Embracing All God Has Provided - A Deeper Life Together

Embracing All God Has Provided - A Deeper Life Together - 17 October 2022

Published: Mon, 10/17/22

Resources for A Deeper Life Together
in our Churches and Neighborhoods

Curated by The Englewood Review of Books

17 October 2022

Embracing All That God Has Provided

God has provided abundantly for the flourishing of creation. But often we have been formed in such a way that we are at least partially blind to the breadth and depth of God's provision. The articles featured below challenge us to see the abundance that God has provided -- in the youth of our churches, in cross-gender friendships, in the limits of time -- and to receive that abundance as the good gift that it is.

Cultivating Communities works alongside cohorts of churches that are in close-proximity to each other, providing resources and helping them discern what it might look like for their congregations and their places to flourish. Our first two cohorts (one in the mountains of East Tennessee and one on the west side of Chicago) are now underway.

(Learn more about our cohorts and the Cultivating Communities Learning Journey)

Gen Z and Millennials Are Seeking Authentic Church Community, Not Leaving It Gen Z and Millennials have a desire and hunger for religious thought and exploration, but religious figures must exude authenticity for young people to give any credence to their teachings. They are asking difficult questions and seeking honest answers that may not be clear-cut regarding what religion means for their personal lives. (via Church Leaders dot com)

Karen Swallow Prior on The scandal of evangelical Christian friendship Even apart from abiding friendship, men and women must live, work, worship and be together in many other ways. Thus, one-size-fits-all manmade rules cannot replace biblical wisdom, the common humanity God gave us or the scriptural injunction to treat one another as brothers and sisters. (via Religious News Service)

Why pastors should understand economics Economists live in a world of scarcity. Christians believe in God’s abundance. In this conversation, an economist and a pastor talk about the ways in which that tension plays out in ministry and life. (via Faith and Leadership)
Click Here to read this interview ...

An Interview with Jen Pollock Michel and James K.A. Smith on Living Faithfully in Time. Jen and Jamie both have new books out this fall on topics related to how we live within time. I recently had the opportunity to have a conversation with both of them about their books. Give it a listen! (via The Englewood Review of Books Podcast)

- Lectionary Poetry -

The Sparrow
Paul Laurence Dunbar

A little bird, with plumage brown,
Beside my window flutters down,
A moment chirps its little strain,
Ten taps upon my window–pane,
And chirps again, and hops along,
To call my notice to its song;
But I work on, nor heed its lay,
Till, in neglect, it flies away.

So birds of peace and hope and love
Come fluttering earthward from above,
To settle on life’s window–sills,
And ease our load of earthly ills;
But we, in traffic’s rush and din
Too deep engaged to let them in,
With deadened heart and sense plod on,
Nor know our loss till they are gone.

(Selected to accompany Psalm 84:1-7,
one of this week's Lectionary Readings)

Read all the Lectionary Poetry
selections for this week...
from The Englewood Review of Books

c/o Englewood Christian Church
57 N RURAL ST
INDIANAPOLIS IN 46201
USA

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