Worship and Wonder
Home Communion Elk Grove United Methodist Church
GREETING (responsively) The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you And also with you. The risen Christ is with us. Praise the Lord! OPENING PRAYER (all) Almighty and everlasting God, in whom we live and move and have our being, you created us for yourself, So that our hearts are restless until they…
Read MoreLeading Worship evaluation sheet
Response to “Leading Worship” course November, 2024 Name: Local Church: 1. What I most appreciated (or) found most meaningful was: 2 What I’d like to say to Betsy Schwarzentraub as teacher: 3. What I’d like to tell others about Betsy’s book, Tossed In Time Expanded Edition: 4. After participating in this planning retreat, I’d like…
Read MoreAdvent Devotion Based on John 1:1-5
“In the beginning,” John says—the very beginning, as “when God began to create” in Genesis chapter one, verse one. So here is a new genesis: God’s speaking the Word of Love incarnate, in the One we would come to know in human history as Jesus of Nazareth. But not only Him. God’s love is embodied…
Read MoreNourishing Our Souls
“Nourishing Our Souls” was the name of a retreat I attended recently. It was led by colleague and friend Rev. Maggie McNaught. She’s a therapist, spiritual director, and minister, but don’t let that fool you. She doesn’t live inside a conventional religious box. She’s always reaching out for the Spirit, beyond the usual parameters. I…
Read MoreAnother Look at the Book of Job
Who knew that reading the Book of Job would be about so much more than just dealing with unfair suffering – as if that weren’t enough! Chapter by chapter, the Book breaks down our conventional wisdom that denies the suffering of innocents. Reading it is not for the faint of heart! But as I read…
Read MoreOverusing God?
Overusing God? What could that mean? A momentary struggle with that phrase led me to wonder and to worship. I learned a long time back that our language not only reflects our thoughts, but also shapes them. For example, if we think “friend” as our default language, we’ll begin with a positive attitude toward another…
Read MoreResurrection and Wild Waves
Okay, I admit it: ever since COVID and writing my book Tossed in Time, I’ve been partial to Matthew’s story of Jesus walking on the stormy water – and Peter’s crazy request to walk on the wild waves with him! (Matthew 14: 22-33) A fisherman by trade, Peter clearly knew those nighttime storms could mean…
Read MoreDisciples and Disciplines
I never was a fan of the word “discipline.” It sounds too much like “punishment” to me. Not that my parents disciplined me very much. But the term used to leave a bad taste in my mouth, nevertheless. But not any longer. Actually, “discipline” comes from the word for “disciple.” Ah, that makes a huge…
Read MoreWorship’s Deep Water
On a scorching day, it’s amazing how refreshing a simple glass of cold water can be. I have felt this in the summer after a long walk, a hike, or a workout, when the heat seems to suck the life out of my parched mouth. That’s how it tasted this past Saturday when I co-taught…
Read MoreFlow
There are times when doing flows into being. Like when a toddler carefully puts the final block on a toy tower he has built. It can happen when an instrumental musician masters an intricate musical passage. Or when a runner completes her most memorable race, her leg muscles burning and lungs nearly exploding, in what…
Read MorePracticing God’s Presence
In the busi-ness of your responsibilities and the busy-ness of life, how do you stay in touch with God? Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” But how do we open up to such stillness within? I recognize this stillness in certain moments, when the illusion of “ordinary” days is drawn…
Read MoreDay-by-Day Mysteries
Think of us in this way: as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. (1 Corinthians 4:1) Paul was in trouble – again. This time it was with some members of the congregations he helped because of that pack of holier-than-thou “super-apostles.” They were going around stirring up doubts about his leadership, saying that…
Read MoreWhat is Prayer?
A major question for many people is not the how of prayer, but the what. In their minds, some people may connect prayer with memorized lines they were taught in childhood, or a thing religious leaders said in church worship. But what exactly is prayer? The answer to this question is not the same for…
Read MoreThe Pattern Prayer
“I’ll pray for you,” people often say. But what do they mean by that? What is prayer, anyway? Prayer is a common term, but any room even of like-minded folks picture it in scores of different ways. Little children may imagine saying sentences out loud to an Old Man in the sky; older adults may…
Read MoreChristmas: Madeleine L’Engle
“When we celebrate Christmas,” says awesome author Madeleine L’Engle, “we are celebrating that amazing time when the Word that shouted all the galaxies into being, limited all power, and for love of us came to us in the powerless body of a human baby. My faith is based on this incredible act of love, and…
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