Category: Contributor Blogs
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Thoughts on Saint Patrick by Rev. Derrek Belase
Sunday is St. Patrick’s Day. Folks will wear green to avoid being pinched. Protestants don’t revere saints, but St. Patrick seems to be a different story. Let’s explore why. We know something about St. Patrick. He lived around the second half of the fifth century in Ireland. His life in…
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An Open Letter from Lindsay McClanahan
An Open Letter from Lindsay McClanahan I have struggled to put my thoughts into words on this one issue in my life. See at the end of February the General Conference of the United Methodist Church is going to come together and vote to determine if LGBTQ people are worthy,…
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Never Too Young For Mission
This summer was a humbling one and one that opened my eyes to the important things in life. I was blessed with the opportunity to go to both Honduras and Guatemala. These trips were very different and yet they both humbled me. While on Honduras our team worked at a…
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Friendly Church Bingo!
Welcoming Guests at Church – 4 Tips Last weekend, I attended worship somewhere new and I played a game I like to call Friendly Church Bingo. Every time your church shows me how absolutely, fabulously welcoming you are, I give you 5 points. If your church gets 5 points 5…
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Speaking In Tongues: A Reflection on My First Experience.
Speaking In Tongues: A Reflection on My First Experience.
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Do all the good you can, every day, in every way that you are able.
As you all know, I’ve been sewing pillowcases for charities for a while. So far since Jan. 1 of 2016, my mother and I have made 400 pillowcases for charities such as the El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo and Albuquerque Ronald McDonald Houses, St. Andrew’s Hospitality House and more recently I…
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Noise by Leia Williams
On Mondays and Thursdays, I have to sit at a desk that is about half the size of a normal desk. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem, since I am about half the size of a normal adult, but it is stacked with stuff that is not mine and already…
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3 Things I Would Tell My High School Self by Jake Tatarian
3 Things I Would Tell My High School Self by Jake Tatarian
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First Timer Lent and Mindfulness
Lent. It is one of those interesting times that has divided the evangelical world (as originally termed by Luther) from the liturgical world. So many from the evangelical side have shunned lent, among many other celebrations and observations. While religion and religious rites were once an instrument of social control,…
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No Chocolate. 46 days. by Kelly Carpenter
Haters gunna hate and it makes me a little sad each time someone slights the practice of giving up chocolate fornochocolate.jpeg Lent. I do it. I’ve done it since the 6th grade. I cannot come up with anything else that I have elected to do by choice every year since…
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Sweet baby Jesus, the Beatitudes are HARD. By Rev. Jenna Morrison
Sweet baby Jesus, the Beatitudes are HARD.
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Confessions of a Control Freak In a World of Chaos. by Christy-Anna
Confessions of a Control Freak In a World of Chaos. by Christy-Anna
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The Beatitudes: A Reflection by Rev. Jerry Herships
The Beatitudes: A Reflection by Rev. Jerry Herships
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4 Tips for Effective Discipleship with Children by Ashley Franks
For the month of January we are Bearded Theologians want to look at Making Disciples. We will have various people write about Making Disciples. When asked the question, “what tips I would give someone to make a disciple out of a child?” It didn’t take long for me to come…
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Making Disciples by Rev. Derrek Belase
For the month of January we are Bearded Theologians want to look at Making Disciples. We will have various people write about Making Disciples. Since August 1, 2016, my primary ministry appointment as a United Methodist Pastor has been at our conference office as the director of discipleship. My role…
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Rediscovering Mystery in the Information Age Rev. Stephen Cagle
In Douglas Adams’ science fiction masterpiece, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, there is a scene where a group of scientists are building a computer to answer the hardest question in the universe. They build a massive computer that they call “Deep Thought” to answer the question: “the ultimate question…
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Why Advent? By Rev. Kyle Kiner
Waiting…watching…preparing These are words of a season leading up to Christmas Day. Christmas in the Christian church means even more when we practice waiting. During Advent we take seriously a time preparing to celebrate the fact the God brought Jesus into the world. We do this time of preparing in…
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So What Do We Do? By Rev. Matt Bridges
*Part 4 of 4 in a new blog series by Matt Bridges So What Do We Do? We must reclaim the word “church” so that the original meaning and intent is not lost for good. And for many of us, it will mean claiming a new identity in our…
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Okay, So What? Part 3 of 4 Rev. Matt Bridges
*Part 3 of 4 in a new blog series by Matt Bridges Okay, So What? I believe limiting church to a location or an event in time ultimately allows people to hold their church and their relationship with Christ at arm’s length. It allows people to fall into any number…
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Breaking Down the Word: What’s the Big Deal? Part 2 0f 4 by Rev. Matt Bridges
*Part 2 of 4 in a new blog series by Matt Bridges Breaking Down the Word: What’s the Big Deal? Now, here at the outset is a disclaimer: anyone who knows me could tell you that I play pretty fast and loose with language. Language is fun, and it is…
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Don’t Go To Church by Rev. Matt Bridges
*Part 1 of 4 in a new blog series by Matt Bridges Don’t Go To Church! Consider the following phrases -Go to church. -Going to church. -Went to church. -Don’t go to that church. They’re [boring, too churchy, too hipster, too contemporary, too traditional……]. -Where do you go…
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Spiritual Direction by Rev. Peter White
When I was a kid, my brother and I played baseball everyday in our backyard—aluminum bat with a tennis ball, so the home runs would fly. The backyard was tiered with three levels, which made a pretty novel field. Most days out, we imagined ourselves as our favorite teams. He…
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