Advent: Reminders of Love for All
If you have attended church for any amount of time, you are familiar with John 3:16. It reminds us that God loved us so much that he sent Jesus. Not to condemn us. To save us. From sin, darkness, death, and evil. I find that tremendously reassuring this Christmas season. I especially appreciate this passage in The Message: “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely…
Advent: A Story of Hope
I thought and prayed a long time before deciding to write an Advent series again this Christmas season. You may know my husband David passed from this world to his eternal home on September 21st – just weeks ago. As I write, the grief is still fresh. It’s surreal. I keep thinking he’s going to call asking what’s for dinner…or if we could go to dinner. (We talked a lot about dinner!) At the same time, I’ve been thinking a lot about hope these past several weeks. “And now, dear brothers, I want you to know what happens to a Christian when he dies so that when it happens, you…
If I’m Unhappy With The Way Things Are, Why Can’t I Change?
We join others – organizations, friend groups, and like-minded communities – for a shared vision. We want to make a difference in the world – or at least in ourselves. Why don’t our best intentions consistently result in the change we hope for? There’s a huge barrier to positive transformation – one that continually makes change hard. This looming barricade to our success is comprised of our own beliefs and assumptions. We want to influence positive change, but our beliefs and assumptions continually pull us back. And unless we make a change to them, we won’t stop being tugged away from that vision of a better future. And here’s the…
How Do You Train Wiggly Boys for the Real World?
As a mom of two young and energetic boys more than two decades ago, I distinctly recall standing at the kitchen counter thinking to myself: If I do nothing else I want to be sure they know what they believe and how to talk about it. That thought motivated almost everything that happens throughout the ICC organization today. After searching in vain for curriculum to train wiggly boys to articulate their ideas well, on and off the platform, I wrote my own. I sensed the need for like-minded community. I invited Christian families to join my children in our communication education adventure. Convinced communication must be relevant to real people,…
