filtered by Hospitality, Discernment, Buildings and Grounds
By Charis Bhagianathan
In our final issue of the year, we raise up our young leaders. Their collective wisdom and experience teach us incredibly important lessons about our church today and tomorrow. I invite you to listen to their powerful stories and learn from them. They represent the best and most hopeful part of our beloved Church.
By Dustin Seo
How many times has your faith community thought about what it can do to bring and keep young people at church? In Worship as an Invitation to Belong, Dustin Seo describes his journey into the Episcopal Church as an active participant who knows he belongs, the role that music played on that path and how worship is something we all actively create, not something we passively consume.
By Jon Davis
What is our modern day understanding of the mission of the church? In The Third Place, Jon Davis tells us about spaces where people gather outside of home and work, to witness and experience redemption, reconciliation and repentance, making these sacred communal places also ‘thin places’, where the Holy Spirit can be felt working in and through us.
By Diana Wheeler
In Vocation in an Unsafe World, Diana Wheeler tells us about the Companions of Dorothy the Worker, an ecumenical Christian community that brings radical hospitality to the queer community, modeling Christ’s unfailing and constant love to the most marginalized among us. This article is available in English and Spanish.
By Carsten Sierck
Should your church have an endowment? What is an endowment and why does it matter? Read on for answers from ECFs Endowment Management Team.
By Janet Waggoner
How do congregations who lose their buildings and possessions refocus on what truly makes “church”? In Church Without Walls, Janet Waggoner shares the story of the Episcopal Church in North Texas, where its people have not just continued doing God’s work in the face of material loss, but have poured even more into their communities, never failing in love and faithfulness.
By Miguelina Howell
La maternidad es algo hermoso. En cierta manera es una vocación. Desde mi preadolescencia, tuve claridad sobre dos llamados en mi vida: ser sacerdote y ser madre de mis propios hijos.
By Erin Jean Warde
The fear that sobriety will rob us of our fun is very real and more common than we might think. In Resurrecting Joy Through Sobriety, Erin Jean Warde describes her experience with sober discernment, showing how she was able to look at her own self with clarity and love and claim her joy.
By Beth Wyndham
What does it mean to be centered in joy? Are you searching for a way to engage your church leadership in reflection on their joy and gratitude as a community? In her vlog, A Pandemic Church Plant Inspires Joy, Beth Wyndham invites us to consider where the Holy Spirit may be calling our faith communities to seek joy.
By Anthony Rodríguez
Eran las ocho de la mañana, lo que significaba que era hora de despertar e ir a la iglesia. Mientras que me ponía mi bonita camisa de vestir y pantalones negros, le pregunté a mi mamá si ella iba a enseñar la clase de la escuela dominical. Lamentablemente, respondió que no. Inmediatamente me puse a la defensiva y le dije que no quería ir a clase si ni ella ni mi hermana estarían enseñánd...