On Saturday, July 7, at 12:45, many people will gather together at the Western District Conference assembly for prayer. We will pray and sing and hear scripture together in preparation for the afternoon delegate session. For those who are not in Oklahoma City this weekend and would like to pray with us, here is the…
My prayer practice this morning was a combination of Praying with Color and Zen Doodling. The upcoming Western District Conference is on my mind, so I spent time in prayer for that event and for some of the people connected with it. To engage in this practice, you will need a piece of paper, a…
If you are of a certain age, you might remember “Church Chat” on Saturday Night Live. Dana Carvey’s character, the Church Lady, manifested all of the stereotypes of old, religious women. She thought very highly of herself and quite poorly of everyone else. I can imagine being interviewed by the Church Lady: “So, you married…
I saw that Psalm 130 is coming up as a lectionary reading for July 1. What a beautiful, heartbreaking piece of poetry! I just posted a sermon I wrote on Psalm 130 back in 2006. (Hard to believe I’ve been preaching that long!) And here is a simple responsive reading from Psalm 130 that can…
We’re getting ready to head out camping and I realized that I haven’t posted a prayer practice for this week. So here’s some inspiration from a post I wrote last year. “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if possible, speak a…
I’m loosing track of the days during these summer months–thus a “weekly” worship piece instead of a “Wednesday” worship piece. I imagine I am not the only pastor preparing for a summer wedding (or two or more). My favorite benediction for weddings comes from Ephesians 3:16-19. I pray that out of God’s glorious riches you…
I don’t know about your part of the world, but here in northeastern Kansas the weather is just about perfect. So for my creative prayer practice this week I took some time to appreciate the works of the Creator. Here’s the basic idea for this practice: Take a walk–around your neighborhood, on a forest path,…
Here is my humble offering for this weekend’s Memorial Day observance. You might recognize a passage from Isaiah 2:4-5 towards the end of the prayer. I have not formatted this as a responsive reading, but that could be easily done. Blessings to you in your life and worship this week. (If you are looking for…
There is something about color that energizes me. Something about applying the color inside given boundaries that soothes my mind. So our prayer practice for this week is coloring mandalas. You can pray in many ways as you color: repeat scripture or a prayer phrase, allow your mind to wander around the thoughts that God…
Happy Monday, everyone! This afternoon I am headed to Atlanta for the Festival of Homiletics, which means that I won’t be posting much this week–except for the pre-scheduled worship piece on Wednesday. But I should come back with lots of things to share. So stay tuned! This week’s prayer practice is a simple repetition of…
Spacious Faith 