We Modern people like to maintain the image of our minds being a locked-down, private space, but, when we let our guards down, we often feel a call away from closed self-sufficiency. Maybe our minds are more mysterious than we assume, and we'd welcome a flashlight and some outside input. This week, Vince teaches us about Listening Prayer. (Photo by Tawseem Hakak on Unsplash)
Read MoreFor our shortened end-of-August service, Vince reminds us that a full life stops to mark transitions (like the turning of the academic calendar) rather than speeds through them. He leads us in a blessing over the back to school transition from author Kate Bowler.
Read MoreModern life is like being under a waterfall: so many experiences and demands and thoughts and feelings tumbling down on us, leaving us in constant reactivity mode. "Getting behind the waterfall" is a contemplative prayer practice meant to get us out of reactivity mode.
Read MoreBeginning with the famous "Invisible Gorilla" study by Daniel Simons, Vince suggests a prayer practice for experiencing transcendence in the midst of our exhausting, pressure-heavy lives, which can feel simultaneously instinctual AND extremely hard (or strange) against the backdrop of Modern Life.
Read MoreIn Illinois, over 9,000 people are unhoused, and over 389,000 more are considered at risk of being unhoused. This Sunday is our annual project for packing relief kits for our unhoused and underhoused neighbors, and for demonstrating that the real moral question for our country is how we treat the poor.
Read MoreEveryone can perceive God, but different people will perceive more naturally in different ways. Vince brings to us a resource that can relieve pressure about how prayer has to look, and inject some creativity and new ideas into our personal prayer lives.
Read MoreWhile Psalm 139 is most known for its incredibly affirming beginning ("I am fearfully and wonderfully made"), it also has a dark, troubling turn ("I hate with perfect hatred"). What holds it all together? The final verses that reveal "the God of the Gut Check"...
Read MoreIn celebration of Pride weekend, we celebrate the God who celebrates and welcomes all. (Photo by Alex Jackman on Unsplash)
Read MoreWhile there are many unhelpful pictures of power and control, we can find in Jesus a power that is rooted in compassion and trust. On this Juneteenth and Father’s Day weekend, we look at the Psalms’ portrayal of God as a source of help and liberation. (Art: "Christ Breaks the Rifle" by Kelly Latimore)
Read MoreContinuing our series inspired by the Psalms, Hayley & Vince share experiences of music and song connecting them with God. (Photo by Aaron Burden via Unsplash)
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