Years ago I pieced these words for our worshiping community to serve as an anchor. “This is why we gather,” I reiterate every Sunday: to be healed and made whole by Jesus and to bring that healing and wholeness into the world. I had spent months praying and discerning and fussing with the language. I […]
The next loving thing
Decisions seem to be never-ending, am I right? For years now I’ve been listening to one of my favorite wordsmiths, Emily P. Freeman, invite podcast listeners to do “the next right thing.” At the time when I heard her first episode, I had an 18 month old and was in grad school and learning how […]
Let’s pull up a (virtual) chair and hear from each other
To be a church means finding community with one another, becoming the love of God for each other. The hour or so of meaningful conversation between people before and after church on Sundays has always been one of the best parts of church, don’t you agree? I think the Apostle Paul would agree that if we sing […]
What if I went off the grid?
As part of my own spiritual rhythms, I’ve been practicing the Spiritual Discipline of Unplugging. Each Tuesday is my day of rest, so Monday evening at 8pm I turn off my phone completely and do not turn it back on until Wednesday morning. Crazy, I know! “Not be available?! What if someone needs me? What […]
How plastic play food becomes sacred
Hopefully you’ve been out enjoying the beautiful sunshine today! ☀️ I’m praying for each of you to find a few people to share House Church with: people who will enjoy good food together (take-out is fine!) and honest conversation about life and God. 🏘️ Today in our own House Church we: 1️⃣ made omelets and […]
Find your Kindred
What if “going to church” meant gathering with people who love you entirely – people you love just as much – and encountering the love of God together? Finding kindred community is one of the ways we experience God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.* This type of community has a natural chemistry (ya […]
What? Not offer my opinion?
Margaret Wheatley writes, Listening is such a simple act. It requires us to be present, and that takes practice, but we don’t have to do anything else. We don’t have to advise or coach or sound wise. We just have to be willing to sit there and listen. This is so hard for most of […]
Gather your people
In order to be The Church, our motivations must be right. We must desire to encounter God’s love in community, to be changed by that love, and to take that love into the world. If you’re like me, you’ve carefully chosen a small circle of people to be with during these pandemic days. I invite […]
Committed to Lament
“To be AWAKE is to LAMENT that much is wrong with the world, but to be awake also means we are PRISONERS of HOPE.”* (Zechariah 9:12) As I wrote on Monroe Free Methodist‘s page this week,I know these small choices and declarations are just that: SMALL. But as a white woman, as a parent, as a […]
I don’t want to wipe these tears
I like to read before going to bed. About a year ago I resurrected my love of novels and quickly realized how good it was for my mind and my soul to delight in another’s story for a time. Typically my going-to-bed book of choice is an enjoyable, lighthearted read. I’m not ashamed to admit […]