What is the Heart of Ministry?

Ministering to the Beat of "Truth Love" in Today's Church

It's easy to make February about a certain kind of love—the sweet, sentimental, Valentines' Day kind, all wrapped in pretty paper and offered up with chocolates and and a saccharine greeting cards with lacy hearts and ribbons. Maybe there's a place for that. I'm as much of a fan of a bouquet of freshly cut flowers as the next person, I guess. But of course,... Read more

Getting Our Bearings: Ministries of Coping

A Guide for Reflection & Conversation

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

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

Cultivating Creativity

A Guide for Reflection & Conversation

Posted in Art and Creativity.

The three essays in this month’s magazine describe some ways creativity is being cultivated in some churches and church-like spaces. There are varied expressions highlighted: there is poetry; there is music; there is visual art. Ellen McGrath Smith describes The Bridge Series, a monthly gathering of poets and other writers who read their work in order to raise... Read more

Tag: Angela Yarber