By Layne Smith Of Abraham Lincoln – He welcomed arguments within the cabinet, but would be “greatly pained,” he warned them, if he found his colleagues attacking each other in public. What can be learned from Lincoln’s success in keeping this disparate team together? (p.222) Of Theodore Roosevelt – Throughout his political career, Roosevelt’s conception … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed I am so relieved that heading into Advent and Christmas 2021, the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. We can put aside the difficulty and the different look of last year’s holiday observances and go all out, with all of our people back in the pews! Record scratch. The reality is that … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed During a gathering of my field education cohort during seminary, the leaders facilitated a discussion about the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. For most people in the room, communion was about welcome, nourishment, and grace. I had a different take. In the church of my youth, we had the Lord’s Supper once … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed “Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart…” This has long been my favorite hymn. It was sung at my wedding, and it will be sung at my funeral. It sums up well my take on the journey of faith. We all have those aspects of church that resonate most deeply. … Continue reading
By Caleb Mynatt When the COVID-19 pandemic sent the world into lockdown, it was an unprecedented and often chaotic transition for churches to make. And while figuring out the logistics of virtual business meetings and livestreaming worship services certainly wasn’t easy, there is one group of church leaders that perhaps had the toughest transition of … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed When I open my home office door after a coaching call, I hear it: the blessed sound of silence. It has been all too rare over these last fifteen months, since my husband has also been working from the couch and my son has been virtually schooling from our den. I describe … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed It was a lovely fall mid-day, if a bit breezy. My husband and I had taken a trip to Atlanta, the city where we met in seminary. We decided to enjoy lunch on the porch at one of our favorite restaurants. We talked and ate chips and guac, enjoying the food, one … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed The book of Acts represents a significant shift in the trajectory of scripture. For Christians, the Bible to this point has been about God setting up the world for humans’ delight and care, God’s attempts to build a relationship with humankind, and humankind’s self-absorption and short attention span. God, seeing how all … Continue reading
By Laura Stephens-Reed The honesty and vulnerability of John 20:19-31 are the reasons why this passage is, hands down, my favorite in the Bible. Can you imagine what it must have been like to be a disciple on that first Easter evening? In John, two of the Twelve have seen the empty tomb and believed, but … Continue reading
By Layne Smith When will we be able to gather safely in person with friends, colleagues, coworkers, and extended family members? So many of us are “Zoomed” out. We dread looking at the screen with everyone in a little box. We long to regain some sense of normalcy in our lives. We miss the touch, … Continue reading
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