Happy New Year! What are your plans for Lent and Easter this year? In Lent, I always plan to say no to something (fast) so that I can say yes to something else (feast). What do you hope to feast on? What are you thinking of fasting from? Here is...
“As the people were filled with expectation...” —Luke 3:15 I was 18, wearing a grey baby-doll sweater dress that belonged to my sister’s best friend. All my life, I had performed dance recitals and concerts and spoken publicly before many crowds, but I knew none of those crowds really expected...
I had a professor in seminary who always said that we had to train physically, emotionally, and spiritually for the Season of Advent and Christmas, otherwise the multiple demands might overwhelm us entirely. I wish you all the best as we begin to prepare and train for the season! And...
While in his nineties, the Rev. T., a preacher I admired, told me that he only had one sermon in him, which he developed about 40 variations on each year, depending on the liturgical season, biblical text, and the pastoral needs of his community. His sermon was one of assurance...
What's New: Pentecost 2, 2022 Thank you, Gatherin g community, for your support and feedback as we work to make GatheringWorship.ca your go-to online worship-planning resource. We are over 1,200 members strong and still growing, thanks to your contributions! I know that many of you are having some difficulty finding...
“Fake it till you make it” was a mantra of my youth that I retired some years ago. It was a law of attraction and a survival thing: I faked dance moves until I got them; I faked confidence until it appeared; I faked understanding dominant White culture until I...
Each space we make home deserves a blessing that creates a safe, welcoming and refreshing place for our bodies, minds and spirits. This ritual, available for download below, is for the blessing of a dorm room. It could be adapted for blessing other spaces in which we live.
I am convinced that, in the end, our credibility and impact as followers of Christ will not be a stunning report card highlighting the programs we ran, the grandeur of our acts of charity, or the glorious high notes of our ministries. Our credibility and impact will be measured by...
Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, in order that they may see the food with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” —Exodus 16:32
In the spring of 2020, I was having a hard time worshipping. The angry, grief-infused words of the psalmist lingered with me: “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4). And yet, it is our calling as worship leaders to offer people songs of praise...
