After the Party After every big celebration comes the crash. Party guests go home and we collapse on the couch with a headache. The special dinner that took days to plan and prepare is devoured in an hour, leaving only a kitchen full of dirty dishes. The warmth of...
Theme reflection by Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity from A Sanctified Art LLC “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Luke 10:1). Jesus commissions seventy followers with these words, inviting them to be peace-bearers in new lands. Perhaps we might utter a...
by Corrie Berg An intergenerational day of community service. All hands needed. All ages welcome. What could be better? It punches all the Christian education tickets. It mixes the young and old, includes our children in the gospel-mandate to care for others, and...
Reflection by Beth Herrinton-Hodge In 1998, I had the opportunity to travel to Taizé, France on a study tour with Estelle McCarthy and fellow alumnae from Presbyterian School of Christian Education (PSCE). It was a life-changing, soul-deepening journey. I selected a...
by John Earl Art during the season of Advent is more often to reflect the characters central to the season. The Holy Child, the Blessed Virgin, the humble Joseph and the distant shepherds. An honest Advent theology will ask; ‘What kind of Christ does our world now...
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...
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)...
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,...
By: Carol Wehrheim “I was driving on a very, very, snowy, icy, visibility-zero highway.” With these words, the congregation quieted waited for the next line. A congregational member was telling the story, the testimony, of another member, anonymous to the teller and...
By: Adam Walker Cleaveland I have a confession to make. I never really liked children’s ministry. And I hated children’s sermons. Now, as the founder of Illustrated Children’s Ministry, that sounds a little odd. But let me explain. First of all, when I say I...
