Join Us Into Your Movement

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Watershed DiscipleshipLeave a comment

CircleBy Joshua Grace, a report from Circle of Hope

Philadelphia, PA

At Circle of Hope, we have the advantage of being small (over 50 cells – circles of 10), medium (5 congregations of 100-200 people), and large (we get together several times per year). Some of our expressions happen when people form Compassion Teams (we have 20 right now) that lead the church in an effort according to the passions, gifts, and limits of the folks who lead. Our most recent Love Feast, where people from all cells and congregations gather, was an expression of the Holy Spirit breathing life into all levels of the body. Continue reading “Join Us Into Your Movement” →

Literature of Witness

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, UncategorizedLeave a comment

index“But there’s a literary form I haven’t mentioned yet: the literature of witness. Offred records her story as best she can; then she hides it, trusting that it may be discovered later, by someone who is free to understand it and share it. This is an act of hope: every recorded story implies a future reader. Robinson Crusoe keeps a journal. So did Samuel Pepys, in which he chronicled the Great Fire of London. So did many who lived during the Black Death, although their accounts often stop abruptly. So did Romeo Dallaire, who chronicled both the Rwandan genocide and the world’s indifference to it. So did Anne Frank, hidden in her secret annex. Continue reading “Literature of Witness” →

Do your own work: Leadership on the Frontlines

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Race, Identity, and History, UncategorizedLeave a comment

thomson-sarah-3By Sarah Thompson, Christian Peacemakers Teams. Re-shared from her blog.

One of my favorite things about my dear friend MJ Sharp was how he did his work, especially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He gave his life for peace work there, but he was not simply a martyr.  He was someone giving his all to investigative work.  MJ was a complex character who pushed hard for justice, utilizing creative and courageous tactics that led to positive change in some key situations.  Speaking at his memorial service, the representative from the United Nations remarked, “the international community has lost one of its best investigators.”   Continue reading “Do your own work: Leadership on the Frontlines” →

Wild Lectionary: Tears Cannot Water the Land

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Clancy
Credit: Clancy Dunigan

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.’
Exodus 14:20-21

By Tevyn East and Jay Beck

John: “She died in a dry place, yet the spring followed her.
It followed her everywhere 
like a lover, easing us to rest,
springing from hidden places
 in our wanderings.

Always, we were thirsty. Continue reading “Wild Lectionary: Tears Cannot Water the Land” →

A Surprising Moment of Wonder and Gratitude

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Sabbath Economics, Watershed Discipleship1 Comment

thumb_IMG_0336.JPG_1024By Kyle Mitchell

*This is the second post in a series on Wednesdays exploring components of a mealtime spirituality.  

Cleveland, Ohio

One of the most treasured traditions that I took from growing up in a Christian family is the mealtime prayer. Even now when I go back home for holidays, I know that we’ll gather in a circle before the meal, grasp hands, and ask who’s turn it is to give thanks. My 6-year-old nephew summed it up pretty well last time when he prayed, “Dear God, thank you for everything. Amen.” Continue reading “A Surprising Moment of Wonder and Gratitude” →

Sermon: It’s Like Burning Fire Shut Up in my Bones

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Theological Animation, UncategorizedLeave a comment

roseBy Rose Berger, preached at St. Stephen’s & The Incarnation Episcopal Church (Washington, D.C.)
June 25, 2017

Jeremiah 20:7-13, Psalm 69: 8-11, (12-17), 18-20, Romans 6:1b-11, Matthew 10:24-39

[Piscataway people on whose land this church stands. Bishop Budde, Pastor Sam, Rev. Linda. The Beloved Community that gathers at St. Stephen’s and the Incarnation.]

The prophet Jeremiah was asked to carry out one of the most difficult tasks ever assigned to any servant of God.[1]

During the last years of the kingdom of Judah, Jeremiah was to prophesy to King and Congress that because of their sin their fragile nation would be subsumed by the Babylonian Empire and they would all forcibly removed to the capital city of Babylon. Continue reading “Sermon: It’s Like Burning Fire Shut Up in my Bones” →

Dan Berrigan: ¡Presente!

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Subverting Empire1 Comment

BerriganFrom the prophetic mouth of the late Dan Berrigan, on the 1st anniversary of 9/11 (An Interview with Amy Goodman on DemocracyNow, September 11, 2002):

An anniversary like this induces—seems to me, induces silence rather than a lot of words, but I’ll try. A few minutes after this horrid event a year ago, the phone rang. I was working at something. And a friend from North Carolina said, “Something terrible is happening in New York City.” And I said, “What?” and so on and so forth. And my first reaction was, I guess, right out of the gut rather than the heart, and I blurted into the phone, “So it’s come home at last.” Sympathy and tears came later, but that was the beginning. And I had a sense that that came from a very deep immersion in what I might call a hyphenated reality of America-in-the-world, hyphen in-the-world. Continue reading “Dan Berrigan: ¡Presente!” →

Another Word is in the Wind: A Psalm of Complaint and Avowal

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Art as Resistance, Subverting Empire1 Comment

prayer and politiksBy Ken Sehested, the curator of Prayer & Politiks

Have mercy upon us, O Lord.
Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
—Psalm 123:3-4

In the end, if we are left to our own devices—to our
own amalgam of brains and brawn, of ingenuity and
charisma, sleight of hand and strength of arm, in
mobilizing sufficient force to bend the will of others
to our own, in accordance to self-ordained vision
masquerading as fate’s foreordained history—then
nothing is forbidden. All authority is subsumed in
the will to power. Continue reading “Another Word is in the Wind: A Psalm of Complaint and Avowal” →

New Online Class for Parents-to-be and Seekers

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Biography as Theology, Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, UncategorizedLeave a comment

f60ead_73c06bda70bd49c3947f23dc638eaacf~mv2.jpgBy Chelsea Page

Childfree Not Carefree

Years before I created my new online class about the virgin Mary’s motherhood journey and the reproductive justice ethics led by women of color, I wrote to a friend:

My decision not to birth a child and, later, not to adopt a child, has been so lengthy, messy, and labor-intensive that I feel astonished that I have literally nothing to show for it. I hoped that at least I have cleared space for a different kind of family or community in my life. I await it with some of the eager impatience that I imagine my infertile sisters feel when they long for a child. Continue reading “New Online Class for Parents-to-be and Seekers” →