Advent Blessings for Worship Leaders Stewarding the mysteries of Advent and bringing them to the people is spiritual and theological work. Often it remains hidden even from worshipers themselves. Ministers, we want to acknowledge your vocation, and appreciate your labors.…
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Editor’s Note: This week we welcome Rev. Melissa Collier Gepford as our guest to share her “Back to School” Blessing. Melissa is the Intergenerational Discipleship Coordinator of the Great Plains Conference (all of Kansas and Nebraska). Melissa supports United Methodist…
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Today we are considering the very important question of how to worship? This is our final episode from my conversation with Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes. What a joy to share Cláudio’s enthusiasm and wisdom for practices of creativity, sustaining the…
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This week we welcome Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes for a conversation about sustaining creativity. In our first conversation last week we talked with Cláudio about how he created the play “When Wajcha Meets Pachamama.” Watch or listen to Episode 245…
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This week our guest post “Blessings for School” comes to us from author, minister, mama, and 3MMM Team member, Erin Robinson Hall. As we approach the new school year, we are excited to offer a short series of guest posts…
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Beyoncé. Kim Kardashian. Chadwick Boseman. Gwyneth Paltrow. Notorious RBG. Whether they are trending on Twitter, headlining their next big movie, speaking out on social issues, or suddenly gone from this life, celebrities and the culture of celebrity have a powerful reach…
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Are you a minister or chaplain, an activist or congregational pastor? Whatever your role in ministry, you are now living and working in an unprecedented worldwide season of the coronavirus pandemic. And we want to support you as you bring…
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HOPE For Advent this year I’m taking up the invitation from the Anglican Communion to pray through the season with an #AdventWord each day and an accompanying photo or video. This post is the summary of Week 1 of Advent. Hoping…. #WAKEUP…
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Learning Stories of Advent (2011) One of the many gifts of following the church year and circling through the life of Jesus and the life of the church every twelve months, is its orientation of newcomers into the practice of…
Read MoreNorthwest Chapel of the Cross on the campus of Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota Where I will be preaching on Friday.
Read MoreAnd we need healing from so many things in our lives. The very religious traditions that shape us are broken and sometimes do more harm than good. The institutions and the texts themselves stand in need of healing. The light of the Christ candle was taken symbolically to places in the sanctuary where those gathered could receive healing touch or light a candle to honor their own deep need or the needs of others. It is a standing invitation. . .
Read MoreFreedom to Worship
I accidentally heard Neal Boortz (had to look up the spelling) for a couple of minutes on the radio yesterday. I was immediately searching for a place to vomit. He literally made me feel ill. His invective against all people of Islamic faith is astounding. Really astounding.
Unhinged and upended . . .
In my first Advent post I wrote about opening the little doors on an Advent calendar [link]. Today I’ve been thinking about a different set of doors.
It was 1993. (Don’t tell me, please, if you were in kindergarten that year.) I was just graduating from seminary. And I attended a worship service in Birmingham at the annual Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) meeting. Nancy Hastings Sehested was the preacher that day. The occasion was a ten-year anniversary of BWIM.
Read MoreIt is late in the season of Ordinary Time. I am sitting in worship. Not in my usual home congregation but another setting. I find myself sinking deeper and deeper into despair.
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