, St. George, UT, (27 October
1995).

“Encountering God along the Appalachian Trail,” Presbyterian Survey 85, #1 (January/February 1995).

“Naming the Unspeakable: The Church and Family Violence,” The Daily Spectrum, St. George, UT, (8 October 1994).

Book Review of Presbyterian Missions and Culture Interaction in the Far West, 1850-1950 by Mark Banker, Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 37, #3 (Fall 1994).

David Henry Palmer: A Pastoral Baptism in the Mining West,” American Presbyterians:
Journal of Presbyterian History 72, #3 (Fall 1994)

“How the Devil Temps Us to Go Aside from Christ: First Presbyterian Church, Virginia City,
Nevada: 1862-1867,” Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 36, #1 (Spring 1993).