ADVOCATE
Room in the Inn: Serving Our Neighbors on Christmas Day
By: British Hyrams Among the people I polled, their descriptions of Christmas 2017 included the following: Wonderful! Out of the ordinary. One of the best! On par with ALL of them (emphasis added). Of particular note is that these volunteers were referring to their...
Sunday after Christmas
By: Joyce MacKichan Walker No matter where it falls in the week after Christmas, the next Sunday can be a challenge. Another service of lessons and carols? A family-friendly hour that might include all-ages in leadership? Some poetry, liturgical dance – worship...
Christmas in July
By: Pressley Cox Did you know that according to a Southern Living article, Christmas in July started in 1933 at Keystone girls’ camp in Brevard, North Carolina. It began as a theme for a summer camp celebration, not in a church or by a marketing company. This first...
From the Archives: Creativity as a Starting Place
By: Shawna Bowman We conclude our series on Faith Formation in a Visual Culture with an article that first appeared in the Advocate in September 2015. When God began to create the heavens and the earth—the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep...
Visual Faith and the Bible Project
By: Amber Dillon What is the Bible? People have tried to answer this question for years. Some say it is a hodgepodge of inspirational insights; others see it as a controlling, oppressive rulebook. With definitions like these, how can we approach such daunting...
Opening the Eyes of the Heart: Faith Formation with the Visual Faith Project
By: Wen Reagan “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NRSV). In other words, faith involves more than meets the eye. Yet we are not disembodied souls. The Lord has given us bodies and declared that we need eyes to...
Visio Divina
By: Carol Wehrheim In this day when visual images often hold more sway than the spoken word, we ought to pay attention to a spiritual practice that focuses on image: visio divina (divine vision). The same four movements that are found in lectio divina (divine word)...
Faith Formation in a Visual Culture
By: Pressley Cox For centuries, the Church has relied on visual images as touchstones and reminders of key Bible stories and important elements of our faith. From stone carvings and stained glass images to flannel-board pieces, wooden figures and colorful banners,...
Three Ways Your Church Can Connect with Your Camp This Summer
By: Statistics tell us that summer camp can be a formative experience for our children and youth. It is also considered a “stepping stone” for college-aged staff as it may be the first time they consider a call to ministry. All of this gives your congregation an...
Tween Camp
By: Doodle Harris We started Tween Camp six years ago. It began after a year of successful presbytery events for middle school youth and high school youth. Young people from different churches were beginning to connect. They’d exchanged snap chats and phone...