In a recent episode of The Biggest Loser , the time came to reshuffle the teams in order to force contestants to not only work with new teammates, but also with new trainers.
Every year, contestants face this Biggest Loser milestone with fear,...
This year, our junior high Sunday School class is learning about each of the five promises they'll be making at their confirmation:
- To live among God's faithful people.
- To hear the word of God and share in the Lord's Supper.
- To share the...
During Holy Week, my congregation holds worship on each of The Great Three Days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Though I grew up in a church that held a Good Friday worship service, the concept of worshipping on each of these...
For many years, my husband and I led a small group we affectionately called the Palatine misfits. The group earned it's name because of where we met and who we were. Our group could not easily be categorized as singles, couples, or families....
A few weeks ago, I visited our new members class in order to talk about our congregation's youth ministry.
None of the people in this class have high school aged kids and yet I went anyway, believing it's important for everyone in our...
In his recent blog post, Application vs. Information , Chris Wesley suggests when they go to church, teens wonder, “What does this have to do with my life?” According to him, “The tendency is to fill their head with doctrine, church history and...
During the wee hours of our summer mission trip, I realized one of my student leaders was in the midst of a spiritual crisis.
Just before the trip, her atheist friend asked her, “Why do you believe in God?” In that moment, she realized she didn't...
As I've been reading the Bible in Margaret Feinberg's 40 Day Bible Reading Challenge, I've been struck by the physicality of our faith. Our Christian faith is one that's very much attached to people and places. It is physical, tangible, and real....
As is often the case, my students got emotional during the final worship service of our recent mission trip – a meaningful, poignant foot washing service. Tears still streamed down many of their faces as we left the worship space and went to ...
In recent months, I've felt an inexplicable longing to immerse myself in Scripture.
I first noticed this several months ago, at the start of lent, when Margaret Feinberg challenged her readers to join her in being “Wonderstruck by Scripture” by...