Composite Illustration iStock / Rubio
Mel Williams: Singing our way to hope
Singing draws people together, comforts the grieving, motivates and inspires. But most of all, it gives us hope, writes a Baptist pastor emeritus and singer.
Spiritual health
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Earlier this year, Alfred Street Baptist Church encouraged people to participate in a churchwide fast called "Seek 2019." Image courtesy of Alfred Street Baptist Church
How -- and why -- one church organized its first 'corporate fast'
More than 4,000 members of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, committed to a new spiritual discipline earlier this year.
iStock / Fizkes
A. Trevor Sutton: One-on-one accountability groups may be a solution to pastoral woes
When a Michigan pastor realized that his accountability group was too big, he came up with a new solution -- pairs.
A walkway at Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve in Pennsylvania, which author L. Roger Owens visited, alone and with his family, over the course of a year. Photo by Rachel Handel
L. Roger Owens: Midlife as a time of discovery, not a problem to be solved
Instead of sinking into the feeling of being stuck, a seminary professor set a goal of taking 40 walks to mark his 40th birthday. He then wrote essays about the experience, reflecting on the burdens and the surprises of the middle stage of life.
Pexels / Photo by Johannes Plenio
Excerpt: 'Threshold of Discovery: A Field Guide to Spirituality in Midlife'
In this essay from his new book, seminary professor L. Roger Owens reflects on the feeling of spiritual restlessness in midlife during an outing with his family.
Four daily prayers for abundant life. Illustration by Jessamyn Rubio
Mel Williams: Four prayers for abundant aliveness
Being saved means receiving Jesus’ gift of full aliveness, writes an activist and pastor emeritus, who shares his daily petitions for abundant life.
Bigstock / Siam Pukato
Alaina Kleinbeck: Hope takes hard work
Why do we expect young people to be naturally hopeful? Looking honestly at a broken world and resolving to live in hope anyway requires experience, writes the director of the Thriving in Ministry Coordination Program at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity.
Bigstock/Kasia Bialasiewicz
Kendall Vanderslice: It's lonely to eat alone
Has the idolization of the nuclear family stifled our imagination about how to live in Christian community? What might it look like to sleep, eat and organize our days around the communion built at the Eucharist table?
The Cliffs of Moher are in County Clare, Ireland, where the author lives. Bigstock/Redwallsky
Jessica Brown: Celtic Christianity and the gift of thresholds
The spiritual practices of Celtic Christianity include an appreciation for thresholds -- those literal and metaphorical crossing points that can serve as designated spaces or times to open to God, says a writer living in Ireland.
MaryAnn McKibben Dana: Improvisation is theological
The principles and practices of improvisational theater can help people cope with difficulty and an uncertain future -- all while taking themselves lightly, says the author of “God, Improv, and the Art of Living.”