Posts Tagged: "Church"

to be rooted post

Lent Day 2… To Be Rooted

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Today is a little different—rather than sharing from one of my favorite Lent devotional books, I will be sharing what I fondly call a tweetstorm. This one is courtesy of Sarah Bessey.

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If you would’ve told me 10 years ago I’d be a straight-up devoted church lady, I’d have laughed in your face.

I was emancipated from church – who needs church? Apparently I did and I do and I always will. Look at all the ways God will surprise us.

One of the most important and doggedly hopeful things we have done as a family is to intentionally, simply, steadily stay put with our church.

Community is not the work of magicians or salesmen or brand ambassadors or performers or instant-wish-granters.

Community is like gardening: you prepare, you plant, you tend, you wait, you weed, you wait, you feed, you harvest and…

…you cycle through seasons of rich reward and seasons of seeming emptiness, seasons of work and waiting.

Simone Weil said, “To be rooted is perhaps the most important and the least recognized need of the human soul.”

We experience on a daily basis what it means to… Read More

enough post

Thinking About That Time When I Was Enough

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Recently some friends of ours showed up at church. It was a happy surprise—I wasn’t expecting to see them. They don’t exactly live in the Renton/Kent area, and I haven’t seen them in years… decades.

Who are they? Pastor Lou and Sandra—the ones who took a chance on me. My very first ministry position was at their church. I was young, inexperienced, and not yet finished with college. But they believed in me, loved me, and wanted me to be their youth pastor.

After their surprise visit at our church (where we had a few minutes to say hi, Pastor Lou gave me a “Pentecostal handshake,” and we posed together for a picture), Shari said something about them that left me reflecting for days…… Read More

sunday shout outs 2015

Sunday Shout-Outs

- - Guest Posts, Life With God, Uncategorized

Two beautifully challenging pieces to share today—the first one is new, the other is a few years old…

shannon dingle for post

I Want To Help You Understand My Lament by Shannon Dingle.

I’m hurting, friend. I’m hurting deeply. And I’m being told to suck it up and put away my pain and move on. Rather than call those responses insensitive, I want to help you understand my lament, if I can.

My heart is so tender, and I’m praying with each word that they will be received in the matter in which I intend. I know a lot of voices are shouting right now. I hope to be a voice that pulls up a chair to chat over coffee and share my heart.

I occupy a unique space. I’m white, but four of my children aren’t.

I was born here into a family that dates back to the pilgrim days, but four of my children are immigrants from Asia and Africa. I have ancestors who fought under the Confederate flag, but I’ve been targeted online as a “race traitor” for adopting outside of our ethnicity. I easily pass as having no disabilities (though I live with chronic conditions that are invisible yet can be disabiling), but I’m raising children who live with autism and cerebral palsy and HIV and visual impairments, including one who uses a wheelchair. My husband and I are straight and fit into accepted gender norms, but we have dear friends and neighbors who aren’t or don’t. I’m a Christian, but last year a Muslim friend of mine and her son waited at the preschool until we arrived to walk in with me and Zoe because she was afraid to walk in by herself after the Paris terrorism attacks.

And I occupy one common space: I am a woman who, like 1 in 6, has been raped. I am a woman who was sexually harassed in my workspace and whispered about when I filed a grievance against the man in power who objectified me. I am a woman raised by a father who doesn’t “read books by women because they aren’t any good.” (And I’m a writer, so the hurt is doubled there.)

I am grieving. Many are reading this as being a sore loser. But that’s not how I’m feeling. I have… Read More

schools of the heart post

Schools of the Heart

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

*pictured above: some of my favorite ladies at church hanging out and catching up with each other

Today’s word from Jean Vanier…

True unity cannot be achieved in a family or community which denies difference, and behaves as if everyone should be the same and think in the same way.

Unity is achieved when each member of the body is different and contributes a different gift, but all are united around the same goal by mutual love.

There are schools and institutions which develop our minds, but communities and families are the schools of… Read More

what ashah said about the church post

What My Daughter Said About The Church

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

My daughter recently had an assignment at school: to write a paper about her family of origin, her culture, and/or traditions that have shaped who she is. I’d like to share a small section from her paper:

Another tradition from both my mom and dad’s childhood is going to church every Sunday; this has been part of my growing up experience as well.

My mom and dad are both pastors, so I was born into this culture of praying and going to church, and it is something I am very passionate about.

I essentially grew up in the church. Some might say church is a restrictive and limiting environment, but I have discovered… Read More

grace post

Real Grace Is Always A Little And Maybe A Lot Scandalous

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…women much like this prostitute fled toward Jesus, not away from him. The worse a person felt about herself, the more likely she saw Jesus as a refuge. Has the church lost that gift? —Philip Yancey

In Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing about Grace? he recounts a story about C. S. Lewis:

During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world debated what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith.

They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death.

The debate went on for some time until C. S. Lewis wandered into the room. “What’s the rumpus about?” he asked, and heard in reply… Read More

a muslim man

He Told Me He Was Muslim & Asked If He Could Attend My Church

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. —2 Corinthians 5.19

A few years ago, I noticed a new family at the church – husband and wife along with their three kids. They were good at slipping in and out of church quickly… but I hunted them down, introduced myself, got their names. I made it a point to chat with them – even if just for a few seconds – each Sunday.

After a few months, the husband asked if we could meet. He seemed like he had something heavy to share with me. At lunch, he told me how he had served time in prison – about a decade. After getting out, he met his wife. She’s the one who got the family coming to church.

Then he got to the point. He said, “In prison, I… Read More

barry and don together at church post

Cops, Convicted Felons, Communion, & Church

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

*picture above: Barry (left) and Don (right) at church together last night

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Cops, convicted felons, communion, and church… these concepts might, at first glance, seem like they are worlds apart, but if we pause and think about it long enough, we’ll see how beautifully they go together.

Barry shared his story at church last night. He committed a violent crime when he was 13 years old, was sentenced to die in jail – life without the possibility of parole. The youngest in our country to ever receive this sentence, Barry was placed in a Washington state adult prison at the age of 15. It is a miracle that he is out today. Because of the work of Bryan Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative, the laws have been changed making life without parole sentences no longer possible for children.

Massey03

 

After serving 29 years in prison, Barry Massey was released because of these new reforms. He has never stepped foot inside a high school, and has never driven a car, having spent his teens, twenties, and thirties behind prison walls.

Don, a Seattle police officer who attends our church, was also at the… Read More