e-Soundings

“It’s Good Christmas Grief 2021, Charlie Brown”

Are you addressing the widespread grief we are all carrying in your messages this season? Are you being open and honest about your own grief? Back when 9/11 happened, one response was full churches. Grief, along with anger, confusion and... Read more →

Are you Sidestepping the Apocalypse? (...for a "nice" Jesus?)

Do you shy away from the passages that talk of destruction and death, wars and rumors of war, of stone falling away from stone and walls destroyed, of earthquakes and famine? Every year in November, we end the Lectionary year... Read more →

What’s your “Follow up” for after Christmas?

With a little preparation, the covenant community of Christ, the church, can offer a safe and healing place, a place to start over again and incorporate important changes in our lives. It can a place where life can move closer to God’s dream for all of us if we can help it be that way. Read more →

Pre-Advent: A 21st Century Christmas Imperative

Let’s face it, Christmas has largely become a frenzied offering to the God of Consumerism. Shopping, wrapping, decorating, office parties, family parties, neighborhood parties with drinking and eating will all be offered up with a large dose of nostalgia, excess... Read more →

Christmas is for Adults

In our current recession, with friends and family losing jobs and homes, with money running out and Christmas expectations always high, we need a deeper, more "grown-up" understanding of Christmas. Read more →

The Christmas Holidays are always a challenge for Christians.

The lure and attractiveness of the festive decorations, the catchy music and all the characters from Frosty, to the Grinch, to Santa Clause compete for our attention. If we have children around, these stories take front and center no matter... Read more →

Christmas Shopping has never been more joyful!

These gifts are encouraged as part of an effort to cut down our focus on "things" and shift if more to People. On that Sunday, special informational displays will be up to explain our selection of "gifts" for this Christmas. Read more →

Advent: "My, how you've changed!"

For hundreds of years the more traditional/liturgical churches have celebrated "Advent" as a time of waiting in anticipation and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ. The Twelve Days of Christmas were the great feast time of celebration from Christmas day to Epiphany day (Jan. 6). Society now moves by a different schedule. Read more →

Can You have an "Alternative" Christmas this year?

Has the economic meltdown changed your Christmas plans? Join the crowd! Most of us are coping with less money, scaled back parties and less travel. For some, its a heart wrenching process. Christmas is usually about parties and the giving... Read more →

Why Dec. 25th? - Isn't that a mistake?

Christmas calls us to not give in to our mistakes and our failures, but instead to use the power of God, the power of new birth and resurrection to overcome them. Read more →