Last week, I had the privilege of traveling with my wife and our friend, Ryan Klinck, to just outside of Philadelphia to participate in the opening worship service of the Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference.
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Improvised comedy begins with “Yes, and.”
Yes.
I agree to the name you just gave me, the relationship you clarified, and to the situation you established.
And.
UMC LEAD is excited to announce that registration and the speaker application for the 8th annual LEAD Conference are now open. This year’s conference will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana from January 13th-16th, 2019. The host hotel will be The Troubadour and the host church will be St. Mark's UMC.
As a personal spiritual discipline of late, I have been taking improv comedy classes at the Dallas Comedy House. In improv class we begin with a few warm-ups. They move the body and get the blood flowing, they help lower our defenses and embrace the playfulness of the environment, they get us engaged. They help us practice saying yes, being present, and supporting one another.
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I thought of the many times I had puzzled over the ancient Sunday Gospel Reading Cycle. I had prayed the cycle for many years; I found it deeply meaningful and loved it profoundly.
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The Parable of the Sower
A Book Review by Larry Duggins
As I was searching for an audio book to ride with me on my annual summer trek to Asheville, I stumbled upon The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler. I was hoping to find something written by someone who has a different life view than my own and Ms Butler was an African-American author winner of a Hugo, a Nebula award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Pretty strong credentials.
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Matthew’s gospel was written to the Messianic Jews of Antioch two to five years after the destruction of the Great Temple of Jerusalem and the massacre of all its priests. The Temple, its rules and priests had represented the center of their lives, and now many were certain that God had abandoned them.
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To Those Who Are Concerned…
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Eyes blinded by tears—more than that—blinded by fear, blinded by dreams crushed as fine as the dust under her feet as she walks.
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Two Views on Homosexulaity, the Bible and the Church
A Book Review by Larry Duggins
As part of my personal analysis of the Way Forward issues, I went in search of a good book that fairly deals with the various arguments around the human sexuality issues without screaming at me about them.
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Returning from Camino
A book review by Larry Duggins
Alexander Shaia is a wise and experienced man with a fascinating combination of lived and acquired knowledge. He has studied hard to build a wonderful base of psychological, theological and anthropological knowledge, and he has tempered those with the life experience of an immigrant and a pilgrim.
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The Ahadi Collective hosted a Meet the Makers event on Memorial Day weekend to engage with the community and share their work, products, and stories. Promotion began weeks before through multiple avenues and platforms.
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The highest point on the island of Iona is a peak called Dùn I (I = “ee”). While this climb, and the accompanying 360 degree island view, is available to anyone, pilgrims climb it as part of their pilgrimage around the island. It serves as a celebration point, a mountaintop moment, for it can be difficult to scale, and even harder, sometimes, to then find your way back down.
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Paul Tillich's The Courage to Be gave me language to articulate a knowledge that is deep within me.
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For the space at the table
We celebrate and give thanks
For the stories that arrive
Important to be heard
For the bellies and hearts that come hungry
Hoping to be filled
Heart and Mind
by Larry Duggins
Occasionally, I will read a book that sticks with me – I think about it throughout a day or a week or a month, and I randomly find myself turning over its ideas as I walk through life. Alexander Shaia’s Heart and Mind: The Four-Gospel Journey for Radical Transformation is such a book.
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To set the table is to commit to grace.
A set table implies a willingness to believe that our needs will be met.
At the table, the nutritional needs of the body will be supplied by the production of the earth.
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Meals with a Mission
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The great promise of the table is that we are invited to join in holy community/communion with family.
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