This month I am sharing Advent reflections and stories. They gather up moments that I love. And they bring to life blessing and promise, silence and singing, grief and vulnerability, and moments of joy and hope. I am also recording…
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Advent 2021 : Circling Through the Season
This Advent weekend was full. What about yours? And my weekend felt more like other Advent weekends of BP (before pandemic). I love circling through the season of Advent. Because it is my favorite. Yet important differences mark this year…
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Deep Peace: A prayer for loss and longing and love
Sometimes life and loss and longing and love are more than our words can contain. Through these challenging days, only a prayer of silence is enough. Because the deep peace of silence is all that can hold life as it…
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How to Survive Tough Conversations: 5 Guidelines for Brave Church | Guest Blog by Elizabeth Hagan
Editor’s Note: Today we welcome Rev. Elizabeth Hagan as our guest! Most recently Elizabeth served the Palisades Community Church in Washington, DC as senior minister. She is a graduate of Samford University and Duke Divinity School. She is also the…
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More about the #MeTooReckoning Workshop
In February Ruth Everhart posted in a writing group, to which we both belong, that she had extra copies of her book The #MeToo Reckoning. She was looking for ideas on how to move them. She had my attention. In…
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Guest Post | Donna Fowler-Marchant on Mothers and Methodism
Join us in welcoming Rev. Dr. Donna Fowler-Marchant as our guest blogger this week. She is a Christ-follower in the Wesleyan tradition and an elder in the United Methodist Church. She is passionate about Wesleyan theology and how it relates…
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Making Space for the Holy | Guest Blog by Lyndsey Medford
Editor’s note: Today we welcome writer and speaker, Lyndsey Medford as our guest. Lyndsey makes her way through the world as an “indecorous Southerner, an erstwhile Evangelical, and an inexpert advocate for justice.” She lives in Charleson, South Carolina, where she is “always…
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Ten Reasons to Write Anyway
Yes. It’s a pandemic. Everything feels overwhelming. Who has time to write? We’re fast approaching a year since our lives were upended. Maybe procrastination, depression, or lack of motivation is keeping you from your writing desk? We have ten reasons…
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Advent Guest Post | Deep Magic, Not Cheap Tricks
This third week of Advent we are happy to welcome a guest post about the deep magic of Advent by Rev. Mary Elizabeth Hill Hanchey. This Advent we partnered with Mary Elizabeth and her friend and collaborator Carlye Daugird to…
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Guest Post | My Love Letter to the Black Church by Rev. Alisha Smith Haddock
This week we want to share a guest blog by my friend, Rev. Alisha Smith Haddock, minister at Christian Journey Fellowship Church and director of the McGruder Family Resource Center in North Nashville. Recently we featured my interviews with her…
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Pastoral Imagination | Book Cover Reveal
We are excited to share the cover of Eileen Campbell-Reed’s next book: Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life (Fortress, 2021). Additionally, we are delighted to say the book is introduced in a foreword by Christian Scharen. And…
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Leading in Times of Crisis
This is very likely to be a stressful week. Stakes are high. People are divided. The world’s eyes are watching the U.S. elections culminating on Tuesday. Pastors, activists, priests, and chaplains are no exception. You must do what you must…
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Guest Blog: Mary Elizabeth Hanchey
This week we are delighted to welcome a guest blog about preparing for Advent from Rev. Mary Elizabeth Hill Hanchey. She and her friend and collaborator Carlye Daugird have composed and curated a set of Advent resources to carry us…
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Advent Resources 2020
How will we support each other in the coming holiday season? And how shall we get through Advent in a year that has been so filled with challenge, loss, and grief?
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Five Ways to Honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Have you been to a meeting or worship service lately where someone begins with a Land Acknowledgement? To say with honor and respect and lament the names of the Indigenous Peoples who first inhabited a place is a good start.…
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Guest Post | How to Survive a Tornado by Pastor Lisa Hammonds | Part II
Editors Note: We are grateful to Rev. Lisa Hammonds, pastor of St. John AME Church, North Nashville, for sharing this two-part story of leading her congregation through tornado recovery. Read about the night of March 3 in How to Survive…
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Guest Post | How to Survive a Tornado by Pastor Lisa Hammonds | Part I
Editors Note: Rev. Lisa Hammonds is pastor of St. John AME Church in North Nashville. We asked her to share her story of pastoring her congregation through the March 3 Nashville Tornados. If you would like to support the church…
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A Prayer for Teachers
We can always use a prayer for teachers. From preschool to grad school, this time of year is usually punctuated by joyous pictures of students and teachers returning to classrooms. But this year is a strange one. Not like any…
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How to Survive College Ministry: Guest Blog by Wanda Kidd
This week, many college students are returning to campus or virtual classrooms. College administrators are reshaping plans and policies for college life in a pandemic setting. What will ministry with college students look like this year? What are the best…
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The World Is on Fire | Independence Day?
Counting the Costs of “Independence Day” If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? (Luke 14:26, CEB) If we want…
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How To Survive Your Internship in a Pandemic by Kim McKay Allen
Please enjoy this post by my friend, recent graduate of Central Seminary, and chaplain, Kim McKay Allen. In today’s blog she tells us how she survived the onset of the global pandemic this spring while completing her internship and seminary…
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