for the past few weeks at the refuge we have been walking through the days of easter weekend. we put ourselves in the cycle of these three days, starting with friday–the night Jesus was crucified–with a look at death. then we moved to saturday, the day after, when the sorrow, shock, and lament at […]
Read Morefaith & politics: my journey
imagine that? for years, honestly, i acted like i was 100% sure that God was a republican (a great quote i was reminded of this week by anne lamott: “we can be pretty certain we’ve created God in our own image if he hates all the same people we do.” thanks, jonathan) oh, how that was me! […]
Read Moreigniting the ember: emerging women finding their voice
“women have been taught that for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge” – author unknown i’ve discovered the world is round. i have survived my venture out (so far) and although it feels like i have fallen off the cliff, i have found there really is solid […]
Read Moreconspiring for change
conspire. i love this word. so many of us have probably always thought of this as a negative word-“conspiring against the authorities”…”conspiracy to overthrow the government”…”conspiracy to commit a crime.” but here’s a new twist on the word that i greatly appreciated: it’s roots come from the latin “conspirare” which means “to breathe together.” to […]
Read Morea time for burning
at the refuge’s february film & discussion night this past friday we watched a time for burning, a documentary shot in 1967 depicting conversations around a white lutheran’s pastor desire to organize a social gathering with a local african-american lutheran church in omaha, nebraska. here’s all he wanted to do: offer a reconciliatory gesture toward his african-american fellow lutherans […]
Read Morespringtime for a church
one of the things that is fun about life in blog-land is there are so many cool people out here, thinking new thoughts, digging deeper, longing for change in the kingdom, communicating their hearts in different ways. the random connections & ways that things get stirred up is always so wild to me. anyway, i wanted to […]
Read Morewhy i believe in co-pastoring
a few years ago i had never even heard of a co-pastor. i knew about senior pastors, i knew about associate pastors and childrens & youth pastors and some churches, if they had really big budgets, would have a care pastor. but during all my time in churches and ministry i never heard the word […]
Read Morethe new conspirators
i saw information on this conference a while back and was immediately intrigued. i loved the the idea of conspiring new ways of living out our faith, the thoughts of the conversations that people would be having there about so many things i highly value. i really wanted to try to pull off going but wasn’t sure if it was possible for […]
Read Morea community where men cry
i am not into talking that much about the differences between men and women. in fact, i rarely, if ever, do because i just lean on the bottom line, that we are human beings and both essentially need the same things. yes, of course inside we might be wired a little differently emotionally, but i hate the […]
Read Morewhy prepositions matter
my friends know a lot about incarnational relationships. in the trenches at milehigh ministries, they are passionate about all the same stuff i am. a few weeks ago they facilitated our sunday refuge gathering and shared about the spiritual discipline of incarnational relationships. the official word in the richard foster books would be “service and […]
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