Ministry Matters - What is spiritual direction? | Soul care in the small church

How is it with your soul today? What is spiritual direction? by Jill Johnson   My first encounter with spiritual direction was unintentional. After engaging in a spiritual conversation with the owner of the Texas Hill Country bed and breakfast where I was staying, she gave me a copy of a poem by Rumi, a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic. “Don’t go away, come near. Don’t be faithless, be faithful,” the poem said. Read here

How do we help people transcend their personal agendas for the common good? Soul care in the small church by Lewis Parks   They do not come to worship hoping to be swept up into the gravity of my agenda, these ninety, sixty, or thirty souls. They are not there to hear me wax eloquent about the things that consume me as a called and equipped pastor: the continued disestablishment of the church, the mainline decline, the bishop’s appeal for disaster relief, the needed repairs on the roof, the annual meeting, the loss of biblical literacy, the larger social questions that won’t go away, the connectional church’s debate on sexuality, a postcolonial reading of the Bible, the increase of our impact for good in the community, and so on. Read here

Choosing the right path in worship this Sunday Helping kids hear God's call as we gather in worship