With thanks to all of you who have shared your ideas and stories of pastoring during a pandemic. Rev. Joanna Harader serves as pastor of Peace Mennonite Church in Lawrence, KS. You can read some of her more serious thoughts about Advent on her blog, Spacious Faith. RevGalBlogPals encourages you to share our blog posts… Read More
Wit’s End Day: What Pastors have learned during COVID
Sure, 2020 has been a rough year with lots of adjustments and some difficult losses. But just think of all the stuff we’ve learned along the way! Talk about “things they didn’t teach us in seminary”! (Except #5. Dr. Graves tried very hard to teach me #5.) So here are The Top 10 Things I’ve… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: Isaiah 6:1-8
Those of us preaching the Narrative Lectionary get to hang out with the prophets for a few weeks. We’ve already encountered Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, and the “how not to be a prophet” story of Jonah. This week we come to Isaiah, whose prophetic voice echoes in much of Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom of God.… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: Hannah’s Prayers (1 Sam 1:9-11; 19-20; 2:1-10)
Narrative Lectionary Companions, The first thing to note this week is that we are a long way from the golden calf! If you are using this Narrative Lectionary cycle to help people gain a better understanding of the full sweep of the biblical narrative, it might be worth mentioning that we’ve skipped over six books… Read More
Narrative Lectionary: God’s Promise to Abraham (Genesis 15:1-6)
Hello, friends! I am excited to begin the Narrative Lectionary with my congregation and to share my first Narrative Lectionary post with the Rev. Gals community. I love that the NL allows us to follow the narrative arc of scripture from beginning to end—to engage with the Bible as a whole rather than just dipping… Read More
Wits’ End Day: COVID Hymns
In these days of COVID, I find that some of our beloved hymns are troubling–all of that breathing and touching and singing. So I’ve re-written a few favorites to be more appropriate for our physically-distanced, virus-conscious lives. (You really should sing them to get the full effect.) (But don’t sing them while you’re in a… Read More
Friday Prayer: Have mercy
God of peace, God of justice, God who makes swords to plowshares And leads slaves to freedom: Kyrie eleison. Christ of compassion, Christ of confrontation, Jesus who healed the sick And overturned tables: Christe eleison. Comfort us. Shelter us. Empower us. Transform us. Have mercy on us, O Holy One. Amen. Rev. Joanna Harader… Read More
Friday Prayer: A Blessing
I pray a blessing for each of you today, And it doesn’t feel like much. Because what is a word against a virus? What is a hope against racist systems? What is a nudge of love against so much political vitriol? What is an utterance of truth against all of the lies? What is a… Read More
Wits-Ends-Day: Church COVID-19 Survey Results
How comfortable would you be coming to in-person worship? Very comfortable. (33%) Fairly comfortable. (34%) Not at all comfortable. (33%) Comments: “Covid isn’t real and God will protect us from it.” “If we don’t meet in person next week I’m finding another church that really believes in God.” “If we meet in person within the… Read More
Friday Prayer: Upon Reading of the Canaanite Woman and Jesus
(Matthew 15:21-28) God, This story is not the one I have in mind when I pray to be more like Jesus. I am already good at ignoring things that threaten to throw off my carefully laid plans. I need no encouragement to try to control the focus of my work according to my vision—which I… Read More
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