Peppermints, Mentos and Communion with Children

Last week some church planters were gathered together in the hospitality house of a New York monastery.  The conversation, like the people gathered, was lively and stimulating.  Most participants arrived knowing each other only tangentially.  We were only beginning to get acquainted.   Even so, joyful banter and word play bounced gracefully from one subject to

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Dying to Rise

Easter is a day for feasting and celebration, but it is perhaps even more remarkable because it is not possible without the week that precedes it. Easter depends on betrayal, injustice, and painful prayers. Frankly, it’s a weird thing. For many Christians for a long long time, the season of Lent – the forty or

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The Rhythm of Waiting

We are nearing the season of Lent in the Christian calendar. During Lent, we prepare for Christ’s death and resurrection. We may sometimes think of Lent as a time to “give something up.” There’s a long history of Christians spending these forty days before Easter emulating Christ’s ultimate sacrifice by making sacrifices of their own

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Framing Epiphany

Our calendars fill with special days. We circle them on our datebook or diary. We set annual reminders on our cell phones. We want to remember birthdays and anniversaries. We love to celebrate New Year’s and Valentine’s, Martin Luther King Jr. and Canada Day, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving. Or maybe our birth country taught

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Christmas Feasting

My favorite thing about following the church calendar is simple: Christmas gets 12 days. Yes, the 12 Days of Christmas is not just a fanciful song full of lords-a-leaping, and lots and lots of birds. It’s actually part of the way that the church has celebrated Christmas for a longtime – not one day, but

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