Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Porch Story :: Summer 2019

porch stories icon 2019

spring 2019 summary header image

• Porch Stories host Kristin writes about an August that sounds almost enviable.

• With August concluding meteorological summer, Emily P Freeman hosts her quarterly linkup.

June

• Day Camp in the San Fernando Valley easily was the high point of June, possibly of the summer so far. Check out pictures here!

July

• Reading and reviewing I See You by Terence Lester qualifies as a highlight of this year.

• For the first month in a long time, I didn't blog about July—no interesting outing or activities or pictures, but I did accomplish the amazement of retrieving my belongings, all of those everythings, out of South Central where they'd spent four years in storage. Despite downsizing and donating a lot of mostly furniture along with some other effects before leaving Previous City, like many or most, I couldn't Marie Kondo as thoroughly as might have been ideal. Almost everyone knows about items that don't necessarily occupy a whole lot of space, items you have three or four or more of that are similar but deciding which one to hang onto is too major at the moment, etc.

August

• No August pictures at this time, though I may add a few later. Continuing the sorting and donating theme because most of it has happened this month, everyone knows about donation regrets that frequently happen because sorting and unloading generates such an emotional high... Chances are I'll schedule a few more pickups (with Vietnam Vets of America) and waiting until I better could assess what to keep and what not has been freeing and satisfying. Due to different box sizes ranging from standard small through medium to quite a few large, blogging a number doesn't say much, but twenty five (25) is the current count.

Watch This Space!

1. For a review of another launch team book, Start With Your People, about gathering your tribe and being a supporter;

2. For a serious blog about Previous City friend Markus Watson's fabulous Spirit Life and Leadership podcast. It's not only for pastors, teachers, deacons, elders, and seminary types (professors and students). It's for everyone because if we are alive, we are spiritual so we have a spiritual life!

Emily P Freeman Spring 2019

Kristin Taylor Porch Stories button

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Sacred Resistance

sacred resistance book cover

Sacred Resistance: A Practical Guide to Christian Witness and Dissent by Ginger Gaines-Cirelli on Amazon

Sacred Resistance the book is a biblically-grounded resource for engaging political, social, economic, and corporate powers that be while keeping yourself sourced in prayer, scripture, and community. Sacred Resistance touches upon possibilities for future transformation while remembering God's mighty actions and ongoing presence in the life of the people of God and in all creation. Short, practical, and easy to read without high-falutin' theological terminology that might require a second layer of interpretation, the book won't overwhelm your church's session, vestry, council, or consistory; it also won't underwhelm pastors or others with more extensive theological backgrounds.

Author Ginger Gaines-Cirelli pastors Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C.; the large congregation is involved in a wide range of ministries. Small or medium-sized churches simply cannot do it all and need to choose their specialties. Sacred Resistance could be a conversational starting point for discerning options that best enlist members' gifts, passions—and limited time.

I appreciate Pastor Ginger's desire to avoid masculine Kingdom (of God, of heaven) language, but kinships isn't an adequate stand-in. God does create close kinship with all creation, particularly with those baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection, but we need to retain a sense of the sovereignty, of the unique authority, of the reign of heaven on earth in Christ Jesus.

End notes for each chapter offer an additional rich resource individuals or committees might explore after studying the book. All in all, I highly recommend Sacred Resistance for the real-life ideas it suggests.

• My Amazon Review: engaging and resisting powers and principalities