Category: Wesleyan Accent Blog
A Hard Reset by Edgar Bazan
January 10, 2019
While we can’t ignore the past – it happened – we can reframe it into a story of redemption by looking at it, by talking about it, by thinking about it through the lens of Jesus’ love and grace. We change our past by allowing it to be redeemed.
How Church Personalities Reveal Epiphany Living by Priscilla Hammond
January 9, 2019
Churches have personalities, expressed through their organization, Christian education
processes, preaching, and worship. Each can have strengths and challenges, but the diversity is reflective of the differences we see in people, including the
Apostles.
Instead of focusing on which
organizational structure or form of worship we prefer, we need to ask if our church is manifesting Christ to the world.
Our Greatest Leadership Challenge of the New Year by James Petticrew
January 1, 2019
I have often thought when hearing of another nose-dive from ministry, “not him?” but underlying that has been a naive attitude that has assumed that it won’t ever be me.
Reveal by Elizabeth Glass Turner
December 27, 2018
Our world needs to be new again: reborn, pressed against the chest of its Creator. Do galaxies have a newborn smell? Do subatomic particles dance with the hard-to-predict movements of a newborn’s kicking legs? In the youth of the world, did the trees yawn the contented sigh of a just-nursed newborn?
Finding Joy and Peace this Christmas Week by Michelle Bauer
December 24, 2018
Christmas is almost here! Thinking backing over the last few weeks, when have you felt the most peaceful? When have you felt the most stress or anxiety? As you think ahead to the coming week, what are you looking forward to? What, if anything, are you dreading? Offer those things into God’s care.
Gaudete by James Petticrew
December 17, 2018
Yesterday was the third Sunday of Advent, called Gaudete Sunday; “gaudete” is Latin for “rejoice.” Even a cursory reading of the Bible reveals that joy and rejoicing are an inevitable overflow in the lives of people who have understood and experienced God at work in their lives.
Advent, Esther, & the Absence of God by Jackson Lashier
December 16, 2018
As good as the story of Esther is, however, it presents us with a problem: God is absent. Unlike other Old Testament stories, where we read of God appearing to Abraham or working behind the scenes to foil the plans of the Pharaoh, the story of Esther never mentions God. Rather, the characters in Esther appear to be acting on their own. God, it seems, is absent.
Hope in a Diner Booth by Karen Bates
December 10, 2018
At a time in my life when things were not like I wanted, I sat in a restaurant booth across…
Founder’s Chic by Barton Price
December 5, 2018
I’m a historian by training. It is what I do and how I think. This training orients my own spiritual…
Celebrating Advent as a Family: Las Posadas by Michelle Bauer
December 3, 2018
Many families enjoy re-telling the events that happened around the time that someone was born – the mad dash to…