What is the purpose of Lent? Learning to pay attention. And what is the purpose of paying attention? Being present to God and each other and all of creation. And what happens when we pay attention and become more present…
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3MMM | Episode 228: Lenten Spiritual Practices
Three Questions to ask about Lenten Spiritual Practices I grew up thinking that Lenten spiritual practices always meant giving something up. Fasting. Giving up chocolate, coffee, or meat as a daily reminder to pray. And for quite a few years…
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3MMM | Episode 148: Easter Blessings
Today we want to offer you some Easter blessings and thanks. If you follow the Roman calendar, then you are now in Eastertide. It’s Easter Monday and that means it is time for laughing, jokes, putting your feet up for…
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3MMM | Episode 143: Embodied & Relational Reading
What are you reading this week, and have you considered how to read with your fully embodied and relational self? Lent is fully underway. And the world is watching an entirely unjust war unfold in Ukraine. Refugees are flooding out…
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3MMM | Episode 142: Lenten Practices
Have you figured out your Lenten practices yet? Lent is coming soon! This week in fact. Wait. What? Wasn’t Jesus just in diapers? Now we are sending him out alone? Into the wilderness to face wild beasts? Well actually. Jesus…
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Picturing Pastoral Imagination
Picturing Pastoral Imagination Share a photo a day for Lent Show the world what pastoral imagination looks like in your life and ministry How do you picture pastoral imagination? This Lenten season we want to invite you to reflect on…
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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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3MMM | Episode 17: Aha Moments
Aha! So many kinds of moments deserve this word! When conducting interviews with 50 seminarians-on-the-way-to-ministry and 25 seasoned pastors and priests, we asked them all to tell us about and “aha moment” of learning in ministry. The Learning Pastoral Imagination…
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3MMM | Episode 16: Engaging Ritual
There are many powerful rituals available for ministers to engage while leading people of faith. In this post, I want to share two stories about engaging ritual. This past weekend I took some of my seminary students to the “Beating…
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3MMM | Episode 14: Contemplative Prayer
Prayer. What is the connection between the practice of prayer and the practice of ministry? The responses to this question could fill many pages of many books. (My own responses fill many posts in this blog.) The connections we make…
Read MoreLent III – Wake Up #KellyOnMyMind
BREAKING NEWS: 2:40pm March 3, 2015 Executions POSTPONEDwith an “abundance of caution.” #KellyGissendaner & Brian Terrell! Awesome! #KellyOnMyMind JUST DON’T STOP, Team! Let’s add a new hashtag: #BrianOnMyMind +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Wake up! When I woke up my daughter this morning and kissed…
Read MoreLent I – Black History Month
Selma I began this first Sunday in Lent by traveling to Harlem in the heart of New York City. After a week of sleet, snow and ice in Nashville, I was grateful for the sunshine, and even the slushy sidewalks. People…
Read MoreAsh Wednesday – 2015
Gimme All Your Love So tell me what do you want me to do… You want me to lay down and play dead and do backflips for you? Walk in your shoes for a while? Tell me, what’s right? Gimme…
Read MoreLent XXXIX
Lenten Lights MM ~ Silent Saturday Early this morning in my car headlines on the radio jumped out to me for the long and deep silences in each stories. . . prolonged waiting for grieved families, the crushing depths of the ocean, the ignorance of damage…
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Lenten Lights LL ~ Good Friday The morning started with a chase after neighborhood crosses. Here’s some of what I found. The morning was grey and clouds hung on the verge of tears. …
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Lenten Lights KK ~ Maundy Thursday My congregation actually has a “Maundy Wednesday” service – for each of the last ten years. Maybe more. We gather for our usual midweek meal, which is not all that usual, since we take turns…
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Lenten Lights JJ ~ Holding out Hope Just a few weeks ago, on the third day of Lent (March 7) I wrote about standing in “hope and expectation that new leaves will appear soon” on this very tree. Now in Holy Week…
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Lenten Lights HH ~ Labyrinth Tonight I feel the blessings of a community that sets up a Holy Week labyrinth, and says, come and walk. The candles were lit. My daughter first tagged along at my heals then pushed past…
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Lenten Lights GG ~ Remembrance Searching my cache of photos for palms and Palm Sunday, I came across this picture of the Holocaust Memorial of Miami, taken while on Spring Break trip last year. There are indeed palms, but they…
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Lenten Lights FF ~ Guest Post by Michaela O’Donnell Long Today’s photo and reflection come from photographer, media producer, and friend, Michaela O’Donnell Long.* “Morning Door” by Michaela O’Donnell Long I work from home. Well, technically, I work from my garage-turned-studio.…
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