The church. Christians. Followers of God in the Way of Jesus. Living the life of faith. Being the hands, feet, and voice of Jesus in the world. If you've spent any time around me (or, you know, this blog or my other blog or my twitter feed or my facebook timeline), I would hope it is clear that I believe …
Tag: Bread for the World
Mourning, and yet…
It has been rough week. It's been a week of mourning. It has been a week of mourning with Miriam, all the Cabanas family and friends, and our congregation over Ernie's sudden death. Just a few days ago Miriam and Ernie hugged me on their way out of church after our worship service, all smiles …
Making US food aid more Methodist?
When we collected an Offering o f Letters (OL) at Woodridge United Methodist Church on April 28th, I shared that writing to support food aid reform put us on the cutting edge; that we were helping Bread for the World try out a new focus for OLs. Food aid reforms in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 …
Record-breaking OL not done yet
Last Sunday, my congregation, Woodridge United Methodist Church, partnered with Bread for the World in taking an Offering of Letters. Rosie's story (see above video) was a key component of our presentation and perhaps part of the reason the OL produced 110 names on the petition to the President and 120 letters to our Senators. The …
Responding to evil with a hope and a prayer
How often this week have you heard someone say, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of ______"? Boston, Iraq, Texas, Iran, Illinois...there's no shortage of people dealing with violence, disaster, pain, and tragedy. There never is. Has the "thoughts and prayers" sentiment gone the way of "how are you"? Tossed off with little …
Continue reading Responding to evil with a hope and a prayer
I do love Bread
I know there much more important issues to cover: protecting SNAP and other programs vital to caring for poor and hungry people in any fiscal cliff deal; raising our voices to destigmatize mental health care; drowning out the NRA's insanity with petitions, letters, posts, conversations, and every other way we can; continuing to care for …
“I’m not just sitting back waiting for somebody to hand me something.”
I was thrilled that we had a full room watching The Line last week. Plenty of discussion going on in small groups afterwards, too. After the small group discussion time, I asked for people willing to share some of what they discussed regarding three questions: What in the film surprised you? What did you learn …
Continue reading “I’m not just sitting back waiting for somebody to hand me something.”
Hands, feet and voice
“If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” It was just a few weeks ago that we read in worship those …
Watch “The Line” and #TalkPoverty
As I wrote a couple weeks ago, tonight you can watch the world premiere of (what promises to be) a terrific, important and compelling movie: The Line. I threw in that parenthetical qualifier because, of course, I haven't actually seen the film. Hence the "world premiere" part. 🙂 But I absolutely expect The Line to …
Toeing “The Line”
I've written rather extensively about my involvement with and support for Bread for the World. I've been less vocal about my involvement with and support for Sojourners. But both organizations help me reflect upon a Christian commitment to social justice. Both organizations help me act on that commitment. So you can imagine my interest when …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 