Church Anew Blog
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It All Counts: Author Q and A with Rev. Natalia Terfa
I think about all these people floating around in the world who aren't gonna walk into a regular church – for whatever reason. When I started asking, “What are those reasons?”, there were so many answers that sounded like: “I found this thing that is meaningful, but someone said you can’t do it that way.” And the throughline became me saying: “Why? Why not?”
Trusting in the Way
And Jesus says, I’m the way.
You have me.
You already know everything you need to know because you know me.
Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: April 19 and 26 2026
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
Render Unto Caesar? A Tax Day Reflection
What does it mean to balance religious identity with loyalty to a nation? And when, if ever, should believers practice tax resistance in response to unjust authority?
Who Will Share My Story? Biblical Commentary on 2 Samuel 13
I spoke with a prophet and he shared with me a prophecy that he himself could not believe. He said, “Before the church is to become persecuted, women will first. Before the church is to share the good message, women will first. And before the church is anything, women will be everything for it.”
Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: April 12 and 19 2026
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
Holy Humor Sunday: It’s Weird, It’s Risky, and It Might Be Exactly What We Need
It’s the Sunday after Easter and everyone at church has a kazoo.
Tickets to the Eucharist
When people are accustomed to—and willing to—pay a ticket price for a well-produced event, what’s the harm in charging a nominal fee for a Christmas Eucharist? And when so many pay membership dues to gyms or subscribe to services, what’s wrong with charging a fee for Christian community?
Mary the Tower
We need Mary in our life of faith too. Our Tower to guide us, to hold us up, to offer shelter, to remind us that we too can show up even as we grieve and struggle to trust and speak our faith out loud. We need Mary the Tower to hold us steady when we cannot be steady ourselves.
Join Isaiah’s Palm Sunday Actions
On this upcoming Palm Sunday, disciples of Christ have the opportunity to follow his example as we stand against injustice and oppression today. Isaiah, a group long known for empowering those who are vulnerable to the political powers of this world, is calling for faith communities around the country to join them on the Palm Sunday Faith Actions.
Holy Week and Easter Musings 2026
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
Holy Week and the Theme of Corruption
We now inhabit a milieu in which brazen examples of “cashing in” are normalized, and citizens—and even our churches—have grown numb to them, often remaining silent about a matter that affects us all.
“I Bind Unto Myself Today”: St. Patrick, Revisited
In a hermeneutic of generosity, I suspect Patrick wanted to baptize his former captors because he could see how the chains of enslavement bind even its purported victors into sin. Slavery binds even the “masters” into submission to evil. Slavery denies the God-bearing image inherent to all people; should you see in the eyes of the ones you oppress your own salvation, you might know you have no freedom at all.
Changing the Worship Space to Create Accessibility: Sensory Issues in the Worship Setting, Part 2
Coming to accept and care for those who are disabled by how the world operates is part of this common calling to love our neighbor, because God made creation and God’s creation is good. If we are all made in the image of God, we have to care for those who might look like a God who is on the spectrum, a God with cerebral palsy, or a God with a speech impediment.
Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: March 8 and 15
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
The Wanton Woman Preacher: John 4 on International Women’s Day When the Epstein Files are Here
I cannot hear about [the woman at the well] now without hearing echoes of the horrors etched across the millions of pages in the Epstein files. Girls, children, preyed upon because like this woman, they would be seen walking home from school alone. In need of companionship, of friendship, of being wanted.
Divesting From Empire: Exploring Matthew’s Call
The painting captures something frequently overlooked in discussions of faithful discipleship: when Christ beckons us to follow, this requires a radically transformed relationship with our own coins on the table. And I believe this to be true for both individuals and churches alike.
Author Interview with Meredith Miller- Wonder: 52 Conversations To Help Kids Fall In Love With Scripture
Kids don’t have the same notions about what the Bible is or how it works that adults have. If adults welcome kids’ thoughts and insights, if we want to hear their questions and reactions, we will find ourselves having totally different (and better) conversations about the Bible.
Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: March 1 and 8
Each week, we’ll offer a curated selection of blog posts that speak to the upcoming lectionary texts to help spark your imagination and serve as a thought partner for you. We hope these musings meet you right where you are with a fresh, bold, and faithful witness.
I Had the Samaritan Woman All Wrong
So when Jesus — a Jewish rabbi — sits alone with a Samaritan woman, speaks kindly to her, engages her theologically, and reveals himself more clearly to her than to almost anyone else… this scene is already scandalous in all the right ways.
It’s a story about crossing boundaries, not shaming sinners.
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