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Personal Reflection, Preaching Soph White Personal Reflection, Preaching Soph White

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.

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Preaching, Personal Reflection Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail Preaching, Personal Reflection Rev. Lizzie McManus-Dail

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.

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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.

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Ministry, Preaching, Lectionary, Lectionary Musings Rev. Emmy Kegler Ministry, Preaching, Lectionary, Lectionary Musings Rev. Emmy Kegler

Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: February 15, 22, and Ash Wednesday

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.

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Rev. Emmy Kegler Rev. Emmy Kegler

Resources for Right Now- Vigil of Witness and Lament

God of steadfast love, be with us in our gathering, our grief, and our fear. Soften our hearts to receive your love, and strengthen our bodies to act with justice. Out of the depths we cry to you; fill us with the peace that passes all human understanding. Amen.

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Rev. Emmy Kegler Rev. Emmy Kegler

Resources for Right Now - Transfiguration Sunday

In the face of ongoing anti-immigration acts in Minnesota and throughout our nation, we offer notes on the lectionary texts along with a call to worship, prayer of the day, prayer petitions, and dismissal all grounded in the day’s Gospel text and in God’s everlasting cry for justice.

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Personal Reflection, Commentary JD Larson Personal Reflection, Commentary JD Larson

To My Siblings In Christ: Seek First the Kingdom

 I want to pause here and speak directly to those who lean conservative, consider themselves evangelical, or Republican. I do so as someone who has, at different points in my life, considered myself conservative, evangelical, and Republican — and who still understands why those commitments feel meaningful, especially in uncertain times.

If you feel caught between what your faith is asking of you and what your community expects from you, you are not alone.

This post is not a call to abandon conservatism or to embrace a different tribe. It is a call to something older and deeper: the freedom to remain loyal to Jesus even when that loyalty complicates our political identity.

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Ministry, Preaching, Lectionary Rev. Emmy Kegler Ministry, Preaching, Lectionary Rev. Emmy Kegler

Resources for Right Now

Resources for Right Now is a living resource crafted amid the January 2026 escalation of violent immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In this collection, we hope to equip the church’s leaders with diverse ways to speak into this moment, in sermon prompts, short illustrative stories, songs new and old, and liturgy and prayers. 

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Personal Reflection, Commentary Liz Bucar Personal Reflection, Commentary Liz Bucar

Faith as Trust: Why Religious Frameworks Matter Right Now (Even if You’re Not Religious)

 If faith is trust, if religion is really about what you trust enough to organize your entire life around, then what are those of us who call ourselves “nones” supposed to do with that? […] in this particular moment of instability and violence and fear and anxiety, I keep wondering: what lessons are religious leaders offering that might matter to those of us outside their communities? […] But how can they function as conversation partners—helping us ask better questions even if they can’t give us answers?

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Ministry, Preaching, Lectionary, Lectionary Musings Rev. Emmy Kegler Ministry, Preaching, Lectionary, Lectionary Musings Rev. Emmy Kegler

Lectionary Musings from the Church Anew Blog: January 25 and February 1

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. 

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