This is God speaking

The psalm assigned for worship yesterday (see above) begins with the rather amazing claim that the Lord, the God of gods, has spoken. What does that voice sound like? How does God speak to us? Have you had an experience where you heard the voice of God? If you admit that you have, might that make some folks consider you in need of psychiatric care?

A central tenet of our faith is that God reaches out to us way before we reach out to God. That kind of gracious revelatory action may well be our great hope. The mystery of the Holy One, the mystery of God’s transcendence only underscores the limits of our imagination. Said another way, the only way we’ll come to get inklings of God’s reality is if God makes that possible.

It can be risky business, claiming to hear God speaking to us. People often make that kind of claim to further their own agenda, to own God’s voice. Anne Lamott says that you can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. People have justified all kinds of messy behavior by claiming God spoke to them.

So think this morning about the ways God speaks, maybe more specifically about the ways God has spoken to you.

Yesterday’s psalm tells us that the heavens declare the rightness of God’s cause. We read in Psalm 19 (vv.1-4): The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. All of which is to say that God speaks to us through the marvel of creation.

Yesterday’s psalm also says that God reveals himself out of Zion, which I take to mean that God is revealed through the faith community. It’s been my experience that folks of faith have at times revealed to me something of God’s presence, sometimes through a word spoken, sometimes through an act of compassion.

In church, we hear a reading from scripture punctuated by the phrase: The word of the Lord. That suggests that our engagement with scripture is a way God speaks to us. I confess that I sometimes hear a rough passage and am not sure how that is the word of God. That taps into our need to be discerning, perhaps using the criterion of our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry: If it’s not about love it’s not about God. We see that love in Jesus, the word made flesh, who according to the gospel of John, chose to dwell among us, full of grace and truth.

Along those lines, Psalm 50 may well have been chosen for yesterday’s worship because of the gospel story always read on that Sunday before we begin the season of Lent. In yesterday’s story, Jesus on the mountaintop hears the voice of God speaking to him, declaring belovedness. As we enter the season of Lent, a season dedicated to spiritual growth, may we hear that voice speaking to us.

Here’s the challenge, maybe a good challenge to take on in the season of Lent: Are we listening for God’s voice? Or are we doing all the talking? Are we making up what we think God should be saying? This Lent, how might we carve out time for holy and faithful listening? How might we expect God to speak? To us?

-Jay Sidebotham

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A couple good questions

Early in my ministry, someone told me that there are two questions to ask of any gospel passage heard in church on Sunday. The first: Who is Jesus? The second: What does it mean to be one of his disciples? They are good questions for those standing in the pulpit and for those sitting in the pews. They keep us all on track, a special challenge for preachers.

More recently, I read that St. Francis of Assisi had his own version of those questions. He used to spend the whole night offering this prayer: Who are you, O God? And who am I?

The psalm offered in church yesterday (above) helps us think about the question: Who are you, God? I come away with the sense that God may be the ultimate multi-tasker.

On the one hand, we read that God is counting all the stars and giving them names. God is covering the heavens with clouds and preparing rain for the earth. God is covering the earth with plants, and while God is at it, God is rebuilding Jerusalem and gathering exiles, managing massive social change. God has a big job.

On the other hand, that same God is down to earth, healing brokenhearted, binding their wounds, lifting the lowly. As God does a big job, God is down in the weeds, with us.

It’s transcendence and immanence captured in one holy presence. Which is maybe one of the best answers to who Jesus is, the God of all creation, present with us in the most humble circumstances.

That leads to our second question: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus? Or in keeping with the prayer of St. Francis: Who am I, in light of what we learn about who God is?

The answer is captured in the way the psalm begins and ends, with the word: Hallelujah. That one word provides an answer to the question of our identity, the question of who we are. We are those who are called to praise, called to worship. It may be all we can do, for the mystery of the divine could make us stay up all night like St. Francis, wondering who God is and who we are.

