There is no work more important in the church than what happens week by week in local congregations. The best way lay and ordained leaders can join in this critical work is by ongoing commitment to their own formation. … More Forming Disciples for Vital Congregations
We moved to a gift economy, we removed the barrier of tuition along with the barrier of geographic meetings, and we found that enrollment AND income increased. … More What we’re learning from removing the tuition barrier
Beloved in Christ, Today is the feast of St. Michael and All Angels. Most of us, I suspect, don’t quite know what to make of angels. In scripture, they are present in many of the most important moments. They are usually terrifying, but they also represent the way human beings can be swept up into … More Swept Up
The via media, the middle way, is not a political safety valve from the Way of Jesus. It’s a call to ongoing relationship at Jesus’ table with those who disagree while we live the Gospel, even and especially at the voting booth. … More The Politics of Jesus
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?
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
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?
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
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
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
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
