Innovate~Educate~Collaborate

Tag: church planting

  • You are the Church….

    “The history of the church, e.g., the early Benedictines, has shown that early in ecclesiastical history the task of the clergy was to assist the laity in exercising the latter’s role in the church.” ~ Louis J Putz CSC.  (the operative word is “assist”) What Louis wrote, and most especially what he did in his…

  • The Western World as a Mission Field — The Inquiring Mind

    As Western culture moves from the era of modernism to post-modernism, the effects upon the church and the ministry of the church become increasingly apparent. The church must deal with the remnants of modernism which continually influences Western culture and it must also begin to engage a new post-modern mentality, which appears at first glance […]…

  • The Universe, Technology & the Significant Other

    “It does no good to make fantastic progress, if we don’t know how to live with it, and if, in fact, our technology becomes nothing more than an expensive and complicated way of cultural disintegration…..the fact remains that we have created for ourselves a culture which is not yet livable for mankind as a whole.”…

  • GREEN JUNCTION 4 Sept 2019 BY JULIE PELLER PH.D​.

    The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a large, science-based organization with a mission “to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.” The organization focuses on what they term “urgent global challenges,” one of which is water. …

  • GREEN JUNCTION 29 JULY 2019 BY JULIE PELLER PHD.

    Every person, every community, every nation has the choice of being part of the problem of environmental degradation or part of the solution. One very simple way to be part of the solution is to stop drinking plastic bottled water. The main reason people drink bottled water is the sheer convenience, not due to a…

  • Ecotheology: It’s time for a hermeneutic

    What is Ecotheology? I found this to be spot on…as the saying goes, and it is from Portland Seminary: “Ecotheology is a form of study and thinking that combines the disciplines of ecology (the study of organisms and their environments) and theology (the study of God and religious beliefs). Ecotheology examines creation through the lenses…

  • Reflections 6.19.19

    Lord, as we start out each day, nudge us to be kind, to say only that which builds up one another. To reach out to those in need and be a source of comfort. Each day I reflect on the writings of my favorite Patristic teacher, Ephrem. “Scripture brought me to the Gate of Paradise,…

  • Green Junction: by Julie Peller PhD.

    Julie Peller PhD, is an environmental chemist (Professor of Chemistry at Valparaiso University ) and she leads the Environmental Ministry at Nativity of Our Savior in Portage IN. Julie has been writing a weekly column for church bulletins for the past ~5 years called the Green Junction and is helping to move the call of Laudato Si…

  • Reflections: Trinity, Aristotle, and Self

    Aristotle’s philosophy stresses biology, instead of mathematics like Plato. We as humans have distinct built-in patterns of development, similar to what we are discussing here in construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. (Martin Buber) The understanding we have today of the universal Christ as part of creation is something Aristotle was discussing in his own way, even…

  • Reflections: 5 June 2019

    “God is the unconditional love and forgiveness that Jesus reveals, but God is also the energy that lies at the base of everything that is.” – Ron Rolheiser, OMI We often forget that God loves us way before we ever come to meet God. The Greater Good in life is achieved with action. The price…