have you… been asked to leave a church or told you’re not a “good fit”? felt forced to conform or remain consistently overlooked? been told that you are loved but not your sin? questioned leadership or theology and found yourself on the outside? felt sad, angry, afraid, lost, or disoriented after painful church experiences? i’m […]
Read Morethe great distraction
a few weeks ago i was in a conversation with a friend about the use of the Bible in our Christian faith. i sometimes get criticized for not using the Bible enough, in that i am not that excited about exegeting passages intellectually. i definitely believe in the value, challenge, and beauty in the Bible, […]
Read Morewhen crazy is actually sane & sane is actually crazy
one of my favorite gospel stories is the woman who busts into simon the pharisee’s house in luke 7 and falls at Jesus’ feet, wiping his feet with her tears. in that moment, he was hanging out with the put-together, religious elite talking about theology. they were supposedly the sane ones, and she was the […]
Read Morewhile the world is crying out for hope, we're talking about theology
this past weekend i was on the refuge camping trip at jackson lake. it is was our 6th annual & is a cornerstone tradition in our community. one of my favorite parts of the weekend is baptism. each aspect of it is just so beautiful—witnessed in community, a clear marker on an often very unclear […]
Read Morethe practice of the better
“the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better” – richard rohr * * * * * i had an interesting conversation with a friend this past week who didn’t really know my story of the past 7+ years of the ups of working on a big church staff to the downs […]
Read Morea time to…
this past weekend i facilitated a reflection exercise for my ex-good-christian-women’s group & i thought it’d share it here just in case any of you want to give it a try. it was our semester wrap & i wanted to do something that gave us some room to reflect & consider this season in our […]
Read Moreletting God off the hook
this month’s synchroblog is a fun one–it’s called “life unfurling” and is centered on the things that we’ve let go of in our faith along the way and ended up finding freedom. i have a bunch of them, but this is the one that came to mind this month. you can check out the other […]
Read Morethe golden rule
**this post is part of rachel held evans’ synchroblog this week on the rally to restore unity. there’s some fun stuff over there this week! * * * * * when i was a kid my mom had a plaque on her wall that said “whoever has the gold makes the rules”. looking back, oh […]
Read Morethese things shouldn't be all that crazy…
sometimes i have fun conversations with other people who have crazy ideas about “church”, too. whenever i do, i always say “well, it’s great to know we’re not crazy. or maybe if we are, at least we’re not alone.” when i said it this past week i added–it’s really crazy that these ideas are often […]
Read Morespiritual midwives
if you’ve been reading here for a while you know that i have more kids than the average person–5 lovely little bunnies, ranging from my oldest who just left for college down to twins that are almost 11. when the twins were born, there were a few months that i had 5 kids under the […]
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