Saints and Souls
Last Sunday we honored All Saints and All Souls Day by naming those in our lives who have died, and I find myself continuing to think about the saints and souls who have shaped my own journey of faith. As Mennonites we don’t often do much with the official saints…
Future Past Present
It’s less than a week till the midterm elections and I’m thinking about the future. I’m guessing I’m not alone. This is the brilliance and the burden of the human mind: To contemplate a time that has not yet happened with its range of foreseeable possibilities and whatever degree of…
Emerging Congregations, Emerging Conference
I am so happy that we are a part of Central District Conference. I have seen it from the inside for the past several years as a member of the Ministerial Committee. One of our central foci is the interviewing of new leaders for licensure and ordination as pastors. I…
Nurturing Peace
Over the past few weeks, our worship series, Courageous Peace Witness, has invited us to think about what it means not simply to believe in peace, but to practice it. We have talked about courage, conflict, reconciliation, and the ways that peacemaking sometimes asks something difficult of us. Recently, I…
I-A-E Communication Model
This week I started a workshop through Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) called “Giving and Receiving Feedback,” led by Betty Pries. We meet 90 minutes, once a week, for four weeks. The first session focused on a model of communication called I-A-E: Intent, Action, Effect. Here is a sketch: In…