By Rob Shafer, member of the AMiA Board of Directors At the General Assembly held in Dallas in September 2018, a supermajority of the delegates considered a new constitution for the Anglican Mission. Members and friends of the Anglican Mission may well ask, “Why was this important, and what does it accomplish?” […]
By Rachel Hunt, a parishioner at St. Andrew’s Little Rock I am a dirty, messy, broken girl. As we approach Lent, I examine myself. I am unable to deny that I am a dirty saint, a messy image-bearer, a broken disciple. This would be troubling if not for the gospel of grace that wipes away the dirt, cleans up the mess and smooths the sharp places of my broken edges. […]
By Lauren Balfour, parishioner at Grace Northridge Church in San Antonio, Texas Lent is a season to remember what is and is not truly ours through the act of fasting. Time, resources, pleasures, favorite foods or drinks—any of these, the Holy Spirit may nudge us to fast from. For a few years now, my fast has been from social media. I’m not an active contributor to Facebook or Instagram, but I do seem to love whiling away time scrolling, using my phone to stave off boredom or loneliness or impatience. When I fast from social media, I realize how little control I have over time. Without social media, in the empty moments of waiting that are a part of daily life, I just have to be patient and be in my own thoughts. Suddenly I find myself more available to open my Bible app or to say a short prayer when a friend comes to mind. It is not that social media is innately harmful; it’s that my flesh loves entertainment and the enemy loves distraction. Sometimes doing what’s not quite right is just as detrimental as doing what is wrong. […]
The Holy Spirit day or weekend retreat has always been a high point in the life of churches where I have served. Although it is part of the Alpha program, all Alpha participants for that season and all of our parishioners are encouraged to come and to bring friends. Because we seem to find so little teaching on the role of the power of the Holy Spirit in the church today, we try to make it as available as possible. […]
I feel lead to begin by describing shortly what Lent is. So, what is it, and why do we celebrate it? Lent is the 40 days leading into the Easter season. It is a holy time of self-examination, a true reflection of where we are and a time of turning back to our Father. It’s a time of sobering oneself, and one of alignment with God. In short, Lent is a season of honesty. […]
Lent begins next week, and so we begin a series of a blogs to help us prepare for and experience the season in deeper ways. By Robert+ Cook, Rector, St. Andrew’s Little Rock I stand in awe of how the Lord continues to reveal himself to us. He is a Father who reveals himself most clearly through his Word, but who also speaks to us as a loving Father to his children to encourage us, to lift us up and to console us. Last fall, Bishop Dan Scott visited St. Andrew Church for confirmations. As +Dan prayed over those who came to be confirmed, I watched tears flow down cheeks as he spoke prophetic words to them, each specific to the individual. Where were the tears from? The Father had spoken through +Dan to his sons and daughters to encourage them, to lift them up in their journeys, to renew and restore hope that he knew them and cared deeply about what was going on in their lives. […]
By David+ Larlee, Vicar of All Saints Dallas From the inner city of Detroit to the Colorado Rockies, to trailer parks in North Texas to the frozen plains of the Midwest, 1,100 church leaders recently gathered together at the 2019 Alpha Conference to seek the Lord and his Kingdom. These leaders were as diverse as possible in terms of their ethnic, economic and denominational backgrounds. We met to worship, learn from one another and pray for each other. Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals and many others—we were all together praying for the renewal and transformation of our society. […]
By Bishop Philip Jones I had read Tim Keller’s book Center Church before, probably sometime soon after it was published in 2012. But last summer, during my sabbatical, I was drawn to it again, in a deeper and stronger way than the first time. This time, as I started making notes, I had a much different viewpoint. As most of you know, the eight-year-old church plant here, All Saints, is moving to a new building in downtown Dallas. We purchased the property after looking at many, many possible locations all over the greater Dallas area. We weren’t out to make a statement or be trendy. The property just fit us, our budget and our congregation. By God’s grace and leading, our people faithfully came forward with everything we needed, and we bought it: an old, early 1900s car dealership warehouse on a lonely little property surrounded by empty parking lots. Then things started happening. I knew God’s Spirit was moving among our people. He was bringing about so many circumstances. But it really did not strike me what He was doing until someone said, with a note of irony in their voice, “You are moving your church downtown?” It’s the same kind of voice I hear sometimes from those who don’t quite get the Anglican Mission. […]
By Stu+ Boehmig, rector of The Abbey at Pawleys Island I recently took a rough count of how many vestry meetings I have attended or led over the years. I came up with something around 400. By anyone’s standard, that’s a lot of leadership meetings. Whew! One thing I’ve learned in those meetings is that vestry leaders want to know, “Where are we headed?” and so does the rest of the church. If you lack clarity, there’s trouble ahead. It’s been said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll get there real fast.” And even though we constantly remind our leaders of the answer to the vision question, it often feels like we lose vision and direction far too quickly and get lost in the weeds. Being keepers of the vision is one of the most important things we do as leaders. […]
by Mike Blanchat, AMiA Rector General Who? What? How? Answers to those three one-word questions capture the essence of a person, a community, a group. As I’ve applied them to my own life, I have found it’s helpful to revisit both the questions and the answers periodically to reaffirm things that are foundational to me [...]
