congregation – Salvaged Faith

What Could Happen?

Katie Z. — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:03:31 +0000

This summer, my church began a series exploring the work of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. One Sunday, I asked them to begin imagining what could happen in our community and in our church if we truly let the Holy Spirit guide us and transform us. Here are their responses: We would be...

Making the Congregation Cry

Katie Z. — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 14:52:00 +0000

This has been an insanely busy summer… vacation, a new nephew, mission trips, fundraisers, cleaning at the church… So I have tried to make my summer a bit easier by working through Romans with the congregation. Ha. In some ways, it hasn’t been that bad. Each piece kind of follows on the one before it,...

Potential Energy

Katie Z. — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:28:00 +0000

I must admit that growing up, I was a bit of a science nerd. What can you expect from the girl who wanted to be a meteorologist? But I think the best part of science were the experiments – the hands on exploration of concepts. Because I saw it happen, I believed it. Because I...

so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen… #reverb10

Katie Z. — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:04:00 +0000

As a pastor, funerals are a part of my life. I help families and friends say good bye to loved ones all the time. This year, I also acted in some ways as a family chaplain and buried two people in my husband’s family. We really do have an important gap in the family Christmas...

running low on the compassion reserves

Katie Z. — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:27:00 +0000

One of the reasons I have been avoiding blogging lately is because I have a lot of things I would love to write about, but I can’t. A couple are topics and discussions that are confidential on a professional level. Some are just things that hit too close to home for myself and I’m not willing/able...

“this beautiful mess” part 1

Katie Z. — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:22:00 +0000

I have been trying to read more. There are far too many books on my shelf – delicious books – just waiting to be picked up and devoured. So I decided to start with Rick McKinley’s “This Beautiful Mess.” The writing style just draws me in… it’s conversational and pulls me in. But even more...

where two or more are gathered

Katie Z. — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:18:00 +0000

Even though our congregation is small, I try to have two different services for Ash Wednesday. We have an older congregation and it is still wintery outside, so if we only had an evening service – many of our faithful wouldn’t venture out in the dark. But we also have a number of people who...

Why the Revised Common Lectionary is the perfect model for Emergent Church

Katie Z. — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:33:00 +0000

Random thought came to me tonight. How it came to me is the subject of my next blog…. but in any case. Every week, people all across the world use the exact same texts to tell the stories of scripture. We start with the exact same thing. And then we take those few words, those...

the Church

Katie Z. — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Describe the nature and mission of the Church. What are its primary tasks today? If the sacraments call us into the world, the church is the “us” that is called. In my previous paperwork, I talked about the church being the place where we come to know and begin to embody the Kingdom of God...

emergingumc2

Katie Z. — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:13:00 +0000

Perhaps a few too many days have passed since the event for me to recall everything clearly. I would have gotten to the blogging right away but a few things got in my way. I watched with much excitation the Iowa/Ohio State football game while I was waiting for my flight. Then I got up...