By: Digby Wilkinson on March 16, 2019
This comes as less than my best reflection on a book. I find myself mired in a mass shooting that should never have happened on our unique shores. A man from another world came to kill refugees and migrants finding sanctuary from fear in Aotearoa, a land far from their own lands. It seems we…
By: Jean Ollis on March 15, 2019
I feel like this topic is coming full circle. Remember that night, not quite two years ago, in the hotel lobby in Cape Town? A group of LGP8’s, new to each other and travel weary, stayed up late in the evening to earnestly and respectfully discuss homosexuality and the church. We were vulnerable, we were…
By: Greg on March 15, 2019
A thousand words are not enough to really delve into the controversy that this topic brings up. A thousand words are a drop in the bucket to the research that has been done or even time spent in explanations of them. They are not enough to describe the friends that I have that struggle with…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on March 15, 2019
My heart is heavy this week. It has been a week filled with trauma and crisis, which has made it a little overwhelming for this small-town girl. The week started with a shooting in Kalamazoo of a police officer and cumulated with the tragedy in New Zealand. So, my heart has been hurting, and the…
By: Kyle Chalko on March 15, 2019
When I was in graduate school I took a class called Contemporary Issues in Theology and it was in one of my top classes of all time. We covered a total of six different heavy issues that semester… Women in Ministry Divine Foreknowledge Divorce & Remarriage The Providence of God Spirit Baptism Homosexuality There was…
By: Mary Mims on March 15, 2019
Today’s world is known as the internet age. Children at an increasingly young age navigate electronic devices with ease. Soon we will have a generation that will not know what it is like to live without electronic devices to communicate. This use of electronic devices to communicate has created what is known as a “network…
By: Trisha Welstad on March 15, 2019
Four years-ago I did one of the most challenging things I have done as a pastor. I sat with eight other pastors over the course of three days and dialogued for the first time on same-sex inclusivity and the church. We all came from a variety of tribes and traditions and represented the spectrum of…
By: Sean Dean on March 15, 2019
Running is my exercise of choice. Aerobics classes frustrate me lifting weights is fine and biking is nice, but nothing has captured me like running. I also happen to be a data guy. More data equals better results – in that way I am very much like Berger and Johnston from last week’s reading. As…
By: Karen Rouggly on March 14, 2019
Last winter, I completed my first Whole30. If you aren’t familiar with the Whole30, it’s like “pushing the reset button on your health, your habits, and your relationship with food”[1] It’s more than just a diet and a cleanse. Essentially, you remove certain food groups (like sugar, grains, dairy, and legumes) from your diet for…
By: Shawn Hart on March 14, 2019
(Disclaimer: I am prepared for the fact that not everyone will agree with my take on this week’s reading. Furthermore, though I am sure all of us will be passionate about our reasons behind our views, I wrote boldly this week, knowing that if there was ever an avenue for scholarly sharing on a topic,…
By: Jay Forseth on March 14, 2019
Hello Ellen! My name is Jay Forseth, and I am a Pastor in small town America. I am writing this letter because I think you are kind. In fact, many times on your show your actions appear more Christian than most Christians I know. Your generosity impresses me. You are obviously successful and loads of…
By: Andrea Lathrop on March 14, 2019
I opened my laptop after reading Digital Minimalism and noticed the clutter on my screen in a new way. Before opening Microsoft Word, I minimized the following; 10+ website tabs from yesterday’s business and surfing; Evernote with several windows; email app; Nozbe task manage; Messenger; and iCal. And I consider myself a bit of a minimalist…
By: Mark Petersen on March 14, 2019
Is anyone out there a fan of Whose Line is It Anyway? (It was news to me, but I found out that the show originated in the UK before it crossed the pond.[1]) In it, comedians are given an open idea but no script on how to play their part. Imagine not being scripted, and…
By: Rhonda Davis on March 14, 2019
The digital declutter has been a real struggle in the Davis house this year. With jobs that seem to demand constant connection and three sons ages 14, 13 and 7 years old, my husband and I have been searching for ways to simplify our lives. We long to be more present in a world that…
By: Colleen Batchelder on March 14, 2019
“Did they really just say that!?” I pulled over at the nearest Starbucks and turned the radio volume to full blast. “No, they couldn’t have said that!” I begged my senses to recompose and leaned in to hear more. Their two voices boomed through my shock as they repeated their diatribe. “Yeah, Mike! You heard…
By: Harry Edwards on March 14, 2019
I still remember vividly the time when one of my colleagues looked at me with derision when I mentioned nonchalantly that I did not have my phone with me. She had texted me just a few moments prior and had expected a quick response. I do not recall the content of the message but to…
By: Mario Hood on March 14, 2019
Reading Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World[1] this week could not have come at a timelier spot. Thirty years ago, in March, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who at the time was working at CERN, invented the foundation for the World Wide Web after he took hypertext and connected it to…
By: Jenn Burnett on March 14, 2019
For Lent I took Facebook off my phone. Before I had even started Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism I knew I needed what he describes as a “digital declutter”[1] . I resonated with Newport’s identification of the good intentions we (let me own this, I) have to simply use technology to stay connected to friends overseas…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on March 13, 2019
My journey on the topic of homosexuality, gay marriage, and their place in the church started many years ago when I was in full-time church ministry. Back before this population was as “out of the closet” as they are today, I would have long discussions with people in the church about how to approach this…
By: Dan Kreiss on March 13, 2019
Choose your own……gender I wonder how many of you ever read any of the children’s books “Choose Your Own Adventure”? Essentially, they were books where the reader was able to determine some of the outcome at certain points in the story. Each decision altered the scope and conclusion of the story. Netflix has even come…