That life of saying “hallelujah” shapes our identity. We are those who worship, not only with our lips but with our lives. We worship as we are ever mindful of the miracle of creation that surrounds us. We worship as we follow the commandment to love of God and neighbor. We worship in imitation of the Holy One, seeking to lift up the lowly, committing to a life of service. All of it is driven by our glimpses, by our inklings of the character of the Holy One.

As we live our lives, noting mysteries and miracles that surround us, we find our own identity by remembering that our lives unfold in the presence of God, whose quality is always to have mercy. (That’s why the confession begins with the words: Merciful God.)

Spend some time this week with St. Francis’ questions. Maybe make a Lenten commitment to ask the questions each morning. See what you learn about your own identity by exploring the mystery of God’s identity.

-Jay Sidebotham

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RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

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Courage in the face of fear(s)

Could the biblical writers please make up their minds? The portion of the psalm we read in church yesterday (see above) concludes with reference to the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. We find variations on that statement in several places in scripture.

At the same time, one of the most common biblical lines when conversation begins between heavenly and human beings: Fear not. Don’t be afraid. Beyond that, there are scriptures that place fear and love in opposition. We read in the New Testament that perfect love casts out fear.

So which is it? It’s clear we’re faced with two different kinds of fear. It may well be that we harbor both.

On the one hand, there is the fear that sets itself in opposition to love. There’s plenty to be afraid of. We live in a world with devils filled that threaten to undo us, according to Martin Luther. The history of religion across many traditions has often been fear-based, calling us to compliance and conformity. Or else. We may imagine a God who waits for us to step out of line, eternal damnation resulting. Thanks be to God, a lot of that fear-based religion as motivator for religious practice has given way to the way of love.

At the same time, we’re encouraged to embrace the kind of fear that paves the way for wisdom, wisdom as something the world needs now, something there’s just too little of? (Thank you, Dionne Warwick.) This brand of fear has to do with a recognition of God’s greatness. It can be captured in the word “awesome,” a word which may have lost meaning as it is used to describe a cup of coffee or a movie or the latest fashion.

If you’ve ever been tempted (as I have) to imagine that God is lucky to have us on the team, the fear of the Lord opens the way for a better and wiser understanding of our own place in the universe. Scripture can assist us in that understanding, as the psalm du jour speaks of God’s greatness and majesty, as it reminds us of God’s faithfulness, God’s patience.

Maybe the question for us this Monday morning is this: What kind of fear is shaping our lives these days? What kind of fear will we choose to live by?

We may need to admit that in our complicated interior life, we harbor both kinds of fear at the same time. It will take courage to deal with that complexity. A meditation from Richard Rohr which I read last week cited this quote from James L. Farmer: “Courage, after all, is not being unafraid, but doing what needs to be done in spite of fear.” Rohr goes on to note the implication, which is that if you’re not scared, it’s not courage.

In our liturgy we ask for strength and courage. Courage in terms of bravery to recognize those things that make us fearful. Courage in the sense of love (the word courage has at its root the word for heart, as in the French coeur) as we recognize the truly awesome nature of amazing grace.

What kind of fear do you harbor this morning? Ask for grace to face fear with courage. Let that prayer open the pathway to the holy fear that can lead to greater wisdom.

-Jay Sidebotham

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Memorization: Try it, you’ll like it.

I left my job as an art director in a New York ad agency on a Friday. The next Monday morning, I showed up at Union Seminary to start the three year Masters of Divinity program. Slight career shift (though some snarky friends say I’m still in advertising.)

I was excited to show up on campus. As I walked the halls, I was struck with its history, sensing the presence of spiritual giants who had studied or taught there, people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Tillich, Raymond Brown, James Cone.

We had an orientation session, led by the Rev. James Forbes, who was teaching at the time at Union, and went on to become Senior Pastor at Riverside Church. I was impressed with the headiness of it all. So I was a bit surprised by the counsel given by Dr. Forbes, the advice he offered to help us navigate our course of study. He said: Memorize Psalm 139. It will change your life.

