It should break our brains that the biggest reason we might get four more years of Donald Trump as president is American Christians. What if our church could help shift the narrative in our country about who God is, and whose side God is on? One of BLC’s resident theologians Hayley Larson leads us through our first starting point for answering the question "who is Jesus?" — the God who became human.
Art by Edward Knippers
Read MoreOn Sunday, we talked about a vision of what BLC looks like five years from now, we heard four promises from Vince & Kyle, and they made four asks of all of us in the community. Here it is in audio form!
Read MoreNot much about what we might accomplish or where we might be in the future feels imaginable right now. But what we can imagine is who we want to be: our character, our integrity, our values. Kyle leads us in a prayer practice of imagining ourselves 5 years from now.
Read MoreAcross many traditions, mature, life-giving spirituality has often been understood as a move away from reactivity. That doesn’t mean removed or without emotion. It means deeply invested and affected, but in a way that is slowed down, wise, and aligned with our values. Jesus suggests we are loved and shaped away from reactivity by relationship with God.
Read MoreKyle brings us to the comfort of God in the matters we have no control over, and brings us to the challenge of God in the matters we do have control over.
Read MoreBuilding authentic relationships with people requires getting in touch with what's really going on inside us. Kyle walks us through a prayer practice that can help.
Read MoreImagine concentric circles. The circle in the center is the person or people closest to a crisis or trauma. Each of the circles working outward are the people next closest. Vince shares the one simple rule in this model to help us care well and avoid making things worse.
Read MoreSpiritual fulfillment is something human beings long for, but Jesus suggested it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich (or privileged) person to find it. Vince shares some of the more humbling experiences on his journey of finding spiritual fulfillment by learning to align himself with the oppressed, rather than with his privilege.
Read MoreBLC's Hayley Larson shares with us from both her personal story and professional studies how feminist language, images, and actions help us see the God Jesus reveals more fully, and how relying exclusively on male reference points is dangerous to faith.
Art by Kelly Latimore.
Read MoreWith help from BLC’s Maria Santillan, we consider how, in the same way microaggressions reinforce systemic racism in America, spiritual microaggressions in church settings reinforce systemic marginalizing of people whose family or culture don’t pre-dispose them to understand or be able to navigate American churches. Our church considers this a fight for equity — for the important perspective of church outsiders, like Maria, to be valued in spiritual conversations.
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