May 2024 Devotional on Mental Health and Wellness video supplement
As long as humans have existed, there has been mental illness. By some estimates, as many as 20% of all adults live with a mental health issue. In biblical times, mental illness was often misunderstood and thought to be caused by demonic possession. In modern times,...
Winter/Spring 2024 “Scripture and nature: Teachers of faith” Bible study video supplement Session 4
Session Four: Food: Daily bread for the health of the world Most of us hunt, harvest and forage in grocery store aisles. We’ve forgotten the ways our food first comes to us—from fields, flocks, forests and farms. Considering our relationship with creation and our...
Winter/Spring 2024 “Scripture and nature: Teachers of faith” Bible study video supplement Session 3
Session Three: Rivers: Springs of life and hope Fresh water. Most of life on our planet depends on it, and the story of God’s saving work flows alongside it, through stories of biblical rivers that offer a vision of flourishing creation. Together we’ll journey from...
Winter/Spring 2024 “Scripture and nature: Teachers of faith” Bible study video supplement Session 2
Session Two: Creatures: Our siblings in praise and trust Jesus invites us to consider the birds, but we’ll get to know biblical critters beyond the sparrows. We’ll look at biblical animals (some adorable, some terrifying) from ravens and lions to a big fish, paired...
Winter/Spring 2024 “Scripture and nature: Teachers of faith” Bible study video supplement Session 1
Session One: Weather: Powerful force for change We can’t control the weather, but we can learn from it. Storms, rain, drought and wind shape the lives of human and non-human beings, both in scripture and today. As we face catastrophic storms and the weird weather of...
Fall 2023 “Holy Places” Bible study video supplement Session 3
Holy places: Pilgrimage Pilgrimage, a journey to a sacred place, is a spiritual practice with a long history in Christianity (and many other religions). In the Bible, pilgrimage is not only about the destination, but also about the “holy place” of the journey itself....
Fall 2023 “Holy Places” Bible study video supplement Session 2
Holy places: Sanctuary For thousands of years, physical spaces have been set apart for individual prayer and community worship. “Sanctuary” is one word for such spaces. Throughout history, “sanctuary” has also referred to spaces of safety and refuge. If God is...
Fall 2023 “Holy Places” Bible study video supplement Session 1
Holy places: Home Home can be the place we lay our head and the people we call family. Home can be our community or homeland. Home is also found wherever we truly and fully belong. This month, we consider the complexity and the promise of “home” through the...
Summer 2023 “Salvation Now!” Bible study video supplement Session 3
Needed Salvation Now—A World Wanting Wellness Anyone who’s been to a sports game knows John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” Lesser known is John 3:17, which...
Summer 2023 “Salvation now!” Bible study video supplement Session 2
Tangible Salvation Now—Christians Bringing Wellness Following Jesus means expressing our solidarity with Jesus and his mission, in all we do. Because Jesus is the bringer of salvation, in his name, so, too, are we. Where there are wounds and brokenness, we are called...
Summer 2023 “Salvation now!” Bible study video supplement Session 1
This June, we travel overseas to join the Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen, author of the Summer 2023 “Salvation now” Gather Bible study. Dr. Madsen takes us on a walking tour of Regensburg, Germany, where she lived from 1999 to 2004, sharing various legends and sites of interest...
May 2023: Video Supplement to “Love in action: The art of intergenerational hospitality”
In writing to the Romans, Paul advised this early Christian community: “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” Yet when it...