I grew up in a church that held memorization of bible verses in high regard. There was an almost magical way of thinking about the value of the practice. We would get points if we could recite verses in Sunday School. I developed an ability to locate the shortest verses in the Bible, for example, John 11:35: Jesus wept.

Fast forward to my matriculation at Union. I did not expect that coming to this high-falutin’ institution I’d be asked to memorize Bible verses. But I quickly came to admire Dr. Forbes, and so in that first year I memorized the first 17 verses. I don’t remember them all now, but whenever the psalm turns up in liturgy (as it did yesterday in church…see the portion of the psalm included above), I remember Dr. Forbes’ counsel. So think with me about why this psalm might be so important.

Lord, you have searched me out and known me. Psalm 139:1

For one thing, it reminds us that God knows us better than we know ourselves. It reminds me that my prayers are not a matter of clueing God in on what God does not already know. I’m coming to realize that perhaps the most powerful kind of prayer has to do with contemplation, with finding a way to sit in silence in the holy presence, trusting God knows the secrets of our hearts, that God knows what we need before we can even articulate those needs.

You are acquainted with all my ways. Psalm 139:2

It also reminds me that with such intimate knowledge of my inner thoughts, God is not put off. The great grace of our faith may be that God knows us and still loves us. In many human interactions, we sense that if people really knew who we were, they would have little to do with us. Not so with the Holy One. Which is probably what makes God holy. It’s what makes grace amazing.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is so high I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:5

Finally, the psalm reminds us that our lives unfold in the face of mysteries beyond our understanding. Speaking for myself, there’s no way I can wrap my mind around the mystery of God knowing us and loving us, knowing every person on every floor of every apartment in my neighborhood, in my city, in the world. That’s where faith comes in. Albert Einstein said that there were two ways to look at life. One, as if nothing is miracle. Two, as if everything is miracle. The journey of faith, which often involves a leap, asks us to trust that this divine knowledge is our reality.

So as the new year begins, maybe you want to memorize this psalm. Or perhaps pick just one verse to chew on. And see if Dr. Forbes was right. See if it changes your life.

-Jay Sidebotham

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Beauty

It goes without saying that as we begin a new year, there is much in our world that is not beautiful. We are confronted with images of rubble in Gaza, and all the pain implied in that destruction. The cruel violence by Hamas terrorists makes us want to look away. Wanton destruction in the Ukraine continues. More than 300,000 Russian mothers have lost soldier children. Closer to home, partisan political rhetoric heats up, with language that can only be described as ugly. On that cheery note, where do we look for beauty?

The psalm read in church yesterday (above) contains a refrain heard in other psalms. It calls on us to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. As I run across that phrase in this psalm and others, I often wonder if that is just denial at work. Is it a call to bury our heads in the sand?

Our worship, on a good day, strives for an experience of beauty. That comes in all styles of worship, architecture, language, music. All of it is intended to help us get a glimpse of the transcendent. In our life as a church, one of the things we strive for is beauty.

Newsflash: That doesn’t always happen in the church. Malcolm Muggeridge, a journalist from the last century and a late convert to Christianity, came to faith without rose-colored glasses. It was his opinion that organized religion can kill the beauty of God. (Thank goodness the Episcopalians aren’t all that organized.) I wonder if you’ve ever had that experience of the church.

Mother Teresa was well acquainted with the ugliness of the world, confronting day after day the poverty of Calcutta. She was asked by Malcolm Muggeridge how she could keep going amidst it all, the problems so enormous, her contributions so small. She replied that God had called her to be faithful, not successful. Again and again, she spoke of her vocation to do something beautiful for God (That phrase provided the title for Muggeridge’s book about Mother Teresa.) Her worship in the beauty of holiness did not need to take place in a stunning cathedral. It took place smack dab in the middle of the world’s ugliness, a beautiful expression of worship not only with her lips but with her life.

