Pastor Chris

The Prayer of Lament is a practice to engage with big feelings

The Difficult Discussion When a young person in a community dies, it ripples outward. Such a traumatic event may be the closest and earliest experience with death a young person has. Children and adolescents may have big feelings and questions. A young life cut short feels especially unfair. That the death happens to someone around their age is shocking to a young mind used to the protection of family and the youthful feeling of invincibility. These issues are compounded when the death is by...

When people first see our Children and Family Ministry mascot—a friendly, wide-eyed sloth—they usually smile. Sloths are cute and the best of animals. Still, sloths don’t seem like the obvious choice for a ministry that’s full of energy, movement, and growing disciples. But the sloth turns out to be the perfect teacher for us, not because of slowness  alone, but because of what kind of slowness it represents. Acedía: The Wrong Kind of Slow The early Christians used a word that’s unfamiliar to...