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Helping Youth and Adults Explore Faith through TV
By: Mark Edwards Each January our youth take a hiatus from our normal age-specific Christian education classes. Instead, middle school students, high school students, and adults met together for an all-ages Sunday School class. Following upon last year’s four-part...
More Harry Potter!
By: Debbie Hough He’s back! Or at least his world is back. Of course, I am referring to Harry Potter and his world of wizards and muggles and so much more. As I write this article the brand new play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is in previews in London set to...
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Asks Us “Who Is God?” and “Who Am I?”
By: Russell W. Dalton The blockbuster film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) opens in ancient Egypt, with the world’s first and most powerful mutant, Apocalypse, entering a pyramid as thousands of people are gathered to worship him as a god. However, some human rebels cry,...
Art as Prophecy
By: Steven Tuell A former student told me this story about a conversation overheard at her seminary. A classmate said that she had always loved Roman Catholic cathedrals: dim and cool and beautiful, illumined with jewel-colored stained glass, they had always felt to...
Pop Culture and Faith Formation
By: John Vest In my Ed Talk at the 2016 APCE Annual Event in Chicago, I showed a clip from the original Star Wars movie and the trailer for the newest film, The Force Awakens. I used these clips to illustrate my point that faith formation and spiritual growth are...
Prayer after a Mission Trip
By: Seth Lovell God of all creation, Your presence is known and felt in every corner of the globe. As we answered the call to serve as your hands and feet in the world we found that we did not need to take action for you to go with us; you have gone before, and you...
Reflections from the PC(USA) General Assembly
By: Von Clemans Portland, Oregon – As I write this (6/24/16) the 222nd General Assembly of the PC(USA) is nearing its end after a week of orientations, committee meetings, and plenary sessions. Our four partner denominations have similar national gatherings. ...
A Two-Book Story
By: John Van Sloten Over the past fifteen years I’ve preached on many movies: The Theory of Everything, The Croods, The Dark Knight, How to Train your Dragon, UP, Crash, Gran Torino, Where the Wild Things Are, and Ratatouille, to name a few. I’ve also written sermons...
Zootopia and God’s Beloved Community
By: Andy Acton And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and...
A Prayer for Vacation Bible School
By: Beth Herrinton-Hodge Abundant and Energetic God, You fill your world with a season of summer delights. Sunshine, warm breezes, a slower pace to enjoy your creation. Fill us with the joy of this season. We gather around your Word in the midst of our summer. May our...