Science + Sermons (A Guest Post)
“Scientists not only make the Creator’s glory more vivid as they read the book of nature, but they illuminate themes—and therefore the related texts—that can enhance our preaching and teaching. Moreover…congregations that intentionally engage science actually attract science-minded individuals into the church.”
Your Free, At-home easter retreat
Designed to use whether you have ninety minutes, three hours or six, this Easter retreat will help you come away renewed, seeing that hope is the only thing that can make sense of our days.
3 Simple Steps to Preach Lofty Theological Ideas from Our Earthly Plane
When Jesus preached about the kingdom of heaven, he didn't explain what the “kingdom of heaven meant. Instead, he used commonplace metaphors like a mustard seed, leaven, and treasure buried in a field to preach lofty theological ideas from an earthly plane. He didn't preach about theology. He preached an experience of it. We can adapt his process to bring lofty theological concepts down to earth.
Preaching the Arc of Holy week to Easter (A guest post)
Why do we observe Holy Week? It is so much work. Can’t we just skip the death and go from Palm Sunday to the happiness of the Resurrection?
No.
This week is the center not only of our faith but our very lives. It embeds in us the fundamental events of our people. It opens a window into what lies beneath and behind the foundation itself.
Four Ways to Preserve Your Humanity When Stressed
When we’re under stress, our body releases hormones that interfere with our executive functioning—our ability to make thoughtful, strategic decisions. As a result, we know we have a ton of work to do, but we don’t know what to do right now to move forward, leaving us stuck in overwhelm. Or worse, we turn on those around us. Read on for suggestions to pause the surge of fight-or-flight hormones, regulate your emotions, re-enter a thinking state, and do the good work.
Going small for Sermon Inspiration
God's glory is revealed in the small as well as the big: in the sparrow and the heavens, the mustard seed and the mountains, the little children and the disciples. And our preaching grows stronger when we learn to attune ourselves to the way God appears in the smallest details of the Bible's stories and text.
I Hate to Tell You: We Can Still Get It Right
Humanity continues to get so much wrong. And until we can admit we’re getting things wrong, we can’t get them right. We will continue to dig deeper and deeper holes that are harder to get out of. So why don’t we just admit it? And how do we preach into this resistance?
Lenten Preaching: Why Change is So Hard
We preachers often wonder whether our words have any effect. The people we preach to and the world around us pretty much look the same week after week. It doesn’t often look like the Good News has caught fire in people’s hearts. It doesn’t look like the reign of God is being built. For all our efforts to preach the Good News, how come it looks like nothing much is changing?
Your free, at-home Lenten retreat: Exhale
We work hard to create an environment so that those we serve enter into a holy and sacred season of fasting, reflection, and prayer. And what about you?
We have created an environment for you with this free, at-home Lenten retreat. It includes quotations, poetry, Lectio Divina, and questions for reflection—with suggestions for three schedules to suit your schedule of ninety minutes, three hours, or six. By the end, you will have exhaled your concerns about what is to come, and be held in the present, liminal moment between breaths: our place of rest within the Holy.
Stretch Beyond "Churchy" Words (A Guest Post)
Watch out for churchy words. They confiscate your meaning. These are the words that whisper a not very hidden secret: Only the initiated can understand these ideas. Those who are not “in the know” either check out when they hear these words or they become convinced that this Christianity stuff isn’t for them, and they don’t come back next week.