Bearings: Navigating Life-as-Ministry
December 2016

Humble Clay Cups

Poetry for Faith and Healing

Ellen McGrath Smith (). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturySpirituality, Bearings Review 2017.

Everyone seems to want to beat up on 2016. On social media, it’s been referred to as a dumpster fire as well as a sentient creature that will rain down more of its wrath if it hears you maligning it. There are ample reasons why people—in my bubble, at least—want to malign 2016. Syria, as I write this, is a cradle of slaughter; Syria’s refugees, fleeing this... Read more

Hope is a Thing with Muscles

Elizabeth Drescher (). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturySpirituality.

Last weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” included a sketch in which Emma Stone played an exhausted, postpartum Virgin Mary who’s annoyed with Joseph for inviting visitor after visitor—shepherds, magi, a llama (not of the Dalai sort ... )—into the stable where she’s just given birth to Jesus. The bit plays up Mary’s fatigue, her frustration with gifts that are useless... Read more

The Pain of “Doing No Harm”

Jordan Shaw (). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry.

As I finish Thanksgiving and head full bore into the Christmas season, John Wesley’s three rules—“Do no harm. Do good. Stay in love with God.”—keep running through my mind. Perhaps this is because we have just come through a contentious election season that has left our communities deeply divided. Or maybe it’s because many of us recently spent hours sitting around... Read more

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