I figure if we can demonstrate what it looks like to help someone be willing, able, and ready to discover and share their story with their whole heart, and serve that person by connecting them with someone that is willing, able, and ready to harvest their story on video with their whole heart, the mission is being accomplished.
What is it about humankind that makes it hard to rest?
What is it about us that makes us turn up the lights, press “Next Episode,” or chatter away on the phone given the space of one commute?
Read MoreIt seems that we may be led by children out of the darkness.
Read MoreReturn
To the love in which you were created
To the breath that first hovered over you
Return
Read MoreAshes represent a reduction, a simplification, an equivocation of all things. Garden rose and wayside weed both burn to calcium carbonate—the stuff of egg shells and pearls.
Read MoreFinding God in Culture
Read MorePaul: An Apostle's Journey
A book review by Larry Duggins
Douglas Campbell’s new work on Paul is a very readable survey into the writings of Paul. Dr. Campbell, a Duke New Testament professor who will be a key player in their new Certificate in Missional Innovation program, has written a book for the rest of us - clear, understandable and to the point.
Read MoreMy wife, Nelma, and I both completed a graduate level program offered through the Missional Wisdom Foundation...
Read MoreRe-entry never places you back in quite the same life.
Read MoreDear Friends,
I am writing this article after a beautiful and long house meeting at Francis (an intentional community within the Epworth Project).
To be you: who you are, where you are, when you are is a an act of courage. It takes courage to go and experience and it takes courage to return, relinquishing fullness of the encounter to that which spoke it all into being.
Read MoreLil Smith reflects on a conversation anchored by Larry Duggin's book Together.
Read MoreIt need not be loud, sky-parting, or earth-shattering. It may only be recognizable to you. It may only be recognizable in the stillness of your soul once it has been disconnected from its usual patterns long enough to find stillness.
But the encounter will somehow meet you.
As I washed these broken and bleeding feet, the Holy Spirit took that opportunity to teach me a lesson.
Read MoreOn the train, I began to truly engage all of my senses, hoping to open myself to the experience that is before me, and remembering that each moment of life is an opportunity to pay attention.
Read MoreAs a leader of a group that tries very hard to be ecumenical and also tries very hard to impress on everyone the importance of spiritual practices that strengthen connection with God, I found Flee, Be Silent, Pray by Ed Cyrzewski quite interesting.
Read MoreThe four-fold practice of showing up, paying attention, participating with God, and letting go of the outcome can be complex. We have been participating and leading experiments that do well, fail, don’t take off, or move in unexpected directions. Our cohort community has been there to share in celebration and ask reflective questions to help us see what is happening to us in new ways.
Read MoreThe first step in living contemplatively is simply showing up—presenting oneself for an encounter.
Read MoreOne thing that is very clear: it is important to all of us that we connect to our communities and celebrate the relationships that are formed through these connections.
Read MoreBy Kate Rudd
The winter garden is not beautiful to the untrained eye. No more neat, vibrant rows of lettuce, carrots, chard, squash, and tomatoes. No colorful display of flower blossoms or insects abuzz. No neighborhood children running to pick carrots—exclaiming over how a radish grows. Nothing but empty lines, sad perennials. The intelligent gardener uses winter to enrich their soil with a diverse jungle of cover crops to nurture microbial activity, replenish nutrients depleted from last season, and build the soil by growing then composting organic matter. These techniques significantly enhance next season’s potential, but in winter this looks like chaos that doesn’t fill harvest baskets. It is generally barren, decaying, messy. It seems meaningless and a little depressing.
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