In the midst of exile, one of the ugliest phases of Israel’s history, the prophet Isaiah spoke of beauty: How beautiful are the feet of those who bear good news. (Isaiah 52.7, and echoed by St. Paul in Romans 10)

Here’s a thought as we begin a new year. Wherever we confront the ugliness of our world, whether in the news or on social media, or in our own resentful hearts, are there ways to notice beauty? And beyond that, are there ways that you and I can bring the beauty of God’s good news to those places where beauty is in short supply? Can we let the good news of grace, love offered without condition, forgiveness, healing that is ours in Jesus Christ, be shared? Can we keep an eye out for God’s beauty?

Notice the beauty today. It’s there to discover. Find it in your connection with church, perhaps. Whatever access you have to the beauty of creation, find it there. Find it in the people around you. I carry with me a sketch book. I often draw people on the subway, at an airport gate, in the park. (Sometimes risky business.) As I’ve done that over the years, I’ve come to see that there is beauty in every human being I draw, even those most disfigured, even those that fashion magazines would deem unattractive. See the beauty around you. Do something beautiful for God. Let that be your worship today.

-Jay Sidebotham

Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

Learn more in our digital brochure.

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What’s in a name?

Isaiah spoke with deep joy about what had not yet happened. (See reading above, a reading which you may have heard in church yesterday on the first Sunday of the Christmas season.) Not a bad way to begin a new year. He says that righteousness and praise will spring up. He affirms impending vindication, visible for all the world to see. And then he says that his readers will be called by a new name, reflective of divinely given beauty.

The Bible is full of stories of people who get a new name to signify the transformation God brings to our lives. Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. Simon becomes Peter. Saul becomes Paul.

One of my favorite name changes in the Bible comes from the book of the Acts of the Apostles. We read that a man named Joseph had his name changed to Barnabas. Barnabas means son of encouragement. The church found him to be such an encouraging presence that that they changed his name to reflect his gifts. Soon after that, he became traveling companion of St. Paul, who I suspect was not always easy to get along with. Barnabas was the guy for the job. Every time I read about his name change, I find myself wondering (with some nervousness) about how my community would change my name. What name would your community give you?

This business about getting a new name is really about stepping into a new identity, not destroying what we are or where we’ve been, but recognizing gifts and building on that, for the sake of the good news. The good news Isaiah anticipates is that God is preparing a new identity for God’s people. We can claim that possibility for ourselves. For those of us who are Jesus followers, in this ongoing Christmas season, that possibility has everything to do with Jesus showing up.

It’s not lost on me that while the reading from Isaiah turns up on the First Sunday of the Christmas season, today we also observe the Feast of the Holy Name, observed on January 1. Holy coincidence. (Happy new year, by the way. How are you doing on those resolutions?)

The Feast of the Holy Name is a day to celebrate the naming of the infant Jesus in the temple rituals of his culture. It’s worth noting what his name means. The name Jesus means God saves.

Throughout the New Testament, as early Christians took first steps as a movement, they were invited to call on the name of Jesus. In other words, they were making the claim, indeed betting their lives, on the promise that God would save. They were called to trust in the power of that name. We are still invited to call on that name, to claim that we are saved not by our good works or our good theology or our good liturgy or even our good taste. God is the one who saves. Jesus comes to make that happen. We are saved by the one whose name suggests grace.

To the extent that we can embrace that, our identity can be transformed. We might even come to feel that we have been given a new name, a new identity. And as we begin a new year, that gives cause to join with Isaiah in rejoicing and in hope. May this coming year be filled with the joy of experiencing God’s saving activity in your life.

-Jay Sidebotham

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RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

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Christmas Lights

Our Advent series, with prompts from the prophet Isaiah, spills over into the Christmas season (Merry Christmas, by the way) and continues on this holy day, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord. For your consideration, a reading from Isaiah which you may have heard in church on Christmas Eve, or perhaps a reading you’ll hear today in church. We’ve reprinted that reading above.

