Rather than pursuing more formation-as-entertainment, invite your community into one conversation with multiple access points. Friends, The other evening, with a matter of Actual Interpersonal Significance on my mind, I found myself doing just about anything to avoid addressing it. The weather. The news. Every other app on my phone (already relatively free of social … More Focus: One Conversation, Many Ways To Join In
Friends, we’re excited to share the resources from the ECMN Convention 2019. With the prayer stations from the Convention Eucharist, video and text from the presentations, and leader/participant guides, we hope these resources will help your faith communities connect the Way of Love with Beloved Community.
What is ours to build is the Beloved Community. It is up to us to create, nurture, and sustain compassionate communities and if you look at the world around us, we are sorely in need of compassionate communities. Dr. King says that this is an “achievable goal” when enough people make up in their minds that the only way forward to compassion and justice. … More What is Beloved Community?
That legacy of emphasizing doctrine and thought at the expense of practice has influenced global Christianity in profound ways.
What I’m hoping to draw for you here is that belief cannot
simply be mental assent to an idea about God. … More Why Practice?
Last week when I met a friend for coffee, she showed up wearing a t-shirt she had gotten at an Ani DiFranco concert. It said, “The world owes me nothing. We owe each other the world.” This is true for us who follow the way of Jesus, my friends. It’s language from one of our … More In for the Long Haul
True, inspired, healthy, effective, successful leadership requires a tremendous amount of inner work on the part of the leader. … More Courage and Renewal for Leaders
There were a lot of people in the congregation who were already trained public speakers. Any of these same people were serious Christians who had been reading the Bible, spiritual and theological texts their entire lives. No one had ever asked them if they wanted to be part of a regular preaching ministry. … More Preaching as Team Ministry
The mission opportunity (read: ECMN learning goal) for the year might look so tidy, and some of it so familiar, that you could think to yourself, “Oh, this looks on brand.” But it’s a massive theological statement boiled into one line. … More Unpacking ‘the way of love’
Looking for resources to train acolytes, lectors, lay eucharistic ministers, lay eucharistic visitors, and altar guild folks? These short video courses offer worship leader training in short videos you can access when it suits your group. The School for Formation’s partnership with ChurchNext means your faith community can access these resources at no additional cost. … More Worship leaders: This is for you
Get a refresher on some of the hardest work of ministry! ECMN Clergy: We’re offering five free spots in our Pastoral Care: Advanced Skills course, taught by the pros at Leaderwise. Use the code LABCOAT — and register soon before the spots fill up. The course starts August 5!
There’s no time like right now to lean into your faith — exploring the questions that captivate you, honing your skills, so you can put your gifts into action in the world. … More Fall 2019: Take your first course free
We cannot reasonably expect a bishop to do for us what we are not willing to do ourselves. … More Meeting Bishop X as Partners
We continue our annual tradition of collecting notes at ECMN’s Clergy Conference on media, continuing education, and other soul-feeding resources. … More Take up and read
There’s long work in the seed that has to die before it can sprout – even longer work going from seed to a plant big enough to shelter the birds. … More The Long Work of New Life
Addressing Anti-Judaism in Holy Week Scripture Texts: A Guest Post from the Rev. Devon Anderson, Trinity Excelsior In a recent interview with Christian Century, Amy-Jill Levine, a New Testament and Jewish Studies professor at Vanderbilt, said this: If to get a good message you need to make Judaism look bad, then you don’t have a good … More Guest Post: Anti-Semitism in Holy Week
Our hearts and minds have been molded not to see the sin of racism when it is standing right in front of us. When it is speaking inside of us. … More Three Ways to Worship When You’re Snowed In This Sunday
Consider this phrase: willing to be changed.This attitude is at the heart of any faith journey: the conscious consent to being transformed by that which we encounter. Perhaps, sometimes, that means the conscious discernment about how we wish to be changed, and the pursuit of experiences that will shape us — though that pursuit can … More Willing to Be Changed
Resources from the 2018 Pre-Advent Clergy Retreat … More Resources from the Pre-Advent Clergy Retreat
If you’ve never taken a course in the School for Formation before, try one of these for free in Winter/Spring 2018. … More A free gift: your first course in 2019
Here’s an invitation, then, for your Advent practice: Attend to your memories of joy and liberation. … More Memory as a practice of hope
