Word and Wisdom

09/01/2026

September often feels like a second beginning.

But we don't return to our lives, our work, or our communities as the same people who left them. We carry what we've learned, what we've released, what we've endured—and what has quietly taken root.

As this new season begins, what are you carrying forward?

08/19/2026

There comes a point when simply getting through the week isn't enough.

Many of us are carrying grief, fatigue, frustration, and a deep desire to remain faithful in challenging times. Yet the answer isn't simply to work harder or care more. We also need practices that help us stay grounded in God's presence—and in our own humanity.

The Soul of Justice Work: Practices for Staying Human When the World Is on Fire is a six-week online learning experience designed for leaders, caregivers, clergy, activists, and anyone seeking a more sustainable way to live and lead.

Together we'll explore practices of lament, rest, embodiment, discernment, and community—not as luxuries, but as essential rhythms for faithful living.

If you've been wondering whether this series is for you, I'd love to welcome you.

Registration is open. Learn more: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/learning-renewal-formation/the-soul-of-justice-work

08/05/2026

Justice begins in the soul.

Many of us entered justice work because we believed another world was possible.

But over time...

Outrage can replace hope.

Exhaustion can replace compassion.

Urgency can replace attentiveness.

Justice requires courage.

It also requires practices that keep our souls rooted in love rather than driven only by anger.

This fall we'll explore lament, rest, embodiment, discernment, and community as practices for sustainable justice.

Because staying human is part of the work.

Registration is now open: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/learning-renewal-formation/the-soul-of-justice-work

08/03/2026

Tending the Friendships That Tend Us

There is an old saying that friendships require tending much like a garden.

Left entirely on their own, even the healthiest relationships can become overgrown with busyness, assumptions, and long stretches of silence. Not because anyone intended harm, but because life has a way of filling every available space.

Many of us discover this gradually.

We stay in touch through an occasional text message or a social media post. We assume that because we care about one another, the friendship will simply continue. Months pass. Then years. One day we realize that someone who once knew the ordinary details of our life now knows only the highlights.

This is not simply a social loss.

It is a spiritual one.

From the very beginning of Scripture, God declares that it is not good for human beings to be alone. While those words are often associated with marriage, they point to a deeper truth about our humanity. We were created for relationships that allow us to know and be known.

READ MORE: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/archive/julyaugust-2026-articles/tending-the-friendships-that-tend-us

07/27/2026

The Sacred Practice of Small Faithfulness

We often imagine that faithfulness will be tested in extraordinary moments.

We picture ourselves making courageous decisions, offering profound words of wisdom, or responding with remarkable grace when life demands something significant of us. While such moments certainly come, they are surprisingly rare.

Most of our lives are shaped somewhere else.

They are shaped in the quiet choices that rarely attract attention.

Whether we pray when no one sees.

Whether we speak kindly when we are tired.

Whether we keep our word.

Whether we apologize.

Whether we show up.

Whether we begin again.

These small acts may seem almost insignificant in the moment, yet they become the threads from which a faithful life is woven.

READ MORE: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/archive/julyaugust-2026-articles/the-sacred-practice-of-small-faithfulness

07/24/2026

Rest Is Not Wasted Time

For many of us, rest feels strangely uncomfortable.

We tell ourselves we should slow down. We recognize the importance of Sabbath. We encourage others to care for themselves. Yet when we finally find a quiet afternoon or an unscheduled day, we often begin looking for something productive to do.

Perhaps we answer a few emails.

Straighten a closet.

Run one more errand.

Read one more article.

Before long, the space we had been given for renewal has quietly filled itself with activity.

Somewhere along the way, many of us learned to measure our worth by our usefulness. We may never say it aloud, but we often live as though our value depends on what we produce, accomplish, or contribute. Rest can begin to feel like an interruption to the "real work" of life.

Scripture offers a different vision.

READ MORE: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/archive/julyaugust-2026-articles/rest-is-not-wasted-time

07/24/2026

Question:

Can we lead from our wounds without allowing them to lead us?

07/17/2026

The world needs your work. It also needs you.

Justice work asks much of us.

It asks us to keep showing up in the face of grief.
To remain hopeful when change comes slowly.
To resist despair.
To stay tender in a world that often rewards hardness.

That kind of work cannot be sustained by passion alone.

The Soul of Justice Work is a six-week online learning experience designed for clergy, nonprofit leaders, educators, caregivers, advocates, and others seeking practices that nourish the soul while remaining engaged in the work of justice.

Because staying human is part of the work.

Registration is now open. I'd love to have you join us.

👉🏾 Learn more: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/learning-renewal-formation/the-soul-of-justice-work

07/15/2026

07/13/2026

Learning to Notice

One of the unexpected gifts of slowing down is that we begin to notice what has been there all along.

Most of us move through our days with our attention already committed to the next task, the next meeting, the next responsibility, or the next piece of news demanding our response. We become remarkably efficient at scanning our surroundings without truly seeing them. Life becomes something we manage rather than something we inhabit.

Yet the spiritual life begins with attention.

Again and again throughout the Gospels, Jesus notices what others overlook.
READ MORE: https://www.clergyandcongregations.org/archive/julyaugust-2026-articles/learning-to-notice