Last year I burned out. Before the world hit a pandemic pause, my own world halted. Looking back, I can see now that disruption was a gift to me. But at the time I only felt exhausted.
I’ve always been a little afraid of the second coming of Christ. There’s a lot of good things in the world and there were so many things I wanted to experience before we were all “whisked away to that spirit in the sky.”
Read More
As I approach Christmas this year it is with a certain resignation. I want to plan. I want to be scrolling through advent liturgies for the kids to read Sunday mornings as our tiny church family joins to light the candles on the advent wreath.
Read More
Isaiah's very powerful and poignant plea to God to split the sky, shake the earth, and settle the score is such an earthy and familiar request.
I’ve been there. Often.
Welcome to the third annual New Leaf Advent Reader. We are so glad you are here with us to journey through Advent while reflecting on change and disruption.
Read More
I did think for about two seconds that I might write a piece commenting on the peculiarities of the Hebrew in the text. But these last few months I have thought a great deal about the decline of the evangelical church in the West.
Read More
Last summer I spent many of my evenings listening to the voices of the multivocational ministers that had agreed to participate in the Canadian Multivocational Ministry Project. I was working on transcribing recorded interviews to pass along to the research team for analysis. A few nights a week, after my 1-year-old son was in bed I would go down into our basement to the computer tucked in a corner next to the furnace….
Read More
How can what we measure encourage good practice? And, what are some aspects of our common life that are worth measuring that might encourage individual and community growth in the midst of these disorienting times?
Read More
Borrowing from Soren Kierkegaard titled book, Either/Or, I feel like I want to do a follow-up post on the review of The Church of Us Vs. Them by David Fitch. It has been on my heart to recognize that perhaps bridges need to be built between the Christian story all across the world….
Read More
The new book The Church of Us Vs. Them by David Fitch, in my opinion, is an important and prophetic book for today. In a polarized culture (even church culture), David Fitch, speaks into the enemy-making machine in our culture…
Read More
Here we are at the end of Lent and Holy Week. And, I don’t know about you, but this has been a very strange season….
Read More
Has there been such a time as this, where the whole world is halted by an invisible force? School, businesses, sports events, entertainment and malls have all come to a close. There are so many fears, concerns and uncertainties….
Read More
Often things don’t survive translation from one medium to another. Different mediums tell stories in different ways. Every medium has its own unique rule sets and constraints. Every medium has its own inherent strengths and weaknesses….
Read More
When we are tempted to be fearful, teach us peace.
When we are tempted to hoard, teach us generosity….
Read More
“Go ahead,” my friend Ernie said to me, “choose any one you would like.” I looked down into the plastic container that he held in front of me while admiring the many small wooden crosses he had crafted….
Read More
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?….
The thought of adding something to my calendar heightens my anxiety. Lately, I’ve actually been doing an okay job of saying “no” to additional things. But even then I’m still maxed out….
Read More
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. And in many traditions, Ash Wednesday is marked with a worship service where people come forward to receive the sign of the cross in ashes on their foreheads and they hear the words “From dust you came and to dust you shall return.”…
Read More
I’ve been out in Winnipeg this week attending a pastor’s conference on faith formation in a secular age. At one point during yesterday’s proceedings, the keynote speaker, Andrew Root, asked a couple of gut-level questions—questions that most of us feel on some level or another, but rarely name so bluntly….
Read More
Dear Advent readers,
Thank you so much for going on this Advent journey through scripture and reflections with us…..
Read More