By Jayne Hugo Davis “In whatever place you find yourself, do not easily leave it.” — Abba Antony I love finding tiny volunteer maple saplings around my yard. They spring up between the bushes in the landscaping bed or behind…
Adult coloring books emerging as popular spiritual practice
By Jeff Brumley Coloring as a spiritual practice has made the news recently. Yes, that’s “coloring” as in coloring books, crayons, colored pens and pencils, etc. Ditto for drawing, sketching and doodling as religious activities. In fact, one person told…
7 things I (re)discovered on sabbatical
C.S. Lewis once said that most of us don’t need to be told new things, but rather reminded of old truths. This has certainly been true in my own journey these past few months. On June 1, I entered into…
The spiritual practice of listening
By Jayne Hugo Davis When two of my sisters asked me what I wanted as a gift for my 50th birthday, I told them a collection of family stories — their personal recollections of family history, anecdotes or folly that,…
Spirituality: 4:30 a.m. and mindfulness
[This is the sixth (spirituality) of a nine-part series on empowering a faith community to impact the world. Already hospitality, evangelism, missions, ethics and Bible have been explored.] During my sabbatical study at Oxford University many years ago, I decided to take a…
The spiritual practice of load shedding
By Jayne Hugo Davis Does it ever feel like the demands upon you require more than the resources you have to give? Maybe it’s time or energy that’s in short supply. Maybe it’s money or creativity or answers. Or compassion…
Connecting faith and sports can be challenging, says seminary professor
By Jeff Brumley John White has competed against some of the world’s top athletes — and ministered to still more of them. “I raced against [future three-time Tour de France winner] Greg LeMond once and he would never know this, but…
Feeling or flinging in basketball and an authentic Christian lifestyle
A personal game-within-a-game I play when watching basketball games is to guess in the split second between the time when a player shoots a jump shot and it comes down in or near the basket whether or not they felt…
The spiritual practice of taking the next step
By Jayne Davis “The road emerged only as I walked it.” — Jurgen Moltmann One of the most exciting things for me in a coaching conversation is listening for the next question. Rather than coming in with the expert hat…