Those who selected readings for our worship chose this vision from Isaiah for this particular day. The reading is filled with Christmas sermon material, filled with insight into the character and mission of the Messiah. For our purposes this morning, join me in reflection on the first verses, with the image of a great light shining in a land of deep darkness.

How is it that the arrival of that baby Jesus represents light shining in a world where light seems to be in rare supply? The prologue to the Gospel of John (1:1-18) states in this way: In him was life and the life was the light of the world. What might that light mean for you this Christmas? Let’s look at light.

Light shows us the way. Scripture is filled with stories of wilderness, people wandering aimlessly. We often do that in life. Think this Christmas morning about how Jesus shows you a way forward, what our Presiding Bishop calls the way of love.

Light reveals what is hidden, including those things that we might want to keep hidden. Jesus comes to show us, how shall we say, our growth opportunities. We don’t often see those things in ourselves (though we might see them clearly in others). Again, from John’s prologue, we read that the word made flesh came among us full of grace and truth. Both things.

Light shining can offer judgment, a clear-eyed view of the ways we fall short. Think this Christmas morning about how Jesus casts light on ways we need to grow.

Light dispels fear. I’ve been told that the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is fear. As we stumble around in clueless darkness, fears of what we can’t see can mount. Think this Christmas morning about how the perfect love of God expressed in Jesus’ presence among us can cast out fear.

Light allows us to see that we are not alone. When the light of Christ breaks into our dark night, we can see that we journey with others, and that God is present with us. Think this Christmas morning of the meaning of Immanuel, the name given to Jesus. It means God is with us. Give thanks that we are not left alone.

Light, like the sun breaking the horizon at dawn, represents the possibility of a new start. Each day we’re given that chance. Each new season in the church year gives us that chance. Each New Year’s celebration gives us that chance. Think this Christmas morning about the new thing God might do in your life in the days ahead, remembering that in our worship we recognize a God who makes all things new.

Finally, light brings with it a sense of joy. The psalmist put it this way: Weeping may spend the night but joy comes in the morning. This Christmas, if you happen to sing “Joy to the World”, reflect on how the arrival of the Christ child can lead you to a deeper experience of joy.

Blessings on this holy day. In all the celebrations, presents opened, feasts prepared, take a moment to reflect on the light of Christ in your life, with a spirit of thanksgiving and hope.

-Jay Sidebotham

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RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

Learn more in our digital brochure.

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Jesus’ Job Description. And Ours.

If it’s true that you get only one chance to make a first impression, what do you imagine was the impression Jesus made when he read from Isaiah 61? He did so at his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, a sermon which got mixed reviews, to put it mildly. You may have heard that same reading from Isaiah yesterday (a portion of which is above) on the Third Sunday of Advent.

As a good preacher, Jesus knew how to keep it short, so he didn’t read the whole passage, just the first verses, which he claimed had been fulfilled in his presence, his advent. In fact, as far as we know, the sum total of his sermon was the following: “Today this has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (You can read the whole story in Luke 4.) Would that current preachers (including this author) could model such succinctification.

As we prepare for the arrival of Christ (One week away, folks), in this last full week of the season of expectation called Advent, what kind of Messiah are we expecting? What are we looking for? What clues do we get from this Isaiah reading?

According to Isaiah, the expectation is for one who is anointed to bring good news to the oppressed, healing to the brokenhearted, liberty to captives, release to prisoners, comfort to those who mourn. That is what the Messiah will be about. That is what Christians believe Jesus is about. How does that square with your impressions of Jesus?

We can take that job description literally. In Jesus’ time, as in ours, there were plenty of people who were oppressed, brokenhearted, captive, prisoners. Many people were in mourning. Jesus’ ministry is filled with moments when he brings healing to those situations. And the question for us then becomes how we will continue that work as part of the Jesus movement, as part of the body of Christ.

