Join us this Wed, Dec 1. Please RSVP (details below) so we can get enough free books for folks. Teri and the Horsey House are hosting a book release/de(re)construction party for Common Prayer: Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, a new resource compiled by Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. This party is open to the public and we need everyone to register. …

Dear friends, Anne Lamott says that there are basically two kinds of prayers: “Help me, Help me, Help me” and “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.” I feel pretty in touch with both those forms of prayer in this season of my life. Rosetta Day and I are doing well. Babies are always a mystery- they come bringing wisdom from …

Ever crave a little time in the desert? Ever feel like retreating to a cave with nothing more than a mat, a sheepskin rug, and a vessel for water? Wonder how God might sound with all that Big Silence? The Desert Mothers and Fathers speak to us from just such an arid, windblown landscape during a transitional time in the …

After about five different false starts trying to engage with a very challenging lectionary passage for this week (Luke 14:25-33 if you are curious, the “hate your family” passage) I give up. I had this whole idea worked out reading the passage through a non-attachment lens but this morning the writing is just beyond my grasp. So instead I will …

  Being a pastor is a weird job. I love the freedom to read, plan worship, talk with interesting people, and sit with scripture and the tradition. But sometimes I just have to laugh at myself and at any expectation I have or someone else might have that I can come up with a spiritual word or reflection. Some weeks …

God is Still Speaking      Don’t put a period where God puts a comma, God is still speaking.   Our faith is over 2,000 years old. Our thinking is not.   Church in the Cliff recently voted to explore affiliation with the United Church of Christ (UCC). In addition to being progressive theologically and open and affirming of all people regardless of …

  Church in the Cliff has a story to tell just as each of us do. And this congregation, originally named CityChurch, has an over ten year history with progressive Baptists. Some people think those two terms don’t go together, but they can, and many in our midst claim them both. One of the ways we acknowledge the unique story …

On Monday night Richie and I sat outside on our vintage lawn chairs — turquoise, circa 1955, to go with the new house– and watched the kiddos “water the plants” aka play with the hose. We talked about his experience growing up in a Catholic family in New Jersey and I learned things that I did not know about my husband of almost seven years. Simple …

Maybe you are familiar with this paradigm: Unquestioning Believers (in Jesus Christ as Savior) are number one, Doubters and Sometime Questioners of Faith are in second place, and the Poor Souls who claim an agnostic or atheist identity and/or who choose to live their lives outside of the church are on the bottom. They are losing the race of life, …

We are back from our first ever all-ages mission trip to New Orleans led by Chloe Clark-Soles. I feel the need for a religious expletive here, like an Amen or Hallelujah! There were a lot of variables that could have not gone well as our group travelled to a new city with two pregnant women and one two year old in high summer. But the …