Bearings: Navigating Life-as-Ministry
May 2018

Getting Our Bearings: Ministries of Coping

A Guide for Reflection & Conversation

Pamela Shellberg (, ). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyMinistry, 21stCenturyMission, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Coping.

If you look up the words “cope” or “coping” in a dictionary, you’ll find entries like these: “to struggle or deal with, especially on fairly even terms of with some degree of success,” “to face and deal with problems or difficulties, especially successfully or in a calm or adequate manner,” or “to have the capacity to deal successfully with something difficult.” Their... Read more

Coping Through Creativity

Holy Women Icons of Grief

Angela Yarber (). Posted in 21stCenturyBible, 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Coping.

As ordained clergy, I’ve officiated a lot of funerals. For fourteen years, I shaped burnt ash across congregant’s foreheads on Ash Wednesday and reminded them that we all come from dust. To dust we shall return. Yet these words and rituals rang hollow when my brother died over a year ago from a drug overdose. As I officiated my little brother’s funeral, I held... Read more

Life Happens

5 Ways to Continually Cultivate a Spirit of Resilience

Lawrence Richardson (). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Coping.

In my new book, I know What Heaven Looks Like, the word “resilience” isn’t mentioned once; however, it’s a story about my life, and my life has surely been one of resilience. As someone who has overcome traumatic life circumstances including childhood abuse, poverty and homelessness, I’d like to share with you 5 ways to continually cultivate a spirit of resilience... Read more

Five Days in a ‘Thin Place’

A Pilgrimage before Coping

Darleen Pryds (). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyReligion, 21stCenturySpirituality, Coping.

As someone who has volunteered in hospice for ten years and has written on the spirituality of dying and death, I am often asked about grief and coping with loss. I used to balk and say, “I do dying and death; not grief. I know nothing about coping with loss.” While I still do not presume to claim that I have clinical expertise or professional pastoral experience... Read more

Reflection and Discussion Guide for Bearings, “Becoming Church”

Pamela Shellberg (). Posted in 21stCenturyCulture, 21stCenturyReligion, Becoming Church.

The articles in the recent “Becoming Church” issue of Bearings have a different character than many of the articles we've published on the topic of the change in the 21st century church. We might say that, up until now, many articles have been descriptive; that is, they have described what the changing church “looks like” – who is attending (or not), what spiritual... Read more

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