The early festivals of the Church included commemorations of the martyrs who had died for their faith. However, All Saints’ Day is not only a celebration of the great host of witnesses who have gone before, but also a time to remember all God’s faithful people in every time and place.
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Posted in Community, Featured, Spirituality |
Tags: All Saints Day, Christianity, saints 
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Becky Garrison shifts the popular focus from the pioneers who founded emerging congregations to those finding appeal and belonging within them. What draws followers to these ‘emerging church’ communities? Why are they coming back, or are they? How do they understand themselves to be “church” or do they?
| Posted in Community, Featured |
Tags: Christian formation, Christianity, emerging church, future, mission, resources, traditions Comments Off
I met David Probst in January of 2003, when he entered the Diocese of Atlanta’s yearlong discernment process for aspirants to the priesthood. I served as director of the program and one of the two supervisors of his group. Just before our group meetings began, his rector approached me and said, “I am not sending him to you to be easily rejected.” David is legally blind.
| Posted in Featured, Ministry, Spirituality |
Tags: adults, Christian formation, discernment, God, spirituality Comments Off
No matter where we live: cities or suburbs, towns or rural areas, all our struggles are similar. All communities, regardless of size or wealth, face the enormous challenge of fragmentation. Family life is seriously threatened by the schedules we keep. Often our young people lack the sense of community beyond family that is critical to understanding the church and its mission.
| Posted in Community, Featured, Ministry |
Tags: Christian formation, confirmation, mentors, partnerships, teacher training, youth ministry Comments Off
The U.S. needs Halloween due to the “melting pot” nature of American society. It’s the only holiday of a spiritual nature that can be celebrated by all, regardless of faith status (spiritual but not religious, religious but not spiritual, or none of the above).
| Posted in Community, Featured |
Tags: All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, Day of the Dead, death, Halloween, intergenerational, traditions Comments Off
Many denominations have been developing strategies to help congregations put life long faith formation front and center in their mission and ministry. I also get plenty of inquiries about what children should “know” along the Christian education continuum – another words, what should they have mastered on each grade level?
| Posted in Community, Featured, Ministry |
Tags: adults, children's ministry, Christian formation, intergenerational, leadership, resources, teacher training, young adults, youth ministry Comments Off
Most middle class/ upper-middle class congregations do. You may know them by another name – “Twenty-Somethings” or “Emerging Adults”- and chances are you know of them in your congregation, but you don’t see them at worship on Sunday. Mostly, you hear a reference to them from a parent who mentions that their age twenty-something is living at home again between jobs, finishing up graduate school or marking time before leaving for the Peace Corps.
| Posted in Community, Featured, Ministry, Service |
Tags: adults, Christian formation, discernment, emerging church, future, social justice, worship, young adults 2 Comments »
Parents of pre-teens struggle with a difficult reality of the almost-but-not-yet, which seems to inform every action. This is a consistent trait from early childhood, as the child learns how to do things for herself, struggling to do what everyone else has mastered. In this way, a two year-old and a twenty-two year-old are the same. But this seems particularly acute for the pre-teen. Each action is her trying on teenage behaviors and expectations.
| Posted in Community, Featured, Ministry |
Tags: children's ministry, parents, teacher training, worship, youth ministry 1 Comment »
On November 1st the church remembers the saints of God – all faithful servants and believers. The day is seen as a communion of saints who have died and of all Christian persons. All Hallows’ Eve, October 31st (from which our Halloween traditions come); All Saints’ Day; and All Souls’ Day (November 2nd – the Day of the Faithful Departed), are connected by tradition and are often celebrated together.
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Tags: All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, Christian formation, Christianity, Halloween, resources, saints, traditions, worship Comments Off
Often times stories go around the internet that really strike you. Sometimes it turns out they are urban legends and have no ounce of truth, or at least they have been shared so much that the essential story is nothing like the truth it once was.
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Lap sittin’ awakens beautiful memories of moments of peaceful belonging and makes us wonder if it might represent a shadow of memory when we did “sit in the lap of God.”
| Posted in Featured, Spirituality |
Tags: children's ministry, Christian formation, spirituality, worship Comments Off
“What matters now in children’s ministry?” This is a question that every leader in the field of children’s and family ministry answers on a daily basis through their decisions, communication, meetings, programming, curriculum, recruiting, and schedule. This is the question that underscores countless hours of time and effort by pastors, support staff, and volunteers. This is the question that gets answered every time a church opens its doors to children and families. This question matters.
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