This year, Lent has felt especially heavy. Violent conflict is tearing at the seams of our global family. Ideological difference and dehumanizing rhetoric exacerbated by an election season again threatens our relationships. A very natural response is to reach for power in order to protect ourselves, [...]Read More
The Radical Practice of Foot Washing: What it Teaches Us about God & Community
My name is Joshua Brockway, and I serve as the director for spiritual formation for the Church of the Brethren. We're a denomination rooted in the radical reformation and fit somewhere between Anabaptists (Mennonites) and Pietists (Quakers or the Covenant Church). We are often called one of the [...]Read More
When He Calls You By Name, an Easter Reflection
by Rev. Christine Youn HungHe asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” Thinking he was the gardener, [Mary] said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” (Jn 20:15)Imagine Mary’s bone-tired weariness during the days leading to and following Christ’s [...]Read More
Lent Week 7: Fostering Intimacy with Christ
Humility21 A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross. 22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). Mark 15:21-22I’ll be honest, it hasn’t [...]Read More
Lent Week 6: Fostering Intimacy With Christ
Serving in the Time of Anguish!Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4 so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5 After that, he poured water into a basin and began [...]Read More
Lent Week 5: Fostering Intimacy With Christ
Preparation – Some Prayers Take Time11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:1110 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for [...]Read More
Lent Week 4: Fostering Intimacy With Christ
The Witness of Grace & Generosity“And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I [...]Read More
Lent Week 3: Fostering Intimacy with Christ
Hope in the AshesTwo weeks ago, I found myself standing in my bathroom looking in the mirror. I couldn’t take my eyes off of my forehead.Emblazoned on my head was a dark, ashen cross; a reminder of my frailty and limitations. A visual to cue me in to the brokenness of the world, lest I forget.It had [...]Read More