Our baptismal promises call us to seek and serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being. Pete Buttigieg, a faithful Episcopalian, gives us a place to start, as he speaks in a movie to be released in January, a movie called The Case for Love. It’s inspired by Presiding Bishop Curry’s focus on the way of love. Secretary Buttigieg notes his many encounters with people who disagree with him wholeheartedly and even treat him with disdain, not uncommon in our current political climate. He says in the movie that he is called to remember that God loves his opponents just as much as God loves him. Keeping that in mind is a good way to begin to fulfill this Isaiah reading.

I’m wondering specifically how we might live into Isaiah’s vision in this Christmas season. There are plenty of opportunities to strive for justice and peace in our broken world. There are great needs for healing. Who do you know who is feeling broken-hearted, who is gripped with grief? The holidays can be especially difficult for those who bear that burden, whether the loss is recent or happened a long time ago. Who do you know who is held captive, by resentment or a sense of injury, by addiction or compulsion, by hatred or fear? Meeting those needs is the work we are given to do as members of the body of Christ, as his hands and feet in the world.

As you ask God to show you ways to be a healing presence, reflect on the wisdom of Howard Thurman, who wrote a poem called The Work of Christmas. Here it is:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

Let this poem guide you in the celebration of this season.

-Jay Sidebotham

Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

Learn more in our digital brochure.

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Ah, Wilderness

A favored, savored New Yorker cartoon depicts a woman in business attire, a tiny, lone figure out in the wild, in the middle of nowhere. The title: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness, the caption: “Get me the hell out of the wilderness.” We all know something about wilderness. For many, it’s a place from which we’d like to escape.

“Get me the hell out of the wilderness!”

The Advent season takes us to the wilderness, as noted in the reading from the prophet Isaiah, which you may have heard in church yesterday. Wilderness imagery shows up in a number of places in the Bible. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness watching sheep before he heard the call from the talking burning bush. The children of Israel wandered for 40 years in the wilderness after their deliverance from Egyptian oppression. Elijah made his way to the wilderness when he thought the world was out to get him. The children of Israel living in exile knew that if they were to find their way home, it would mean traveling through wilderness. John the Baptist chose to offer his ministry in the wilderness. Jesus began his public ministry with a time of testing in such a place. Throughout the history of the church, people of faith have found themselves in the wilderness, by choice or not,

The wilderness is undoubtedly a place of challenge, where we are tested. It can be a place where comforts are stripped away. It can be a place of loneliness. For many in scripture, the wilderness could be a fearful place, filled with menacing beasts. For some the greatest fear was that it was tractless. No clear roadways. No clear sense of direction. No way out. No way forward. I suspect we all know something of experiences like that.

At the same time, the wilderness is a place of formation. In the meandering of the children of Israel over those forty years, apparently walking in circles, they were formed as a people. Jesus’ time in the wilderness strengthened him, equipped him for the public ministry about to be launched. Distractions removed, it can be a place where clarity increases. People of faith over the centuries have attested to the fact that the wilderness is a place where they have come to know what really matters, a place where God’s presence and power in new ways.

Reflect this morning on your own wilderness experience. Maybe you’re there now. Acknowledge that it’s a place marked by challenge. Know that people have faced the challenge before and come out on the other side.

And see what can be learned in the moment, how you might be experiencing formation. Advent as a season reminds us that we are not always going to be in the wilderness, that there will be a way prepared, with rough places plain. But it also tells us that there can be learnings as we wait. My hope and prayer in this Monday offering is that your time in the wilderness, whatever that looks like, will prove to be helpful in that way.

-Jay Sidebotham

Interested in RenewalWorks for your parish? Learn more about how RenewalWorks works!

RenewalWorks: Helping churches focus on spiritual growth

RenewalWorks is about re-orienting your parish around spiritual growth. And by spiritual growth – we mean growing in love of God and neighbor.

Churches can launch as part of a fall or spring cohort or go on their own schedule.  Sign up now!!

Learn more in our digital brochure.

RenewalWorks – Digital Catalog