executive director, The Church Within A Church Movement
Romans 12:3-6: The Inclusive Bible
In light of the grace I have from God, I urge each of you not to exaggerate your own importance. Each of you must judge yourself soberly by the standard of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members – and these members don’t have the same function – so all of us, in union with Christ, form one body. And as members of that one body, we belong to each other. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to each of us.
Member of the national Coordinating Team of the CWAC Movement and Member of the CWAC Extraordinary Ordination Work Area
It is now a "new year." We have observed all the attendant rituals – of light entering again into our lives, of retrospectives of the year that has past, of predictions for the year to come. Perhaps some of us have made or renewed covenants, created resolutions, or just hoped for something better to happen in our lives this year.
Associate Pastor of Broadway United Methodist Church and Founder of All Inclusive Ministries
Co-convener of the national Coordinating Team of the CWAC Movement
Advent is such a special time for me. It's how I hold on to the sacred in this busy and very distracting time of year. Here are excerpts from a sermon I preached recently at Broadway UMC Chicago.
The voice of God is calling its summons in our day;
Isaiah heard in Zion, and we now hear God say:
"Whom shall I send to succor my people in their need?
Whom shall I send to loosen the bonds of shame and greed?"
~From The Voice of God Is Calling #436 in The United Methodist Hymnal Words by John Haynes Holmes, written in 1913, based on Isaiah 6:8. (Note: "in our day" in previous hymnals was "unto men.")
Member CWAC national Coordinating Team; Co-Leader Anti-Racism/White Privilege Work Area; Co-Treasurer
September 16 is Mexican Independence Day. Every school age kid in Mexico knows this! On this day Father Miguel Hidalgo called upon his parishioners in the town of Dolores to rebel against the tyrannical and corrupt Spanish government. It's no wonder, then that every September my thoughts turn to reflections upon my ethnic heritage.
National CWAC Coordinating Team member and Co-leader Ministry Development Work Area
Author Howard Friend, in his book Recovering the Sacred Center, recommends the exercise of describing the church as persons - complete with identities, stories and histories. When I was reflecting on that recently, this scripture and poem came to mind.
Matthew 18:1-5
At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kin-dom of heaven?"
executive director, The Church Within A Church Movement
It's a simple question. It's basic and clear. So why is it so difficult? A case in point:
The Church Within A Church Movement office where I work is in the Chicago neighborhood called "Boystown." It's also known as "Lakeview East", "Wrigleyville" and less formally, The Gay Area. In the last several weeks there has been increasing fear about violence in Boystown after a white man was stabbed by a black youth. This event has capped years of competing forces in the community coupled with distrust of the police who have repeatedly harassed LGBT black youth.
CWAC national Coordinating Team and CWAC Extraordinary Ordination Work Area
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
~ Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
The wonderful, and I admit sometimes scary, part of being in a movement is that it moves. Those of you who have been reading these monthly missives for years, know that we have discerned our path by walking with the Holy Spirit and each other. We dream, and attempt to BE, a place of welcome, of inclusion, and of empowerment for those whom many churches have undervalued and discarded.
Extraordinary Ordination Work Area Leader for the Church Within A Church Movement
I am grabbed by the question that parts the lips of the Ethiopian eunuch after Phillip instructs him in the meaning of the scriptures. "Is there anything to prevent me from being baptized?" The faith the eunuch had come to embrace pronounced him to be of a particular sexual category of those who cannot procreate and as such to be of less worth. This patriarchal prescriptive became codified in religious law along with a number of other sexual categories, with prohibitions attached. The eunuch knew deeply that there were things that he would be prevented from doing because of his sexual status. He knew all too well the sting of exclusion. There were just some places people like him could just dare not go.
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary
Member, national Coordinating Team of Church Within A Church Movement
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
Last year around this time I was shopping for a house. I was aided in my search by some great Internet real estate listings, a humble banker and an efficient local realtor. What made my search helpful was really taking the time to figure out what the "deal breakers" would be for me as well as doing some numbers crunching so that I knew my financial limit. As things go, homes in Chicagoland are expensive particularly from my southern girl vantage point. And, based upon that southern experience, one important deal breaker for me was "high price, little land." I shopped for homes with land; I shopped for plenty yard. I got that. Almost a year after purchasing my home, I am preparing to transform the brown rich and empty soil to a landscape filled with variegated flowers and a wonderland of rich ground cover plants.
Serving Grace UMC in Hopkinton, MA, and First UMC in Westboro, MA
Member, national Coordinating Team of Church Within A Church Movement
Welcome to the season of Lent, the season of letting go and taking on; a season of loss and a season of gain; a season of hungering and thirsting; a season of desire. I have never abandoned the idea of giving something up, or taking something on for Lent. The discipline of doing something physically different satisfies a deep spiritual longing in my soul. I always seem to grow, change, and spiritually benefit from whatever the practice I adopt might be.
Romans 12:3-6: The Inclusive Bible
It is now a "new year." We have observed all the attendant rituals – of light entering again into our lives, of retrospectives of the year that has past, of predictions for the year to come. Perhaps some of us have made or renewed covenants, created resolutions, or just hoped for something better to happen in our lives this year.
Advent is such a special time for me. It's how I hold on to the sacred in this busy and very distracting time of year. Here are excerpts from a sermon I preached recently at Broadway UMC Chicago.
September 16 is Mexican Independence Day. Every school age kid in Mexico knows this! On this day Father Miguel Hidalgo called upon his parishioners in the town of Dolores to rebel against the tyrannical and corrupt Spanish government. It's no wonder, then that every September my thoughts turn to reflections upon my ethnic heritage.
Author Howard Friend, in his book Recovering the Sacred Center, recommends the exercise of describing the church as persons - complete with identities, stories and histories. When I was reflecting on that recently, this scripture and poem came to mind.
I am grabbed by the question that parts the lips of the Ethiopian eunuch after Phillip instructs him in the meaning of the scriptures. "Is there anything to prevent me from being baptized?" The faith the eunuch had come to embrace pronounced him to be of a particular sexual category of those who cannot procreate and as such to be of less worth. This patriarchal prescriptive became codified in religious law along with a number of other sexual categories, with prohibitions attached. The eunuch knew deeply that there were things that he would be prevented from doing because of his sexual status. He knew all too well the sting of exclusion. There were just some places people like him could just dare not go.
Last year around this time I was shopping for a house. I was aided in my search by some great Internet real estate listings, a humble banker and an efficient local realtor. What made my search helpful was really taking the time to figure out what the "deal breakers" would be for me as well as doing some numbers crunching so that I knew my financial limit. As things go, homes in Chicagoland are expensive particularly from my southern girl vantage point. And, based upon that southern experience, one important deal breaker for me was "high price, little land." I shopped for homes with land; I shopped for plenty yard. I got that. Almost a year after purchasing my home, I am preparing to transform the brown rich and empty soil to a landscape filled with variegated flowers and a wonderland of rich ground cover plants.
Welcome to the season of Lent, the season of letting go and taking on; a season of loss and a season of gain; a season of hungering and thirsting; a season of desire. I have never abandoned the idea of giving something up, or taking something on for Lent. The discipline of doing something physically different satisfies a deep spiritual longing in my soul. I always seem to grow, change, and spiritually benefit from whatever the practice I adopt might be.