Dear School Administration: Please enforce the school dress code. After much searching, I found shorts for my daughter that cover her entire butt–IF they are in the rolled down position. She will be leaving the house with her shorts at an appropriate length. I trust they will stay that way. Dear Orchestra, Theater, and…
Sometimes there is one phrase in a given scripture passage that grabs my attention and seems to bear repeating. This happened for me this morning with part of verse 29 from the Ephesians 4 reading. So today I offer a call to worship based on Ephesians 4:29, as well as a piece for communion preparation…
I’m not posting creative prayer practices on Mondays right now, because I’m working hard on the materials for the Creative Arts Retreat in Daily Life. But I thought it would be nice to post something creative to start off the week. So here are some of the invitations that Grace and I made for her…
This is a fairly generic call to worship, written with the story of Nathan and David in mind: Leader:We come to hear the stories Side 1: of other people Side 2: in another world All: long ago. Leader: We come to hear the stories Side 1: that are also about us Side 2: today All:…
I’m taking a break from posting weekly prayer practices while I put together the new retreat. I enjoy writing the materials, and I’m also enjoying my new binding machine! I took out the staples from my Lenten retreat booklet and put a new binding on it. The binding looks better than the staples. Plus, you’ll…
If you are looking for material connected to this week’s lectionary readings, there is a call to worship and benediction that go along with the feeding of the 5000+ here. Tomorrow is the funeral for the 6-year-old son of two of my college friends. I have been holding them in deep prayer this week, while…
I am enjoying my work on the Creative Arts Retreat for ordinary time. (I even got out the Greek lexicon this morning!) Because I am writing up so many prayer practices for the retreat material, I am going to take a break from posting weekly practices for awhile. So today I want to share a…
This is another phrase that can be heard coming from all sides of the conversation. I personally heard it a lot at the Western District Conference assembly. Problematic phrase #4: It’s not personal. The bottom line is that this phrase is problematic because it is simply not true. For more detailed reflections, see the blog…
This Call to Worship and Prayer of Confession are based on this week’s Gospel reading from the lectionary. (You know I am a liturgy nerd when I read the lectionary texts and write prayers for FUN while I’m on Sabbatical!) Call to Worship Some of us are exhausted. We come to rest. Some of…
This is the second post in a series about phrases I find unhelpful as church folk talk about how to include LGBT people. There is only one phrase addressed here, because it is something that is said by people on all sides of the issue. Problematic phrase #3: The church has more important things to…
Spacious Faith 