Giving Thanks
Alan shares a personal reflection and thanks for the great gift of journeying together in the kingdom of God’s people. We are all wrestling and struggling, but the Spirit is at work.
Grief and Finding Hope
Alan reflects on recent events surrounding Canadian Residential schools and targeted shootings and asks, “Where do we look for hope?” He shares a story of a friend that gives us some clues about what this hope looks like.
My Granddaughter and Willie Jennings
Alan reflects on his own disturbance around growing anti-Asian hate and how he continues to be shaped by a new imagination. He recommends listening to this year’s Fuller Seminary Payton Lecture with Willie Jennings.
Anxiety and Proper Confidence
Alan responds to the growing anxiety he is seeing amongst clergy. There is an invitation to lay down these growing anxieties in a proper confidence that God is at work.
A New Normal
Alan Roxburgh reflects on going back to “normal”. He shares concerns and what might, in fact, be possible.
The Return and Being Luke 10 People
Alan address the questions he’s hearing about how we can’t just “return to normal” in our churches. There is a call to be “Luke 10” people.
Vocation and Faithful Imagination
Previous articles described the place where we find ourselves as leaders in terms of grief and trauma and proposed a basis of hope. Beyond technique and method Christian hope begins with the conviction that this is God’s creation. God is making all things new, reweaving a torn and shattered creation. This narrative of hope is about … Read More
Hope Amidst Trauma
Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible. – N.T. Wright …faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. – Hebrews 11.1 In the short article, The Mood of Our Moment: Grief and Trauma I sought to describe what is … Read More
The Mood of our Moment: Grief and Trauma
What is going on? Over the past six months of listening to church leaders we’ve been asking questions like: What’s the mood among leaders just now? What do they need? How can we assist them? We’re learning some things in this unraveling of our time: We can’t assume we know where leaders are at and … Read More
Discipleship in our Moment: Connection
We’re feeling increasingly disconnected from one another as once normal ways of connecting are taken away from us. This struck me most clearly, as a profound introvert, when my wife Jane and I visited the Okanagan wine region of British Columbia several weeks ago. I know I should have known this but there was hardly … Read More
Discipleship in our Moment: Grief and Hope
One of the questions shaping this moment is about discipleship. What does it look like in a time of multiple crises? Over the coming months we want to talk together about this question in the Missional Commons. We’ll be doing this through a series of webinars, Facebook Live events and Intensives. Over this Labour Day … Read More
Reflect Together on Your Experiences
There is an inkling among many of us that there is much to be learned from the past number of months. Some of these lessons are wide and broad in scope. Others are very grounded, immediate and personal. Considering the past few months in retrospect will give us some good clues to finding a way … Read More