All the Feels (Part 2)
Last Sunday Joel made a very brief reference in his sermon to the recently released movie, Inside Out 2 as a way to illustrate that you could take in the second part of something (his two-part sermon) without the first, but you’d probably be missing out on some things. When…
Building the Kin-Dom
Last week, I had the opportunity to help chaperone a group of four of CMC’s high school boys on a service-learning trip through Appalachia Build (formerly known as SWAP). We spent the week in Kimball, West Virginia building a deck with a ramp for a household that included a young…
Listening for Wisdom
Last Saturday I gathered on Zoom with Mennonites from across our conference for our annual mid-year gathering. These gatherings used to happen in person across a few different weekends to accommodate the wide geography of the Central District Conference, but have moved solely online the last few years. This means…
Midweek Blog: Out of Nowhere?
If you were in worship last Sunday, you heard me share that we will have a record number of young people attending the Winter Camps at Camp Friedenswald the next two weekends. At last count, we will have 10 High Schoolers and 12 Middle Schoolers attending their respective weekends. That’s…
Creative Cries
Many of you expressed kind words last Sunday about the lyrics I wrote for our Advent theme, which we will be singing to the tune of What Child is This? There are more verses coming each week, which I’ll include below. For now I wanted to give a little more…
Spooky Season
I hope you all had a happy Halloween, a blessed All Saints Day, and are enjoying a beautifully sunny All Souls Day. Or perhaps you celebrated Dia de los Muertos. Or maybe you know these holy days as Samhain. Regardless, I hope these days of transition from Fall to Winter…
Blessing (of) the Animals
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Francis. Mennonites don’t generally do a lot with traditional saints or feast days, but I know Saint Francis holds a special place in many of our hearts because of his connection with Creation and the natural world. There are many different stories and…
Narrative Lectionary Lectio Divina
Last Sunday I announced that I would be leading a new group that will meet before worship to spend some time with the scriptures we will be using from the Narrative Lectionary during worship this coming year. I shared that my plan was to use lectio divina to guide our…
Playful Prayer/Prayerful Play
To open a Christian Education Commission meeting a few weeks ago, I shared a passage from a book I’m currently reading called The Hopeful Family: Raising Resilient Children in Uncertain Times by Amelia Richardson Dress. Throughout the book, Dress looks at various spiritual practices and offers caregivers ideas about what…
Midweek Blog: MennoCon Reflection
The MCUSA Convention last week was full of lots of different experiences: worship services, keynote speakers, reunions, seminars, panels, group discussion and yes, some good barbecue and fellowship. There was too much to give a full account here, though we invite you to join us in worship on August 13…
