Ministry Matters - Praying with unwanted people | Summoning the best from us

What prayers are Christians called to pray during these times? Praying with unwanted people by Cláudio Carvalhaes   What prayers are Christians called to pray during these times? How are we to pray as we are confronted by a world in collapse? While some Christians recite the ancient prayers in the midst of a church burnt by wars, other Christians try to find words to pray that make sense of the absurdity of their conditions. For the ways of praying that we are proposing here, the condition of our world begs for different prayers and different forms of prayer. Read here

Does what you're doing still matter, and is it worth it? Summoning the best from us by Lucy Lind Hogan   Throughout that first pandemic-year, if clergy took the “Time Use Survey,” I suspect the results would have been staggering. Were we happy? No. Did what we were doing have meaning? Hard to tell—we couldn’t see the congregation. And stressful? Absolutely! Is it much better as we enter our third year? Are professions B, C, and D continuing to look better? Read here

How do we navigate the complexity of current storms? Leading simply by Laceye Warner   From pandemic to polemics, few are exempt from the current challenges that impact local congregations. Ironically, the difficulty of the current storms may be one thing on which we can agree. To compound the difficulties, once reliable strategies and techniques no longer address the complexities faced. Undergirding the churning storms is a default to the individual, or even a small group of individuals, rather than the body of Christ in the local community of faith. Read here

Immature faith, accountability, and the call to forgiveness in this Sunday's sermon Letting children lead us in worship this Sunday

Elements for worship on the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany