It is now impossible to miss the fact that another major election season has come fully into focus. (And, if you’ve been avoiding it, now is the time to make a voting plan! See below for resources to help you with that.) Like you, I am acutely aware of the fractious nature of this time … More Remember, Proclaim, Pray.
If worship by Zoom isn’t seeming to connect in your faith community or for your family, you have the opportunity to shift your practice of common prayer. Worship is discipleship—and, it might be a good time to let discipleship lead. Discipleship—daily practices that form us as followers of Jesus – is the primary work of the local church. You have permission to shift your practice and try a new experiment now. … More What are we learning from six months of online worship?
Beloved In Christ, As many of you know, this month I have begun making official visitations to faith communities. I began with those places that have gone the longest since their last Bishop’s visit. During this season, I’m joining congregations for whatever kind of worship they are offering. In a few places, we’ve gathered outdoors for … More On the Road Across ECMN
Christian tradition holds that the story we tell about his life, death, and resurrection is a promise for all of us — not just for life after death, but for life in the midst of change, loss, and grief. … More Registration open for fall courses
As I think about walking through Holy Week at home this year, I find a desire to do more than go through the outward rituals. I want to create space to be present with my kids the way Jesus was present with people. I want to invite them into the Love that came to us, delighted in us, ate dinner with us, went fishing with us, and in all ways invited us to see and cease our anxious frenzy, and instead notice the Kingdom, God’s love, already in our midst. As simply as I can, I want to find a way to attend with them to their emotions and notice the profound love and beauty in their lives. … More Finding God Together
Those of us trained as faith leaders are facing a particular kind of new stress. We’re facing all the same challenges and fears that all our parishioners are carrying. But the very things we have been trained to do in crises are now off-limits. … More Anything that is not about care can wait
As faith communities change how they operate to respond to calls for social distancing, faith formation does not need to stop. Here are some tools you can access right now to keep people connected to God and each other, from home. … More Staying connected with God and each other, from home
COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is a potential crisis in Minnesota, and we’re wise to prepare as such.
But it’s also an opportunity to revisit, again, what giftedness and creativity our faith communities can offer back to the world. … More 10 ways to respond creatively to anxiety about COVID-19
All of it is discipleship, all of it is formation, all of it is apprenticing people into something. There is a message in your method, whether you intend it or not. … More The message in the method
Rather than letting fear drive our ways of gathering, we can choose to bring our faith, our critical thinking and our values of hospitality to our life together, with best practices and tools that can shape our shared life in the way of Jesus. … More Safety, fear, and love
These courses start as soon as February 3, 2020, so don’t delay! … More We’ve got a gift for you.
When our primary orientation toward power is that it’s not ours to wield, we abdicate our own responsibility for the culture and content around us. And today, All Saints Day, is a good time to remember the power each one of us carries – whether positional power is involved or not. … More All Saints: Let’s talk about power
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’
