'growing in faith' Tagged Posts (Page 2)
Relaxing into God
What does faith feel like to you? How might you grow in your faithfulness in the coming days and months? Listen to Nadia Bolz-Webber as she answers the question “What is faith? How can we get more of it?”
Toward Sunday
This week we continue our worship series called Christian? It’s Complicated. The cultural connotations of being Christian can make it a struggle to claim our faith in public. Some of us become secretive about our church and faith. This five-week worship series will invite reflection on the complexities of claiming Christian faith in our day. Outline for Christian? It’s Complicated. October 4: rooted in Grace. it’s complicated. Mark 1:9-11 October 11: growing in faith. It’s complicated. Mark 10:17-31 October 18: reaching in love. It’s complicated. Mark 10:35-45…
Toward Sunday
We are in the final week of On Ramp; our five-week worship series imaginatively exploring central topics in Christian faith. We turn from Jesus to Salvation this week in worship. We are drawing upon and adapting some of the framework of a series called Animate (Faith) by SparkHouse Publications as we prepare this worship series for our particular context. Outline for On Ramp ▪July 12: Religion (Mark 6.14-29) ▪July 19: Bible (Acts 17.10-12) ▪July 26: God (1 Timothy 6.16, John 1.18, Matthew 6.9, Revelation 4.1-11, Luke 13.34) ▪August 2: Jesus (John 6.24-35) ▪August 9:…
Parable about Christology
Here is a parable about Christology by Catherine Keller from her book On the Mystery, Discerning Divinity in Process. A man died. The people who knew him gathered to share memories. Finally a portrait was commissioned. But as generations passed the painting did not seem fine enough. The heirs of the portrait, who had become wealthy, created a new golden frame, immense, carved with motifs from the portrait and encrusted with jewels. People began to feel that the old portrait…
Who is Jesus for you?
And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A gale arose on the lake, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed,…
Toward Sunday
We are in the fourth week of On Ramp. This is our five-week worship series imaginatively exploring central topics in Christian faith. We turn from God to Jesus this week in worship. We are drawing upon and adapting some of the framework of a series called Animate (Faith) by SparkHouse Publications as we prepare this worship series for our particular context. Outline for On Ramp ▪July 12: Religion (Mark 6.14-29) ▪July 19: Bible (Acts 17.10-12) ▪July 26: God (1 Timothy 6.16, John…
The word God.
In her book On The Mystery, Discerning Divinity in Process, Catherine Keller writes: “But what is the link between the truth question and the God question? There are, of course, truths about anything and everything. But in the vicinity of religion, and in particular of Christianity, truth has also served as code for “God” and whatever God reveals. But even if we understand God to be “absolute” – non biblical but conventional language — that understanding does not make,…
Toward Sunday
On Ramp is our five-week worship series imaginatively exploring central topics in Christian faith. We turn from Bible to God this week in worship. We are drawing upon and adapting some of the framework of a series called Animate (Faith) by SparkHouse Publications as we prepare this worship series for our particular context. Outline for On Ramp ▪July 12: Religion (Mark 6.14-29) ▪July 19: Bible (Acts 17.10-12) ▪July 26: God (1 Timothy 6.16, John 1.18, Matthew 6.9, Revelation 4.1-11, Luke 13.34) ▪August…
Toward Sunday
We continue our three-week worship series this week on Prayer based on two books: Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott and Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard J. Foster. This series comes from the desires expressed in so many of our Deep Commitments last fall. While we may not answer all the questions raised by our Deep Commitments regarding prayer, we do hope to focus on 3 areas: the history of prayer, praying in…
Toward Sunday
We begin a new three-week worship series this week on Prayer. It is based on two books: Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott and Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home by Richard J. Foster. This series comes from the desires expressed in so many of our Deep Commitments regarding prayer. While we may not answer all the questions raised by our Deep Commitments, we do hope to focus on 3 areas: the history of prayer, praying in community, and the personal…
Sunday School
My favorite Sunday school teacher was Bunny Matson. That was her real name. Bunny. She was born on Easter. Bunny welcomed us into our classroom at Clovis United Methodist Church. I was in 1st-3rd grade, if my memory is correct. She always smiled. She was sitting in a low chair with all of us. She greeted us by name and then I remember “doing art.” My favorite was something called “think and do.” There were egg cartons on the tables…
Paying attention to play.
“Theologians have been paying attention to play for a long time. Aquinas and Augustine wrote about it centuries ago. More recently, in the mid-20th century, Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Play created a short-lived stir by reframing play as a crucial aspect of our humanity, connecting play to human freedom. Moltmann suggested, contrary to those who view play as a way to pacify people and draw their attention away from the serious theological business of social transformation, that play (like art)…