Image courtesy of the La Vista Church of Christ
Some stories need to be told again and again. So it is with the story of Easter, a story that reminds us that we belong to God and that Jesus is out ahead of us, calling us to God’s future, writes a managing director at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.
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‘Blessed’ has become part of a slick and pervasive trend of forced, optimistic gratitude, says a young Christian writer. The season of Lent helps us return the word to its most authentic expression and meaning.
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The director of Duke Youth Academy wonders: Does Lent matter to my work? Is there a place for the practices of lament, grief and repentance in my daily tasks?
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If it's February, it's probably Lent. And that doesn't always mean giving up something, writes an Episcopal priest. Sometimes, dealing with the season's built-in emotional challenges is enough.
Detail from a miniature of John the Baptist.
From the New York Public Library Digital Collections
The fiery prophet John the Baptist offers both company and challenge for a pastor transitioning from seminary into settled parish life.
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In the season of Epiphany, an Episcopal priest asks, Do our communities create safe spaces where members can confess the particular ways in which they are broken and fall short of Jesus Christ’s calling, ask for help and be assured that they are not alone? If not, can we really call ourselves the church?
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Mary and Joseph lost Jesus amidst the Passover crowds. They tried their best but weren’t perfect, and I don’t have to be either, writes a pastor.
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In this excerpt from her book “The Weight of Mercy,” the pastor of Triune Mercy Center recalls the church’s first mid-week Christmas Eve service and the homily she delivered on her favorite Christmas subject, shepherds.
Jesse Lawton German collects the offering during services at Triune Mercy Center, an active, vibrant church that is both a place of worship and a thriving hub of ministries.
Photos by Ken Osborn
More than just a ministry to people who are homeless, Triune Mercy Center in Greenville, South Carolina, is a vibrant -- and sometimes messy -- church where rich, poor and those in between worship and serve together.
All Saints' United Methodist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, began holding a Christmas Eve service outside in 2009; the service illustrates that God isn’t above becoming a spectacle for our salvation.
Photo courtesy of All Saints' UMC
A pastor reluctantly becomes a field preacher when his congregation decides to celebrate Christmas Eve as the holy family did -- outside. But he learns to love it, both as spectacle and as sacrament.