Prepare Yourself for Stewardship Season
Just as we were settling back into in-person worship, with or without also offering a digital version, the Delta variant of COVID is surging faster than the original version, especially among the unvaccinated. Just when the future was starting to feel a bit more predictable and certain, it’s even harder to put the emotional genies back in the bottle again. Who knows what all of this will mean for parish attendance, involvement, or financial giving? And how do we even begin to ask people to be generous with their time, talent, or treasure in a way that doesn’t sound insensitive to the very real uncertainties for the months ahead?
Preaching Hope (A Guest Blog)
From Dr. Rob O’Lynn’s guest post: “Full confession: I am a sucker for hope. I think St. Paul got it wrong. At the end of his famous meditation on love, he writes this: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13, NRSV). I do not dispute the importance that the apostle gives to these three virtues, virtues which serve as the core of Christianity’s ethical expression. I disagree with him on which one he thinks is most important. Hope can outlast love.”
Preaching to Insignificant Specks? Maybe. Maybe Not.
One event from one photo gets interpreted by two people. Those two people experience a shift in understanding. The new understanding becomes part of their backstory. Their backstory then influences their preaching.
Our backstories are always preaching. That’s what it means to be human. Are we aware of what it’s preaching?
"Holy Crying": The Healing Power of Lament—Even in Eastertide (A guest post)
What comes next will not be a return to what was. What comes next will be a transition period, a time of figuring out the new normal. Transitions by definition mean change, and change, even positive change, brings stress. In the coming weeks when the flowering world signals one message but your soul feels another, remember God’s gift of the Lament and let your holy tears join the rain of the season. Both bring welcomed growth.
The Preacher's Easter Retreat: Hope & Holiness
Whether you have ninety minutes, three hours, or six, this free, at-home Easter retreat is intended to help you reflect on God’s holiness as the source of our hope—because nothing else is as worthy of it.
This Lent, there's only what’s in front of us
In our shrunken worlds with fewer distractions, we can be re-membered by God, reminded that it doesn’t matter what the project is, because all there is is what’s in front of us. Whether we serve in that moment to stitch together a prayer or an alternate-reality Ash Wednesday service or a humble email to confirm an appointment, there is only one thing: to serve.
Seeing the Bigger Picture: A Guest Post by The Rev'd Dr. Kenyatta Gilbert
“How you see yourself and read your Bible will dictate your politics. As you consider how to frame sermons from a justice-oriented Christian perspective… I want to [offer] with three message-crafting strategies for helping you and your listeners to see the big picture exegetically and hermeneutically.”
For the Love of Preaching: Scripture is More than a Tool (1st in a 4-Week Series)
Now that 2020 is actually over, are you feeling full of renewed energy, ready to preach in 2021? No? Me neither. To counteract our preaching “blues,” I’ve created a four-week series to help us all rediscover and relish the craft of preaching again. Each week will offer a reflection and experiences, exercises, or tools for you to engage and apply. I hope you’ll join us this week in rediscovering scripture as the font and source of our being rather than just a means to an end (a sermon).
For the Love of Preaching: We *Get* to Preach (2nd in a 4-week Series)
There may never have been a more difficult time in our lifetimes to minister in God’s name when many listeners actively seek fault, agendas, or flat-out disagree with sharing Christ’s love with all. That makes for a stressful ministry environment. All the more reason to remind yourself of the extraordinary blessing it is that we get to do this work.
Recovering from 2020: Your Free, At-Home Christmas Retreat
“This retreat will not completely fill your tank, assuage your exhaustion, or provide a clear path of hope for the future. But it will, I pray, provide a theological and spiritual framework to what you have endured, witnessed, and felt this past year. By God's grace we will minister in 2021 with an open heart, confident that God will continue to provide all we need to preach, minister, and lead. This, too, shall pass. And in the meantime, people need Good News.”