As things wide down for another year and we all scatter to summer activates, Stephanie Bowron and I would like to invite you to develop a family practice of reflection, Bible reading and prayer. Faith Five is a simple method developed by Faith Inkubators. All it takes is a Bible, a few minutes and five steps. The first person to head off to bed calls the family together with by calling out “Faith 5.” Everyone drops what they’re doing, turns … →
There always seems to be a a Bible study going on in this coffee shop (which is not owned by anyone associated with Hamline Church, just for the record). On one hand, it’s great to see people reading and talking about the Bible so openly. I love seeing people expressing their faith in public. On the other hand, I find myself troubled by what I hear. So much of it seems to be not so much reading the Bible as … →
Of the three aspects of the School of Love, the enneagram is probably the hardest to understand. As I come to understand it more and more, it is certainly the one I find the hardest to explain. It does not lend itself well to the “elevator speech” I learned to create back in my marketing days. Prayer? Sure. Scripture reading? Absolutely. We all know what those things are. Centering prayer and lectio divina are just new ways to do something … →
As you may have heard, this spring Hamline Church received a grant from the UMC MN Annual Conference to create a new program called the School of Love. The goal of the School of Love is to nourish our spiritual lives – both individual and collective – through contemplative practices. School of Love focuses three ancient traditions — Centering Prayer (silent prayer), Enneagram (a system of self-examination) and Lectio Divina (holy reading of scripture). The name “School of Love” comes … →
Where do you practice your Christianity? I don’t what to know what you do, or how you do it, but where. I am guessing most of us would say we practice our Christianity in Church, in our homes, around the dinner table, in bed as we prepare to sleep, in the world as we strive to love our neighbors as ourselves. But, beyond those quick and easy answers, where do you practice your Christianity? Where in your body does your … →
Hope is a tricky concept. So much is packed into it. When we hope for something, we know how things should be. We also know they are not as they should be Yet. We wait, joyfully, for good things to happen. Hope lives in the darkness, but waits for the Light that it has been promised. Today, an email newsletter asked me “What habits do you have that generate hope?” The article quotes the 20th- century English mystic and artist … →
Hamline Church was buzzing with the sounds of Christmas preparations this past Sunday. Children and families gathered in the Fellowship Hall to dip candles, create Advent wreaths, make wrapping paper and write Christmas cards to our home-bound members. After crafting and getting their faces painted, kids, parents and grandparents enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies. Everyone left with a graft to decorate their home and an Advent Guide to help their families prepare for Christmas. Meanwhile, adults … →
I am a road trip connoisseur. I have always liked long drives, but I had to admit how much I loved road trips this past Thanksgiving weekend. I was on the second of what will be at least six, but more likely eight, out-of-town car trips in the next two months. I am probably not that unusual. So many of us hit the road over the Holidays; we visit family, catch up with friends, take advantage of the extra days … →
