What is the basic message of the gospel? Is there a core essence that can be extracted from all the stories, traditions, rituals, and writings of our faith? To ask the question another way: How can we know which of our practices and beliefs are truly essential to who we are as followers of Jesus,…
Quaker musician and minister Jon Wattspublished another provocative blog post on Friday, entitled Support A Minister. Sell Your Meetinghouse. In his characteristically passionate style, Jon is calling on the Quaker community to step up to the plate and support the ministry that God is raising up in our midst. He insists that genuine, Spirit-led ministry…
One peculiar feature of the Quaker tradition is our insistence on the role that each individual has in the discernment of the Holy Spirit’s will for the community. The entire membership of the church is called upon to exercise the authority that in many Christian traditions is held by a small group of ordained leaders. Quakers…
The Search for Depth and MeaningThere is a hunger in western society today for a sense of purpose and belonging that goes deeper than the daily grind. We live in a world that is overwhelmingly focused on profit and appearance rather than service and substance. While some of us are fortunate to have paid work…
As we re-examine what it means to be the Church in a post-modern, post-Christendom context, one important tradition that bears a fresh look is that of church membership. Membership has changed a lot over the centuries. In the early Church, membership was a result of a long process of initiation and sacrifice. Membership meant real risk…
Dear Friends of Jesus, As the month of October draws to a close, and the daylight hours grow ever shorter, we here in Washington, DC are seeing autumn at its apex. The trees are in the final throes of their changes of color; soon they will be entirely bare. Winter is coming. During this time…