Browsing Articles
Giving Thought to a Narrative Budget
There’s another way besides a line-item budget to present your congregation’s proposed annual spending plan. A Narrative Budget tells the story of how your church practices good stewardship of the gifts entrusted to it. It provides a vision of where the church hopes to be in the coming budget cycle. It reflects how the congregation spends its time, talent, and treasure rather than paying the bills.Check out this free 12-page resource. (Photo: Rob Nguyen, Creative Commons)
Calling All Prayerful Peacemakers
Lectionary Reflection for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C September 18, 2016 The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in […]
Losing, Finding & Remembering
Lectionary Reflection for the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, September 11
To God, we are not expendable. We are of great worth: Worth searching for, worth finding, and worth celebrating. How can we in turn live into these stories of losing, finding, and remembering that counter a disposable culture and honor an enduring God? (Photo: Jim Donnelly, Creative Commons)
Choose Life and Carry On
Lectionary Reflection for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, September 4, 2016
Mama said there’d be days like this. But weeks, or months, or even years and decades? So it goes with life and discipleship. The truth of the matter is that neither life nor discipleship is a guaranteed picnic, cakewalk, or pie-in-the-sky supper club. So take divine advice: choose life and carry on. (Photo: Akuppa John Wigham, Creative Commons)
To Be Continued…
Lectionary Reflection for the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, August 28, 2016
This week’s lessons provide several lovely opportunities to explore continued growth and development as members of the Body of Christ, that beloved community chock full of sinners and saints known as the church. Dig back into discipleship and faith formation with these themes and instructions. (Photo: Maarten Takens, Creative Commons)
Straighten Up, Steward!
Lectionary Reflection for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, August 21, 2016
Sabbath rest strengthens and equips us to help repair the breach that exists between the way of God and the ways of the world. Refreshed we are called to go into the broken places, lay hands on bent people, and help to heal and straighten the world. (Photo: Steve Depolo, Creative Commons)
Handling Our Wealth
Good stewardship education helps people see the connections between their use of money and their walk as disciples of Jesus Christ. This series of four short articles explores key ideas in steward discipleship and cites Scripture to back them up. Churches are free to use them in whatever way find useful, and even to reproduce them (with credit, of course!) in newsletters, bulletins or websites! (Photo © Pei Lin – Fotolia.com)
Controlled Burns & Faithful Forecasting
Lectionary Reflection for the 13th Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, August 14, 2016
Fire has the power to destroy and the power to foster regeneration and new growth. What if we consider Jesus’ fire imagery this week as being that of a controlled burn, a deliberate fire kindled for the purpose of regeneration and new growth? (Photo: US FIsh & Wildlife Service, Creative Commons)
8 Ideas for Nurturing Healing and Health
“God is a God of whole-life health. Christ expects his church to engage actively in reaching the lost and setting the oppressed free—free from the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual barriers that rob all God’s children of abundant life,” says Pr. Mike Slaughter in this insightful reflection. (Photo: Photo © Warren Goldswain, Fotolia)
The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity
One of Christian theology’s most prophetic voices offers a challenging biblical analysis of the role of money in our culture. Wealth in America, Brueggemann says, acts as a narcotic, numbing us. “The great contradiction is that we have more and more money and less and less generosity — less and less public money for the needy, less charity for the neighbor.” (Photo: Prisoner 5413, Creative Commons)