Called to Dinner, Together

Heidi Shott (January 2017, October 2019 | Give Us Shelter). Posted in 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, From Our Archives.

Growing up, I didn’t realize that my proximity to extended family would, 40 years later, turn out to be an anachronism. With my much older sister and three of my father’s six siblings living within a few hundred yards of our family farm, I came and went as I pleased. My mother, an unenthusiastic cook, was happy for me to make the rounds to see who offered the... Read more

Finding Jesus Under the Golden Arches, and Other Tales of Religionless Christianity

Heidi Shott (April 2016). Posted in 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission.

After moving to Maine in my mid-twenties, I slowly emerged from a long stretch of having nothing much to do with God or organized religion. During my high school years, I was a devout Evangelical, and the only school I applied to was a Christian liberal arts college. But in that first year away from home, I found that my world—and my sense of the possibilities... Read more

The Privilege of Belonging

Heidi Shott (October 2015). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMission, Bearings Review 2016.

One weekend this fall my husband and I flew to New Mexico. One of our twin sons is a college junior in Santa Fe, and we find that the 2,500 miles between us pulls at our heartstrings. Parents’ Weekend offered us a legitimate pretense for visiting. This particular son, our picky eater, has grown up to be a foodie. With the parents in town to foot the bill, he... Read more

Bridging the Sacred and the Profane

Ministries of Compassion in the World We Walk Together

Heidi Shott (Ministry on the Edge | November 2018). Posted in From Our Archives.

Originally published in Bearings April 2015 | Not long ago, heading home from a distant airport because of a cancelled flight, my husband and I found ourselves in a rest stop at 2:30 in the morning. Just over the Maine border from New Hampshire, we stopped to switch drivers and he took the opportunity to pop into the men’s room. Wearily I crossed to the passenger... Read more

Praying the Neighborhood

Heidi Shott (December 2014). Posted in 21stCenturyMinistry, Bearings Review 2015.

In May I began walking a daily four-mile loop around our village, Damariscotta Mills, a lovely spot tucked between a lake and a tidal river on Maine’s midcoast. I hoped, by starting some sort—any sort—of regimen, I might begin to prepare for a long hike my husband and I hope to make in 2015. I also hoped to banish some of the middle-aged thickness that has begun... Read more

Contributor: Heidi Shott